Let me be the first to wish everyone a happy Canada Day long weekend! Whether you are spending it with family, friends, or just yourselves, enjoy! :)

The caterpillars are gone…yippeee

Be safe and well everyone.

One of these days we in Canada really should have an adult conversation about the total government (federal, provincial, and municipal), business, and household debt that is being built up in this country.

The following statistics are taken from a credit market summary data table released last week by Statistics Canada: (The link to this data table is at the end of my post.)

The total debt outstanding in Canada at the end of March 2013 (bottom line of the data table) was $5.33 Trillion. From the end of March 2012 to the end of March 2013 the total debt outstanding in Canada increased by $323 Billion. For that 365 day period the total debt outstanding in Canada increased at a rate of $885 Million per day.

From the end of December 2012 to the end of March 2013 the total debt outstanding in Canada (bottom line of the data table) increased by $90 Billion. For that 90 day period the total debt outstanding in Canada increased at a rate of $1 Billion per day.

http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/pick-choisir?lang=eng&p2=33&id=3780122

You can call it something else, and everybody has until now. But that doesn’t change a thing. Trying to solve a debt problem with more debt creates bigger bubbles. In the end, there’s one rule that always applies: credit bubbles lead to debt deflation, and the bigger the bubble, the more deflation there will be. It’s inevitable. And it’s not all bad: it cleanses the system, albeit in a painful way. But the longer you try to postpone it, the more painful it becomes.

http://theautomaticearth.com/Finance/deflation-by-any-other-name-would-smell-as-foul.html

Every year, I go through our telephone and other bills to make sure the rates we are paying are the best deal for our usage.

This year it kind of hit me…. why do the telecoms still charge long distance fees? What exactly is being utilized to claim they need to charge this extra rate? I think by now the infrastructure has been paid for. Plus, where they start charging long distance is goofy. For example…

I live in Port Moody. If I call Aldergrove (44km away) that’s a local call. If I call Abbotsford (52 km away), that’s long distance. What on earth is required by Telus to make my conversation go that extra 8km?

At a minimum any call inside an area code should be a local call.

I know that some company’s like Shaw offer free Shaw-to-Shaw long distance calling, but that’s kind of hit & miss. Cell companies offer free Canadian long distance but the overall rate of the their plans isn’t cost-effective, and quite frankly, cell sound quality sucks. I have yet to hear any cell or smartphone sound as clear as a landline.

That’s my bitch and moan for the week. Have a fantastic and safe long weekend.

THE MOTHS ARE WORSE… when I was employed at North Central Plywoods there were so many moths in the plant that on more than one occasion I had a moth fly into my mouth.

My mom was right… I talk to much!

99% of those moths will wind up on the Stupidstore front windows every morning for a while. Oh yeah. “One more thing”, as Columbo would say, I read in the paper earlier this week that the Hershey Chocolate company (Canada) got fined $4 million dollars by our government for price fixing chocolate. Mars and Nestles said they want to duke it out in court later. My question is this, will Hershey’s raise the price of their chocolate bars to get that $4 million dollars back? Gasoline price fixing? Nah! Can’t happen.

Good point Harbinger… how can the government find enough evidence to charge candy bar makers with price fixing and NOT the gas companies?

I guess some things will ALWAYS be a mystery!

Please people, if you see someone driving erratically, call in and report it. And when you see them pulled over further down the road pull over as well and give a statement. The majority of the time when someone gets reported it can’t be backed up because they drive ‘good’ when they see the police car. With a statement from another driver, when/if the ticket gets disputed, it has a better chance of standing up in court. It might add an extra 30 minutes to your trip but it sure beats coming around a corner and seeing an accident.

Also, trucks with trailers/campers/boats can’t stop nearly as quick as everyone else on the road. Please don’t cut us off, especially coming up to a red light. We leave that much room for a reason.

How much of the price of a candy bar is made up of TAX compared to the price of gasoline?

Gas…. yeahhh Groceries??? That’s another story no one mentions…. notice lately how prices have inflated since all the big outlets started their reno’s ??? And this was supposed to be due to Target arriving.. Welll Target is more a convenient store, grocery wise, even compared to Wal Mart.. Non of the big stores didn’t have to worry bout competition..

Charles, I took that table and extended it out to 1990 and looked at % rate of change year over year. Of course the numbers in the table do not account for a few key variables such as inflation and population growth.
The table below shows the annual % change over the previous year, my determination of whether the number fall in the low, medium or high rate of change category, plus I have given it a federal political spin to show which party formed government in the year. I did not show transition years, I simply chose one party per year.
So, we have had five of the highest years of upward movement over the period of 2005 to 2009. That should not be too surprising to anyone due to the financial crisis in the world which included such factors as the rush to get in on unprecedented housing price increases as well as building infrastructure to keep the economy from taking a real nosedive.
I do not believe in looking at raw numbers. Everything is relative.
19917.2HPC
19926.7MPC
19936.6MPC
19947.5HLIB
19954.7LLIB
19964.0LLIB
19975.6MLIB
19986.5MLIB
19995.2MLIB
20004.8LLIB
20014.2LLIB
20025.2MLIB
20032.2LLIB
20045.8MLIB
20057.3HLIB
20069.0HC
20079.5HC
20089.6HC
20097.7HC
20103.8LC
20116.0MC
20124.4LC

The other key question in my mind is who we owe the debt to. Thus about a third of the US public debt is owed to foreign countries while Japan, which owes the largest debt to GDP has less than 5% of that debt owed to foreign countries.

Charles, so long as virtually all of our money begins its existence as ‘debt’ without any overall ongoing compilation of whether it is creating and maintaining an equivalent ‘credit’ until the ‘production’ it has enabled has become ‘consumption’, we’re going to have a debt problem.

A ‘deflation’ won’t cure it, any more than an ‘inflation’ will. Both will simply make it worse.

Stillsmokin, when another ‘big box’ retailer arrives in any town, the overall market is divided amongst a greater number of retailers.

All retail outlets have
FIXED costs regardless of the volume of their sales, and these costs are far greater for a Target or a Wal-Mart or any other ‘big box’ than they are for their smaller local competitors. When one more new large player reduces the sales volumes at all the existing players, prices, in general, can only go one way. And that’s UP.

Large retail outlets typically compete with one another by having what are known as ‘loss-leaders’. Wal-Mart, for instance, will have around 100 items of which the shopping public generally is aware of the price that will always be priced at, or below, the price their competitors sell the same things for. Everything else in the store will be priced higher. Frequently those other same items could be had at a smaller retailer for less, but the public is gulled by the ‘loss leaders’ into thinking everything in the store is cheaper, when it generally isn’t.

BcRacer, yeah the moths are next.. But at least to get rid of them you just have to shut off your outside lights. And they don’t stink when they die.

Speaking of gas prices (sort of), why do we pay world prices for lumber? The trees and mills are right here!

Have a great weekend everyone.

My concern every morning when I drive to work and am stopped at 15th and central waiting to proceed downtown on 15th – that guaranteed there is a semi truck either logging or transport that runs the light on central. I know you proceed with caution after the light turns green, but someday there is going to be an ugly accident there as one of these machines going way over the speed limit barrels thru on a red light.

You are dead on flowermum. What are the “professional” drivers of today doing??!!!

Every day I see tractor trailer units having pissing matches on Hwy 16. One chip truck doesn’t want to wait for the other tractor unit so it moves to the inside lane. Now both lanes going up Peden Hill are slow and God help us all if they slip a gear…it slows to a crawl.

A couple of days ago I watched a short log GXXXXson Truck with his trailer down weave through traffic like he was a volkswagen. Scarey stuff to watch and be part of. A few days before that a couple of Williams Lake trucks loaded with metal blocked both lanes going west…I guess they didn’t want to wait for the chip truck ahead of them.

I appreciate professional drivers…they are careful but the new breed of “professional” is down right scarey.

college heights chevron gas 1.37 ltr

@ Socred. I was at the Husky on central and the chocolate bars I saw were $2.

Just about to board the Ferry to Nanaimo. Have a fun and safe weekend everyone!!

Any one know when the fireworks start July 1st?

After sunset
;)

Ha! What time is sunset then?

:D

Have an enjoyable and safe long weekend everyone. Happy Canada Day!

Hmmm, while proof reading my comment before posting it here, it suddenly disappeared.

?

It was deleted before it was even posted? That’s a new record! Lol
Have a good weekend everyone – enjoy the roads… Between the truck and the boat I think I paid enough in tax to repave a couple kms of highway myself LOL

It’s a great weekend to celebrate living in a fantastic country like Canada, and a great City like PG…where we have the luxury to focus on and complain about moths & caterpillars & potholes and taxes, but in reality, we are among the most privaledged and lucky people on the planet in the overall scheme of things.

The FIREWORKS are back! Thanks to Canfor for the donation and to StarlightFX for presenting the show.
Starts at 11PM and will be simulcast on the Wolf.

I’ve had that happen before as well Dragonmaster. It’s almost like the page refreshes for some unknown reason and then it just goes to the blank comment box that you type in.

If I’m posting a really log response, I’ll actually just copy it a few times so that I can just paste it into the response if it happens. It’s happened more than once to me.

If you do not allow the page to auto refresh the comments will not disappear(browser settings.) O250 likely set up like this to prevent double and triple postings.

Either that or Elaine has a wormhole with a magic eraser to bater’s confuser.

JohnnyBelt.

Lumber is sold to local suppliers in PG, and other Cities at the New York Price per 1000 FBM less freight.

That’s my understanding, so we should be getting our lumber cheaper than say New York, or Alabama.

The gas companies in Prince George do not give us any allowance for the gas produced at Husky, even though there is a significant savings to them in transportation. In other words they are gouging us.

The high cost of groceries and other product in this town are a result of high transportation costs, and the high price of gas along with the associated Government taxes on gas, including the 7 cents per litre (rip off) carbon tax compliments of Mr. Campbell. All transportation costs are passed on to the consumer, so we are getting royally screwed.

Inept Governments are the cause of most of the problems in BC and other Provinces.

We need only look at the latest Hydro fiasco on Highway 37 Transmission line to see where the problem lies.

Canada has the best reputation in the world.

Happy Canada day.

http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2013/06/28/canada-green-pariah-or-worlds-best-reputation/

There is a story on CBC describing how RCMP officers took unsecured firearms from homes in High River that they came across when searching for people trapped by the floods.

The Prime Ministers Office then released this statement:

“If any firearms were taken, we expect they will be returned to their owners as soon as possible,” and “We believe the RCMP should focus on more important tasks such as protecting lives and private property.”

Some comments:

1) Isn’t securing unsecured firearms for people displaced by flooding actually helping to protect lives and property?

2) Isn’t it unlawful to have improperly secured firearms laying around your house in the first place?

3) Is the PMO actually suggesting that the RCMP should turn a blind eye if they see improperly secured firearms in a home?

4) Why does the PMO seem to have an issue with the RCMP actually doing what it is they are paid to do?

5) Does the PMO understand the term “political interference”?

Good grief!!!!!

Oh for got to mention, three years in a role with the conservatives in charge. That should make some heads explode.

Get a load of this! Someones just asking for trouble.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2013/06/28/20935996.html

They’re busting down doors and confiscating peoples personal property NMG. You a friend of Km Jung-un too?

So long and farewell to Steve Lamble. RIP good man.

Sorry NMG I misread your comments. My comments should be directed at those whose comments you quoted.

I agree with what the RCMP did in Highwater – I’m sorry but a responsible gun owner locks up their guns, or at the very least doesn’t leave them in plain sight (still not proper storage, but better than nothing). What if people were out looting houses because they knew everyone was evacuated? I’d hate to think people would stoop that low but it happens.

Hello there all you Eskimos. Thought I would check in to see how things are moving on 250. Lovely day here in Abby +24 the sun is shining. Went to Wallmart the other day and they have a hugh sign up that says” Welcome to George”. Wonder why they left off the “Prince” which is what you locals call it. Guess they are going back to the old days when we called it just plain “George”.

For all you traffic official’s Traffic signals are not timed so that you stare at an empty street with no traffic movement. They still use the old loop system that counts the traffic as it passes over and when the traffic movement stops the light changes. But then there is no traffic in George so there is lots of time to look into empty space.

Well will sign off for now and don’t forget to give me your thoughts.
Cheers

https://www.google.ca/search?q=sunset+today+pst&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#client=firefox-a&hs=gfg&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&sclient=psy-ab&q=sunset%20times%20prince%20george%20bc&oq=&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48572450,d.cGE&fp=66a4fbac698b4aff&biw=1147&bih=581&pf=p&pdl=300

Eskimos ? Its been a lot warmer in the Yukon than in the GVRD lately.

Abbotsford…taken over Victoria’s place as the home for the newly wed and nearly dead;)

Air you can chew on for most of the summer as the prevailing wind blows all the exhaust and other pollution up the valley. That is unless it is coming from the south then you get Washington state power production exhaust and if the breeze is from the north you get the fine aroma of not so fresh cow poo that has been spread on the fields. No thanks I’ll keep the fresh air west of town!

Enjoy all that fresh ocean air that blows in off the pacific through Vancouver and out into the eastern Fraser valley there Retired02.

I’d be careful there in Abby if I were you though. I hear there is a rash of lead poisoning going on there.

Eskimo is derogatory, get with the times! Inuit is more politically correct!

But nice here too retired02 ! :)

No, those were my comments Dragonmaster and I agree with peegee on this one.

The fact of the matter is that the town was in a state of emergency and the RCMP were trying to ensure that nobody was left behind or in danger. While doing that they noted that in SOME situations, firearms were left unsecured. Since the town had been evacuated and the owners were not there to deal with the situation, they removed the firearms from the homes and stored them in an offsite location. From everything I’ve been able to find, the owners will get their guns back.

This is a highly unusual situation and I think they made the right decision. The alternative would have been to not ensure that the homes were cleared (just imagine the outcry if someone had died because they were stuck and nobody came looking) and/or to leave unsecured firearms laying around for would be looters to swipe (which wouldn’t be uncommon in a situation like this).

Kim Jung-Un? That’s laughable. On this one, the RCMP are dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t. If they are going to be dammed, I think it makes sense to ensure that unsecured guns aren’t just laying around for would be thieves to have ready access to.

I don’t think it’s a conspiracy, an attempt to confiscate guns or a case of the RCMP being out to get someone. I think it was a case of them doing a risk assessment of the situation and responding accordingly.

It would appear that the PMO’s response would have been to say “ah just let those rifles sit around, even if they weren’t being stored properly”. Oh, that and “why the heck were you trying to make sure people were safe anyway?” What a bizarre position to take!

Firearms can be kept in a locked Room, WHAT size of room is Not posted on RCMP
web site. How big a room?????…..As big as a locked house. If you have to BREAK in, It is A BNE and your a Thief. The Firearms are Secure by all the laws of Firearm act, And No they do not have to be trigger locked in a secure Room, which can not be easily broken into.LIKE A LOCKED HOUSE

So your argument would sort of fall apart if the house wasn’t locked?

And what about the B&E argument in the case of an evacuation order when the RCMP has the right to enforce that order?

The RCMP, did not ENFORCE Evacuation order, Some people refused to leave and were not Forced out, Second The RCMP broke into Most if not all the houses…The Army took back and refused to give back to the RCMP 2Men Post Pounders they had borrowed from the Forces and were using to break down doors.

From the Saskatoon Star Phoenix:

“As police patrolled the streets of flood-ravaged High River on Sunday to enforce a mandatory evacuation order, politicians urged patience from frustrated residents. RCMP went door-to-door Sunday checking 1,500 homes and searching properties for stragglers insistent on defying the compulsory order”

Another hypothetical for you while you consider answering my first two questions:

– What if the RCMP entered a home and found an unloaded .300 Win Mag laying on a bed in a “securely locked” master bedroom, with a box of .300 Win Mag ammo sitting beside the rifle on the bed Can they take this one?

I think you are grasping at straws Donald. You may not like what they did, but I simply can’t see how their actions were unlawful in the circumstances. If they encounter firearms that are stored improperly, they HAVE to deal with them as law enforcement officers. Don’t blame them, blame the government for drafting the legislation that they are expected to enforce.

NMG…If the Rifle was in a secure bedroom with ammo beside it…NO LAW IS BROKEN…. You can Lawfully store ammo beside Firearms in a safe or Locked room just not attached to firearm. You must be a RCMP Officer, Or just uniformed about the Firearms law, as most RCMP officer are.

Forgotten roads in PG. Two of them, Marleau and the frontage road between Marleau and Bon Voyage. Heavy traffic of all types, school, main feed into subdivisions, narrow, no sidewalks and there is heavy foot traffic. Also very rarely maintained.

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-98-209/page-2.html#h-3

“5. (1) An individual may store a non-restricted firearm only if:

(a) it is unloaded;

(b) it is

(i) rendered inoperable by means of a secure locking device,
(ii) rendered inoperable by the removal of the bolt or bolt-carrier, or
(iii) stored in a container, receptacle or room that is kept securely locked and that is constructed so that it cannot readily be broken open or into; and

(c) it is not readily accessible to ammunition, unless the ammunition is stored, together with or separately from the firearm, in a container or receptacle that is kept securely locked and that is constructed so that it cannot readily be broken open or into”

(a) would seem to be met.

(b) would come down to whether the bedroom met the conditions in (iii), which could be highly debatable if it had a standard window that could be broken with a rock.

(c) would NOT be met because the box of ammo was not in a container or receptacle that was securely locked.

If (a), (b) or (c) isn’t met, then the firearm would not be considered stored properly. If you have other legislative references that come into play, please post them.

No I’m not an RCMP officer, but to be perfectly honest, this piece of legislation reads easier than fishing regulations. That is unless you are trying to find something that isn’t there.

Not nice Harbinger…totally uncalled for actually. :-(

We drove by the new police station being built on Victoria today…and could not help thinking, what were they thinking with that design?

Whomever is burning garbage and whatever else it is that stinks like crap down around the south end of Domano, YOU’RE AN IDIOT!

Grab a brain next time you visit Wal-Mart!

Well NMG, your comments appeared to be ones you quoted from the CBC story.

In that case I retract my apology.

The RCMP have no business breaking into peoples homes and stealing their personal property. That’s what they have done, nothing less!

They had no business doing anything more than knocking on peoples doors and waiting for someone to answer. If they get no answer they best move along and not break into peoples homes when they are not there.

Posted by: NMG on June 28 2013 3:58 PM
And what about the B&E argument in the case of an evacuation order when the RCMP has the right to enforce that order?
——————————————

That doesn’t give them the right to break into homes.

Jim 13135…. Not nice? So what? Would I lie? I tried to be as politically correct as could be. At least I should get points for that. JT is probably the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. But….

Here is an example of bureaucracy at work especially on a long weekend. The folks from Idaho found the fellow, Mr. Neville, who drowned in Francois Lake when no one else could. He is in deep water and now the so called bureaucratic authorities are discussing who will pay for his recovery because of the deep water. They say it will be figured out on Tuesday. Let me guess lets not let a long weekend get in the way. In the meantime his body remains on the lake bottom. Can you believe this.

The new cop shop reminds me of a giant crab.

Harbinger wrote: It seems Justin Trudeaus father and birth mother were “without benefit of clergy” when he was conceived and born.

So that makes him a child

1. of the 1970’s

2. of his mother and father?

Where does the clergy come in anyway? How about a justice of the peace?

One year I was involved with Census Canada, training and supervising enumerators.

The instructions we were given regarding entering homes when invited to do so to help with long forms etc. was that we were there for that purpose and that purpose only. to work on census activities.

The example of what we might see, but we were not to report on was seeing lose firearms around the room, on a bed, or whatever. As I recall it, there was only one thing we were to bring to the attention of the authorities and that was any kind of readily visible signs of child abuse.

As I understand it, the RCMP went in to make sure the place was evacuated or to evacuate anyone who may still be there. I presume that they would have some restrictions as well of what the courts would feel is important enough to cause action to be taken.

Isn’t that what they call fruit of a poisonous tree – evidence illegally gained (without probably cause, a warrant, etc.)