Goodmorning everyone. Have a nice day!

I continue to be impressed by the work your "flower bed" people do on the landscapes around the City... on a recent visit I noticed the intersections, the hill and FG park... all in terrific shape due to the obvious care and attention by the parks staff.... thanks for that !!

:-)

V.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get action about young men (sometimes kids) screaming around our rural area on unlicenced, illegal dirt bikes? They start at Holmes and Old Cariboo, then do the circuit via Cummings and Ellis. All at high speed, and to hell with the drivers, horseback riders, pedestrians and small children who also try to use the road legally. There was a wipe-out this weekend with ambulance, Pineview Fire Department and police attending. The next day they were back screaming around the block. Does there have to be someone killed before anything is done? Seems like it...

A bouquet to the emergency room staff at PGRH.

An unpleasant accident resulted in a walk in trip to emergency at the hospital on Tuesday evening August 05th. The emergency room was very busy.

Thanks to the combined efforts of nurse Barbara, resident Amir, and doctors Raymond and Hampole along with staff in the operating and recovery room, the experience was most positive.

Thanks PGRH.

Yes elanke... I've been told that the same type of activity is rampant nightly on Red Rock Road and 97S... ATV and bikes turning the circuit into a motocross track.

Too much inbreeding is never a good thing.

V.

does everyone in PG think we have a had a terrible summer? I don't understand this, I will be waiting in line at Save on and it will be 28 degrees and sunny outside and people are STILL complaining of the "terrible" summer we have had. climate is something we are unable to control so...move, or shut up! Oh, I don't actually think we have had a bad summer, seems to me we have had tons of sun!

Well spring got off to a great start and then sort of stalled for months but for how I gauge summers, is if I have to get the fan out of the garage and set it up in the living room, it is a good summer. Well forget the fan, went and bought an air conditioner !

People complaining about the weather means they are content with everything else. Maybe we don't care about
Politics or people? Maybe we are just numb from being ignored by government and beaten by high prices.

Greetings all.
Just watching the Parade of Nations.
How impressive when people get that organized. I realize its' basis is for competition and national pride yet I am impressed by people who can assemble in one common place and put on such a show.
Being a dreamer, I think, if people do that then if they ever decide to do something worthwhile like eliminate world poverty they could do it. I believe they could. Now that would really be impressive. Instead of dull meetings perhaps when the leaders get together they could put on a show for the world.

P.S. Of coure, that would eliminate cheap labour and profits. Oh my, no hope I guess.

I must say the bybass is looking realy good these days I even seen some one picking up garbage.I still think all those bussness owners that dump there snow on the grass should be footing the bill to get the grass growing again.The ones that load the snow up and pay to haul it away should not have there tax dollars cleaning the bypass up.

This year's weather has been great for the garden. My flowers have never looked so good and I have already picked several bouquets of sweetpeas. Just hope the severe thunderstorm that they are predicting for later today doesn't come with lots of hail to smash everything.

Today I celebrate one of those special birthdays .... 08/08/08. It's supposed to be a really lucky day. I'm heading to the golf course to bake for a few hours and then will probably hide for the rest of the day. Enjoy the day everyone.

So I just have to ask. I see the circus came to PG. We took our daughter and she had a blast. So interested in the elephants...it was really good and entertaining. Did they get to put on the animal part of thier show in PG ?, or was it just clowns, acrobats- dogs and horses?...just curious.

Happy Birthday gardengirl!!!!

Hope the day is great for you!

Two weeks aga on free for there was a lot of interest in the “down town area”. These are the ideas that we need to talk about. If we wish to make changes at the up coming civic election. Are the changes that we are trying to make down town related to safety or are they a cover up for poor planing in the first place . We constantly hear about an “overall community plan” (OPC). Do we actually have an overall community plan? It certainly doesn’t look like it.

Currently we are trying to take land out of the ALR for light industrial use . Our famous bingo hall will probably be moved to a re-zoned area.. The list is endless as to re-zoning within the current OCP with which we are constantly playing checkers.
.
The question is where would we put all these wonderful big box stores down town. Its called “planning” . There appeared to be enough room to build a big box bingo hall.. The users come there for one purpose and that is to gamble. Our City owns the property at 4th and Victoria and are going to build th police station on that site. They have some old dilapidated building that were the Works Yard. would of been a better place for that building.

Many years ago the City of Portland tore up some of their parking lots and created parks to get people out of their cars and use public transit. It would be interesting to know how much of the down town area is used for parking lots. For years the transit system operated in the red but we just kept throwing more money into it.. And maybe we should continue to subsidize the transit system instead of giving $400,000.00 to Horizon Airlines. We need a planner that is able to determine what the needs are of different areas within the City. Should we actually have allowed all these big box stores for the size of our City with out destroying those that are already providing that service.

Our planning is driven by tax dollars. Is that how it should be done? Panning needs to consider those who pay the taxes and not the economy. In a free enterprise society the economy should be market driven. It is not to decide what big box stores we can get into the downtown area but do we need them at all.

Cheers

Justamom, we had something better than elephants, flying squirrels. Yes we had a flying squirrel circus. I hear it was wild.

this is to the dumb a$$ that thought it was appropiate to be doing burnouts through the intersection at 10 & Central last night!! 6 freakin times!!! after midnight none the less!

some people acutally have to work in the morning!!!

and if you think your car is all that bring it out to the 1/4 mile sometime!!!

be happy my paintball gun was out of CO2

The dirt bikes are a problem in the Foothills/North Nechako Road area also and have been for years. Unfortunately there is no interest from the R.C.M.P. or the City so it probably will take a tragedy to get someone's attention and change the illegal behavior. Today's paper had a picture of a ATV that was involved in an accident on the Hart Hiway. i think there will be many more accidents with the increase of these illegal vehicles.

Interesting Bridge.... "OCP" actually means official community plan and was put into effect many years ago as a way to control growth and sprawl with bylaws.

Today it seems to be pretty much a useless disguise, much like the ALR ... (both of them only good tools to thwart the efforts of those who want to follow the rules)... the magic power of that "rezoning wand" is proof of that.

I doubt that your city has a planner these days... you have a real estate department instead.

Parking lots downtown generate revenue and are a simple, cost effective conversion for the City since they cannot entice "bricks and mortor" investment to occupy those spaces.

BB stores are their own best enemy... they need enormous volumes to survive and their profitability is extremely fragile... they carry a big stick when it comes to dealing with frightened municipal people and can pretty much dictate their own terms when it comes to location.

The amazing contradition of greed and indifference within a target community allows them flourish and then flounder at the ultimate expense of that community.

There is no easy answer, no easy course of action, no easy decision. It takes guts to make that first choice, to take that first step and to stick with that direction. When you make choices that affect other people's lives, you had better make sure you have the right motives in place to make that choice.

The stink of poor choices seems to last a long time.

:-)

V.

Urine Test This guy has a point ! ! !

This was written by a construction worker in Fort McMurray ...he sure makes a lot of sense! Read on...

I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit.

In order to earn that pay cheque, I work on a rig site for a FortMac construction project. I am required to pass a random urine test, with which I have no problem.

What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don't have to pass a urine test. Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare cheque because I have to pass one to earn it for them?

Please understand - I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do on the other hand have a problem with helping someone sit on their butts drinking beer and smoking dope.

Could you imagine how much money the provinces would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance cheque?
Please pass this along if you agree or simply delete if you don't.

Hope you will pass it along though, because something has to change in this country, and soon ! ! ! !



A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

Flying Squirrels!...hehe.did they shoot them out of the cannon with 'Captain USA'?

That must have been impressive. The city never complained ?

Oh thats right I dont think I saw them on the list of exotic animals that are no longer allowed in PG...They must have parked the elephant, and bear trailers outside of PG. What a stupid bylaw..next it will be 'cloths lines'...Calgary adopted the bylaw of not allowing people to use cloths lines for drying laundry in city limits!

I think that 90% of the complaints surrounding ATVers and Dirtbikers are unjust. There are times where the operators of these machines are acting inappropriately, but it's not necessarily always the case. A guy riding his ATV respectfully across the Hart Highway to the scales, although "breaking the law" isn't really hurting anyone. Seems more often than not people are just looking for something to complain about, IMO.

You want flying squirrels go look out in the Haldi rd area.

Posted by: tiemens1 on August 8 2008 10:10 AM
The dirt bikes are a problem in the Foothills/North Nechako Road area also and have been for years. Unfortunately there is no interest from the R.C.M.P. or the City so it probably will take a tragedy to get someone's attention and change the illegal behavior. Today's paper had a picture of a ATV that was involved in an accident on the Hart Hiway. i think there will be many more accidents with the increase of these illegal vehicles.
--------------------------------------

There was already a tragedy a number of years back, up in behind the Hart scales where a young boy hit a chain or cable strung across a road that had no markers on it. He was killed. It doesn't always take someones death to have things changed because not everything that may result in a death is considered to be important.
If you want to avoid death stay home and lock your doors. Just remember that you can live life, or wait for the grim reaper to come knocking at your home.

There is nothing illegal about any of these atv's or motorcycles, they are perfectly legal, it's where they are operated that is sometimes illegal.

Those that don't have one should go buy one and live a little.

I have nothing against ATV's or dirt bikes, but take them out of the city limits. They sure have made a mess of the trails in the college hieghts area. Deep ruts make it difficult to walk or even ride a mountain bike.

Anastasia wrote:- "Could you imagine how much money the provinces would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance cheque?"

Yes, I can. It wouldn't save them any money
at all. It would cost them money, since someone would have to do the testing.

Lets suppose the 'useless bum' who's sucking off your 'hard-earned' tax dollars fails the test. So you cut him off, no social assistance.

Who is going to hire him? Think about it. You are an employer, hard pressed yourself these days to try to make ends meet, and that's with people in your employ who (hopefully) WANT to work.

Now you're going to take on someone who doesn't want to work? Someone on whom you're likely to have to expend more energy yourself trying to get ANY work out of him than it would've taken you to do whatever it is you want him to do yourself.

If the "bum" doesn't get social assistance, and he's no good to any employer, what does he do to get his dope and beer? He steals, that's what. And if we catch him? It costs us more money to keep him in jail than it did to keep him on social assistance! As well as the cost of protecting your property against his thieving that, too, will likely be more than it would've cost to give him social assistance.

Of course, we could take such people out and just shoot them, but we don't do that kind of thing in this country. Might be a violation of his human rights or something. So how do we solve the problem?


One of the simplest ways would be to give the equivalent of social assistance to EVERYONE. Those that 'want' to work, which are most of us, since we'd bored out of our minds with nothing else to do except drink beer and smoke dope all day, will work.

Those that don't, can go do their thing. The increase in overall 'efficiency' alone by getting that type OUT of the workforce would more than cover what it costs to keep them, while the additional funds given to everyone else, done properly, would stimulate the overall economy.

I work because millions on welfare depend on me

Socredible, what do you mean by 'equivelant of social assistance to everyone', does this mean doctors,teachers,and other such highly trained people get paid the same as someone at the 7-11?

http://www.empireclubfoundation.com/details.asp?SpeechID=2160&FT=yes

"One of the simplest ways would be to give the equivalent of social assistance to EVERYONE. "

There was a gentleman by the name of Real Caouette (Leader of the Social Credit Party in Quebec) who proposed the very same thing - in the 1970s.

He used to appear on TV with charts and diagrams explaining his system in detail. I thought it was fascinating.

Like a flat income tax it would eliminate thousands of government jobs - a catastrophical outcome to many - and it therefore never caught on and it was ridiculed (like the flat tax) into oblivion.

It made perfect sense to simply give everyone a basic cheque - no questions asked. If some people could eke out a living on that more power to them! Others who needed more would go to work to earn more and pay taxes on the additional earnings.

Because, no matter how complicated one makes the present system - at the end of the year a certain number of people will have received assistance and a certain amount of money will have been paid out.

"socredible" Good point made in that write.

"LostFaith" Can't agree more with you! And they say that we don't care about the lazy asses....

Cynical ol' me wandered into Pine Centre the other day and made a bee line to the baseball cap store. I asked the clerk, I said, "Hey! All these caps made in China"? After flipping a lot of flaps he replied in the affirmative. Seems to me these caps were made in China for about a dollar apiece. Ship them here, stick/sew a "licenced' sports team logo on it for a fee of about $20 bucks or more, stick them on a shelf with yer own mark up and ya got licenced ball caps selling for $30, $40, aqnd $50 bucks or more. Talk about capitalism, folks. There it is. At those prices , I sure hope he is still in business in November.

Yes, every person would get the same. Then, he/she could choose to work and earn more and get taxed on the additional income.

"Doctors,teachers,and other such highly trained people get paid the same as someone at the 7-11?"

They obviously wouldn't earn the same income but regardless of their earned income they all would get the same basic guaranteed income amount monthly from the government. There would be no means test, checking up on people, cheating...almost no administration costs except making sure that the recipients were still in the country and not deceased.

Too simple. Scary.

diplomat said:
"It made perfect sense to simply give everyone a basic cheque - no questions asked. If some people could eke out a living on that more power to them! Others who needed more would go to work to earn more and pay taxes on the additional earnings."

What does that really change? Welfare is essentially this same system. It creates a floor and people that make too much have to pay tax. We simply eliminate the 'floor' amount paid to the people above that amount as all it would be anyway was a payment to the person that would be immediately repaid in the form of additional taxes. I dont understand how this eliminates any government jobs as this would essentially still be a progressive tax system, even if all additional income was flat taxed. You still would have to track the income.

While this is not pure communism it is would certainly move Canada further to the left. You might note that there are no longer any significant communist nations left. Probably the 'most' powerful nation that sits significantly left of center is France, and they are far from a successful economic model.

Being paid to breathe, how many foreigners would beat down the doors to come to Canada if this ever happened. What incentive would there be to work? The taxes on 'additional' income would have to be astronomical to pay for such a system.

Being paid to breathe, how many foreigners would beat down the doors to come to Canada if this ever happened. What incentive would there be to work? The taxes on 'additional' income would have to be astronomical to pay for such a system.

Posted by: diplomat on August 8 2008 2:04 PM
Yes, every person would get the same. Then, he/she could choose to work and earn more and get taxed on the additional income.

"Doctors,teachers,and other such highly trained people get paid the same as someone at the 7-11?"

They obviously wouldn't earn the same income but regardless of their earned income they all would get the same basic guaranteed income amount monthly from the government. There would be no means test, checking up on people, cheating...almost no administration costs except making sure that the recipients were still in the country and not deceased.

Too simple. Scary.


So tell me where the money to pay these non workers is going to come from if noone is working?
That sort of ends that idea, huh?

There's just one problem with taking ATV's or dirt bikes out of the city limits.

What about the people who have purchased property "out of the city limits" just so they can enjoy a quieter lifestyle?

I'm NOT one of them but I do know a few and I can tell you they would be "livid" to have all that noise on their doorsteps as well.

I'm not sure what the answer for this issue is but one thing is certain. No matter what the problem is, if you just "move it" to another location then it doesn't solve it, it just becomes someone elses problem.

NTG

Why does cost 6 bucks for a burger, fries and coke combo but 10 bucks for a chicken salad and orange juice. For a country thats always plugging healthy choices it would sure be nice to able to afford it.

If you buy all the ingredients from a grocery store you can get 3 times worth of finished product if you make it yourself as compared to buyin it pre made.

"So tell me where the money to pay these non workers is going to come from if none is working?"

From the same pot of taxes that all the *welfare* (income assistance) is coming from at present to regularly pay those who are not working, for various personal reasons.

Caouette was promoting a new idea - it would only apply to Canadian citizens, of course and immigration was being strictly controlled at the time. Immigrants did not have a reputation to become welfare slackers, on the contrary, they were known to be hardworking people.

"That sort of ends that idea, huh?"

Yes, for many reasons it didn't fly, although just the elimination of all the welfare offices and staff would have saved Quebec many millions a year in costs.

Those people who hang out at 3rd and George get 3 meals per day from St Vincents on 2nd Ave. In addition they get free clothing supplied to them once a week, and discard the clothing from the previous week. In addition there are facilities on 6th and Brunswick where they can spend the night, however you have to be in by 10pm and out by 10am so during the summer they sleep in the alleys, old buildings or what ever.

They get their basic needs for free, and therefore can spend their welfare cheques on cigarettes, booze, drugs, and gambling.

They urinate, fornicate, and crap in the alleys, and shoot up their drugs, plus they yell and scream and fight all night amongst themselves.

This is a major health concern however the situation is ignored by the city, police, and health officials, and the so called **upstanding citizens** of this community.

They are slowly taking over more and more of the downtown area and more business are moving out.

We on the other hand do nothing about the situation except to wax ^philosophically on our key boards about how good or bad the situation is.

Guess what. Once you have 30 or 40 shots fired in a commercial area where there are a large number of people present you have a very serious problem

These comments should be directed to the Mayor and Council with a demand that they do something other than make inane statements.

That it is an interesting concept: "giving everyone a basic living cheque". There would be more disposable income for people who are hard workers but don't have enough left over after the basics to spend on "luxury" items such as travel, computers, t.v.'s, carsm etc. Believe it, they are out there and there are lots of them - darn good responsible hard workers.
It is an interesting concept.

Why have we permitted the protesting members of the Westboro Baptist Church to enter our country only to spread their hate?

(rambleon)

Them nutbars are or have been turned away at the border on direction of the Harper Govenments orders... so thank god they are not allowed in!

Newtechguy writes..."What about the people who have purchased property "out of the city limits" just so they can enjoy a quieter lifestyle?"

Too bad so sad.

Posted by: getajob on August 8 2008 6:27 PM
(rambleon)

Them nutbars are or have been turned away at the border on direction of the Harper Govenments orders... so thank god they are not allowed in!

They should have let them in.......................................................................................

Posted by: diplomat on August 8 2008 4:11 PM
"So tell me where the money to pay these non workers is going to come from if none is working?"

From the same pot of taxes that all the *welfare* (income assistance) is coming from at present to regularly pay those who are not working, for various personal reasons.


Diplomat
So you believe that if there is noone working then there would still be tax money available to pay these nonworkers? The money to pay these non workers is going to fly outta someones Butt I suppose?

Wow thats kinda way out there don't ya think?

Palapou
Do you think you are telling people something that they don't already know about our downtown? Where exactly are they crapping in the alleys. Enquiring minds want to know.
The problem with the downtown can't legally be resolved because the scum that are the problems down there have human rights.
Hows that?

Yes, Diplomat, Real Caouette used to try to explain how the system of 'Social Credit' would work. Which must have been difficult for him, since English was not his first language, even though he managed to speak it fairly well and was quite well versed in a correct understanding of the principles involved. It's not an easy concept to put across, since there's really no short way to explain it properly.

There actually was an experiment conducted by the Federal government in a rural area of Manitoba back around that time, early 1960's, where they did give every resident in that particular area a 'basic income' sufficent to live on. Just to see what effects doing so would have.

Whether everyone would get lazy, or some would, and stop working, or work way less than they had been doing, or how many would degenerate into a state of perpetual drunkeness, or dope addiction, or some other moral depravity, etc., etc.

Surprisingly enough, that didn't happen. The people who received the 'basic income' generally kept right on doing what they had been doing. Only they had more income to spend, so their standard of living increased. As did the prosperity of that small area.

This, however, was NOT 'social credit'in the same sense Caouette was referring to it, since this experiment WAS paid for out of general revenue, i.e. our TAXES.

In the "Social Credit" model the money distributed does NOT come from taxation.

It is NOT a 're-distribution' of existing 'money' by taking from those who have some, to give to those who have not.

That is 'socialism', which is based on the erroneous idea that the "poor are poor because the rich are rich."

Which might hold great truth if the amount of 'money' in existence were absolutely invariable, fixed in quantity by the laws of nature, or something like that.

That is NOT the case, however. Far from it. "Money" itself is NOT 'invariable'. Either in 'quantity' or what it will 'buy'. It varies in quantity every time a Bank makes a new loan, or purchases government bonds, or some other kind of securities, public or private.

It comes into being as a 'debt' charge against some productive process, (which it's issuance enables, or facilitates actually getting underway), or , in the case of personal loans, the borrower's part in some productive process.

People on social assistance, even though they may have a more 'regular' income than you or I, who still have to work for ours, when we can, do NOT get Bank loans. They need a 'job' to get that.

Since all money comes into being as a 'debt', the re-payment of that 'debt' cancels it. What is issued in 'credit' by the Banks, for the purposes of production, forms the 'costs' of that production.

Those 'costs', which include the 'incomes' those involved will receive while production is underway, are liquidated through 'price'. When those 'incomes' are spent, and what was 'produced' is 'consumed'.

In our modern world, however, (to make what's fast becoming a book-length story shorter), there is continual "labour displacement", through automation, mechanization, technological advances, etc.

As a result, in the WHOLE economy, overall CONSUMER 'incomes' are continually falling in ratio to the overall 'costs of production' coming forward into 'prices'. That is what Real Caouette's 'Social Credit' proposals intended to correct.

There would be a DEBT-FREE issuance of "new credit", by the Bank of Canada, paid to every citizen, equally, as a periodic National Dividend, (and also as a 'rebate' on 'prices', to forestall any 'inflation'), and this would be in the amount of the deficiency between the overall 'price values' of ALL goods and services for sale, and the amount of overall 'money' in existence to pay them.

Realize this is a most rudimentary explanation. The effect is that, over time, the 'dividend' would progressively displace the 'wage'. Since there's no sense 'producing' what can't be 'consumed', and if fewer and fewer are needed TO PRODUCE, yet ALL still need TO CONSUME there has to be a method of of allowing that to happen.