Wynne zaps us again amid shocking salary extravagance at OPG (Ontario Power Generation)

The following editorial from the Toronto Sun newspaper is prefaced by the release of 2015’s Sunshine List - Ontario’s annual list of top-paid public sector workers – which revealed that Tom Mitchell, CEO of OPG (Ontario Power Generation) topped the list for the second year in a row at $1.56M in salary and benefits. Indeed, OPG and Hydro One, the publicly-owned electricity distribution giant whose billing process has sparked an ombudsman’s investigation, put about 12,000 workers on the list, including 435 who made more than $200,000, 41 over $300,000, 20 over $400,000 and seven over $500,000. The shear voracity of this ‘largesse’ stinks to high heaven when you consider the unnecessary and manipulated cost of a hydro today … And rising. If you wish to drop Bob Chiarelli a note to express your feelings, his email address is:

bchiarelli.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Premier Kathleen Wynne’s problem is that she’s running out of shells with which to play her shell game on electricity rates.

The cumulative effect of a slew of announcements by Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli Thursday — more accurately re-announcements since most weren’t new — is this.

Starting Jan. 1, the average yearly hydro bill for Ontarians is going to increase by about $120 — higher for some, lower for others.

The big reason is Ontario is ending its so-called clean energy benefit, a 10% government subsidy of hydro rates which reduced the average bill by $17 per month up to now.

Ontario will also end the monthly debt retirement charge to hydro customers — after being blasted by the provincial auditor general in 2011 for retaining it long after it had fulfilled its purpose — resulting in a saving of $6 per month on the average bill.

Low-income families will receive a rebate on their electricity bills ranging from $20 to $50 a month, paid for by increases on the hydro bills of all other electricity consumers.

This overall $120-per-year increase for the average hydro consumer is independent of all other increases they will be facing in the coming years, while the Liberals continue their mad and failed experiment with expensive, unreliable and unneeded wind and solar power.

Wind and solar — which Ontario has to buy before all other forms of energy under its deals with producers — aren’t needed because we have an energy surplus, yet the Liberals keep bringing more and more of this power online.

This so-called “green” energy is doing nothing to help the environment, because the Liberals didn’t replace coal-fired electricity with wind and solar energy as they claim, but with nuclear power and natural gas.

Finally, all of these other rate hikes are also independent of what will happen when Wynne introduces carbon pricing in Ontario, which will jack up hydro rates even more.

Simply put, Ontarians are going to be paying for the Liberals’ blunders on the electricity file for generations to come.

Their only real policy on electricity rates is to extract as much cash from our hides as they can, to keep their debt-ridden government afloat.​​

A response from Kathleen Wynne re: "Wynne takes aim at men an boys..."

 (See: http://gerry-stopthebull.blogspot.ca/2015/03/wynne-takes-aim-at-men-and-boys-in.html)

I received a response to my letter to kathleen Wynne this morning. Here, in part, is what she had to say:

“Thank you for taking the time to send your email to me regarding Ontario’s sexual violence and harassment action plan and the #WhoWillYouHelp campaign. I appreciate receiving your feedback on an issue that is of high priority to our government.

“I want to respond to your question about why male victims were not represented in the public awareness campaign. This is the first time that the province has embarked on a public education campaign to raise awareness of sexual violence and harassment. Our campaign is based on strong evidence that sexual assault is a gender-based crime most often perpetrated by men against women: 99 per cent of sexual violence or sexual assault is committed by men, male-on-female.” [emphasis mine].

What “strong evidence?” The evidence that supports the hide-bound opinion of her and her cadre of female advisors’n at the ‘Ovary Tower’ (a.k.a. Queen’s Park)?

Compare her reesponse to the evidence I sent to her:

As late as January 19, 2015, the New South Wales police department reported that “1 in every 5 domestic violence assaults were for male victims.”

Moreover, more than 830,000 men fall victim to domestic violence every year in the U.S: i.e. a man is the victim of domestic abuse every 37.8 seconds.

From a study of 18,761 relationships in the U.S., 76 percent were non-violent and 24 percent were violent. Of the 24 percent that were violent, more men than women (53 percent versus 49 percent) had experienced nonreciprocal – i.e. “victim” violence.

Regarding sexual abuse, in an article titled “Female Sexual Predators: Veiled Epidemic, Professor Gordon Finley ( Professor of Psychology at Florida International University in Miami Florida, U.S.A. ) August 08, 2006, stated: A 2004 U. S. Department of Education report titled Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature cites two large sample surveys in which students report that 43% of their molesters were female sexual predators.” Other studies report from 1% to 82% with six studies reporting female predator rates over 50%.

Does this evidence suggest that ‘99 per cent of sexual violence or sexual assault is committed by men, male-on-female’?

The conclusion that I draw from her ‘strong evidence’ is that the woman is even more stupid than I originally thought.

This is the way to defeat government arrogance and stupidity...

Kathleen Wynne, premier of Ontario, along with a private energy supplier, propose to destroy the beautiful and historic Bala Falls in “Cottage Country’s” Muskoka District. However, since the project was first announced, a group of concerned citizens has  banded together – against an entrenched opposition – to oppose this unnecessary project that is being thrust down their throats. Here is an example of how:

Moose FM can now confirm a 2nd local arborist is refusing to do work removing trees at Bala Falls. In an email to longtime opponent of Swift River Energy Ltd’s plans to build a controversial power plant at Bala Falls, Tim McDonald, Muskoka Lakes arborist Brian McDonald of Muskoka Lakes Tree Service has announced his separation with the project. See Below:

Hello Mr. McDonald

Since you seem to have quite an impressive outreach to the concerned parties that support the “Save the Bala Falls” cause, I thought it would be appropriate to contact you instead of Peggy with news that everyone involved will be happy to know. I trust you will advise all concerned.

First of all I do appreciate your reccomendation for my company: Muskoka Lakes Tree Service, however I would respectfully like to correct you on this minor innaccuracy. We are not Muskoka Tree Service. That is a different company that operates out of the Bracebridge area and has no affiliation with my company. It may be confusing to most because our website is muskokatreeservice.com but the company name is Muskoka Lakes Tree Service. Once again though I do sincerely appreciate your reccomendation.

Secondly, it has been requested of my company to remove the trees at the Bala Falls for the Swift River project. We were issued a purchase order months ago prior to my in depth knowledge of all the issues of concern and potential disaster that lurks. I reluctantly accepted the work order without the knowledge I have made myself aware of over the last few months. Believe me, I have spent many restless nights trying to rationalize why I should carry out this work but good sense, conscience and loyalty to my customers and the community outweighs the short term financial gain, that during the winter months of virtually no work, is needed more that ever.

I conducted an interview with the Moose FM in Bracebridge a couple of months ago to announce my intention to withdraw my services from this project. They were very pleased to be getting an exclusive on this news. You are welcome to confirm that fact and inform them of this announcement. Thankfully I was advised at the time to consult legal advice to ensure that I could not face legal action as a result of my withdrawal. Since then I have been assured that there should not be any legal ramifications.

My recent involvement at the Falls has been in the interest of Public Safety. After completing this work for the MNRF I advised my contact there that I would not be doing anymore work relating to the Swift River Project. Late last week I contacted Swift River and advised my contact there that I would not be honoring their Purchase Order and was officially withdrawing my services and provided an explaination of my position.

I had my first good night sleep in months since having that conversation. In all admission my family and I will bear the consequence financially through tough winter months however I would prefer to stay firm to my beliefs and continue to serve the community with pride and a clear conscience.

I feel I have done my part in forcing Swift River to take a step backwards in this process and can only hope it contributes to their reconsidering the validity of moving forward.

I will now continue to do whatever I can to provide support to the “Save the Bala Falls” cause and proudly serve my customers and community as I have done in the past.

Should you wish to discuss this matter in greater detail please do not hesitate to contact me.

sincerely

Brian McDonald
Arborist
Muskoka Lakes Tree Service
www.muskokatreeservice.com
705 641-9223

Bravo, Brian!

Control of government is doable, and here's one simple way of doing it...

The "Arab Spring," anti-government riots of 2010 were fuellled by social media: FB, Twitter and text messaging, etc.

You yourself post your complaints on FB & Twitter, etc., and others do the same, but how about posting it where it counts?

Politicians and governments live by numbers. They are constantly using YOUR money to poll public opinion, so let's save them the expense.

When some government proposal or policy goes against the grain, send a text directly to the source. "Your proposal sucks," is as simple as it need be, but the importance is that they now know your opinion.

It's a petition on the go. Do it, and watch for the results

Wynne takes aim at men and boys in a flawed, $41M misandrist ad campaign.

TORONTO - Sexual violence and harassment are "rooted in misogyny," Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Friday as she unveiled a plan to fight such behaviours through legislation, increased funding and a provocative ad campaign.

Thereby, this fundamentally stupid woman tarred the majority of males, men and boys, in this province.

One need not go into her public record as a leader – the Wind-Powered dollar drain, the known information dump, the MARS financial fiasco, the questions now surrounding the election in Sudbury, etc. – for those are all well-known [see: “2014 chock full o'scandals at Queen's Park”]

However, even given this scandalous record – for which I wouldn’t have the nerve to stick my nose outside the door of Queen’s Park – She has the unmitigated Gall to besmirch the reputations of men and boys in this province - your sons - with not only blatantly sexist comments, but also a blatantly sexist ad campaign costing $41M of taxpayers’ money (males’ included).

The woman has little depth of propriety, and an even less regard for taxpayers’ money.

Domestic and sexual abuse for the record

As late as January 19, 2015, the New South Wales police department reported that “1 in every 5 domestic violence assaults were for male victims.”

Moreover, more than 830,000 men fall victim to domestic violence every year in the U.S: i.e. a man is the victim of domestic abuse every 37.8 seconds.

From a study of 18,761 relationships in the U.S., 76 percent were non-violent and 24 percent were violent. Of the 24 percent that were violent, more men than women (53 percent versus 49 percent) had experienced nonreciprocal – i.e. “victim” violence.

Regarding sexual abuse, in an article titled “Female Sexual Predators: Veiled Epidemic, Professor Gordon Finley ( Professor of Psychology at Florida International University in Miami Florida, U.S.A. ) August 08, 2006, stated: A 2004 U. S. Department of Education report titled Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature cites two large sample surveys in which students report that 43% of their molesters were female sexual predators.” Other studies report from 1% to 82% with six studies reporting female predator rates over 50%.

Is “Blunder Woman” even aware of these statistics, or is she relying on her cadre of female advisors within the ‘Ovary Tower’?

Whatever, this is an odious, sexist, undemocratic, and bigotted idea that should be scrapped before it is born.

________________

Views of "Stop the Bull" to date, 18,626

The Ontario auto insurance mess: This is what Wynne and Sousa are tolerating on our behalf. Some representatives!

BY ALAN SHANOFF, TORONTO SUN

It’s not easy achieving a perfect state of ineptitude where so many auto accident victims are maltreated by so many people and institutions. Doing so takes real effort.

Let’s start at the top with the lawmakers, the people who govern Ontario.

With the insurance industry’s lobbying efforts paying off, our lawmakers gutted no-fault benefits in 2010.

Medical and rehabilitation benefits for most victims injured in accidents saw the maximum reduced to $3,500.

That’s the lowest in the country.

For serious injuries the maximum was reduced from $100,000 to $50,000.

That’s not money going into accident victims’ pockets; it’s money used to pay for medical and rehabilitation treatments.

Never resting, our lawmakers are in the process of lowering the interest rate to 1.4% on money owed by insurance companies to accident victims.

That this might encourage insurance companies to hold onto victims’ money longer, earning higher investment returns on it, seems to have escaped the attention of our lawmakers.

But enough about them.

Lawyers have a role to play in our mess of a system [too]. More…