Boges

But if they refuse to cut a deal taxes will go up. Pragmatism FTW.

BTW it is a big deal for parents to have to pay for alternative child-care.

I saw an interesting perspective on this on CNN last night. The Republicans are willing to see taxes be raised on much of the middle class because of this Fiscal Cliff in order to avoid taxes being raised on the top 2% of the population. Quite ironic.

I guess they aren't because Laurel Broten is allowing One-Day strikes even though she can intervene.

They do that because they're in Podunk towns where the LCBO can't justify putting a full store. Apparently the Lickbo Union protested them doing that.

Dude you're just coming up with hypothetical ways these charges can be justified, you're missing the point here.

Or it could have been a 4 wall room with one window. I think the time billed is more of the problem. I remember I called a Washing Machine Repairman to my place because it stopped working suddenly. I thought the thing was broken and needed fixing. He showed up and found out the Machine simply blew a fuse, easy fix but I had to drop $80 for him to do that for me because of the time. One time my Furnace stopped working. I had no clue why so I called the people that do the maintenance on my furnace. He found out the pilot light went out. He taught me how to re-light and charged me $150 (said he could have charged me more) It's fine because the workings of a Washing Machine and a Furnace are beyond my understanding and I was happy the problems weren't worse. So I have no problem with contractors getting good pay for their time. What we have here though, in most of the cases cited, are simple tasks that anyone with any semblance of home improvement knowledge can do but aren't allowed to do because Union Labour has to do it. And they can charge whatever they want because the school can't shop around for a better deal. It would be alright if the Board wasn't crying broke but it is.

I suspect it didn't require 4 men, but who knows. The problem here is that simple jobs can't be done by people in the school. The fact that you HAVE TO farm out the service to a contractor for simple odd-jobs is ridiculous. Apparently the Janitor can't do any of this. He has to go to a computer and order the work to be done and someone will be sent out. The article said it took SEVEN EFFIN DAYS to get someone to come out to replace two smoke alarms.

You talking about Wine Racks in Grocery Stores?

If the Vice-Principal's office is so large that it takes a week to paint, then there's a whole different problem. Especially when only 2 cans of paint were required. It took me 2.5 gallons of paint to do the kitchen and front lobby in my townhome.

So 50 hours to paint a room is reasonable? That's more than week if you worked 8 hours a day! And that doesn't include paint.

I'm more interested in having Wine at the Store. If I'm only going to buy a 6-pack, might as well buy a nicer beer. I'll buy my cheap beer in bulk at the Beer Store. But it's easy to run out of Wine if you're having a dinner party or whatnot. Even if it's only VQA Ontario wines like at the Wine-Rack stores it'd be nice if there's a place to get it 24/7 down the block.

BTW $150 is a day's wage for many people so if a person can charge that for doing less than an hours work then they're charging way more than they're labour is worth. Why does it take four people to move a bench? is it 800 pounds? What they should do is have some guy on staff like say a "Janitor" that can do odd jobs around the school and that's part of his/her salary. If they have to bring guys in for any odd job then WTF does the Janitor do other than clean?

Then the policy should be changed. It's fraud. There's no reason those things should cost that much. You don't HAVE TO pay union people to paint a room or cut a key or move a bench. If you do then it's a problem with the system and it should be changed. I could get a reputable, insured guy to paint my house for less than $1,500 I bet and it wouldn't take him 50 hours. Replacing a toilet seat involved unscrewing two screws from each side of the seat and screwing in the big plastic screws from the new seat. Takes 5 minutes or less. Why should a toilet seat cost $100 plus? Is it made of Silver? No justification for this. Especially when the board is crying broke and is about to get taken over by the Province again.

Nothing, but how can the TDSB cry poor when they're shelling out these fees. There's no way the Province should give the board a penny more to pay their bills, they should probably be paying less if anything.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1298256--tdsb-s-143-school-pencil-sharpener-just-the-beginning More insane charges the TDSB paid to do simple jobs. I think the teachers should stfu about getting more money from the province and ask the board why they're shelling out this much money for tasks people could do themselves or someone else could do for a fraction of the price. Wait these guys are in a Union so that'll never happen. SOLIDARITY!!!! The keycutting one is the most hilarious one. To think that there'd be a grievance filed if a person just went to Home Depot to get a key cut for $5. Instead you have to pay $150 to have a Union guy do it. The LCBO thinks those are some steep markups.

Didn't the teachers in some boards overwhelmingly reject a ratification vote? how is that the government's problem?

Entry level retail jobs aren't very highly skilled positions so why should they be making $20+/hour like LCBO employees do? People make money in retail when they've done it for little awhile and can move up the ladder. The only reason the LCBO can pay such wages is because they're a monopoly and don't have to compete to sell their product. Perhaps corner store employees would see a bump in their pay if they become more profitable being able to sell Beer and Wine. But they're not unionized public servants so Bleep them right?

Yes, yes I am. I wasn't politically engaged enough to form a fully informed opinion on the Harris government (I was a student much of the time). But I can form a fully informed opinion on the colossal failure the McGuinty government is.

As opposed to how our current Premiere has really driven the Province into the ground. I don't consider making the public service very unhappy driving the Province into the ground though. We can see from the Teacher's temper tantrum how hard public servants are to please unless you give them everything they want.

Walking Dead is about Rick. That would be like having Breaking Bad without Walt, Boardwalk Empire without Nucky or Dexter without Dexter.

I suspect the LCBO is run very badly. I'd imagine the government could expect more profits. There was a story where it was found out the LCBO actually told suppliers to charge them more, instead of benefitting from wholesale prices. It's like any government organization with top-heavy management with no need to change because it's the only game in town.

Then why haven't Bi-Elections been called if EC thinks the elections were rigged? BTW Rob Ford granted a stay until an appeal is heard, so he won't be turfed next Monday. This is a surprise to absolutely no one.

Just listening to this issue being discussed on the Radio. Apparently in Alberta, the private operators still have to buy from the province so it isn't a surprise that prices aren't as low. But they don't require the profit margin a top-heavy organization like the LCBO does. This article from the Star says that you can still get good deals in Alberta. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1297725--private-alcohol-sales-western-provinces-well-seasoned-in-private-alcohol-sales

We have a double digit billion dollar deficit. I think some Harris era ideas are required and not the spending craze of the McGuinty era when they never said no to any union for anything until September of this year.