Scotty

Ontario police are, as far as I have been able to determine, the most highly paid police force on planet earth. Does that help public safety? Does that give us better police than in the US or UK or France or Germany? If we paid them $300,000 a year would they be such incredibly great candidates that they'd be able to catch bullets with their teeth and use psychic powers to catch all criminals? I don't think so. I think we'd just have the same cops with higher salaries. If you have $100m to spend and your cops cost $100k, you can pay the salaries of 1,000 police. If your cops cost say $65k you can pay the salaries of 1538 police. Do you really think 1000 cops can do as good a job of maintaining public safety as 1538 cops? Do we get way better candidates by paying $100k than $65k? I don't think so. I think we have pretty much the same people only with higher salaries.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-votes-2014/ontario-election-2014-opp-officers-union-launches-anti-hudak-ads-1.2661984 They're apparently angry because Hudak won't guarantee they'll be exempted from any wage freeze, or any change in their bargaining rights. As it stands now the OPP are guaranteed by contract to always be paid at least as much as any other police department. And the way arbitration works, if Toronto gets a raise, then the OPP gets a raise, and then the arbitration system uses that as a guideline for all other police raises across the country. Municipalities have been begging the Ontario government to do something about this as the cost of police and firefighter salaries is driving them bankrupt. Even fat old cops in rural areas who don't do much more than munch donuts and write traffic tickets are getting nearly $100,000 a year plus benefits. Police are among the most overpaid public employees in the country, if not THE most overpaid. And they want it to stay that way.

This is exactly the problem. I would be willing to pay more for better health care, for better education, for better roads. I am paying far more, and yet none of these have improved. There's actually reason to suggest they have all gotten worse. Oh, the public servants, teachers, nurses, police, firefighters, ambulance technicians and paramedics are all paid far better, and have nicer pensions and bigger houses. Sure. Nice. They are now among the highest paid people in the province. But that has not resulted in better services, only in a higher debt and deficit.

The problem is the Liberals, like many on the Left, have never learned how to differentiate between a necessary service, and a service which, while not necessary, would be helpful, or at least 'nic' or 'good' or whatever term you wish to use. This explains how sevices have grown and grown over the years. Every time a new service is introduced and people use it there is an outrcry over reducing or eliminating this service. But every election, politicians make promises for new services, new 'nice things' but rarey, if every cancel the old ones. As services multiply, so do employees, and so does the budget. Eventually, someone like Harris or Hudak has to come along with an axe and hack away at these services or we will all be strangled by red tape and debt.

It did not say it is laying off 100k people. It said it would reduce largely through attrition.

He has stated there will be few layoffs, that most jobs will be lost through attrition. Further, the amount saved is far higher than the tax cut.

Remove them from those classes and put them into a special school.

None of the parties have presented an economic plan with any real rationale behind it. But as Andrew Coyne said the other day, at least the Tories will spend less, tax less, and reduce the debt faster.

You really don't know where he would cut. You are simply speculating. Really? Do you have a cite for that? It seems to me that if you're screwed up enough that you have to have your own support worker in class you're not very likely to be an architect or engineer some day. Then these people should not be in regular classrooms in regular schools. They should, and I am not trying to be cruel here, ride the special bus to the special school, so they do not impede the learning of others.

I was surfing my TV universe earlier and paused on SunTv. Ezra Levant was on complaining about how some provinces, notably Quebec and New Brunswick, have such strong opposition to fracking. Quebec has actually put a moratorium on any exploration for fracking. Levant was complaining about how a lot of the money behind these protests are coming from outside Canada, but I had a different thought. Quebec apparently could engage in fracking, but refuses, on environmental reasons. However, it has no issue taking money from Alberta and Saskatchewan, through federal transfer payments, which comes as a result of fracking. I think that a province which could develop its resources and make itself more self sufficient, but refuses, should not be able to do so without financial penalties. I think that the scope of transfers to those provinces, like Quebec, should be recalculated, exempting whatever portion of that money derives from fracking, and the resulting amount they receive should be lowered commensurate with that new calculation. I think the same should be done with native bands which live entirely on federal transfers. Whatever portion of federal income comes as a result of fracking (royalties, taxes on the companies and employees, etc.) should be removed from the transfers for natives who vociferously oppose fracking. It is unfair for governments to act self righteous in their opposition to fracking and oil development, yet happily hold out their hands for their share of the money which comes from it.

As I said, firefighter salaries seem to be highest in Ontario, though they're generally high across Canada. I've already given cites for a number of Ontario municipalities. I tried to find out what Ottawa firefighters make but apparently the city is doing its best to keep that off the web. However, I found stories saying hundreds of Ottawa firefighters were on the sunshine list. Here is another cite listing Toronto, Windsor, Owen Sound, and Cambridge. You have to remember that the mandator arbiteration system in Ontario for both police and firefighters is not based on the muncipalities offer or ability to pay. It's based on what other other police/firefighters earn elsewhere in Ontario. Therefore, the odds of there being any substantial difference in salaries (unlike in New York) between what is being paid are pretty low. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/a-nation-of-100000-firefighters/article13647608/#dashboard/follows/

If you are trying to dismiss this by suggesting the job of a Windsor police officer is harder or more dangerous or more complicated than that of a Detroit Police officer you are in for a very serious uphill struggle. Certainly the examples you used are extremely inadequate. As I stated earlier, this is not an issue confined strictly to Ontario. However, Ontario, representing a third the population, often is the trendsetter, especially in terms of how its arbitration system works. Thus an increase in one jurisidction often leads to an increae in another. If it makes you feel better, though, checking the SdQ shows that their top base salary is $68,000, which is considerably lower than the $90,000 of the OPP. My point, however, is that there are many qualified applicants for these positions. There is no basis for us, as employers, to raise their salaries so high. We could easily attract sufficient applicants at $70,000 or even less. Raising them so high puts a huge burden on the budget and means we must have fewer police, firefighters, teachers, etc. Again, acrording to the Macleans article, the only jursidction on planet earth which pays as much as we do is Germany. Why must Ontario have the highest teacher salaries in the world? Are we the wealthiest jursidiction in the world? Do we produce the best educated students in the world? Is the cost of living throughout Ontario higher than anywhere else in the world? I submit the answer to all three is no. I'm not sure what you're talking about with regard to 'messes' but the NYPD is the largest police force in North America, working with far more difficult socioecononomic situations than any police force in Canada. And again, you're ignoring the fact they get a very decent salary, certainly better than Detroir or most other American jurisidctions. However, police in the smaller, less difficult areas, get paid less. Why is that not the case in Ontario? Because of government regulations. Whatever the cops make in the big cities, the cops in the tiny towns will be paid the same. No Canadian jurisidction had any difficulty garnering applicants, nor am I aware of any rentention difficulties. Canadian police are very highly paid and have very high benefits compared to other jurisidctions. If you're going to suggest it's harder than in New York state or Detroit or England you're going to have to come up with something logical to explain why. Why is it so much harder to be a police officer in London Ontario than in London England that they need to be paid twice as much? I would suggest instead that it is both more complex and more dangerous in England than in Ontario. It is certainly more complex and dangerous in New York city. In addition, firefighter salaries throughout Ontario are at or approaching $90,000, whether they're in Toronto or Timmins or Stratford. That's considerably more than firefighters get anywhere else I'm aware of.

The term 'murder' is hyperbole given the execution of these individuals is legal. It seems to me that the main barrier to more widespread execution is the lack of certainty to the justice system, not that most people have a lot of care in the well being of people like this. You might think it is immoral but it's arrogant to presume your sense of morality trumps that of others. The public has always been widely distributed along the decision path for this one. I have little doubt, though, that if they had complete confidence in the justice system, the majority would want people like this, like Bernardo and Olsen, executed. Perhaps it's easier to see them as non-humans because of the fundamentally "animalish", savage and cruel nature of their own behaviour.

It's very hard to employ critical thinking without having a solid base of knowledge. It is the teaching of fundamentals in core subjects which is dropping Canadian students behind in the world. Canada's literacy rate is unimpressive, and reading scores among 15 year olds have been dropping, year by year. Reading scores in BC are among the lowest in Canada. You can't engage in critical thinking very well if you can't read very well. http://www4.hrsdc.gc.ca/[email protected]?iid=81 BC Teacher salaries are already too high. Provincial data show that between 2001-02 and 2012-13, total compensation for teachers increased by 45.5 per cent to $88,695 from $60,695 (including benefits and employee pension contributions). Over that same period, B.C.’s inflation rate rose by 19.1 per cent. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/on-wages-bc-teachers-are-pushing-a-tough-sell/article17185144/ Saying they're getting screwed because teachers in other jurisdictions are even MORE overpaid is not much of an enticing argument for hard-pressed taxpayers.

If you read the Macleans piece, you'll see that police in Windsor Ontario, make more than the chief of police of Detroit, across the river, and about double what Detroit cops make. Salaries for police in the UK are lower than that for UK firefighters, or about half what police earn in Ontario. http://www.prospects.ac.uk/police_officer_salary.htm Meanwhile, teaching salaries in the UK are also well behind what teachers in Ontario earn (average $87k as per Macleans). http://www.education.gov.uk/get-into-teaching/about-teaching/salary/pay-and-benefits.aspx?sc_lang=en-GB Also, salaries in Ontario are considerably higher than those of New York state teachers. New York is not a state known to be cheap with its teachers either. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/news/upload/ILR_NYS_TeacherSalaryReport-2.pdf If you check this site you'll see that, unlike Ontario, police salaries vary widely in New York. Police in New York city earn a lot more than police in smaller areas, like Poughkeepsie, for example. But even New York city cops don't make as much as cops in Ottawa, Toronto, Windsor or London, nor even Timmins or Barrie.

I didn't look up Canada wide salaries. However, you might find this interesting. I came across it while looking things up earlier. Its a couple of years old and suggests London firefighters are actually not as well paid as in other Ontario municipalities. http://metronews.ca/news/london/781086/london-firefighters-among-lowest-paid-in-region/

Here's an issue which speaks to both the budget and the election. How long can Ontario continue to have among the highest paid public servants on planet Earth? This is an issue which is Canada wide, but Ontario is often the trend setter. There might be a few jurisdictions on earth where police and firefighters are paid more than here, but I don't know where they might be. I don't know anywhere bus drivers get paid more. Teachers? Again, perhaps a couple of places in Switzerland? Nurses? They were just given a raise by an arbitrator despite the Liberals' "freeze" on hospital spending. We're talking about jobs which employ huge numbers of people, all paid by the public. These are jobs which are not the least bit difficult to fill, and always have more applicants than jobs available. Often they don't even require post-secondary education. The majority of nursing work doesn't reqire a ton of training, although some, of course, does. We had to create a new category of nurses to do the routine stuff because we couldn't afford to pay enough RNs to do it any more. The number of police per citizen keeps shrinking because we simply can't afford to pay their huge salaries. Wanted: Police officer for small, quiet city. Starting salary $45,000, rising to maximum of $60,000 Do you think you'd be lacking quality applicants for such an advertisement? I don't. I think you'd get tons of qualified applicants. So why do we pay police over $90,000? Why do firefighters in London Ontario make so much more than firefighters in London, England? Over 80% of London, Ontario firefighters will make over $100,000 this year. In London England, average firefighter's salaries are around 30,000 pounds, which works out to about $55,000, a little more than half what is earned by firefighters in London, Ontario and everywhere else in Ontario. http://www.prospects.ac.uk/firefighter_salary.htm http://www.london.ca/city-hall/interest-arbitration/Pages/Fire-Interest-Arbitration.aspx I'm not even getting into all the public service jobs which don't require uniforms and are hidden away in buildings. There's a reason to pay reasonable compensation for our public servants, especially those in highly skilled, high demand professions. But the cost of overcompensating them is obvious. Not only are budgets high but we get little for those budgets. We don't have enough nurses, doctors, paramedics, police, etc. because we can't afford those huge salaries. Meanwhile, education costs are going through the roof due to the cost of overpaying teachers, who now earn more, on average, than lawyers. How long can we continue to borrow money to pay these disproportionately high salaries? This perculates downward and upward. Municipal salaries are even higher than provincial and federal salaries in many cases, but in the case of the 'uniformed' professions, as well as teachers, the pay is set by the province and it's deals with unions and rules on arbitration. Smaller centers have begged the province to do something about this but been utterly ignored because the Liberals are terrified of the unions and eager to cut deals with them. http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/2014/02/21/handcuffed-by-police-costs So do we go bankrupt like the Greeks or do we do something to get control of exhorbitant public service salaries? Or as Macleans said, should we just resign ourselves to the fact that cops, firefighters and teachers are our new upper class? http://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/the-new-upper-class/

The US beats us on personal freedom? I can accept that. Beating us on tolerance and personal safety? I'd need to now how they calculate that. I also question the UAE having a higher score than Israel. The UAE is an autocratic nation which puts people in prison if it finds them kissing. Sex outside of marriage (straights only) can draw the death penalty. This is considered socially enlightened? They still use whips (corporal punishment) for a variety of offenses. If so much as a grain of marihuana is found on the bottom of your shoe you can go to prison for YEARS. No excuses.

Religion rarely IS discussed in polite company here.

Why would you love to see an independent Scotland? Personally, while I would like to see Scotland independent in theory, I don't think much of the idea in reality. Scotland hasn't had a leader worthy of the name in decades. Its politicians tend to be precious, sensitive, wimpy and lack anything resembling male genitalia. I think it's actually a requirement amongst Scottish political parties that all men be castrated before running for office. The toughest members of the Scottish parliament are women. But they tend to be the shrill, loud type like Elizabeth May, without much in the way of vision. It's an oddity of Scotland that violence is still much admired amongst the young, especially young men, but the political class tends towards dainty, delicate, and gets teary and trembly at loud noises. If Scotland were to ever separate it would be a relief to the Italians and Greeks. They could finally say there were worse governments in Europe.

You want to start a charity for missing aboriginal women? It's not that no one cares, but honestly, what do you expect anyone to do about them? The degree of alcoholism and drug abuse on the reserves is high, as is poverty, as is domestic violence. The streets of western Canada are filled with aboriginal prostitutes. It's no grand mystery or government conspiracy as to why some go missing.

LH fronts numerous charities. As far as I know, though, she's a cat person, so this probably isn't a "Mrs. Stephen Harper" charity, but a "Loraine" charity. Cat people are hard to explain or understand, so don't even try.

I don't like how they've appropriated the word. All of us who live here are native to and natives of Canada (our home and native land). I also don't like how on the one hand, we state that those who arrived here recently, i.e., immigrants, have the same rights, privileges, and are in every way shape and form, just as Canadians as those who were born here, even if their family has been here for ten generations. But on the other hand, we say that natives have more rights than us because they arrived here first. I'm not speaking of treaty rights. There seems to be an assumption, which you hear of repeatedly in threads like this, that this is really their land, and we are interlopers. No one is indigenous to this continent. All humans moved here from elsewhere.

This isn't about markets or capitalist concepts. These are public employees. What has the market got to do with it? Are you saying that no potential university president would work for less than half a million dollars a year? Are you saying we couldn't hire police or firefighters if we weren't paying them $100k per year (74% of those on the list are first responders). Since we can clearly find highly trained and educated individuals to run the federal public service at far lower salaries, we clearly CAN pay less to university and hospital administrators. It's entirely up to the government what they wish to pay. Also bear in mind we have a limited ability to pay. If every cop costs $100k plus benefits, then we have to get by with a lot less of them than if they cost $70k plus benefits. Same goes for firefighters. If we have a hundred million dollars to pay for police salaries, we can hire 1,000 cops at that rate or 1,428 cops at $70,000. Which would perform the job of policing the city better?

There's no evidence that high paid CEOs are actually any better at their jobs. For every corporation which makes great strides and has its stock rise there are two which fall low and whose stock collapses. And all of them make these big salaries now, where they didn't a while ago. Are corporations better run now than they were when the CEO only made 12 times what the guy on the factory floor made instead of 100 times as much? No evidence to support that.