Friday Photography

A few random images of haunting beauty. [Sources unknown unless otherwise indicated]

Baarn, Netherlands

Fairy tale night, by Ketil Monsen

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I Know What Would Save Even More Money

Don’t send anybody at all. Climate Change seminars were en vogue from 2004-07. It’s almost 2009. Let’s get with the times:

Environment Minister Jim Prentice said the government’s decision to not send one of Canada’s leading scientists to the international climate talks wrapping up in Poland Friday was financial, not political.

Senior Environment Canada scientist Don MacIver was scheduled to deliver a speech Dec. 5 as part of his role as the chair of the organizing committee for the World Meteorological Organization’s climate conference.

MacIver’s travel costs were to be covered by the WMO, but Ottawa declined to give him permission to attend.

Prentice said civil servants at Environment Canada made the decision based on financial constraints.

“The objective was to have a somewhat smaller delegation than we have had in the past in the interests of fiscal prudence,” Prentice told reporters on Friday from the United Nations climate change conference Poznan, Poland. Canada’s sent about 22 people, said Prentice, one of the smallest delegations in recent years.

No doubt this will still bring about concern from Green Revolutionary Guards, but what’s more amazing than Ottawa trying to save money by bringing less people to climate change seminars, is that they actually still send people to them at all. Hasn’t the NPT shown that this kind of global movement is futile even with the surety of mass destruction? And we want people to believe in a movement that is still based on temperature anomalies in the tenths of centigrade increases?

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Conservative Help For Seniors Blocked By Bank Computers

A very unbiased, and therefore short, article in the Toronto Star clued me in to a very important assistance to seniors during the prorogation of Parliament and the uncertainty of the budget slated for January. The Conservative minority government will now let people reduce the minimum withdrawal from their RRIFs [Registered Retirement Income Fund] by 25% despite the motion having not passed in the House. Revenue Canada has stated to banks and financial institutions that this change can be made before the law comes into effect, and even if it fails in Parliament, the agency will not seek any penalties.

Sounds pretty good, right? I mean, aside from the odd person who might think it’s a cynical vote-buying tactic or a way of enforcing legislation that hasn’t been passed, this is something that can meaningfully help seniors. Only the problem is that the bank computers won’t let them:

“People can’t get the 25-per-cent discount,” said Susan Eng, a spokeswoman for the national seniors group CARP.

The problem is that the computer systems used by financial companies can’t quickly be adjusted to allow people to make 75 per cent of their usual minimum RRIF withdrawal, said Sandy Cardy, senior vice-president of tax and estate planning at the mutual fund company Mackenzie Financial.

“The problem is with financial institutions,” Ms. Cardy said. “To amend a system isn’t something that can be done overnight.”

If it’s not government red tape, it’s the privatized kind.

Note to seniors: “Mackenzie and Royal Bank of Canada were among the financial institutions that were allowing clients to do 75-per-cent RRIF withdrawals, while Bank of Montreal said it could do so for accounts held in mutual funds and term deposits.”

Also, if you read the entire Globe article there will be provisions to put 25% of their RRIF back into their account up to 30 days after the law is expected to be passed. What I like about this whole gesture is that it’s entirely based on a non-partisan guarantee. Even if the government falls, the new one cannot enforce penalties on the people who took advantage of the offer.

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Speaking Of Corporate Welfare…

I refer to the previous post, of course, as I find out that our Conservative government has agreed to go halfway to meet the Canadian car company threats [demands] with $3.3 billion. The funds are “contingent” upon a viability plan from the car makers, as well as action from the U.S. government.

The announcement follows a meeting Friday between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty in Ottawa where the two leaders hashed out a plan.

Clement said that he expected the “the American administration to come forward very soon” with an aid plan, and added the fund represents 20 per cent of the proposed US$14 billion dollar package in the U.S.

That plan was shot down by the U.S. Senate on Thursday, but there was still hope Washington could deliver some aid.

I half wonder whether this is a ploy to get the unions interested, in order to play some kind of cat and mouse game in which they demand major concessions in order to prop up their long-term employment. But the unions are nothing if not adamantly attached to their inflated wages. A bi-partisan Congressional vote was shot down when the United Auto Workers in the U.S. refused wage cuts as part of the plan to assist the dying industry. Which, naturally, only makes me want them to die a quicker death.

I’ll tell you what could make me get “on board” and behind the drivers seat on this one. The government gets a percentage stake in the car manufacturers and all citizens of Canada get the employee discount on new vehicles. Why the hell should I pay for the bailout of an incompetent corporate entity and their overpaid unionized workforce if I can’t personally benefit in some small, insignificant way?

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