Dear Rob Bennett,

Your company sucks. That’s right, I said it.

Let me list you the reasons why your company sucks:

• You’re greedy
• You don’t care about the people you service
• Your grid is out of date needs a major overhaul
• You constantly ask the UARB (Utilities and Review Board) for rate increases but never increase your level of service
• Your PR folks always have dumb excuses for power outages (salty fog, streamers from the Gay Pride Parade etc.)
• Your technology is out of date (I know for a fact that is it)
• You are a monopoly

I could go on and on forever but I don’t know if you’ll get the point anyway. I’ve been a Nova Scotia resident for my entire life and I am ashamed to have you as a power company. I can only hope that at some point in the future another company comes in to pick up the slack.

Back to the subject of the state of the grid. I remember a few years ago when some transmission towers in Burnside just toppled to the ground under a bit of weight from ice and snow. Why did this happen? These towers should be designed and maintained to withstand simple maritime weather. Instead your company took that money to feed the greedy mouths of it’s executives.

I spent some time working for your company a few years back as a contractor for your IT company. I was astonished that you could even deliver power to anyone with the crappy technology you had. Most of your computers couldn’t be updated because they were running Windows 95 and didn’t have enough storage to download the updates. Not to mention that Windows 95 is completely unsafe these days. Part of my job was to deploy new PCs and laptops to your staff but you shelved the project about a quarter of the way through.

I might be a little biased due to recent events here in South West Nova but I believe I have the right to be. I was one of the fortunate ones who had power restored relatively early and my workplace has a generator that powers the entire building, including showers and a gym but there were many who went without power for three or four days. I also heard some people at work saying they called your call center and you weren’t even aware that power was off in certain locations. How the hell do you not know this? With the technology available these days you should be able to pinpoint every building that’s not receiving power. There’s no excuse.

You should be held accountable for each and every power outage. You should also have to report to the public the who, what, where, and WHY of every outage. We fork out hundreds of dollars each billing cycle to have electricity but when you can’t provide it all you do is feed us with bullshit.

You don’t deserve any sympathy or our money but since you run the show we don’t have a choice. I hope some day this will change and you will realize that you will be the ultimate loser.

Sincerely,
Canarchy.com

One of my pet peeves is when retail shops ask me for my postal code when I buy something. It’s been happening more and more over the past few years and it’s really starting to annoy me.

What actually brought on this post was a recent experience at the local Mark’s Work Wearhouse store. To set you up I’ll explain a bit about my town. This town is located in South Western, Nova Scotia Canada and has less that ten thousand residents. It’s the biggest center in the area so everyone from around comes here to shop, do groceries, see movies, eat at restaurants, and more.

I was in the said store with my Mom while she was shopping for Dad for Christmas. They had some socks on sale, and I was in dire need of some, so I decided to pick them up. I brought them to the checkout and put them on the counter. The lady that was was serving me asked “What is your postal code?” my instant response was simply “No”. She looked at me kind of funny like and then punched something in the register and I proceeded to pay for my socks.

When I was done paying she looked at me again and said “We don’t use it [postal code] for anything.” That struck a nerve (because I know better) and I told her “That’s not true. You use it for marketing so you can send fliers to the areas where more people come from to shop.” She then proceeded to tell me that the only thing that they use it for is to figure out where to build new stores. Again I told her “That’s not true”. Then, the other clerk piped up and said “We’ll your gonna get the fliers anyway.”

So if I’m going to get the fliers anyway why they hell ask for it? Also, there’s never going to be a second store in this town. There just isn’t enough people to support two. It was a bold faced lie. Maybe she didn’t know that she was lying but I’m pretty sure that’s what they are told to tell customers when they do this. I’m also pretty sure that I’m the first person who ever said “No” to the postal code question.

Regardless, of the reasons why, they aren’t going to get my information and they should just be damned happy that I’m spending my money there. Most people just give out their information and don’t think twice about it but not me. I always say no because they just don’t need to be asking. They don’t need to know my postal code, email address or mailing address to buy a pair of socks.

Another company that is bad for requesting personal information is Canadian Tire. If you’ve ever tried to return a product there, they ask for your name, address and phone number. It’s not just enough to give you your money back they must plop you in their system and track you like an out of control teen. On a side note, Canadian Tire is the only store that I know of that still has turnstiles in the entrance and signs that say “You must leave all bags at the customer service counter. Your items are left at your own risk.” So I guess that probably says something about the trust (or lack thereof) they put in their customers.

So to sum things up, there are two things that annoy me in these situations. One is the collection of personal data and the other is the lack of explanation that the clerks are able provide. Their training is teaching them to not tell the full truth as to why they want this information.

That’s why I avoid giving them this information unless absolutely necessary.

My apologies but for most of you this article probably won’t mean anything. It’s quite specific to the primary industry in the area where I currently live. This area happens to be the south west tip of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.

As we all know, the recent downturn in the stock market and housing market has taken a toll on just about everyone, in every business. In particular, this area has suffered a great loss of income due to the local fishery being adversely affected by these events.

The local fishery I am referring to is the lobster fishery. For some people, lobsters are their one and only income and if they don’t make money during the half year long season they are in for some big trouble. The price for a pound of lobster this year has been in the range of $3 to $3.50 compared to a usual $5 + at this time of the year. Not only is the price bad but the big companies that buy these lobsters aren’t buying in quantity as they once did. For the past two or three years the buyers have been stuck with a stock of lobster that they can’t sell and end up losing money because of it.

It sounds bad right? Well, in my opinion, it could easily be a lot better. It’s well known that lobster fisherman in this area can be cocky, arrogant, and full of themselves. I’m guessing this comes from a period that ended about 3 years ago but had started 6 or 7 years prior where deck hands could make up to $100,000 a year (if you were on the right boat) and the captains were rolling in the dough. It got to a point where, if one wanted to buy a lobster license, boat, and gear it could cost a million to a million and a half dollars. This was all well and good at the time because it seemed like they had to world by the balls and that it would never end. Unfortunately for them, markets can crash just as fast as they can boom. This is what happened to the markets for lobsters.

This downturn in the market can most likely be attributed to the same cause as any market is having right now, the housing crisis. The lobster caught locally is, most often, shipped to the USA where it is sold on the various fish and super markets there. Unfortunately, when people don’t have money, they don’t go out to the high end seafood restaurants or buy the expensive stuff for home. They become much more conservative with their spending. This is bad for folks here at home.

This fisheries here in South West Nova are different than most. There is more money to be made here that most places that support a fishery. It’s one of the few places in the world that a lobster fisherman can fish for a season (end of November to end of May) and do nothing for the rest of the year. Most places would require a fisherman to gear his boat up for another type of  fishing in the off-season to make ends meet. This, at least to me, is one of the big problems here. It creates laziness.

You can say what you want but I was once a fisherman, when the going was really good too, until I realized it wasn’t for me and that there wasn’t going to be that kind of money in it forever. The first year I fished a full season at regular rates I made $35,000. Of course, I wasn’t fishing with one of the big shots but for six months of work it’s a damn good living. Then for the rest of the year I could draw Employment Insurance from the government and gallivant around like I was King Shit of Turd Hill.

It’s not all the fisherman that are afraid to lose their shirt. It’s mostly the ones that are in their mid twenties to early forties that bought their set up during the peak period and thought that life would remain AS-IS forever. These are the people that think “I’m doing fine as long as I can make the payments.”. That’s such a bad way of thinking. I know of some people who think they are going broke but have a cottage, two brand new vehicles (most often a 4×4 extended cab half ton truck and a huge SUV), new all-terrain vehicle (often more than one) and go on lavish vacations that cost in the vicinity of $10,000 to $20,000.

It’s really hard to feel bad for such people. They could easily sell off some of their belongings, say the cottage, to make up for some of the shortfall (although the housing market sucks so this might not work now) . It’s the monthly bills that cause the problem. If they actually owned some of this stuff they wouldn’t be so worried.

I’ve always compared fisherman to farmers. Their professions are similar and they face similar problems with marketing their products. The difference is that farmers have been able to adapt and use local resources, such as farmer’s markets, to sell their goods. It’s time that fisherman do the same, and some have been. The wife and I went for our usual grocery run this week and noticed there was a gentleman who was parked in a parking lot off the main drag in the town selling his lobsters out the back of his truck. This isn’t the most glorious way to make a living but it’s helping create a local demand for his product and he’s cutting out the middle men.

In addition to the above there has also been a movement by some fisherman to try and force the buyers to pay more. They have tried striking and even had a rally this weekend to try and raise support. Unfortunately, they are missing the point. You can’t just demand higher prices without the market being there for the product. The buyers who market the fish can’t simply pay more if they are going to lose money on it. If they don’t make any money no one does.

I guess what I am getting at is that we can’t always rely on the “usual” source of income to make a living. Sometimes we have to take things into our own hands and do what we can to survive. It’s a tough lesson for some around here but I hope, in the end, that they do. I also hope they are a bit more careful, if we ever see another spike in income from this fishery, in the way they spend their money. Maybe putting some away in a savings account for a “rainy day” might not be such a bad idea. That is what we landlubbers must do.

As much as I hate the fact that the automakers are pushing the US Government for over 30 billion dollars, I’m more concerned what the Canadian Government will do.

If the Canadian Government ends up giving the automakers any amount of cash it might help for a brief period but what are the conditions? One of the specific conditions I am curious about is whether or not the money will need to be refunded if one of the companies pulls out of Canada. I sure hope that the Canadian Government is smart enough to put a clause in the contract that requires these companies to keep a presence in the country. If they take the bailout money and then close a bunch of Canadian manufacturing plants and/or other related services what’s the point? How does that benefit Canadians? What if they pull out of the country all together? Does that mean they get to keep the money? I sure hope not!

I think this money would be better spent on retraining and strengthening other markets that are still doing ok. Maybe we could even use some of that money to streamline government services to help everyone.

There have been over 60,000 jobs cut in Ontario alone in the past few months, that’s the most since the great recession of the 80’s. Maybe this money could help those people find new jobs and get a new education.

Please don’t spend the money on executives who fly around in corporate jets. We shouldn’t take pity on people who live a lifestyle that most of us will never have a chance to live.

As most of you know, one of the big stories of the 2008 stock market crash is the trouble that the big three automakers have gotten themselves into and what the Canadian and America governments are going to do about it.

In my opinion they should let them sink or swim. I’ve never been a fan of government supported industries that suck up tax dollars just because the government can’t let go. What is the point in subsidizing or supporting a part of an industry that is failing anyway?

The auto industry is far from dead but this day and age people aren’t buying the gas guzzling creations of these automakers anymore. The more environmentally conscious generation of today is looking for efficient vehicles that are easy on gas. We now see the popularity of the Tesla electric cars and the gas-electric hybrids overtaking the once dominant four door luxury cars (i.e. Lincoln Town Car) and the 4×4 extended cab trucks.

I understand that the government wants to help preserve the jobs of these thousands of people but wouldn’t the money be better spent on a retraining package for these people? It seems to me that the money should be placed into a fund that helps former workers of this manufacturing industry find education that will take them into an area where there is more stability.

There are automakers that flourish in this day and age. Take a look and Honda and Toyota, for example. You never hear anything about their problems and, in fact, Honda has recently expanded operations in North America because of the void created by the “BIG 3” being unable to accommodate what their customers are asking for.

I am a big fan of letting the market determine what it wants and what will survive. It’s not the government’s responsibility to make sure that products keep being produced even if there is no demand. The only reason they are interested in helping this particular industry is because the unions are hollering. I’m not sure that the unions should dictate what the government does either.

Maybe some of these soon to be layed-off workers could be easily retrained to work in plants of competing companies such as the previously mentioned Honda and Toyota.

I’m afraid, even if our governments spend tons of money bailing out these companies, they will try to continue business as usual without the necessary changes to become self sufficient. We don’t need these companies mooching of the government for the next 20 years because they aren’t capable of making it on their own. That’s where a free market system is good, it weeds out the weak and rewards the strong.

In case you don’t know, the “BIG 3” are considered to be GM, Ford, and Chrysler. They are the three biggest and most powerful automakers in North American, not to mention they employ hundreds of thousands of people.