Canadian banks now get you coming AND going

Two weeks ago I received notice from TD Canada Trust that they were revamping their line of chequing accounts on May 1, 2006. I casually glanced at the planned changes for my account and there wasn't much to really be concerned about. The greatest change was NSF charges were being increased by a whopping 25% from $30.00 to $37.50, but I have been fortunate to have avoided discovering that the charge somehow went up to $30.00 from whatever it was some time in the past. I therefore dismissed the letter as being relatively insignificant.

I opened up my office mail this morning as I do most days. I found a notice from TD Canada Trust - but this after reading this epistle, I was speechless, enraged and positively apoplectic. I am the associate director of a non-profit, charitable organization. In the good old days, we enjoyed a bank account with few service charges. But that was earlier in this decade where quarterly net earnings for TD Bank were in the $200 million range. I suppose its investors decided that it wasn't enough.

As they were not making any money on the back of my charitable organization, they axed the account type. They did not even offer to grandfather us. We were offered a basic community account that would see us pay $10 per month plus "X" additional charges based on the number of monthly transactions. We could have those charges waived (the additional ones, not the base amount) if we maintained a balance somewhere north of $20,000 throughout a given month. Thanks alot, TD Canada Trust!

That wasn't good enough either. It seems that TD Bank is not competitive enough (according to my branch manager today). While TD Bank reported quarterly net earnings in the $200 million range 4+ years ago, their website reports that in Q1 of 2006, adjusted net income was $835 million dollars. That is in the first quarter of 2006. The first three months of 2006. Total income for 2005 was in excess of $2.5 billion. I guess they're aiming to eclipse that mark this year. How?

My so-called community account now has a monthly maximum cash deposit limit of $2,000. I also can only get 10 cheques deposited to my account for "free". It gets better. For each additional $1,000 in cash I try to deposit to my account, I will be assessed a $2.10 charge. For cheques 11 and up in a given month, I will be charged 16 cents. It's a wonder I don't get GST charged on top of that. CRAP - nobody tell the CRA about this. Oh, I suppose the taxes are included.

It wasn't good enough that we get nailed for every withdrawl we make from an ATM as individuals. It apparently isn't sufficient to skim off another buck or two as a so-called convenience charge when using another bank's machine. Convenience my foot! Now I'm getting penalized FOR DEPOSITING MONEY INTO MY BANK ACCOUNT! Um... isn't that what a bank is for?

The branch manager (who resembled a cabinet minister in Question Period on Parliament Hill) tried to justify this change by explaining that large cash deposits or deposits with many cheques require more effort on the part of bank staff to complete the transaction. IT'S A BANK - PROCESSING CASH AND CHEQUES IS WHAT THEY DO!!!

She continued to explain that the bank had to bring these fees in to remain competitive. She went on to say that TD Canada Trust is the last bank to institute these fees. They apparently need them to remain competitive. My attempts to put that fact in a positive light (and I tried to act out a potential television commercial inviting potential customers to join TD as the last bastion of banking sanity) fell on deaf ears. I then understood that competitive was not in the terms of the customer, but rather in the terms of shareholders. More profits = happy shareholders. The manager invited me to go check out the other banks. I did. She did not tell one lie. Everyone is doing this, and so far, TD Bank is the last bank to join the party. What I'd like to know from everyone who has been paying these fees (in some cases for over a year now at some banks) is why nobody has screamed bloody murder after being sucked into this scam.

Over the next few days I will be going over my 2005-06 bank activity (total receipts for my organization will be in excess of $400,000) and see how much this revised account structure would have cost us. I estimate that it will be between $500 and $1,000.

I guess I'll have to add a clause in the 2006 direct mail letter asking people who choose to make a donation to add 16 cents to their $25 donation to make sure that we get to make full use of their donated dollar while performing our day-to-day duties that the Canada Revenue Agency categorizes as being charitable activity.

Thanks TD Bank - way to be part of the community. As for all you other banks out there, the same goes for you. Shame on you all. Charities from coast to coast are fighting each other more and more for the donated dollar. Apparently the Canadian banks want their piece of the action too. What can I do?! CIBC, BMO, RBC and ScotiaBank all have revised their business bank account lines as well. I guess the one-size-fits-all approach to life now applies to charities and their bank accounts. Now that's progress.

Make the councillors take the bus as well and see how it works for them

Clive Doucet, Capital ward city councillor, wants to impose some new form of taxation by charging a toll on motorists attempting to access the downtown core during rush hour.

To Clive Doucet, Alex Cullen and every other councillor who wish so dearly that Ottawa residents try harder to take the bus, ride a bicycle or walk to work: when is the last time you tried to rely exclusively on public transportation to get to work and work-related functions for a week?

I know that city councillors are very busy people. They often start work in the wee hours of the mornings and don't get home until late into the evening. They often have to go to city hall and many other places for meetings or functions in their wards. Guess what? This lowly author's day started on the road at 7:45am and ended at about 10:10pm. I too am a busy person.

What did I do today? I left my Vanier home and drove to work in the west end near Bayshore. An office equipment breakdown meant that I had to drive over to Staples on Merivale Road and get back to the office to fix the problem. I had to pick up a volunteer who is in her late 80's so she could work her four hour afternoon shift. I had to drive the volunteer back home. I snuck home for dinner before heading over to a client's house (I moonlight as a computer technician/consultant, owning my own business) in the south end of the city at 8pm. Before heading home, I needed to drop by a TD Canada Trust to make a deposit. Could I have done all of that on OC Transpo?

Perhaps, but I would have had to leave the apartment at 7:00am - or earlier - to make sure I'd make it out west in time to start work. It takes me 16 minutes to go from Montreal Rd. and St. Laurent Blvd. to Bayshore in the morning. OC Transpo couldn't get me to the St. Laurent transit station in 16 minutes. Taking the time out that I spent at the bank, it took me about 15 minutes to go from Bank and Heron back to Vanier. Try doing that at 9:30pm on a weeknight when you're nowhere near the Transitway.

Do I hate public transportation? Nope. I love it when it works. When I travel to Toronto, I park my vehicle and buy day passes. I spend my time getting around on the subway or streetcar. Why? Because I can get around faster by using public transportation, regardless of where I am in the GTA.

Sure, OC Transpo and the Transitway have won multiple awards for Ottawa's transit system. It was great for me when I lived 300 metres away from the 97 route years ago. Now I'm a 3-4km walk or bus ride to a transit station. Even in rush hour, it takes at least 4 times the amount of time to travel cross-region by bus (approximately 16 minutes versus 1+ hour). Why should I take the bus?

Time is money. Yes, the environment is valuable, but our left-leaning council that tries so hard to convince us that driving a car is evil does not, I believe, practice what it preaches.

Whether you like it or not, the City of Ottawa is growing. Yes, the Ottawa 20/20 and Official plans call for infill and urban intensification within the greenbelt. How many communities truly appreciate and encourage intensification? Very few community associations welcome the idea so we see so many NIMBY arguments made all the time. Queensway Terrace North has fought so hard against turning duplexes into triplexes - yes, those who do so illegally are wrong, but the community association has successfully managed to prevent people from doing it legally as well. So what happens? We expand to the suburbs. While driving to and from work is a challenge from those extreme tips of the region takes time, whether or not taking the bus helps resolve the challenge is up for debate.

Give me a transit option that will allow me to do my job and get around as effectively as driving a car and I'll get rid of the car. Until then, deal with the fact that we no longer have the same population as we did in 1972 and build the infrastructure accordingly. And please, stop thinking 2-3 years into the future and think about 10-20 years down the road. Ottawa's population won't be stagnating any time soon.

Nickel and diming drivers as they drive into the downtown area won't change habits one bit. It's time to look for real solutions to real problems. Our politically correct media and councillors who may not share their colleagues' views on this subject don't voice their views as loudly, so the only message out there is: evil drivers, thou shalt change your habits or else. When will common sense prevail?

It's time to do something about this. Alex, Clive: let's the three of us try abandoning our cars for a week and see how much our productivity thrives or suffers as a result. THEN you can tell me why I should spend 2+ hours each day on the bus when I can make the same return trip it in 30-40 minutes in my car. Make it worth it for me and I will get rid of my vehicle. Until then, don't tell me what to do. Like you, I'm too busy to do the "right thing" if taking the bus indeed is the right thing. I can't afford the extra hours right now, sorry.

The City of Ottawa should introduce accountability to contractual obligations when outsourcing

Some time ago, the City of Ottawa decided that it would start looking to outsourcing in order to save costs. While residents of former municipalities such as Nepean or Gloucester were dragged into the "new" City of Ottawa in 2000, one should not quickly jump to the conclusion that "old" Ottawans were only too pleased to see their beloved city grow.

I work for an agency that is located in a city-owned building. While I have only been there ten years, I sometimes daydream about the "good old days" where if we needed an electrician to make a repair to our 170+ year old building, a city staffer would quickly swoop in, fix the problem and would move on to his or her next task.

Most of these people have retired in the last five or six years. In order to get service these days, we have to rely on a 'building supervisor' who is in charge of what seems to be a dozen or two other City properties. The process usually involves calling him and hoping he has time to drop by to double-check that a service call truly is required. Once that is done, a call is placed to some local company who then dispatches someone. Sure, the work eventually gets done, but it takes much more time than it used to. We can, to a point, deal with this. I'm almost certain that if a dire emergency came up, we could count on the City staff person and his complement of contractors would come through.

We can almost live with that, because, everything seems to work out in the end. There is a darker side to the world of contracting and it seems that what appears to be a good old boys network at City Hall seems to show little concern. We have a private company hired by the City to clean our building. To say that quality of service has had its ups and downs would be an understatement of epic proportions. Every now and then we complain to the building supervisor who then calls a meeting between the operators of the building (us) and someone from the cleaning company. Concerns would be put on the table, promises would be made, service would improve for a week or two and then everything would start all over again.

This story took a twist last summer. Small amounts of money started going missing. After a few different occasions where money disappeared, the police investigated and made an arrest. The detective who investigated made it quite clear to me that there was no doubt that charges would stick and a conviction would be had. Because the accused had no prior record and due to the bulging court dockets, the accused was diverted into the 'restorative justice' program. In exchange for what would amount to a guilty plea and a donation that did not quite cover what was taken, he was released and all was to be forgotten. That is, at least, what the contractor seemed to hope.

Try and convince City staff to dump this company that obviously has quality control issues and serious staffing problems. Six months later, we're assured that steps are being taken to ensure that the contract won't be renewed. We aren't holding our breath.

Why go through all this detail this morning? The Ottawa Sun published an article that showed how utterly clueless the City is when it comes to staying on top of keeping a sharp eye on those companies that it hires to do its work. At least four signs had been erected in the city that stated "No standing between 11pm and 7am". While "no standing" is a term used in the United States for what we would call "no parking", a French translation literally warned francophones who read the sign that physically standing there was banned during the above-mentioned hours. "Interdiction d'etre debout". I'm sure that Councillor Legendre will issue a press statement today condeming the actions of those who erected the signs, speculating that this is wilful and direct shot aimed at Francophones. Sure it was. Unfortunately, this is likely just another example of a company contracted to erect signs not paying attention to detail. The same thing happened when new City signs were to be installed at my building last year... no attention to detail. I refused delivery and they had to go back and make new signs - hopefully at their cost and not paid by the City.

My point is this - the City has outsourced all sorts of services. It has been in a financial crunch for several years. Contracting out supposedly saves them money. This can only work if the City staff members that remain ensure that we are indeed getting what we're buying. Going for the lowest bidder and allowing them the flounder and do whatever they want without consequence seems to be de rigueur these days.

Someone has to impress it upon senior staff to prioritize the monitoring of contractors. Why senior staff? Because it seems that they are the ones driving the family car, not the Councillors. It seems a bit backwards to me, but that's another story for another day. Call your Councillor and ask a question or two. Maybe you'll convince them to take a deeper look.