We're not doing enough to conserve: Energy Probe

An article in today's Ottawa Sun says that even though we're using these new compact fluorescent bulbs (among other things), we're not doing enough to curb our apparent over-board dependence on electricity. (Source: http://www.ottawasun.com/News/National/2006/07/31/1711149-sun.html)

Some forecasters are predicting that the mercury will hit 35 degrees Celsius in Ottawa tomorrow. We are being reminded that we must do our part to cut down on our electricity consumption as resources are limited and there is a finite amount of energy.

As I've written several times before - here and in the Ottawa Citizen, among other places, I will keep my air conditioners on and I will ensure that I will remain comfortable throughout this so-called heat wave. Why? Since my last rant on this matter, another three towers have undergone construction along the Queensway here in Ottawa. What was a field near Palladium Drive a few years ago now has an operating Toyota dealership and two other car retailers will be opening in a matter of months. Two friends of mine are moving into a house in a new subdivision in two weeks where farmers once worked the land outside of Stittsville. Has anybody driven down the eastern end of Innes Road lately?

I've said it before, I'm saying it again now: don't tell me to turn my air conditioners down (or off!) because the power grid is under extreme stress. Tell municipal governments across the province to stop issuing construction permits that add tens of thousands of new homes and countless new mega-business buildings that add exponentially more demand for power than my little 6,000BTU Danbys.

Once that is accomplished, get the provincial and federal governments to do their thing and come into the 21st century. Canada's population isn't the same today as it was thirty years ago. It has grown. More population equals more homes. More homes mean more businesses in surrounding areas. All this adds up to more demand for resources. Our population has grown but our utilities have not kept up with the demand. They should be responsible for this problem, not individual consumers. Do you think the government would ask us to cut down our demand for General Motors products if GM plants were unable to keep up with consumer demands for Pontiacs? Nope. GM wouldn't hear of it and would build new plants or figure out another way to get another shift crammed into existing facilities.

Don't tell me I should have to suffer and lie awake at night while the temperature in my apartment hovers around 30 degrees. Fix the problem or impose an immediate moratorium on future development. Once construction stagnates and we clearly are shown that demand for electricity continues to grow, I will concede that I might be contributing to the problem. Until then, how can someone in good faith tell me that I am while I watch new towers going up with hundreds of new hydro customers being added to the grid? How indeed.

Homophobia, schmomophobia - why ruin a good news story?

OK guys, get over yourselves. To the organizers of the Ottawa-Gatineau Pride festivities: Ottawa City Council made a business decision based on your past track record. To the individuals who make up the organizing committee, it may not have been this year's crew who left area businesses and Ottawa taxpayers holding the bag in the past... but someone from your organization did.

Where I come from, if you default on a loan, the banker won't advance you additional funds when you come asking the second (or third or fourth) time around.

In what should have been a good news day for Pride organizers (Capital Xtra agreed to front them the cash needed to ensure a successful Pride week in 2006), Darren Fisher couldn't resist another opportunity to cast aspersions on certain members of City Council who voted against a motion that would have given money to a group that clearly has proven itself unable to manage a budget. Calling people names (in this case accusing them of being homophobic in an oblique way) usually is a tactic reserved for elementary school children. Doing so when you're allegedly a responsible adult just makes you look ridiculous.

There was absolutely nothing to be gained by Mr. Fisher saying what he did today. He should have taken his time behind the microphone to laud the efforts of a private business that came to save the day. He chose to do otherwise and many noticed. Here's hoping a lesson has been learned.

Oh, and here's hoping that this year they can repay the loan too - somehow I doubt a private for-profit business will be as willing to write off bad debt as the City of Ottawa has done for this group before. Be careful guys... and good luck.

Source: http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=1&nid=40798

Canadians discussing veterans in July? Finally!!

If I had known what a commotion would be caused by someone urinating on the National War Memorial, I might have done it myself several years ago. I will explain myself before I cause another fracas. For several years in the mid-to-late 1990s it was virtually impossible to get the attention of Canadians when it came to several veterans issues.

I followed the plight and tried to advocate on behalf of Merchant Marine seamen who had to go on hunger strikes (plural) to force the government of the time to provide them with their pension dollars. I personally witnessed the federal government non-action that almost resulted in Canada to losing John McCrae’s war medals, possibly letting them fall into American hands. Further, I watched in astonishment when the Dutch government approached Canada to invite it to participate in a formal burial of a Canadian soldier who had died in the Battle of the Bulge in World War II (his remains had recently been discovered), only to see two federal departments hesitate and obfuscate, initially claiming that no funds could be made available to send a contingent overseas to pay their respects. Only after a local media campaign did they relent and allow a select few to travel to the funeral. How about the Ortona vets’ pleas that went unheard when the CBC headed to Europe to cover a reunion of soldiers who fought in Ortona while the federal government refused to fund the travel expenses of a few veterans who fought there, survived, and wanted to attend?

To those who were so outraged by the activities of a few disrespectful and irresponsible hoodlums on Canada Day I ask: where were your letters to the editor expressing outrage and angry phone calls to the media then?

Three young men urinated on a monument and a lynch mob of citizens from coast to coast immediately formed to string them up. For almost a decade the federal government time after time sat back and either ignored or cast veteran-related issues aside all in the name of the almighty buck. Few people, if any, said anything then. Ironically, while federal politicians never once failed to be seen without poppies and were always quick to give their pithy statements, when time came to do something concrete to address one veteran concern or problem, they were always conspicuous by their absence.

If three people urinating on the National War Memorial is what it took to get Canadians from coast to coast and from all walks of life, even all the way up to the PMO talking about veterans, their issues and the respect they deserve in the middle of the summer, I am grateful. Perhaps we have the attention of enough people now that we can finally start to do something concrete to meet the needs of those who are still with us and preserve the memory of those who have gone.

To all who are outraged at what happened on Canada Day: stay mad – demand justice… not only punishment for those who desecrated the monument, but for each and every veteran on whose behalf your emotions have been triggered this past week.