Tuesday May 31st

Well, there has been good news on the teacher front here in Saskatchewan, they have agreed to lift their work to rule plan and to go to the table with the province and a mediator.  Let's hope that a settlement comes from all of this.

More good news for our friends to the East, an announcement in about 40 minutes time, the NHL is making it's long overdue return to the great city of Winnipeg.  I can only hope that the NHL ahas learned something from the two ventures into Atlanta, there is only so many places that hockey will work right now.  Sure hockey is a growing sport in many States but in Georgia, it is basketball, football and baseball, hockey would come down the list maybe in the 50th spot!  Will hockey ever grow there?  Maybe, there was a time when people saw hockey in California as a great mistake, now they have three NHL teams and from the sounds of it more kids getting into hockey now than in all of Canada, thanks go out to a little known guy named Wayne Gretzky for that one!

Elsewhere there are many happenings, in Saskatchewan there is a call for the federal government to make good on a promise to get rid of the double incarceration rule when you are held on charges without bail.  There was a man who plead out to a lower charge, which is common but.....This man killed three people by setting fire to a mattress outside of an apartment building.  Did this guy mean to kill people?  No, but he did and I feel he should receive much more than the 19 months he was held in remand.  Yes he was drunk and high at the time but that still does not change the fact that this loser killed a very young family, two people in their early twenties and a baby.  19 MONTHS?  Are you kidding me?  This guy should spend a minimum 10 years behind bars for this crime, it is time to make people accountable for their actions regardless of whether they we drunk or high.  Just what was the crown prosecutor doing accepting this plea, put this in front of  a group of peers and this guy goes behind bars for a least 10.

Vince Lee, the man who beheaded a young man on a bus in Manitoba is up for early release from the mental institution.  I thought maybe they were joking when I heard the news this morning saying he could be free because he hasn't had a hallucination in 5 months?  This many butchered a young man and paraded up and down the bus with his head in his hands because God told him to do it?  Really, do we want this guy back in society, do we want to risk him having another hallucination and doing something like this all over again?  This guy has a severe mental condition and should never see the light of day for the simple fact that the risks are too high, we all know what he is capable of.  What, as part of conditions of getting out is he cannot own a knife?  Really, when has that ever stopped a person from doing bad things?  If he is reformed, then let him stand trial for what he has done and pay the price.  I don't want to risk my kids to anyone with this history, how about you?

Canada's Federal Gov't Pension Liability Tagged At $200 BILLION!!!

Pension decision praised

 

 

LEADER-POST MAY 26, 2011

 

 

The head of a prominent national business organization is giving high praise to Regina city council for its efforts to deal with the high costs of providing publicsector pensions.

Catherine Swift, the president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the recent city council decision on pension issues in Regina should be "a call to action,'' that other cities and governments across Canada should follow.

"Time is of the essence for other cities and levels of government to take action,'' Swift said, in a news release issued Wednesday.

"It is profoundly unfair and financially irresponsible that Canadian taxpayers are not privy to the extent of their indebtedness to the unfunded public sector pension plans,'' Swift added.

At a recent meeting, Regina city council decided to reject a proposal to approve contribution increases to the Civic Employees' Superannuation and Benefits Plan.

"The proposed increase would have cost taxpayers and the City of Regina alone an estimated $3.8 million or the equivalent of a 2.72 per cent property tax hike,'' Swift said.

The CFIB news release said pension liabilities for federal civil servants are estimated at $200 billion and countless other provincial and local governments are also facing big pension liabilities.

Virginia Labbie, senior policy analyst Saskatchewan and Agribusiness with the CFIB, said it is encouraging to see Regina get national recognition for taking leadership on an issue of importance across the country.

"What this boils down to is affordable and sustainability,'' Labbie said, adding that's issues about public sector pensions need to be addressed locally, provincially and nationally.

"The time is ripe,'' to deal with the issue,'' Labbie said, in a telephone interview.

The CFIB will continue to lobby all levels of government - including the recently re-elected federal Conservative government - to deal with pension issues, Labbie said.

"We are not calling for changes to past benefits that have already been earned,'' Swift said.

"However we are calling on governments to reform public sector plans along the lines of what is happening to many private sector plans,'' Swift said.

More specifically, Swift said benefits need to be reduced for people who retire in the future and government defined benefit pension plans need to be converted to defined contribution plans.

"These are necessary steps in striking a better balance between taxpayers and public sector employees,'' Swift said.

"The decision by Regina city council to move forward on pension reform should be a call to action for other cities and levels of government,'' Swift said.

"As decision makers in this country we hope leaders will be courageous and do the right thing by joining Regina in taking the important first steps toward pension reform,'' Swift said.

© Copyright (c) The Regina Leader-

Read more:http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Pension+decision+praised/4842077/story.html#ixzz1NaXg0x6j

Should The Wealth Be Shared By Some And Not Others?

Sharing the wealth not the point

BY JOHN GORMLEY, SPECIAL TO THE STARPHEONIX MAY 27, 2011

Speaking with a group of raSdio show listeners the other day, I had an epiphany -the "ah ha" moment when I finally blurted out the obvious: School teachers and public-sector unions are missing the point when they talk of sharing Saskatchewan's wealth.

In past months, it's been the constant narrative of health care employees, 12,000 striking teachers and now those threatening strikes at the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency and within at least one Crown corporation.

Paid by taxpayers' money, these people say they want to share in Saskatchewan's strong economy or, as NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter puts it, they "deserve their fair share."

I get it. The province is doing very well.

Rewarded this week with the highest credit rating in Saskatchewan's history, the Saskatchewan Party government is running a budget surplus and has paid down the provincial debt by 40 per cent to less than $4 billion.

Brad Wall and company have also instituted the largest personal income tax cut in history and have spent more than $1.5 billion to tackle the worst highways in Canada.

This is all good.

But the logic is flawed for teachers and civil servants to argue they should "share" the extra money flooding into the province from resource wealth, taxes and increased business activity.

At first blush, it could make sense, particularly if you're a public servant. But not so fast.

Working for a government cheque -particularly in an occupation as important as teaching -should see employees paid fairly, within the appropriate range of local and national comparisons, keeping in mind the skills, training, availability of jobs and the number of people prepared to work in those jobs.

But "fair share" implies someone has contributed directly to creating what it is they want to share. And it smacks of an entitlement mentality, where those who did not create the wealth are all too keen to divvy it up.

There is another more important consideration to who should be sharing the wealth. It is all citizens and taxpayers with a stake in Saskatchewan -people like you and your family.

When windfall money flows to governments, one of two things can happen.

It can be used to raise the salaries of public servants and hence become a permanent ongoing expense that future governments will have to honour in financial good times and bad.

Or the money can be used for the greater good of all citizens by paying off the entire provincial debt, lowering taxes for everyone or re-building vital infrastructure that all of us use.

Mindful of the best outcomes for the greatest number of people, targeting surplus money to specifically improve access to health care or shorten hospital waiting lists is surely better than giving teachers what they euphemistically refer to as "an historic adjustment to reflect our value."

Nothing against teachers and civil servants. It's just that there are a lot more people than them who should be laying claim to a fair share.

Labour Unrest In Saskatchewan

In my first real post to this blog I bring up the hot topic of labour unrest in Saskatchewan. There is a huge gap between labour and employer right now and with either side not willing to budge a whole lot. So here's my common sense take on the issue;

The problem is the public sector and government, which as a taxpayer, we are all involved whether we like it or not.  Do you lean left or right?  It does not matter because the issues will affect everyone in the province.  Ok, I think we can all agree that people who do their job well should get paid appropriately, that is not the problem here.  The problem in the past 50-60 years or so is that Saskatchewan has been a solid socialist province, the CCF/NDP has always been the governing party.  People in Saskatchewan, like anywhere else in the world, wanted more for themselves and their family.  Looking at other parts of the country and especially next door in Alberta made us envious. How can people who are separated by an invisible line live completely different lives like this?  Why was the grass always greener next door?  Well there are many reasons but the main reason is our socialist values, we kept voting in a party that was not business friendly and by having that position, business would not invest in the province which left little opportunity for our children.  We lost a couple generations of children who all moved to Alberta because, yes the grass was much, much greener over there.

So now back to the issue at hand.  Being a socialist stronghold also allowed the unions to become very powerful, not only in politics but in society in general.  We're talking well organized groups here, one's who tax their people to push their political agenda.  And what an agenda they have right now! We have a slightly right wing government that has done wonders for our province since they took over, people are coming home and staying, getting opportunity to create a successful livelihood in this great province.  But what is going on is the unions are losing their grip on power, the people have awoken and want everything that you can get in other areas of the country.  The unions are now fighting like hell to restore things, there is an election on the horizon and they are trying to make as much hay when the sun is shining.  The Teachers Union, I mean Federation is asking for a whopping 16% increase over three years, or 12% over one.  Now as a taxpayer this infuriates me to the utmost degree, here we have a profession that gets over 3 months of the year off work, while the rest of society is lucky to get 4 weeks, add in weekends and really?  Yes there are some that will do the extra curricular activities but then there is a lot who don't.  How about a bonus system for those that do?  That is common sense, people putting in extra hours get paid overtime, so why not the teachers? Also needed to be realized is that they are getting paid for working around 9 months of the year.  If they want higher pay how about working another two months like many teachers do all over the world?  Many countries are heading in this direction because there is just so much to learn and they have figured out in order to get ahead more education is needed.  The teachers need to be held accountable as well, but at the same extent so do the students and more importantly the parents who allow their kids to carry on and giving no respect to the teachers.

The 200lb gorilla in the room(and I will discuss this in length in following posts as it really affects us going forward) is pensions and benefits.  We are heading down a slippery slope here, for example the city of Regina has a shortfall in future pension and benefits of $200 million.  That's $200,000,000!!!  This is one city with a small number of unionized workers and this is the path our politicians and union have led us too.  Problem becomes, what are we going to do to fix it?  A city of 200,000 people would have to come up with another $1,000 a piece in order to take care of that tab.  And that is just where we sit today, what will that shortfall look like in 10 or 20 years?  Both sides are to blame but the majority has to fall onto the hands of the unions who put a huge amount of pressure on governments to give them what they want.  This is especially easy for the unions when the NDP have been in power most of the time.  The old saying about the squeaky wheel and grease really comes into play here.  There is no one group louder and more in your face than unions, or what I like to call them the Pro-Labour Movement.

The problem now is, how do we fix a system that is this broken?  Unions would say raise taxes on everyone but how is that fair to the non-unionized workforce, retired and everyone in between have to pay for someone else's better life while barely getting through themselves?  Should the taxpayer base continue this, and if so, how long will it be before this province becomes business unfriendly again and people and business begin to leave again?  This will happen and can happen sooner than one would think. We need to fix this problem and unfortunately labour is our for themselves for the most part and not for the betterment of society as a whole. Yes, in the past with poor pay and labour conditions they helped bring about change but so did employers and now the ball is in the unions court, will they concede that they are a very large part of this huge burden or will they continue on as they have and further drive our economy down?

Time is for change and the people of Saskatchewan spoke very loudly at the last election and they will again this fall.  It is time for the unions to take responsibility and make some serious concessions with respect to pension and benefit reform.  The people of this province voted for a more open market, a major shift, a new direction and it is time for Organized Labour to realize and accept this.  Yes, the change is in the wind, but we need everyone on board to make this province the best it can be.  So labour, what do you have to say?

Have a great rest of your day,

David

Welcome To The Common Sense Conservative Blog

Hello, and welcome to my blog, my name is David and I am proud to be able to host this blog.  I live in Regina, Saskatchewan in the great country of Canada. Within this blog is going to be the musings of all things that affect daily lives, be it local, federal or international, the common sense approach will be taken be it politically right or wrong.  I will push what this conservative feels is a common sense approach to dealing with political, social and family issues.  I will outline both sides of arguments when I can and bring forth what I believe to be the common sense approach to a solution.  My hope for this blog is for people to read it and understand more of an issue than what the media or either side of that said issue are willing to report.

I do feel, that in trying to be too politically correct, politicians of all stripes forget that a common sense approach could probably solve all problems in the world.  I feel that we need to step back from where we are and try to figure out just where we have gone wrong?  Can society continue to function the way it is, can the world live in peace, can we solve hunger, disease, or any other issue that we as a people face today?

By reading my blog I hope to help find a common ground between opposing sides, be it labor(labour), politicians, taxes, welfare, social injustice, human rights, religion and much much more.  We need to find and solve these problems before they get worse or we all will pay the price in time.  I allow posting by all sides as long as it is done in a way that goes too hard right or too hard left.  The blog is about finding that all important middle ground and I hope my readers will have that same approach to life and post accordingly.  Am I passive, hell no but I am able to listen to both sides and form a rational opinion.  There is always an issue in the world so the topics are endless, if you would like a certain topic talked about feel free to bring it up, and if appropriate, I will blog my common sense approach to the situation.

I hope you like what you see here and if you do make sure to follow and keep up to date.....the common sense way!

Enjoy the rest of your day,
David