The Maple Leaf Lounge

[Marc]

If the liberals want to give ford and easy run to a 4th term, they can elect nate erskine -brown part leader.

he really is an utter tosser.

he’s demanding others seeking preselectiin for a provincial riding to stand aside so he can run hoping being a mop will given him a leg up in the race for the provincial party leadership.

If this is the sort of petulance he showed at the federal level, no wonder Carney dumped him from cabinet.

a clean skin with no links to either Justin the boy blunder or kathleen wynn is what the party needs. crombie could have been it but Sue Richard’s has move visibility than she did.

Nate Erskine-Smith urges Liberal rivals to step aside in Scarborough Southwest byelection

The Liberal leadership front-runner is vying for the the Ontario party's nomination.

www.thestar.com

 

[Owain Taggart]

So, this will be about a few different things that all tie into each other. But in January, Lifelabs, which is an American company (Parent: Quest Diagnostics) had made the decision they they would close their Laboratory in Sudbury come Spring, with 40 people losing their jobs, redirecting testing to their lab in the GTA. Now ordinarily, this would be an easy thing to shrug off if this were any other company or service, but this is health related. And the Sudbury lab services all of Northeastern Ontario, which is a fairly sizable chunk of land area; It services Timmins, North Bay, Algoma & Hearst, in addition to our own city.

The big question that arose after that decision was announced was how they could ensure timely delivery, because that's what the company promised. Naturally, MPs of these affected regions voiced their concerns in Queen's Park, and naturally citizens of the region grew very concerned of what this could mean to timely results.

Around this timeframe, several Northern MPs also took a roadtrip to document the state of the our northeastern highways. This was unrelated to the above announcement, but it still fits in because it's important because it shows how neglected and how dangerous they are. Highways 11 and 17 both get so many closures and accidents every year, and this particular winter was absolutely brutal. It would seem like there would be road closures and accidents, most of them involving transport trucks just about every week. It's no joke. MPs would try to point this out, and so would the media, in refenre to the Lifelabs decision, but instead would only get the silent treatment from the company. Naturally the question comes out, how would you ensure timely delivery of time-sensitive samples? It's a natural concern, and we all know Ontario is a big Province.

As if to punctuate all these concerns, the Northeast Region had one of its biggest blizzards this March breaking a daily snowfall record, and dumping about 40 cm of snow in some municipalities. Over here, it took about more than a week to get residential streets properly plowed, and they still haven't plowed all the sidewalks, and the snowbanks are very tall. What a Spring we've had. Miraculously, while Lifelabs hasn't officially stated a reason, as of the 27th, they've appeared to reverse course on the closure, and instead are planning on keeping it open in a reduced capacity. But given all that's going on, between all the road closures and the snowstorm, my gut tells me they panicked. Sometimes what looks good on paper doesn't necessarily translate well to real life situations. They probably just saw they could save money by closing the lab, but in reality, it becomes a real logistical nightmare.

All this has brought up the question of why we're relying on an American company anyhow.

 

[Marc]

So, this will be about a few different things that all tie into each other. But in January, Lifelabs, which is an American company (Parent: Quest Diagnostics) had made the decision they they would close their Laboratory in Sudbury come Spring, with 40 people losing their jobs, redirecting testing to their lab in the GTA. Now ordinarily, this would be an easy thing to shrug off if this were any other company or service, but this is health related. And the Sudbury lab services all of Northeastern Ontario, which is a fairly sizable chunk of land area; It services Timmins, North Bay, Algoma & Hearst, in addition to our own city.

I wonder if they'll look at the closing locations in the other parts of Ontario. There's one where I'm and we're half the size Sudbury though I've never been there as I use Dynacare.

Don't see the logic in the decision - they've got a good size market and if people and their doctors are going to have to wait longer (by the time it gets to Toronto and joins the queue with all the locally taken samples.

Maybe the council should step in an offer and inducement to some-one else to setup (or perhaps an exist service could expand). Sure you're got the outlay for the plant and equipment but you've got 40 trained workers who would be happy to have job.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Canada Post moving ahead with plan to end home delivery

Canada Post says it’s moving ahead with the restructuring plan mandated by the federal government in the fall, which could permanently end door-to-door mail delivery.

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[Timewalker]

Canada Post moving ahead with plan to end home delivery

Canada Post says it’s moving ahead with the restructuring plan mandated by the federal government in the fall, which could permanently end door-to-door mail delivery.

www.ctvnews.ca

And so much for seniors and disabled people who can't manage those community mailboxes. "Just give your key to a neighbor" is no solution if you don't have a neighbor you trust. And so many of them are placed so they're accessible if you're in a vehicle, but not if you're trying to navigate an uncleared sidewalk in the middle of winter in a wheelchair or using a walker.

 

[Avro Arrow]

And so much for seniors and disabled people who can't manage those community mailboxes. "Just give your key to a neighbor" is no solution if you don't have a neighbor you trust. And so many of them are placed so they're accessible if you're in a vehicle, but not if you're trying to navigate an uncleared sidewalk in the middle of winter in a wheelchair or using a walker.

It wasn’t mentioned in this article specifically, but every time this kind of proposal had come up in the past, there was always mention of continuing door-to-door delivery for seniors and people with disabilities who still needed it… the thought being that it’d be a lot cheaper to deliver individually to a subset of the route, rather than *everyone* on the route.

Obviously it’s very early in the process, so who knows what they will come up with as a proposal this time, but I really hope they don’t just straight-up abandon people who require door-to-door service.

 

[Vagabond Elf]

And so much for seniors and disabled people who can't manage those community mailboxes. "Just give your key to a neighbor" is no solution if you don't have a neighbor you trust. And so many of them are placed so they're accessible if you're in a vehicle, but not if you're trying to navigate an uncleared sidewalk in the middle of winter in a wheelchair or using a walker.

Internally to Canada Post, I don't think that's door-to-door delivery, I'm pretty sure it's got a different name.

As evidence: at least in Edmonton, at least in my townhouse complex, the truck that delivers to the community mailbox and the truck that delivers to the mobility-challenged senior that lives next door to me aren't the same truck. This means there's some extra sorting happening before things end up on trucks.

I do agree that access in the winter is sometimes an issue because of uncleared sidewalks, but the solution to that is being willing to call bylaw because your neighbour is an a-hole.

I also know that I only check my mailbox about once a week, unless I'm expecting something, and only find something in the box about half the time. And usually it's a "letter" from my MP trying to convince me that actually funding social services is somehow a bad thing, or something misaddressed to the guy I bought my home from 22 years ago. Switching to a community mailbox cost me almost no extra effort. I won't say "no extra effort" because sometimes I'm expecting a parcel and then I'm walking over there more often, but not much.

Obviously it’s very early in the process, so who knows what they will come up with as a proposal this time, but I really hope they don’t just straight-up abandon people who require door-to-door service.

This isn't a new proposal or policy. This is just finishing the job of installing and switching to community mailboxes for the chunk of the country that it hasn't happened to yet. So there's no reason to expect it to perform any differently than it does in places where the switch already happened.

The details were reported on by CBC back during the last strike, and my memory's a bit fuzzy now. But what I recall is that a bunch of NIMBYs threw a hissy fit when the switch was about 80% done and the then-government made CPC pause the process, and all the current recommendation is, is to finish up and get the whole country on the same standard.

 

[Timewalker]

Internally to Canada Post, I don't think that's door-to-door delivery, I'm pretty sure it's got a different name.

As evidence: at least in Edmonton, at least in my townhouse complex, the truck that delivers to the community mailbox and the truck that delivers to the mobility-challenged senior that lives next door to me aren't the same truck. This means there's some extra sorting happening before things end up on trucks.

I do agree that access in the winter is sometimes an issue because of uncleared sidewalks, but the solution to that is being willing to call bylaw because your neighbour is an a-hole.

I also know that I only check my mailbox about once a week, unless I'm expecting something, and only find something in the box about half the time. And usually it's a "letter" from my MP trying to convince me that actually funding social services is somehow a bad thing, or something misaddressed to the guy I bought my home from 22 years ago. Switching to a community mailbox cost me almost no extra effort. I won't say "no extra effort" because sometimes I'm expecting a parcel and then I'm walking over there more often, but not much.



This isn't a new proposal or policy. This is just finishing the job of installing and switching to community mailboxes for the chunk of the country that it hasn't happened to yet. So there's no reason to expect it to perform any differently than it does in places where the switch already happened.

The details were reported on by CBC back during the last strike, and my memory's a bit fuzzy now. But what I recall is that a bunch of NIMBYs threw a hissy fit when the switch was about 80% done and the then-government made CPC pause the process, and all the current recommendation is, is to finish up and get the whole country on the same standard.

As one of the people who happens to be a disabled senior who doesn't have a driver's license and needs a clear, level surface to walk on (I use a wheeled walker), I utterly loathe the lazy drivers who can't be bothered to even buzz my suite to let me know when they have a parcel for me. I caught them in the act one day, with a pre-filled card that tells the customer to go get it themselves from the "post office" that's really a corner of the nearest pharmacy. The POS wasn't happy when I said, "I notice you didn't make one move toward the intercom to buzz me, and you never intended to actually do this right. Well, I'm here and my parcel is still on your truck, so go get it."

And then there was the time when they left me the wrong keys to the parcel locker. The one I was given the keys for was empty. I reported it and was handed the song and dance that they had to "wait 15 days" to open the other ones for "privacy" reasons, to check where it ended up. I pointed out that this meant there was nothing stopping whoever did get that key to just steal my parcel. This was Canada Post's fault, not mine, and I wanted my stuff.

There's a lot less neighborliness in a building of 120 suites than there was in a building of 12 suites where most people on the same floor knew each other.

So thanks for your "NIMBY" crack. Really, thanks so very effing much. Do you have any idea how much Danielle Smith is gleefully screwing over the disabled and seniors of Alberta? Slash-and-burn cutting, and stealing our Canada Disability Benefit, even taking people's DTC back payments in one lump sum rather than making payment arrangements, and claiming it's what we asked for.

That woman is so vile that if she were on fire, I'd walk past and not even spit on her. And now Canada Post has made it perfectly clear that they'd rather get paid for NOT delivering mail and it's a rare delivery driver who does the parcels right. One jerk claimed he "didn't know" he was supposed to use the parcel locker. I asked him what he thought he was supposed to do with the parcels he'd been driving around with all day.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I wonder if they'll look at the closing locations in the other parts of Ontario. There's one where I'm and we're half the size Sudbury though I've never been there as I use Dynacare.

Don't see the logic in the decision - they've got a good size market and if people and their doctors are going to have to wait longer (by the time it gets to Toronto and joins the queue with all the locally taken samples.

Yeah, I didn't see the logic in wanting to close it either. The lab is technically the hub for the entire Northeastern Region, and it would have been wise for them to see beyond the numbers and if they'd dug a little deeper, they would have found out that there's a good reason why that's the case. To make matters worse, we don't have other options in the area. And as nice it would have looked on paper to send everything to the GTA, it's simply not a feasible option for the stated reasons given what we end up having to endure. What most don't realize is that most of 17 and 11 are still only two lanes and have very few rest stops. Storms and accidents end up closing major portions of the highways, which has happened several times this year, and after accidents they don't open them back up until investigations have occurred. MPs have been advocating the government to change things, and invest in the highways up here hence the roadtrip, but the government has been dragging its feet.

And you're right, if everything just goes to Toronto,. they're going to get swamped. And that would put them in a worse off situation than if they have a lab open here to take the pressure off, and it would likely open them up to lawsuits should time-sensitive samples not get there in time. Sometimes you need to lose a bit of money in order to make more money.

Canada Post moving ahead with plan to end home delivery

Canada Post says it’s moving ahead with the restructuring plan mandated by the federal government in the fall, which could permanently end door-to-door mail delivery.

www.ctvnews.ca

That reminds me, about a decade ago, it was announced they were going to install community mailboxes and give up on home delivery, but in my city they installed them in places and then eventually gave up on the idea altogether. I think that was because they were told they would be responsible for clearing off the snow during the winter to make them accessible.

 

[camdudetenger2018]

Canada Post moving ahead with plan to end home delivery

Canada Post says it’s moving ahead with the restructuring plan mandated by the federal government in the fall, which could permanently end door-to-door mail delivery.

www.ctvnews.ca

end of a era thats i guess been going on for centuries since canada was created in the 1500s by the french

 

[Vagabond Elf]

As one of the people who happens to be a disabled senior who doesn't have a driver's license and needs a clear, level surface to walk on (I use a wheeled walker), I utterly loathe the lazy drivers who can't be bothered to even buzz my suite to let me know when they have a parcel for me. I caught them in the act one day, with a pre-filled card that tells the customer to go get it themselves from the "post office" that's really a corner of the nearest pharmacy. The POS wasn't happy when I said, "I notice you didn't make one move toward the intercom to buzz me, and you never intended to actually do this right. Well, I'm here and my parcel is still on your truck, so go get it."

And then there was the time when they left me the wrong keys to the parcel locker. The one I was given the keys for was empty. I reported it and was handed the song and dance that they had to "wait 15 days" to open the other ones for "privacy" reasons, to check where it ended up. I pointed out that this meant there was nothing stopping whoever did get that key to just steal my parcel. This was Canada Post's fault, not mine, and I wanted my stuff.

There's a lot less neighborliness in a building of 120 suites than there was in a building of 12 suites where most people on the same floor knew each other.

So thanks for your "NIMBY" crack. Really, thanks so very effing much. Do you have any idea how much Danielle Smith is gleefully screwing over the disabled and seniors of Alberta? Slash-and-burn cutting, and stealing our Canada Disability Benefit, even taking people's DTC back payments in one lump sum rather than making payment arrangements, and claiming it's what we asked for.

That woman is so vile that if she were on fire, I'd walk past and not even spit on her. And now Canada Post has made it perfectly clear that they'd rather get paid for NOT delivering mail and it's a rare delivery driver who does the parcels right. One jerk claimed he "didn't know" he was supposed to use the parcel locker. I asked him what he thought he was supposed to do with the parcels he'd been driving around with all day.

Mate, I am genuinely sorry to hear you say that. And I agree, there's lot of low-quality service happening these days, especially in apartment buildings, from all kinds of delivery companies. I've done that kind of work in the past, and it dismays me to see how standards have collapsed.

The horrible things Smith is doing are real, I'm aware of them, and I only hope they make the generally-older rural population in this province wake the fuck up and realise the UCP has nothing to do with Lougheed's PCs. AISH is being gutted too, and that directly affects people I love. My main source of hope is that the cities are big enough now we don't need the countryside to elect a government, and there's an excellent chance Nenshi delivers Calgary. The NDP already have Edmonton and Red Deer and that's very, very close to forming the government right there. Of course, we all have to survive to that point...

None of what you're describing here has anything to do with the pause on community mailbox installation, though. That was people my age or younger living in suburban neighbourhoods without mobility issues being sad about having to walk 40 metres twice a week to get their mail. Apartments were never going to change, they already have community mailboxes. I stand by my comment - the pause on installing community mailboxes was nothing but NIMBY bs. It didn't affect you one way or the other and the resumption of that isn't going to make your situation worse.

Still, while I understand where you're coming from, I don't really appreciate you lashing out at me. I get why you're angry with Canada Post, and I can understand how that anger might have made you misread my post. Hopefully this extra context makes it clearer. Your situation has nothing to do with community mailboxes, its caused by a mix of badly demoralised workers that won't do their jobs but also can't be fired, and a union more interested in maintaining its own wealth than fixing a badly broken company.

Being angry is understandable. But being mean to me when I'm not talking about you? Not cool, mate.

 

[Timewalker]

The NDP already have Edmonton and Red Deer and that's very, very close to forming the government right there.

Oh? That's news to me. I live in Red Deer. My MLA is the exceptionally vile and stupid Adriana LaGrange, who has a number of nicknames including "LaGarbage."

It suits her. She's an incredible waste of atoms. And yes, I have met her. Whether she's gutting public education or the health care system, she's the most incompetent MLA Red Deer has ever had. And considering that Stockwell Day used to represent Red Deer North, that's saying something.

The POS who represents Red Deer South is Jason Stephan. He couldn't be bothered to show up for his own swearing-in because he was on holiday in Africa (not sure which country). He's currently pushing Alberta separation, and basically worships the ground that DanYell Smitler struts on.

Both of them are incredibly thin-skinned. They avoid replying to their constituents' emails, letters, and phone calls, so some people have resorted to leaving them messages in chalk on the sidewalk outside their offices. They promptly made a big fuss about it; LaGrange claimed that a high-pressure hose was needed to clean it up (has this idiotic woman never heard of a broom or just waiting until it rains?) and Stephan called the cops. The cops openly laughed in his face because writing on the sidewalk with chalk isn't illegal unless it's to make threats or express hate speech.

I haven't heard anything about the local NDP in ages here. I didn't vote federal NDP last time because the candidate couldn't be bothered to even have a basic FB page to tell us about himself. I have no idea who is planning to run in the event that Smith calls an early election.

I stand by my comment - the pause on installing community mailboxes was nothing but NIMBY bs. It didn't affect you one way or the other and the resumption of that isn't going to make your situation worse.

Very presumptuous of you to think you know what does and does not affect me when you don't know me and this is the first time we've interacted on this forum. You also don't seem to realize that I have this thing called empathy, so I can empathize with people who are prevented from accessing their community mailbox for various reasons. I was raised by my grandparents, so I've always been aware of things that make life harder for seniors and disabled people.

Being angry is understandable. But being mean to me when I'm not talking about you? Not cool, mate.

I don't need your permission to feel angry. And if you think I'm being "mean", you should look up some of my other posts. I'm not even approaching halfway to mean here.

Not sure what you mean by "mate." If it's just a general term of address, fine. If that's how you address guys, please realize that I'm a woman. My usertitle should make that clear enough.

Otherwise, I completely agree with wishing that people - especially rural people - would wake up and understand that the UCP is not merely the PCs under a new name. It's the Reform Party, provincial branch, under a new name, just as the CPC is the federal branch of the Reform Party under a new name. They are not the same.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bogus-maple-syrup-quebec-9.7149822

What would you call fake maple syrup, anyway? Maple Syr-nope?

 

[Owain Taggart]

Fake maple syrup, as in the high-fructose corn syrup variety, would simply be called table syrup. Now mind you, it doesn't mean they're made out of tables.

 

[camdudetenger2018]

Fake maple syrup, as in the high-fructose corn syrup variety, would simply be called table syrup. Now mind you, it doesn't mean they're made out of tables.

they are probley not made from pure canadian trees

 

[camdudetenger2018]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bogus-maple-syrup-quebec-9.7149822

What would you call fake maple syrup, anyway? Maple Syr-nope?

isnt quebec is well known for maple syrup

 

[Set Harth]

Fake maple syrup, as in the high-fructose corn syrup variety, would simply be called table syrup. Now mind you, it doesn't mean they're made out of tables.

mmm tables

 

[Marc]

Fake maple syrup, as in the high-fructose corn syrup variety, would simply be called table syrup. Now mind you, it doesn't mean they're made out of tables.

That's why it comes in handy if you know some-one who producers their own maple syrup or repuatable seller at a local famers market.

We're fortunate enough to have both.

My wife likes it on ice cream and I have it on weetbix in the morning for breakfast.

Mum likes it as well but sending it to Australia is very expensive (thought that's a problem in both the U.S and Canada due to some treaty from the 19th century). Last year cost me $130 to send about $70 work of stuff.

 

[Owain Taggart]

they are probley not made from pure canadian trees

Well surely the tables would be made from Canadian trees!

isnt quebec is well known for maple syrup

It is and the Province takes it very seriously. There's a consortium that dictates the rules and makes regular checks. There was a heist that occurred over several months that was the subject of a miniseries where thieves managed to get away with nearly $3000 tons of maple syrup, and at the time it was considered to be the most valuable heist in Canadian history.

Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That's why it comes in handy if you know some-one who producers their own maple syrup or repuatable seller at a local famers market.

We're fortunate enough to have both.

That makes you lucky. I happen to have friends who make their own syrup in their own backyard. Small batches, but they have fun with it and are proud to be able to do it.

 

[Marc]

That makes you lucky. I happen to have friends who make their own syrup in their own backyard. Small batches, but they have fun with it and are proud to be able to do it.

Family friends of my in-laws were like that. the Husband had a sugar shack any my wife liked to get out and help with with making the syrup when she was little.