Awkward

28 Replies to “Awkward”

1. Good for John for exposing the so-called concerned citizen as nothing but a paid union hack flogging the union’s interests.
   I was in an UAW office union for about three years forty-four years ago and they don’t give a rat’s a** about the workers as long as they can make the union power grow. When the union organizer negotiating for your local is wearing the same ring as the lawyer, across the table from the organizer, negotiating for the company then you know they are not working for you.

2. It’s no secret that SGEU runs a continuous series of paid TV and other ads against the Wall. government of Saskatchewan. I would have been surprised if they had NOT been there!!
   My take on this is that Wall should have left the Sask Crown Corporations alone. Especially STC. I know the company was losing money. So does the Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and PA transit systems. So do most public passenger bus and rail services and all over the world.
   Wall and Co. gambled on the fact that most of us in Sask have a vehicle and don’t need the bus. I have a vehicle, and friends to drive me around. Everyone however has an elderly mother, father, aunt uncle etc. that’s stuck in a small town or community, and needs reliable transportation to get to the city. And think carefully, in the past, where does the strongest Conservative and Sask Party support come from?? They kicked their strongest supporters right in the teeth! Telling elderly citizens that they need to move to the city won’t buy Sask. Party votes. When the rural community votes NDP, you can wave goodbye to the Wall government.
   But that’s the road Wall chose. And don’t forget the Transportation Hub has yet to come to light. This is just the beginning. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! Sad to lose such a good government over a few buses!!!

3. I think you’re missing something here Saskwatch… you would be right that Brad lost the rurals if it didn’t so happen that the same people trying to back fill the bus routes are being opposed by ndp surrogates praying that the move fails before November of 2020.

4. I won’t disagree on that, there are rats everywhere when politics play out. I just think it was bad timing to shut down STC. Time will tell!!

5. “…Everyone however has an elderly mother, father, aunt uncle etc. that’s stuck in a small town or community, and needs reliable transportation to get to the city. …”
   And now they’ll be forever stuck in their small towns, unable to get to the city just like the elderly mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles etc. in every other province where they don’t have a government-owned bus company. They never get to go anywhere, that’s why those provinces have a constant clamor for their governments to start up publicly owned bus companies. Don’t they?

6. More socialist claptrap.
   AB dropped subsidy to greyhound, they dropped unprofitable routes. Other small business came in where it worked.
   It’s like any monopoly, hard to break/let go.

7. We are constantly bombarded with Union sponsored ads telling us what a terrible job the Saskatchewan government is doing . There is definitely room for improvements the manner and planning of how the recent budget was rolled out and there is significant tax increases . To many of us it is no suprise that government and it’s employees don’t make efficient use of our capital resources . This is contrary to what the unions would have you believe , so I will address the elephant in the room. I have been exposed to the work ethic shown by many workers in our health care system . As an example it is not that uncommon to end up paying three people to fill one shift . People I know are constantly scrambling to fill shifts for people that phone in sick or simply fail to show up to work . Even when you know they are not sick , management can do little about it .This is in more than one area of service , so I strongly suspect it is rampant throughout the whole system.
   Shortly after the Stc announcement I witnessed a bus leaving NB to Meadow Lake . A full sized bus . One passenger was on it .One . How is this sustainable ? I have done more than my share of taking people to medical appointments . I would question the stance that existing bus schedules would allow you to get to many of those appointments without staying overnight .
   Many of these jobs pay substantially higher than similar positions in private industry before a generous benefits package is taken into account . Often as much as 50% higher . The janitorial services were privatized at the legislature . The comments were, well these people only make 40,000 per year . I have done janitorial work , it Is valuable and hard work if you are productive and do a thorough job. I don’t however believe it is a career path that should provide you with an above average salary compared to private industry and a retirement in thirty years .
   When commodity prices were high the unions demanded there share . If these systematic problems are not addressed this system is not sustainable even with the revenues from increased taxes . They appatntly have never read the fable about killing the goose that layer the golden egg .

8. Interesting how the lefties immediately jump to the idea of using violence against someone with whom you disagree. I guess they assume that’s how everyone rolls, not just them. What do they call that in psychology?

9. If you like a good ‘palindrome’
   DrAwkarD

10. think you missed a “w”, like it otherwise.

11. Exactly! To them Saskatchewan is the birthplace of their Marxist-Leninist ideology which they hope to impose on all of Canada and this is a visible step back.
    Concerned, this stealing from the taxpayer is rampant throughout the bureaucracy and in the educational system, not just in the medical field.

12. We need public disclosure of union financial statements. Most are collecting 2 hrs of wages (or more) from each member per month.
    This runs into millions that will be spent on election advertising.
    That’s not democracy when you consider a good portion of those contributors do not support their unions preference.

13. So glad I quit Twitter. Writing has been on the wall the whole time with facebookgoogletwitter.

14. Here we have a voluntary slave to the government. Here is someone literally saying: “it’s not my job to care for my family, that’s the government’s job”. Sask Watch epitomizes the reason western civilization ended. Concern trolling angd virtue signalling. Once you make it the gulag let me know how that worked out for you.

15. ‘I witnessed a bus leaving NB to Meadow Lake . A full sized bus . One passenger was on it’
    It always pissed me off when I would witness that on a daily basis in our community; what a waste of money. To compare city transit services with STC is bizarre.

16. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. STC had to go. Losing money year after year and repeating the process year after year expecting a different result is the classic definition of insanity. It’s ironic that those who make a great production over lamenting the loss of rural bus service are the same ones who are attempting to prevent private companies from filling the so-called void. Hypocritical beyond belief!
    As for Premier Wall losing the rural vote …. check the numbers from the last election. A swing from the Sask Party to the NDP would be astonishing to say the least. Wall ain’t gonna lose the rural vote especially over the long overdue turfing of an unprofitable, little utilized bus company. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Wall could raise the PST to 20%, dump radioactive waste into the South Saskatchewan and move the capital to Creighton and still win the next election, albeit with a much smaller majority.

17. What has my family to do with cutting back on public transportation?? So if I live in Regina and chose to take the bus to work, that’s because I don’t care about my family?? Wow!
    I toured Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns, Townsville and Brisbane, Australia, not to mention a host of smaller cities in between. Buses there run on time and are highly organized to coincide with planes and trains. So you’re telling me that all of those people who were riding the buses did so because they don’t care for their wife and kids?? God! There must be a lot of lonely children in Aussieland!

18. ”I witnessed a bus leaving NB to Meadow Lake . A full sized bus . One passenger was on it”
    My daughter lives in Calgary, about 100 meters from her house to the bus stop that goes to 16th ave and down Center St. towards downtown. Quite often there are one or two people on the bus. There’s a good reason for that. Only two people are going downtown that day.
    Next time I witness that, I’ll remember (thanks to nold) to phone city counsel and tell them to shut that particular route down. So what if the elderly, the disabled and the poor have to walk? I have a car!! To hell with the rest of the world! As long as I’m OK, ”F” the rest!!
    Now you know why they voted for Rachel Notley.

19. No other province in Canada has a bus service running around their roads with nearly empty expensive buses. Why can’t you see the obvious? Is a family member one of the drivers out of work? It was a waste of time, fuel, and money and it was a travesty against common sense and economic reality that it wasn’t shut down during the last time there was a decline in the economy.

20. No other province with 1.1 million people has a Global Transportation Hub that will most likely make the Guinness Book of World Records as the only other project to lose more (per capita) of taxpayer’s money than Jean Drapeau’s Montreal Olympic Stadium back in 1976. At least we had the pleasure of blaming the Quebec Liberals for the stadium, and it did wonders for comedy TV.
    Re: Transport Hub. If the Department of Highways had sold the land that they donated to Canadian Pacific in 2009, market value $50 million, the proceeds could have kept Sask Transport running for another 10 years.
    How did Canadian Pacific show their gratitude for the fortune they inherited?? They reduced service to most Saskatchewan farmers, causing more stress on our highways and byways. Damage that could have been repaired with some of the money they gave away to the Hub.

21. What does that have to do with closing a money wasting company like STC?
    The reason there are over 1.1 million people in Sask in 2017 as opposed to less than 1 million counted during the NDP era is because of the economic policies of the Sask party.

22. I guess there is a positive side. When the NDP get elected, the newcomers won’t be going back home on the bus!

23. Yup and the rest of us can just go back to sleep and pretend that it’s a 1944 mouse and cat land all over again.

24. “They reduced service to most Saskatchewan farmers”
    I’m no big fan of the railway companies however CP and CN simply could not operate unprofitable branch lines, unlike STC which could count on the taxpayer, year after year, to make up the shortfall. Before we demonize the railways for branch line abandonment, remember that the grain companies, including Sask Wheat Pool helped the decisions along by deciding not to upgrade or replace worn out facilities resulting in many rail lines generating little or no traffic. Fortunately a number of short-line railways stepped up to fill the void left by CP and CN much like private companies now coming forward, despite opposition from hypocritical socialists, to operate routes formerly run by STC.

25. Again, you’re not looking at what CPR and CNR originally received in exchange for service to rural areas of Canada. Add up the number of acres of (now) farmland that CN and CP were given to provide rail service to Western Canada. . I’m talking going back to day one when the Homestead Act of the Northwest Territories was written. They sold the land, pocketed the cash and left town like most cons did back then. That’s why they had no profit. It ($$$) was in the wrong pockets. They screwed up CP Air, CP ship lines and CP Transport, and now they’ re working on CP Rail.
    And yet I don’t see CPR repairing the damage on our roads to communities that no longer have elevators and rail transport. Somehow, that’s ends up coming off our taxes here in Saskatchewan.

26. ‘They sold the land, pocketed the cash and left town’
    No. The railway companies sold the land that they were granted to trust companies, financial institutions and sometimes wealthy individuals. That provided the capital base to build the railroads and all the infrastructure railroads require.

27. I’m not interested in keeping this argument on forever, however if you go through the Merchant Law Group’s class action suits, there’s is a case that is ongoing, and with regards to CN and CP not carrying out their agreements and over charging farmers for freight on grain transport. I’m interesting in joining the class action, as I am entitled to compensation if the case is successful. Thanks for reminding me. When I hear more, I’ll leave a note on Reader Tips.

28. My comment was of a more general nature regarding the reason for land grants. The capital to build the RR had to come from somewhere and had to be in place before construction could start. In the USA under-capitalization for RR expansion had been a problem; lots of bankrupt railroads.