51 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/16/politics/donald-trump-budget-cut-epa/
    Trump is cutting the EPA budget by 31%! This will result in 3200 public sector workers being laid off! Public sector workers are the backbone of society!
    Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said those programs are “a waste of your money.”
    Your money?! Excuse me?! This is the government’s money!
    Then he has the EPA give $100 million to Flint, Michigan to fix their water! Who cares about their water?! The planet is going to die from Climate Change–that is MUCH MORE important!

  2. Dear SDA Readers:
    If any of you live in BC and are getting robbed by the two-tier electricity rate structure we have here, please consider voting in this poll:
    http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-192062-11-.htm#192062
    And even if you don’t live in BC but want to help, please feel free to vote! Here in BC we are forced to pay two-tier rates for electricity even if we don’t have access to natural gas, and we are getting killed by high bills (my last bill was $3,000) because most of our electricity is bill in the second tier.
    Many thanks.

  5. Why do you believe you “are getting robbed by the two-tier electricity rate structure we have ” ?

  6. If the government takes your money it is not robbery. They pass laws to cover their adzes on
    that. However their lower Hydro rate threshold is quite low. Live in a mid 70’s home, upgraded the attic insulation to r32, new thermal windows and doors. Baseboard electric heat with wood burning stove to help. 2 retired people live here, no children, no pets. On the best lowest use month of the year we cannot keep our billing in the lowest rate level. And the gov’t scoops the surpluses just like they do with ICBC and then jack up the rates. Bbut we have the lowest marginal provincial sales tax rate in all of Canada, however it goes up quickly from there in multiple levels once you are over the provincial minimum rate. Now CC is talking about reducing the MSP tax so she will have to find a stealth fee or tax to replace the lost income or cut services. anyways rant over as I could go on and on. Gotta love politicians…..not

  7. I also live in BC. House built in 1927. Gas heat and stove. Our bill just gets into 2nd level each month. We are 2 retired adults but often have grand kids to stay, do they ever leave lights on. I’m sure in the summer we will not get into the second level. In Vancouver no need for AC, open windows and 5 days a year have a fan upstairs.

  8. 450 acid attacks against women since 2011 — in LONDON
    http://pamelageller.com/2017/03/acid-attacks-london.html/
    ————————————————————
    The number of women wearing hijab/niqab/burka is only going
    to rise in Western countries, among those bold enough to
    leave their house w/o a male escort.
    If that’s 6 years in London, U.K., what will it be in Canada
    as Sharia becomes more established in the larger cities?
    We’re only a few years behind the U.K. and our current fed.
    Liberal government wants to play catch-up with Europe.
    Sexual assaults, beatings, “honour killings”, F.G.M. and acid attacks on women.
    Now what was that M-103 anti-Islamo-phobia motion the Liberals are about to pass?

  9. According to the charts posted at the link above people in southern BC are paying much less for electricity than a lot of Canadians, AND they have the advantage of just about the warmest climate in Canada. Suck it up.

  10. Trouble with the NYC taxi service. As little as 5 years ago a single taxi medallion (license) cost a million dollars. Today the same medallion is selling in the 400 range. Many in bankruptcy. Uber showed up in 2011.

  11. AGW RIP.
    “Climate change is out for the time being,” said the official, who asked not to be named.”
    …-
    “U.S. Prevails in an Unusual G-20 Communique”
    “In an outcome that not so long ago would have been deemed unlikely, the communique dropped the world’s most economically influential countries’ explicit opposition to protectionism and, instead, came up with what Bloomberg Markets calls “a fudged statement on trade.”
    The driver of this G-20 outcome is President Donald Trump’s strong view that the U.S. has been repeatedly shortchanged by various trade agreements.” (bloomberg)
    …-
    “The G-20 Drops Climate Change From Communique”
    “Opposition from the United States, Saudi Arabia and others has forced Germany to drop a reference to financing programs to combat climate change from the draft communique at a G20 finance and central bankers meeting.”
    “A G20 official taking part in the meeting said on Friday that efforts by the German G20 presidency to keep the wording on climate change financing had run into resistance.
    Climate change is out for the time being,” said the official, who asked not to be named.”
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/03/17/the-g-20-drops-climate-change-from-communique/

  12. “Article 50 will be triggered on March 29, Downing Street confirms”
    “Theresa May will trigger EU withdrawal talks at the end of this month, Downing Street said.
    The Prime Minister’s letter officially notifying the European Council of the UK’s intention to quit will set in train a two-year negotiation process expected to lead to Britain leaving the EU on March 29, 2019.”
    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/article-50-will-be-triggered-on-march-29-downing-street-confirms-113106374.html

  13. I keep seeing/hearing these stories about energy costs in Canada that make my eyes cross in disbelief. At current exchange rates (approximate), $3000 Cd = ~$2250 USd. Is that per month???
    By comparison, here in southern Michigan I pay about $220 for gas & electric combined per month in winter, typically much less in summer unless it’s really humid/hot. Then central air puts it back up. (Modest home of 1900 ft2). If I had to pay $2250 per month in just energy costs, I couldn’t make it without being poverty stricken.
    If it is true that you’re paying this as a monthly rate, then you’d be better off closing your house in the winter and heading south to Florida, Texas, or Arizona. It would be cheaper for you. You can rent a small house for about $1,000/month and even with utilities you’d save money while enjoying some sunshine.
    I’m curious, let me know if it really is your monthly rate.

  14. Southern Law Poverty Centre.
    The Hate Group That Incited the Middlebury Melee
    Whoa, check out the background on rich scumbag founder lawyer Dees.
    Executive summary at Dyspepsia Generation with a doozie of a short extract and a link to a piece at Real Clear Politics.
    http://dyspepsiageneration.com/?p=147653

  16. John, as always you don’t have a clue.
    I do not have access to natural gas where I live in BC, and I don’t burn wood. Family of 5, three teenagers, they take showers, use computers, etc. My water and home are heated with electricity.
    In BC, electricity is the cleanest source of electricity we have. Yet ironically those of us who have no choice but to use it end up getting severely penalized by the two-tier rate structure.
    Also, most of us in the interior of BC, where for your information *it does get cold*, get our electricity from Fortis. They charge more for electricity and hydro BC.
    Because of two-tier robbery, combined with Fortis’ higher rates, the average price I paid for electricity the last two months was 15.21 c/kWh.
    If you look at the link Sasquatch kindly provided, and look at the 2 kWh table, you will see that the only provinces with higher raters than what I paid are Nova Scotia and Ontario, and not by much.
    In addition, those of us who are paying these ridiculous rates are subsidizing gas customers so they can enjoy much lower rates. When the two-tier rate structure came into existence, those fortunate enough to use gas saw their bills *decrease* over night without any change in their electricity usage. Those of us unfortunate enough to not have gas saw out bills go through the roof overnight, again without any change in our electricity usage.
    Why do the BC liberals want to keep this robbery going? It allows them to pretend that rates in BC are actually lower than they really are. They are substantially robbing a smaller portion of the electricity base in order to subsidize the majority with lower rates. It is an illusion designed to cover up the mess they have made.
    Also, you may have read in the news that BC Hydro is now one of the most financially weak public utilities in all of Canada, and now has a debt of $76 billion, thanks entirely to the BC Liberals. This guarantees large rate increases in the future.
    So those of us who are already suffering under huge electricity bills, and who know more rate increase are coming soon (after the election), are trying to do something about the issue.
    My most recent two-month bill with taxes was $3,055. Telling me to “suck it up” only shows how completely ignorant you are. I know people with state-of-the art geothermal systems, in homes half the size of mine, with only 2 household members, and they paid over $1,000 for 2 months with Fortis, again because of the discriminatory two-tier rate structure.

  18. Sask Watch, thank you very much for posting that helpful link with recent data on rate comparisons. It is very useful and I am going to forward it to others.
    Just a note that the tables use BC Hydro rates in Vancouver which are quite different than Fortis BC rates in the interior of BC (where I live).
    The second tier rate for Fortis is currently 15.617 c/kWh.
    The second tier rate for BC Hydro is currently 12.43 c/kWh.
    Fortis is about 25% higher which is substantial.
    Also, while the 2 kWh table is good to have, but there should be tables for higher usage. Heating home and water with electricity easily puts you above 2 kWh per month, and puts you far above that in the winter months. Those of us in that boat, and who use Fortis and live in the colder interior, are paying some of the highest rates for electricity in Canada.

  19. Hydro rates? Here in QC I have to pay over $200.00 for heating the place over the winter to keep it from freezing while we’re south of the border. About $180 while we’re home during spring and summer.
    Oh, wait, that for 2 month (we get billed for 2 month at a time.)
    Never mind, no complaints here.

  20. Not many comments about the Friends in Safe Spaces ditty, perhaps a few of you that derailed the comment section should go back and review it rather than steer the topic to electricity rates. The very people that McGrew and Prather are singing about are the very people that are in power now and charging you the rates you are complaining about. Perhaps if you would all get off your collective “donkeys” and really listen to the lyrics or better yet go and listen to some of Prather’s diatribes you’d get a better idea of what is in store for us if we don’t stop complaining and start taking an active part in how this country is run. There is a groundswell forming, a rising tide, that has the intelligentsia scared ‘witless’, and they are pulling all the stops to derail it. It is up to us to make sure this tide rises and in cresting flushes all of these useless politicians of every stripe out of office. So quit bellyaching and get active before the Laurentian elite take the country away from you.

  21. Yes, there has been an observable rise in rates in BC this past year. Even in Whacktoria, the impact of the cold weather is clear, even with a Heat Pump, that is getting serviced today to ensure there is nothing wrong with it, first.
    Here, we had the benefit of our NG rates dropping 25%(!) thanks to the 20 year costs of the Island NG pipeline being paid off. Clearly, it’s going to be cheaper to heat with gas than the heat pump going forward. A heat pump that the same BC gov helped subsidize 8 years ago, just to create the two tier system only two years afterward. It’s been tolerable up until this year. My costs aren’t anywhere near yours, but I understand, even with a home that’s 20 years old.
    One of the biggest banes here in BC is the allowance of builders to use electric baseboards as the basic home heating system “because it’s the cheapest to install”. And the most expensive to heat ones house with, of course. The builders don’t want to pay Fortis to install NG, as it might add 1,000$ to the cost of a new home………a whole thousand, on. 600k home….no vision.
    My recommendation BC is to try and add secondary heat source without breaking the bank. A pellet stove. A propane heater. A wood stove even, if you don’t live in a greentard city. If you have baseboards, retrofitting makes sense, at the costs you quote. None are golden choices, but neither this LibLeft government, nor the NDPee greentard idiots are going to magically drop our rates anytime soon. If you think the Libs are bad (yes they are), the Effin NDPee is 5 times as bad. We’re so fecked here.
    In the meantime, my NG furnace is going to be in use a lot more from now on, carbon taxes and all

  23. AGW RIP.
    “The program has been shut down, at an estimated cost of $1 billion.”
    …-
    “How ‘cash for ash’ climate change do-goodery plunged Northern Ireland into a political crisis”
    “A Ferrari dealer was criticized for using the subsidy program, which became known as “cash for ash,” to heat his showroom.”
    http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/kelly-mcparland-how-cash-for-ash-climate-change-do-goodery-plunged-northern-ireland-into-a-political-crisis
    …-
    “McGuinty/Smitherman Samsung deal was supposed to create 1,000’s of jobs!….where are they?”
    “$7,000,000,000.00!………………that’s the amount that Samsung Korea is supposed to invest in Ontario so said George Smitherman and Dalton McGuinty way back in 2010 and justified their tax payer incentive to Samsung of almost 1/2 billion in subsidies for this foreign company to set up shop in Ontario.”
    https://thebiggreenlie.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/mcguintysmitherman-samsung-deal-was-supposed-to-create-1000s-of-jobs-where-are-they/

  24. David, that bill was for two months.
    And it is getting worse. More rate increases are coming as soon as the election here in BC is over. The Liberals are being coy about it because they care only about getting elected, but we know rates are going to go even higher due to their mismanagement.
    The situation is actually pretty dire for some of us. These bills are already unaffordable and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

  25. Dan, thanks for your thoughtful reply. You are so absolutely right when you say we are in a mess in BC with the two major parties. A real mess. All I can say is that in this election I am going to have a very hard time voting for the BC Libs. They are corrupt to their core and Christy Clark has turned out to be useless.
    I voted for them last time with significant reservations and even so it got me nothing but a $3,000 electricity bill.
    If the BC libs win a majority they will then hold majority power for 20 straight years. That is getting too long.

  26. Christy is a good looking thief. That’s how she gets away with it. Good looking people get a lot of slack cut in life. It’s a fact of life.
    That being said, her role as a cab minister in the sale of the interior rail road should have landed her in prison. Or how about the sweetheart deal she has on her residence?
    They don’t call her Christy Crook for nothing. Ever heard a good smart idea come out of her mouth?

  27. My father lived in B. C. for most of his life until his death. I’m in the process of settling his estate right now. Christy Clark is going to make a lot of money from both the probate fees and the income tax on his assets.
    While I don’t particularly like her, I’m sure the NDP will be much worse. I was in high school in B. C. when Dave Barrett’s Dippers formed the government. The province wasn’t the same after that.

  29. I was on a flight from Vancouver to Honolulu with Dave Barrett a few years ago. Seemed like a nice fellow, however his career was short lived..
    A message to BCers. Look at Alberta before you vote NDP!!!!

  30. Very sorry to hear about your father BA. My Dad is still going strong at 89 but I treasure every day he is still with us.
    The way I see it, worse and really worse become largely indistinguishable in the end.
    I just don’t see a way out of the mess without changing the government. The BC Libs are no longer fit to govern. I had hopes for Ms. Clark but she has turned out to be a big disappointment and as far as I can tell she seems to be the type that will cling to power for as long as she ca at all costs.
    People say not to vote for the NDP but then what solution do they propose to dealing with the corrupt Libs? That is the answer no one can give me.
    As for NDP they are who they are, but to be honest I think Horgan is a substantially better and more decent person than Clark.

  31. Very sorry to hear about your father BA.
    Thanks.
    I had hopes for Ms. Clark but she has turned out to be a big disappointment and as far as I can tell she seems to be the type that will cling to power for as long as she ca at all costs.
    One of my relatives lives on Vancouver Island and she hasn’t much good to say about the premier, either.

  32. I was on a flight from Vancouver to Honolulu with Dave Barrett a few years ago. Seemed like a nice fellow, however his career was short lived..
    The only reason he won that election was because of the Lotusland (i. e., Vancouver) vote. The people there didn’t like WAC Bennett and turfed him.
    Barrett’s policies weren’t terribly popular in the part of B. C. where I grew up. ICBC was bad enough but he proposed the idea of a land bank, which meant that he wanted to abolish private property. That didn’t go over well with farmers and ranchers.
    I also recall that the Dippers also wanted to tax or regulate mining companies out of the province.
    On top of that, it seemed that Barrett’s cabinet was a bunch of bumblers.
    It was with great relief that I heard that the NDP was turfed out of office just over 3 years later. I was an undergrad in Alberta at the time and that election result was a nice holiday present when I went back for B. C. after my exams were finished that term.

  33. we live in a small upgraded 100+ yr old house in alberta. electricity ~$0.18/kwh all-in fees + consumption. with gas furnace/hot water the energy bill is

  34. Don’t make that mistake my friend, Horgan is just another duplicitous, career apparatchik NDPee socialist, saying all the convenient banal niceties, to get elected. He won’t change anything, but, you will end up paying for the childcare of millenials, in their fancy Yaletown condos, you will pay handsomely for the all the union bribes and special favours the Dips have planned, a FAR HIGHER CARBON TAX, etc, etc, etc.
    Your line of reasoning is exactly how the NDPee got elected in Alberta, how is that an improvement? I’m sorry, but, by all accounts, the Libs with Premier TNA is still better than the Marxists. Don’t let Horgans weasel words fool you, he’s a committed tax and spender. He won’t lower the hydro or icbc rates, he can’t.
    Kicking out the current government, is like an accidental unwanted pregnancy. It feels great at the initial feel good climax, but it’s years of uncertainty and pain afterward.
    And no, I don’t think CC is a good premier, but, she’s better on her worst day than an Effin NDPee government

  35. Dear clueless in BC… If you freely CHOOSE to heat with electricity then it doesn’t matter if you’re heating the house with baseboards, lights, computers, kitchen appliances, or whatever. The heat from those devices heats the house, the baseboards do the rest. The only wasted electric heat is in the hot water you flush down the drain and out of the house. There are lots of smart people in the BC interior who heat their houses and hot water with propane, aka LPG. Many others like myself who live in even colder regions north of you heat with wood.
    Complain all you want about your energy consumptive lifestyle, but it all comes down to choices YOU made. Do your teenagers have jobs, do they contribute to the cost of running the household where they comfortably live? Have you done anything to upgrade the ‘energy efficiency’ of your house? Do you keep all zones of your house at a comfortable ‘T-shirt’ temperature?
    Lots of people in Canada don’t live as well as you do, and pay much more for electricity. For example here, the ‘first-tier’ 1000kwh is $0.15/kwh and further north in the diesel generation communities it’s even more. Consider yourself very fortunate.

  36. Stop being an azz Galt. BC has its own challenges, and without knowing local conditions, you are not the ultimate authority.
    Our friend has options to research changes to his heating, but voting NDPee is his worst choice, despite our LibLeft BC government. BC stands for Bring Cash, always has always will.
    Propane is not a panacea either, it means either buying a 100lb or larger tank, or renting it at exorbitant fees and fuel delivery charges. And yeah, he still might be better off, but you don’t have to be a pompous prik about it!

  37. Thanks Dan, the support is actually very much appreciated.
    To Galt: this is the last comment from me to you because this is Reader Tips and in any case you are just disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing. I have seven zones in my house, and most are off most of the time. My daughter walks around in a coat most of the winter. My youngest son complained to me two weeks ago that “Our house is always so cold”. I have so far chosen not to heat with wood because we live in a small valley next to mountains and we regularly get a cold inversion layer that traps smoke for hours, so not good for my family’s health. That said, recently I have started to research high-efficiency pellet boilers. I don’t use baseboard heaters, those are not as efficient as hot water in-floor radiant which is what I use throughout the house. In-floor radiant can be run at lower energy levels yet a house will feel as comfortable as baseboard because the heat is fully radiant and is distributed over the whole room. (Basedboard heaters tend to heat the air more than supply direct radiant heat to occupants in a room).
    We are trying to work with the BC Libs to get the rate structure reviewed. After much wrangling we managed to get the government to ask that the BCUC review certain aspects of the rate structure. That report is coming out this week. The rate structure was supposed to among other things encourage use of greener energy (hydro electricity) but it has had the reverse effect and is causing customers to shift to wood. Fortis BC was in fact opposed to the rate structure knowing it would impact their customer base negatively but they were forced to implement it by the BCUC because BC Hydro had already implemented it. BC Hydro’s CEO recently said they will not (or no longer) charge two-tier rates for commercial customers yet still want to stick it to residential customers. We have a retired senior energy economist with extensive past experience working for the Federal government helping out. We have engineers with over 30 years experience in power generation helping us out. We have done our homework, and we know what we are talking about.
    My original post was simply about the inequities of two-tier rate structures with a link to a simple on-line poll. After I didn’t immediately answer your first question your response was to tell me to “suck it up”. I have over 20 years experience in electrical engineering so it is interesting you would tell me to “suck it up” on this topic. You are just angling for a fight for the sake of a fight, which is typically what you do around here. Presume all you want about me, my kids, my house, my lifestyle, but it is clear you have no clue about energy policy in BC or what has transpired over the last few years, and which this issue is important and requires attention.

  39. That’s too bad if yer feelings got hurt by a dose of reality. If you choose to tell people “as always you don’t have a clue.” then expect to get the same back at you. I have science and engineering degrees and 40 years of experience in the North. Smart people here have been building houses to the ‘energy efficient’ R2000 standard or better since the 80s. Where I live the climate is much colder than yours and the ‘two-tier’ rates are higher. Everyone who doesn’t sympathize with you isn’t without a clue; we cope with a cold climate and high energy prices too, we just don’t whine and snivel about it. So yes Suck It Up, you’re not alone, nor are you especially hard put.
    It’s good that you’re using efficient radiant floor slab distribution with an electric boiler instead of the more common electric baseboards. Do you have a minimum of R20 slab edge insulation to a depth of 2 ft? That’s the least you should have with a radiant floor system. Do you have a Heat Recovery Ventilation system and triple glazed windows? Have you contracted an energy audit on your house with an air leakage test to see where the greatest energy loss is occurring? There are more effective things you can do with your engineering education besides complain.

  40. Just wondering if anyone noticed that all the new smart meters are not UL or CSA approved and therefor are not legal to be used to measure electrical usage as far as the Government of Canada is concerned. So we should be able to take then to court and question any charges made to us.

  41. AGW RIP.
    …-
    “Another blizzard for Churchill – Grocery shelves already bare”
    “19 Mar 2017 – Just two week after an historic blizzard hit the Northern Manitoba town, yet another blizzard is blasting the area.
    Churchill has been under a local state of emergency since March 10, after the area was hit with 60 cm of snow over three days.
    No bread or vegetables are for sale at the local store and meat is scarce, said local resident Lana Bilenduke.
    “Everyone’s in a crisis until we get our groceries in.””
    https://www.iceagenow.info/another-blizzard-churchill-grocery-shelves-already-bare/#more-20811

  42. Norway is number one. Good governance might be a factor, while here in Canada our governments respond to pet causes and special interest groups. Last year Norway made an effort to cut down on the number of refugees entering their country — they even went so far as to build a wall. They appear to care about the survival of their nation state.

  43. Quebec government is going to put more money into electric cars and is aiming towards having all citizens not having cars using fossel fuels some years from now.
    Has anyone ever added up the cost of all this virtue signaling with these electric cars?

  44. I guess the governments in Canada will be the last to figure out the global warming scam. There are enough countries backing off of this nonsense that you would expect some awareness from government. What fools they are (and anyone who voted for these climate scare promoters.)

  45. To all of you complaining about Canadian energy costs, I just want you to know that I thank you for your conservation efforts. You’re all soldiers, marching forward shoulder to shoulder, in the fight against global warming. And though your individual contributions may be minuscule (some ‘deniers’ would go even further and say insignificant… I hate those people), together comrades we can win this fight. I award you all a participant’s ribbon. Display it proudly on your parka as you huddle together in congradulatory celebration. Your leaders are proud of your accomplishments. Now let us chant our solidarity: Two legs bad, four legs good. Repeat. Repeat.
    I have to go now. It’s… er… time to leave … er …. the work of your leaders … is never done (oink).
    Just submit. Resistance is too much work.

  46. So we should be able to take then to court and question any charges made to us.
    That is indeed a possibility. Several years ago, my landlord decided that each apartment in the complex would be charged for heat during the winter. It arranged to have a company install meters that measured the temperature of the radiator, converting that into the amount of heat required.
    This system used a short-range transmitter to send the data to a central node and, later, we got a bill from the company that managed the system, being charged at least a minimum value to have those dadblasted things in our apartments.
    A tenant somewhere figured out that those meters weren’t certified by Industry Canada, thereby making them illegal, and a class action lawsuit was filed against the company. The tenant won and we stopped getting those bills. We weren’t, however, refunded the money we had already paid.

  47. meters that measured the temperature of the radiator
    Move meter to measure temperature of the toilet… problem solved.

  48. Move meter to measure temperature of the toilet
    It didn’t quite work that way. I assume that those meter used thermocouples as they appeared to be soldered to the radiator pipes. They measured the temperature difference between the two points where the leads were fastened and the actual meter/transmitter was screwed onto the wall.
    I got around that problem by simply refusing to adjust my thermostat, wearing a sweatshirt when it turned cooler in my apartment during the winter. I also unrolled my sleeping bag onto my bed and used an electric space heater in my bedroom or by my desk.
    The company became suspicious about this lack of activity and sent someone around to check to see if the system was working. When I said that I did all that out of protest, the chap went away astounded that anyone would even consider not changing the thermostat’s setting.
    The result was that I paid only the amount required by the company for having that infernal system in my apartment in the first place.

  50. “One of my relatives lives on Vancouver Island and she hasn’t much good to say about the premier, either.”
    Well that’s pretty much expected. With an exception of a couple of Liberal MP’s plus Andrew Weaver of the Green party, the whole rest of the island went NDP. Why would anyone think anyone here would say anything good about the premier?
    Damning with faint praise: She’s the better of a bad bunch.

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