Recently a fellow blogger asked me “what can (governments or partys) do to get the rural vote”? Having been blogging myself about rural issues for some years now I was surprised to find that I did not have a substantive answer ready in regard to either federal or provincial jurisdictions.
Before going much further I must make clear that the rural population is no less divided in our preferred choices of government than the urban population, we may in fact be more divided in that the mere definition of “rural” perhaps covers a much broader range of “lifestyles” and situations than does the definition of “urban”. I will try and answer the question above at a later date, it will of course be a personal view and cannot represent what all the “rural” citizens may want or think. In the meanwhile my best response is to give readers a crash course in some of the issues that effect us here in the cities, towns, villages and countryside that comprise a “rural” riding. I will do this not by regurgitating information and opinions posted elsewhere but by pointing you to each of those articles along with my reaction to them in various posts over the last two or three years.
The first question is “What is Rural”, a question I have previously attempted to answer (unfortunately that piece has disappeared into electronic hell) and a question asked by many other including in some of the reports below. It is a very difficult definition to pin down with as many views upon it as there are writers!
One of the best outlines of rural needs is “The Senate Report on Rural Poverty” and my reaction to it. It covers a great deal more than just “poverty” issues and says that Rural Canada “lacks a voice” in the Federal Government.
Also of interest is the report on “ The Federal Role in Rural Sustainability” and my post on that.
A National Symposium on How to Build a Sustainable Rural Canada was held in Edmonton my post reflects the theme of One Vision, Many Voices at that gathering.
My view that rural populations are rapidly becoming “The Forgotten Minority” may be worth a read.
The ever increasing rules and regulations to be followed by food processing operations that make small operations non-viable impact the rural areas more than most. Farm “value added” operations are becoming ever harder to start or maintain.
Also of interest a discussion on property taxation and how a small municipality with a limited tax base cannot compete with a larger one in regard to providing services to their citizens.
The move by the Ontario government to reduce the need for environmental assessments for “Wind Farms” and the impact they may have upon rural residents heath and property values is a big issue in some areas. Overriding residents and local municipal concerns to benefit mostly urban hydro users is not acceptable.
Then there is the other side of that coin where property owners can be negatively impacted by the EPA without compensation for their work to preserve a species or loss of land use arising from such action.
I will try in a future post to bring all these things together in a more concise overview but if you have visited just a few of these links you will begin to see the difficulty in answering that question we started with. At this point it would seem that the best answer is to move “universal services” such as ambulance, policing, social services etc off the municipal government (but maintain and improve those services) and give more local say in what can be locally unique issues like land use, small industry regulation and environmental protection.
As is recommended in that Senate report, the use of local Post Offices to supply Government Services would do much to make rural folks life easer, this sort of initiative should also be considered for our rural schools which are also once again under threat of closure and “centralization” in the name of “efficiency”. Our rural schools have in fact been under almost constant “review” since my children started in the school system 20 years ago resulting in the gradual decline in the number of local schools and the ever increasing time our kids must spend on the bus each day.
You will note that I have made no effort here to separate the various levels of government responsibility, it is rather difficult to do so when responsibilities for delivery, funding and regulation is so often a mix of two or more government bodies.
I will end with one recommendation from the report One Vision, Many Voices …
”The best ideas about rural Canada come from rural Canadians.Municipalities need to ensure that senior levels of government are listening and not providing solutions in absence of local representation.”
This final Priority is probably the most important, and the one which most rural folks feel strongly about. Made in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton or Ottawa solutions not only rarely work for us but are rarely acceptable or even practical to those living far from the city. Whether we “the rural” residents can agree on what those solutions should be, or get Government to listen, is another whole issue!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
The good news is.....
Rick Mercer always gets to the heart of things in his rants, this extract from Oct 13 is worth repeating again …………… and again!
But the good news is, the same guy who said that we could never go into a deficit, now says we will pay off that 60 billion dollars without raising taxes or cutting spending. Imagine for a moment your fiancé comes home and tells you that when you weren't looking he or she dropped 150 grand that you don't have at the casino. Now imagine the same fiancé says, "Don't worry, we'll pay it back without making a single change to our lifestyle: I stand on my financial record." I think piano playing or not, we'd all start looking at other options.
Now don't get me wrong, just to be clear to my Tory friends, I am not saying that I believe Michael Ignatieff is better suited to manage this economy. No. I'm saying that based on the past twelve months, Porky Pig is better suited to manage this economy. Because as it stands right now this country has a 60 billion dollar wake up call coming and for the record, not a single leader has come even close to being honest.
But the good news is, the same guy who said that we could never go into a deficit, now says we will pay off that 60 billion dollars without raising taxes or cutting spending. Imagine for a moment your fiancé comes home and tells you that when you weren't looking he or she dropped 150 grand that you don't have at the casino. Now imagine the same fiancé says, "Don't worry, we'll pay it back without making a single change to our lifestyle: I stand on my financial record." I think piano playing or not, we'd all start looking at other options.
Now don't get me wrong, just to be clear to my Tory friends, I am not saying that I believe Michael Ignatieff is better suited to manage this economy. No. I'm saying that based on the past twelve months, Porky Pig is better suited to manage this economy. Because as it stands right now this country has a 60 billion dollar wake up call coming and for the record, not a single leader has come even close to being honest.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Endangered Species and Landowners
I recently saw that the Ontario Landowner Association had gathered to destroy potential habitat for endangered species on a members farm and whist not advocating such extreme action can certainly see their point. It was I suspect more of a publicity move than a real removal of a critical habitat, after all many farmers grub out fence lines in order to maximize their crop lands and whilst these “corridors” are important to wildlife few contain “endangered species”. Or do they?
There are several things that we need to know about the Endangered Species legislation and the lists of creatures and plants covered by these laws. Firstly there is Provincial and Federal legislation on Species at risk they can be Endangered, Threatened or of Special Concern with corresponding regulations and interventions, the average landowner simply will not have a clue as to what is involved in all this.
“If a species is listed on the Species at Risk in Ontario List as an extirpated, endangered or threatened species, the Bill prohibits killing, harming, harassing, capturing, taking, possessing, collecting, buying, selling, leasing, trading or offering to buy, sell, lease or trade a member of the species. Some of these prohibitions also apply to parts of a member of the species, and to things derived from a member of the species.”
More importantly “If a species is listed on the Species at Risk in Ontario List as an endangered or threatened species, the Bill prohibits damaging or destroying the habitat of the species.”
Secondly a habitat once identified by the MNR or a Conservation officer who feels that it needs “protecting” and the process started, the landowner may have little control over the outcome, hence the publicity stunt by the OLA. Whilst most conservation authorities do encourage cooperation between the landowner and the authorities the bottom line is that private land can be seized, managed or declared a protected area by the authorities WITHOUT compensation to the landowner (in so far as I know or can tell, there is little said on the pages above about the actions that can or will be taken). This seems to be where most of the opposition by more radical landowners comes from.
Lets take a look at one particular “species” that has just been declared in danger and the possible ramifications of that. The Butternut grows in many parts of SW Ontario and is rarely cut down as it is not considered a “valuable” wood by most and has few commercial uses. Carvers and hobbyist do like it when available as it is a soft straight grained wood that is easy to work and polishes to a nice finish, but to say that even a small percentage is cut for sale would be misleading. The Butternut, at least here in Ontario, is susceptible to a fungal disease called Butternut Canker that results in it dieing off before it reaches full maturity, although many do reach a size that in a Maple would be considered a “harvestable” size before doing so. There is little doubt from my observations that the majority of these trees will succumb to the disease and fall to the forest floor eventually, the protection of HEALTHY trees is perhaps necessary and is no doubt the intention of the legislation. The actual regulations however are such that the landowner is dammed if he does and damned if he does not.
At a recent presentation by a conservation officer on tree recognition a piece of butternut log was held up so that participants could see the characteristics of the bark with the remark “it is probably illegal for me to have this”, which started a discussion as to why. None of the participants, which included several woodlot owners, were aware of any restriction regarding this tree, most of us would probably preferred to remain ignorant!
We were told that it was now illegal to cut down ANY butternut tree without a permit, even those that are dead and in danger of falling upon someone or something must be “assessed” by a certified BHA (Butternut Health Assessor) and “approved” for felling. If the darn thing did fall over it was still illegal to cut it up and that the mere ownership of a piece of butternut may well soon be a crime, is this then Canada Ivory! Ridiculous, if its standing there in the spring with the bark peeling off and no leaves on it, its dead folks, we don’t need to retain a forestry consultant to tell us that, and furthermore the wood from such a tree is perfectly usable for the type of projects mentioned above why leave it rot on the forest floor. One would think that the diseased trees should be removed from the woodlot as soon as identified for that is certainly what we are told to do with cankered or diseased trees of other species.
Here are some extracts from one pdf document found regarding this, very few other web sites were found…
“It is the landowner's responsibility to contact a BHA to determine if their Butternut tree is retainable. Even if the tree appears to be dead or dying, it must be assessed by a BHA before removal. If a Butternut tree is removed without a Butternut Health Assessment or without a permit the landowner may be at risk of prosecution under the ESA.”
The information I have at this time (and it may well have changed since it was posed on the web site consulted) says that Butternut MAY be possessed and used provided it comes from a “non retainable tree” i.e. one that has been cut with a permit. Hmmm, how would anyone know which was which?
“A person is entitled to possess any items made from Butternut wood that were legally possessed before the ESA was put into place on June 30, 2008, regardless of the health of the tree the items came from. Any wood from a non-retainable Butternut tree can be used, bought or sold.”
We were the told that “protection of habitat was being considered” for healthy butternut trees and since “Butternut is intolerant of shade” this involved removing all the trees around it to create a clearing, even it would seem for a small sapling. So it seems that if we have one of these trees identified or it self seeds in the surrounding mixed forest we must then start hacking down everything around it, that doesn’t sound like “conservation” to me, particularly when one can find few growing in isolated open areas but many in some mixed forest situations.
Once a tree is identified by an outside agency on a private landowner property he or she may have little choice but to comply with “orders” from the authorities, and if they find other flora or fauna “at risk” you can imagine the possible implications.
It all comes down to this, the protection of species is an important initiative but it cannot be successful without the cooperation of landowners. If even those of us who make an effort to preserve sections of our property in as natural a state as possible are reluctant to even look for “species at risk” for fear of the financial, bureaucratic or land use implications that may result. How then do you expect the farmer who’s whole operation may be put at risk for finding a Lesser Spotted Bureaucrat or some such in the middle of his corn field to react knowing that he will not receive any compensation for losses thus incurred. Truth be known, a scientist closely studying any given piece of land, particularly forested land here in Grey & Bruce has a fair chance of finding something on one of these lists of birds, animals, plants & trees so that many landowners could be impacted at one time or another. The addition of the Butternut to this list increased that probability considerably.
We all benefit from the protection of these things, or at least they are protected on our behalf so we should all pay for such protection, not just the affected landowner. Therein lies the fatal flaw in the “act”!
There are several things that we need to know about the Endangered Species legislation and the lists of creatures and plants covered by these laws. Firstly there is Provincial and Federal legislation on Species at risk they can be Endangered, Threatened or of Special Concern with corresponding regulations and interventions, the average landowner simply will not have a clue as to what is involved in all this.
“If a species is listed on the Species at Risk in Ontario List as an extirpated, endangered or threatened species, the Bill prohibits killing, harming, harassing, capturing, taking, possessing, collecting, buying, selling, leasing, trading or offering to buy, sell, lease or trade a member of the species. Some of these prohibitions also apply to parts of a member of the species, and to things derived from a member of the species.”
More importantly “If a species is listed on the Species at Risk in Ontario List as an endangered or threatened species, the Bill prohibits damaging or destroying the habitat of the species.”
Secondly a habitat once identified by the MNR or a Conservation officer who feels that it needs “protecting” and the process started, the landowner may have little control over the outcome, hence the publicity stunt by the OLA. Whilst most conservation authorities do encourage cooperation between the landowner and the authorities the bottom line is that private land can be seized, managed or declared a protected area by the authorities WITHOUT compensation to the landowner (in so far as I know or can tell, there is little said on the pages above about the actions that can or will be taken). This seems to be where most of the opposition by more radical landowners comes from.
Lets take a look at one particular “species” that has just been declared in danger and the possible ramifications of that. The Butternut grows in many parts of SW Ontario and is rarely cut down as it is not considered a “valuable” wood by most and has few commercial uses. Carvers and hobbyist do like it when available as it is a soft straight grained wood that is easy to work and polishes to a nice finish, but to say that even a small percentage is cut for sale would be misleading. The Butternut, at least here in Ontario, is susceptible to a fungal disease called Butternut Canker that results in it dieing off before it reaches full maturity, although many do reach a size that in a Maple would be considered a “harvestable” size before doing so. There is little doubt from my observations that the majority of these trees will succumb to the disease and fall to the forest floor eventually, the protection of HEALTHY trees is perhaps necessary and is no doubt the intention of the legislation. The actual regulations however are such that the landowner is dammed if he does and damned if he does not.
At a recent presentation by a conservation officer on tree recognition a piece of butternut log was held up so that participants could see the characteristics of the bark with the remark “it is probably illegal for me to have this”, which started a discussion as to why. None of the participants, which included several woodlot owners, were aware of any restriction regarding this tree, most of us would probably preferred to remain ignorant!
We were told that it was now illegal to cut down ANY butternut tree without a permit, even those that are dead and in danger of falling upon someone or something must be “assessed” by a certified BHA (Butternut Health Assessor) and “approved” for felling. If the darn thing did fall over it was still illegal to cut it up and that the mere ownership of a piece of butternut may well soon be a crime, is this then Canada Ivory! Ridiculous, if its standing there in the spring with the bark peeling off and no leaves on it, its dead folks, we don’t need to retain a forestry consultant to tell us that, and furthermore the wood from such a tree is perfectly usable for the type of projects mentioned above why leave it rot on the forest floor. One would think that the diseased trees should be removed from the woodlot as soon as identified for that is certainly what we are told to do with cankered or diseased trees of other species.
Here are some extracts from one pdf document found regarding this, very few other web sites were found…
“It is the landowner's responsibility to contact a BHA to determine if their Butternut tree is retainable. Even if the tree appears to be dead or dying, it must be assessed by a BHA before removal. If a Butternut tree is removed without a Butternut Health Assessment or without a permit the landowner may be at risk of prosecution under the ESA.”
The information I have at this time (and it may well have changed since it was posed on the web site consulted) says that Butternut MAY be possessed and used provided it comes from a “non retainable tree” i.e. one that has been cut with a permit. Hmmm, how would anyone know which was which?
“A person is entitled to possess any items made from Butternut wood that were legally possessed before the ESA was put into place on June 30, 2008, regardless of the health of the tree the items came from. Any wood from a non-retainable Butternut tree can be used, bought or sold.”
We were the told that “protection of habitat was being considered” for healthy butternut trees and since “Butternut is intolerant of shade” this involved removing all the trees around it to create a clearing, even it would seem for a small sapling. So it seems that if we have one of these trees identified or it self seeds in the surrounding mixed forest we must then start hacking down everything around it, that doesn’t sound like “conservation” to me, particularly when one can find few growing in isolated open areas but many in some mixed forest situations.
Once a tree is identified by an outside agency on a private landowner property he or she may have little choice but to comply with “orders” from the authorities, and if they find other flora or fauna “at risk” you can imagine the possible implications.
It all comes down to this, the protection of species is an important initiative but it cannot be successful without the cooperation of landowners. If even those of us who make an effort to preserve sections of our property in as natural a state as possible are reluctant to even look for “species at risk” for fear of the financial, bureaucratic or land use implications that may result. How then do you expect the farmer who’s whole operation may be put at risk for finding a Lesser Spotted Bureaucrat or some such in the middle of his corn field to react knowing that he will not receive any compensation for losses thus incurred. Truth be known, a scientist closely studying any given piece of land, particularly forested land here in Grey & Bruce has a fair chance of finding something on one of these lists of birds, animals, plants & trees so that many landowners could be impacted at one time or another. The addition of the Butternut to this list increased that probability considerably.
We all benefit from the protection of these things, or at least they are protected on our behalf so we should all pay for such protection, not just the affected landowner. Therein lies the fatal flaw in the “act”!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Deep in debt
With the Ontario Government just releasing their budget forecast with a 25 Billion deficit for this year I was somewhat surprised by the lack of commentary in the blogesphere about this millstone hung around our neck. It is true that most of the blogs and aggregators I visit are left leaning but come on folks NO government should get a free ride on this one. Lets take a few minutes away from the Federal fiasco to look at the Ontario situation, whilst I am sure that some stimulus was in order I am not at all sure that this kind of debt is good for the economy or for Ontarians.
Twenty Five Billion Dollars, that’s abt $5000 per household more being spent than is coming in, of which according to some reports over a third is interest on the provincial dept.
“That's on a $113.7 billion budget, which includes $104.3 billion in spending on programs and $9.4 billion on interest payments to service a provincial debt that has skyrocketed to $137.9 billion.”
My first question on this is where the H are they borrowing the money from? At 9.4b interest on 137.9b debt that’s abt 7%, with prime at ½% I think its about time they renegotiated their mortgage!! The second part of this is that each family not only has that $5000 budget shortfall around their neck but also has a dept of around $27,000 to pay off. Scary isn’t it!
But wait we are not done yet, we cannot forget those federal debts, at an estimated 55.9 Billion Dollars budget deficit that’s about another $4500 per Canadian household in more outgo than income. But wait there is still more, how about the Federal DEBT of around $495 Billion Dollars that adds another $38,000 per household for a grand total of about $75,000 per average household using the 2006 census figures
I wonder how many of us with a debt of $50 or $60,000 and an income almost $10,000 less than our obligations would be able to go out and borrow more on the assumption that we were going to get a better job some time in the next 3 or 4 years!! I also wonder how many employers in this position would not have to lay off some of their workers and cut costs rather than increase their prices. That the government workers unions are already screaming about that possibility shows they are just as out of touch with reality as are our governments.
Ok now I’m even more depressed, think I will go and count my meager savings to see how long I can hold out………….
Twenty Five Billion Dollars, that’s abt $5000 per household more being spent than is coming in, of which according to some reports over a third is interest on the provincial dept.
“That's on a $113.7 billion budget, which includes $104.3 billion in spending on programs and $9.4 billion on interest payments to service a provincial debt that has skyrocketed to $137.9 billion.”
My first question on this is where the H are they borrowing the money from? At 9.4b interest on 137.9b debt that’s abt 7%, with prime at ½% I think its about time they renegotiated their mortgage!! The second part of this is that each family not only has that $5000 budget shortfall around their neck but also has a dept of around $27,000 to pay off. Scary isn’t it!
But wait we are not done yet, we cannot forget those federal debts, at an estimated 55.9 Billion Dollars budget deficit that’s about another $4500 per Canadian household in more outgo than income. But wait there is still more, how about the Federal DEBT of around $495 Billion Dollars that adds another $38,000 per household for a grand total of about $75,000 per average household using the 2006 census figures
I wonder how many of us with a debt of $50 or $60,000 and an income almost $10,000 less than our obligations would be able to go out and borrow more on the assumption that we were going to get a better job some time in the next 3 or 4 years!! I also wonder how many employers in this position would not have to lay off some of their workers and cut costs rather than increase their prices. That the government workers unions are already screaming about that possibility shows they are just as out of touch with reality as are our governments.
Ok now I’m even more depressed, think I will go and count my meager savings to see how long I can hold out………….
Sunday, October 18, 2009
How to track that Infrastructure Spending
You cant!
See this from STEPHEN MAHER LETTER FROM OTTAWA
“As a journalist, it’s not my job to tell those people what to think or how to vote.
It is my job, though, to tell them how their government is spending their money, and I can report that the federal government is making it so difficult to do that, that it’s sending me into a black rage.
In order to create a database of federal stimulus spending in Nova Scotia, it was necessary to look at all kinds of different federal websites, all with scraps of information, and then find out from other levels of government how much money was spent on each project and figure out where the shovels were hitting the ground.
In the United States, on the recovery.gov website, you can, in seconds, download exhaustively detailed databases showing where and how stimulus is being spent, who is getting the contracts, for how much, when, and how many jobs are created.
In Canada, on the actionplan.gc.ca site, there’s a map with icons showing where projects are located, but if you click on the icons, you get a popup with a charming picture of what’s his name, our prime minister, but no dollar amount.”
More at http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1147994.html
H/T to Impolitical
See this from STEPHEN MAHER LETTER FROM OTTAWA
“As a journalist, it’s not my job to tell those people what to think or how to vote.
It is my job, though, to tell them how their government is spending their money, and I can report that the federal government is making it so difficult to do that, that it’s sending me into a black rage.
In order to create a database of federal stimulus spending in Nova Scotia, it was necessary to look at all kinds of different federal websites, all with scraps of information, and then find out from other levels of government how much money was spent on each project and figure out where the shovels were hitting the ground.
In the United States, on the recovery.gov website, you can, in seconds, download exhaustively detailed databases showing where and how stimulus is being spent, who is getting the contracts, for how much, when, and how many jobs are created.
In Canada, on the actionplan.gc.ca site, there’s a map with icons showing where projects are located, but if you click on the icons, you get a popup with a charming picture of what’s his name, our prime minister, but no dollar amount.”
More at http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1147994.html
H/T to Impolitical
Sunday, October 11, 2009
A word about Workfare
With EI having run out for many I suspect as I said before that the number of folks applying for welfare I workfare will be going up. I recently became aware of one of the things that young folk cannot do if they wish to get assistance from this safety net. Move in with their parents!
It seems that someone in dire circumstances can rent a hovel or a mansion, live with their aunt, uncle, brother, sister, a neighbor, a friend or any one but their parents and receive assistance to pay rent and grocery bills or room and board.
It would seem that their parents could even live with them (provided that they didn’t pay enough rent to build the applicants bank balance above about $550) and still be eligible for help.
How very bizarre. Moving in with parents and paying a small amount to cover costs is not considered to be a person in need, moving in with a brother (and their family) and paying the same amount is considered a person in need! What is even more bizarre is that welfare / workfare payments are based upon costs (with limitations) so that renting an apartment at $500 month and living expenses to maintain that separate existence will be supported whilst living at “home” at less than half that cost will not.
So there you go folks, if your son or daughter who lives at home is unable to find work or laid off and out of unemployment, and therefore unable to contribute to household expenses - kick them out. The government will then pick up the tab instead of straining the perhaps already tight family budget.
I hope you are on good terms with a relation or friend in the same situation because then all you have to do is switch homes and start collecting. Don’t feel guilty for “playing” the system, that seems to be what you have to do in order to get help.
As for actually finding a job and moving on with life…….., good luck with that. Try applying for government jobs because that is where all those “new jobs created” that Harper is boasting about are to be found. Our tax dollars at work.............. enough said!
It seems that someone in dire circumstances can rent a hovel or a mansion, live with their aunt, uncle, brother, sister, a neighbor, a friend or any one but their parents and receive assistance to pay rent and grocery bills or room and board.
It would seem that their parents could even live with them (provided that they didn’t pay enough rent to build the applicants bank balance above about $550) and still be eligible for help.
How very bizarre. Moving in with parents and paying a small amount to cover costs is not considered to be a person in need, moving in with a brother (and their family) and paying the same amount is considered a person in need! What is even more bizarre is that welfare / workfare payments are based upon costs (with limitations) so that renting an apartment at $500 month and living expenses to maintain that separate existence will be supported whilst living at “home” at less than half that cost will not.
So there you go folks, if your son or daughter who lives at home is unable to find work or laid off and out of unemployment, and therefore unable to contribute to household expenses - kick them out. The government will then pick up the tab instead of straining the perhaps already tight family budget.
I hope you are on good terms with a relation or friend in the same situation because then all you have to do is switch homes and start collecting. Don’t feel guilty for “playing” the system, that seems to be what you have to do in order to get help.
As for actually finding a job and moving on with life…….., good luck with that. Try applying for government jobs because that is where all those “new jobs created” that Harper is boasting about are to be found. Our tax dollars at work.............. enough said!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Telephone woes – talking to India!
As regular readers will know I am stuck on dial up internet at speeds that at times it would be faster to send it by Canada Post. I have learned to tolerate this in that I have little choice but to do so, however when recently the phone once again crapped out entirely, a situation that happens all to frequently, I finally got pissed off enough to spend the hours on the phone required to work my way up through the layers of “service representatives” that stand between Bell Canada’s customers and the folks that are actually responsible for operation and repair of said telephone system. It was not easy let me tell you!
So here is the saga of my telephone / internet woes over the last 5 years or more for your interest and edification!!
Let it be first said that I am at the end of a cable stretching some 5 or 10 miles to the nearest switch station and as such one cannot expect internet speed above 36k, my best achieved speed was 32k last summer, this year it is 28k….. UNTIL IT RAINS! When it rains, or spring or fall as the frost in the ground comes or goes it will gradually decrease until it totally craps out often the voice connection is unusable due to noise and at times it get to the point where we totally loose dial tone. Naturally each time this happens I get on the cell phone and dial 611 “telephone repair”, where upon I am directed to an operator in INDIA who insists upon my identifying myself often with personal information in order to proceed further.
Lets deal with that bit before we continue with the story. In a recent call I was asked for my Bell account number and not having that right in front of me I said “sorry I don’t have that handy” and was then asked for my SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!! What the HELL, if a operative in INDIA can confirm my identity with my social security number that means it must be available to them, where did they get it, why do they have it and is that not supposed to be secure information? In this case I refuse to do that and made them wait until I had dug out an invoice with my customer number on it, we then proceeded with the call……
In order to try and get to someone who could actually help I decided to call the Bell “customer service” line rather than “telephone repair” and upon explaining my problem (as outlined elsewhere in this saga) requested to speak to a supervisor and upon finally getting said supervisor on the line and once AGAIN explaining my problem it was suggested that I “hold” whilst it could be seen what could be done. Upon return I was told “OK I will transfer you to a repair supervisor”. Great I thought, we are finally getting somewhere but after a short wait, guess what? Yup, you are right, I was connected to the 611 “representative in INDIA. …..SHIT!
Now you must understand that with any where between 2 to 10 calls to 611 each year about the same problem I now am fairly familiar with the “system”. The “representative you first talk to will go through a set procedure consisting of a number of set questions and set warning of costs should it be a problem in your house and not on their system. There is little one can do to shorten this procedure even if you have heard it 50 or 100 times over the years, so settle in for a prolonged conversation before you ever get to the meat of the problem. So, 10 min later I get to report my troubles, phone don’t work, line noisy, no dial tone. In order to try and fix this ongoing problem permanently I request to be connected to a CANADIAN supervisor, preferably a supervisor at least in the area where I reside and one responsible for cable repair. I explain that having talked to many repair technicians over the years the problem is in the bell cable / connection boxes leading from my house to the bell switching station and that unless I can get someone out WHILST IT IS STILL RAINING they will, by the time they get here the fault will have dried out and all will be well.
As an aside here I will say for the most part that the technicians who have responded to my many calls have been helpful and friendly but I recognize that they cannot find a fault that is not there by the time they get out here. The few times that they have located some problems with the line I have been told that it appears the underground cable coming up the road is probably NFG and / or there is water getting into the joints / cable somewhere. Each time this happens the 611 guy escalates it to the “cable guys” who then come out and basically do / tell me, the same thing. Each of the 6 or 8 spare circuits in that cable have been tried at one time or another with only temporary improvement. Next spring, Fall or rain here we go again.
By now you will be just STARTING to understand my frustration! Anyway on with the saga. So having told this long story to the “representative” in INDIA I finally persuaded her to let me talk to her supervisor and after a short wait he came on the line. The first question I asked was where was he located and what was his position in the company. The reply? INDIA, 611 supervisor! So after having gone through the LONG story AGAIN I asked to be connected to a CANADIAN supervisor and was told “that is not possible, we do not have any phone numbers of supervisors or managers in Canada besides which the 611 repair service is run entirely out of INDIA!! At this point I am getting really ticked and after a few more go-arounds establish that the Canadian technicians are dispatched by email directly from INDIA. This was later pretty much confirmed in my conversation with a repair technician who said “ I don’t get to talk with anyone, I am dispatched by email but I don’t really know where (or who) that comes from. Hmmmm, I don’t seem to be getting anywhere here but do eventually agree to have a repair guy come out with instructions to make sure that he comes to my door before proceeding any further so that I can TRY and get a phone number of someone who can resolve this long standing problem and he said he could “send a message” to a Canadian supervisor who would call me within 24hrs.
One note here, what set me off was the fact that I had gone through most of this the day before but the tech who came out DID NOT come see me but sent an AUTOMATED message “we cannot find anything wrong with your line”. Duh, its stopped raining you fkin idiot, did they not tell you that it comes and goes with the weather!!
End of chapter one!
So we are now 24hrs after the SECOND recent call to INDIA and I finally get to talk to a Canadian technician who has received an email dispatch to repair my phone and after explaining the whole story AGAIN to him he tells me he will see what he can find / do and will report back to me. Sure enough his initial testing showed no problem with the phone line but the thank the Lord it started to rain and sure enough the phone line went tilt and he was able to return and say “yes, there is a problem, there are grounds and shorts in the cable and / or connections. Great, thank you, but I already knew that from talking to several other technicians over the years. Now what are we going to do about it?
Step one, he says is to forward it to the “cable guys”, ok that’s been done several time before. What’s next? He indicated that he can do little more being just the guy on the bottom of the totem pole but does give me a number of his “manager” in Toronto (70 miles away), apparently there are no “local” managers or supervisors so that a least explained why I could not get to speak to one! He also told me that there is, in the front of the phone book, a number for when all else fails of the Corporate Office where I am told there is a “knowledgeable secretary” who may well be able to put me in touch with someone who can produce some results or at least explain where to go from here.
Shortly after the tech left the 611 supervisor in Canada, yep that right in CANADA called, having received that “message” from INDIA , unfortunately it was much the same story but he did promise to have a supervisor from “engineering” call me. A while later the “cable guy” called to say that he had checked my line and found and corrected two faults, (during a period of no rain!) one of which (no bonding on cable shield) had been there for a long while, the other being some wires laying against the side of a terminal box and shorting when things got damp. Thank you “Paul” I can but hope you have finally found the problem but only time will tell. Although the cable tested out “perfect” and was “in very good condition” (wonder why the previous guys blamed it on a poor cable coming up the road?) I was still only able to get 29k thru-put but hey, what’s a couple of “k” when an hour ago it was “0”k!! I do wonder however just exactly how much effort and expertise those previous “telephone repair” and “cable guys” put into REALLY finding the problem, has it been “this guys a whiner just check it and carry on it will be ok tomorrow”. The other part is why did I have to get totally pissed off, spent a couple of hours on the phone, talk to numerous “representatives” , “supervisors” , “repair guys” etc etc before getting a permanent (I hope) fix.
One more thing that I learned was that the Repair guy and the Cable guy are not assigned an area in which they work and thus rarely are dispatched to a second, third or 50th call to a particular problem. In that I cannot recall over the last 5 years of calls seeing the same guy twice this would seem to be true, as an electrician in the “service industry” for years I can say that this is at best counter productive and is probably the worst way to solve technical difficulties and enhance customer satisfaction. One of the many technicians that spoke to me over the years said that “if you need a tutorial on how to NOT run a company then work for Bell for a few years” and also “I don’t go grocery shopping in my Bell uniform any more because I don’t want to be shanghaied by dissatisfied customers”. No further comment required!
Meanwhile if your phone goes out have fun talking to BELL INDIA, I for one will not bother, I now have three numbers to call, the “cable guy”, the Toronto “manager”, and the Corporate Office, and none of them are going to like what I have to say if it goes tilt again. Oh yea, and that “engineering supervisor” still hasn’t called back!
There endith the saga of Rural’s telephone woes. Perhaps!
So here is the saga of my telephone / internet woes over the last 5 years or more for your interest and edification!!
Let it be first said that I am at the end of a cable stretching some 5 or 10 miles to the nearest switch station and as such one cannot expect internet speed above 36k, my best achieved speed was 32k last summer, this year it is 28k….. UNTIL IT RAINS! When it rains, or spring or fall as the frost in the ground comes or goes it will gradually decrease until it totally craps out often the voice connection is unusable due to noise and at times it get to the point where we totally loose dial tone. Naturally each time this happens I get on the cell phone and dial 611 “telephone repair”, where upon I am directed to an operator in INDIA who insists upon my identifying myself often with personal information in order to proceed further.
Lets deal with that bit before we continue with the story. In a recent call I was asked for my Bell account number and not having that right in front of me I said “sorry I don’t have that handy” and was then asked for my SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!! What the HELL, if a operative in INDIA can confirm my identity with my social security number that means it must be available to them, where did they get it, why do they have it and is that not supposed to be secure information? In this case I refuse to do that and made them wait until I had dug out an invoice with my customer number on it, we then proceeded with the call……
In order to try and get to someone who could actually help I decided to call the Bell “customer service” line rather than “telephone repair” and upon explaining my problem (as outlined elsewhere in this saga) requested to speak to a supervisor and upon finally getting said supervisor on the line and once AGAIN explaining my problem it was suggested that I “hold” whilst it could be seen what could be done. Upon return I was told “OK I will transfer you to a repair supervisor”. Great I thought, we are finally getting somewhere but after a short wait, guess what? Yup, you are right, I was connected to the 611 “representative in INDIA. …..SHIT!
Now you must understand that with any where between 2 to 10 calls to 611 each year about the same problem I now am fairly familiar with the “system”. The “representative you first talk to will go through a set procedure consisting of a number of set questions and set warning of costs should it be a problem in your house and not on their system. There is little one can do to shorten this procedure even if you have heard it 50 or 100 times over the years, so settle in for a prolonged conversation before you ever get to the meat of the problem. So, 10 min later I get to report my troubles, phone don’t work, line noisy, no dial tone. In order to try and fix this ongoing problem permanently I request to be connected to a CANADIAN supervisor, preferably a supervisor at least in the area where I reside and one responsible for cable repair. I explain that having talked to many repair technicians over the years the problem is in the bell cable / connection boxes leading from my house to the bell switching station and that unless I can get someone out WHILST IT IS STILL RAINING they will, by the time they get here the fault will have dried out and all will be well.
As an aside here I will say for the most part that the technicians who have responded to my many calls have been helpful and friendly but I recognize that they cannot find a fault that is not there by the time they get out here. The few times that they have located some problems with the line I have been told that it appears the underground cable coming up the road is probably NFG and / or there is water getting into the joints / cable somewhere. Each time this happens the 611 guy escalates it to the “cable guys” who then come out and basically do / tell me, the same thing. Each of the 6 or 8 spare circuits in that cable have been tried at one time or another with only temporary improvement. Next spring, Fall or rain here we go again.
By now you will be just STARTING to understand my frustration! Anyway on with the saga. So having told this long story to the “representative” in INDIA I finally persuaded her to let me talk to her supervisor and after a short wait he came on the line. The first question I asked was where was he located and what was his position in the company. The reply? INDIA, 611 supervisor! So after having gone through the LONG story AGAIN I asked to be connected to a CANADIAN supervisor and was told “that is not possible, we do not have any phone numbers of supervisors or managers in Canada besides which the 611 repair service is run entirely out of INDIA!! At this point I am getting really ticked and after a few more go-arounds establish that the Canadian technicians are dispatched by email directly from INDIA. This was later pretty much confirmed in my conversation with a repair technician who said “ I don’t get to talk with anyone, I am dispatched by email but I don’t really know where (or who) that comes from. Hmmmm, I don’t seem to be getting anywhere here but do eventually agree to have a repair guy come out with instructions to make sure that he comes to my door before proceeding any further so that I can TRY and get a phone number of someone who can resolve this long standing problem and he said he could “send a message” to a Canadian supervisor who would call me within 24hrs.
One note here, what set me off was the fact that I had gone through most of this the day before but the tech who came out DID NOT come see me but sent an AUTOMATED message “we cannot find anything wrong with your line”. Duh, its stopped raining you fkin idiot, did they not tell you that it comes and goes with the weather!!
End of chapter one!
So we are now 24hrs after the SECOND recent call to INDIA and I finally get to talk to a Canadian technician who has received an email dispatch to repair my phone and after explaining the whole story AGAIN to him he tells me he will see what he can find / do and will report back to me. Sure enough his initial testing showed no problem with the phone line but the thank the Lord it started to rain and sure enough the phone line went tilt and he was able to return and say “yes, there is a problem, there are grounds and shorts in the cable and / or connections. Great, thank you, but I already knew that from talking to several other technicians over the years. Now what are we going to do about it?
Step one, he says is to forward it to the “cable guys”, ok that’s been done several time before. What’s next? He indicated that he can do little more being just the guy on the bottom of the totem pole but does give me a number of his “manager” in Toronto (70 miles away), apparently there are no “local” managers or supervisors so that a least explained why I could not get to speak to one! He also told me that there is, in the front of the phone book, a number for when all else fails of the Corporate Office where I am told there is a “knowledgeable secretary” who may well be able to put me in touch with someone who can produce some results or at least explain where to go from here.
Shortly after the tech left the 611 supervisor in Canada, yep that right in CANADA called, having received that “message” from INDIA , unfortunately it was much the same story but he did promise to have a supervisor from “engineering” call me. A while later the “cable guy” called to say that he had checked my line and found and corrected two faults, (during a period of no rain!) one of which (no bonding on cable shield) had been there for a long while, the other being some wires laying against the side of a terminal box and shorting when things got damp. Thank you “Paul” I can but hope you have finally found the problem but only time will tell. Although the cable tested out “perfect” and was “in very good condition” (wonder why the previous guys blamed it on a poor cable coming up the road?) I was still only able to get 29k thru-put but hey, what’s a couple of “k” when an hour ago it was “0”k!! I do wonder however just exactly how much effort and expertise those previous “telephone repair” and “cable guys” put into REALLY finding the problem, has it been “this guys a whiner just check it and carry on it will be ok tomorrow”. The other part is why did I have to get totally pissed off, spent a couple of hours on the phone, talk to numerous “representatives” , “supervisors” , “repair guys” etc etc before getting a permanent (I hope) fix.
One more thing that I learned was that the Repair guy and the Cable guy are not assigned an area in which they work and thus rarely are dispatched to a second, third or 50th call to a particular problem. In that I cannot recall over the last 5 years of calls seeing the same guy twice this would seem to be true, as an electrician in the “service industry” for years I can say that this is at best counter productive and is probably the worst way to solve technical difficulties and enhance customer satisfaction. One of the many technicians that spoke to me over the years said that “if you need a tutorial on how to NOT run a company then work for Bell for a few years” and also “I don’t go grocery shopping in my Bell uniform any more because I don’t want to be shanghaied by dissatisfied customers”. No further comment required!
Meanwhile if your phone goes out have fun talking to BELL INDIA, I for one will not bother, I now have three numbers to call, the “cable guy”, the Toronto “manager”, and the Corporate Office, and none of them are going to like what I have to say if it goes tilt again. Oh yea, and that “engineering supervisor” still hasn’t called back!
There endith the saga of Rural’s telephone woes. Perhaps!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
