Chris Selley in the National Post

Your results may vary, of course. Earlier in January, Ekos tagged Mr. Harper with a whopping 59% disapproval rating, against 34% approval — so, a -25% approval deficit. (Bob Rae, by comparison, had 44% approval against 24% disapproval.) That sounds bad. But in September 2010, the last time Ekos asked after the leaders’ reputations, it found Mr. Harper had a -20% approval deficit. And only 32% support. And then he went on and won a majority.

After nearly a decade of fearmongering, the Conservatives just keep gaining votes. The Opposition has been in disarray, certainly, but that’s precisely the point: People can see that Mr. Harper’s actions simply do not conform to the malevolent top-line items on his purported agenda. It’s far from clear to me, therefore, that it’s wise to keep insisting that agenda exists. As Chantal Hébert recently argued, the opposition parties’ screeching about Old Age Security may well make the modest reforms the government eventually proposes more palatable.

If Mr. Harper does indeed transform Canada into “Dickens’ London,” as Mr. Caplan puts it, then his party will presumably go down in flames in 2015. Certainly, there will be voter fatigue. Never mind the Conservatives’ serial murder of their own openness-and-accountability promises. This is an ostensibly pro-free-speech government that, on Monday, denied Green Party leader Elizabeth May leave to speak on the legacy of Vaclav Havel. These people are just as hardwired for eventual self-destruction as the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives before them.

But you know what? I have this weird feeling that Canada in 2015 is going to be pretty much the same place as it is now. And that Mr. Harper’s would-be successors — not least the relentlessly Harper-bashing NDP leadership candidates — are going to have to go out and win this on their own merits, not just on Mr. Harper’s demerits. If you’re wondering why Canadians aren’t rising up in furious protest, it’s at least worth considering that, despite your very best efforts, they are simply not as angry as you assumed they were.

 A classless act by Government House leader Peter Van Loan.   It’s not the first time this has happened.

Back in November, both she and a representative from the Bloc Quebecois were prevented from delivering Remembrance Day statements on two separate occasions.

And this folks is what drives me crazy about the Conservative Party.  It’s not the big issues.  I support changes to OAS and an austerity budget but it’s these petty and classless things that keep me from voting for them federally.  They have a majority but can’t seem to grasp that politics is not a continual campaign.  There can be time to allow the leader of Green Party to speak on Vaclav Havel and not risk losing control of their agenda yet no one in the PMO can seem to grasp that fact.

More than transit, it’s a story of poverty.

As most of you know, the Canadian Auto Workers union were negotiating to save the jobs at the Caterpillar plant in London, Ontario.  Negotiations went so well that Caterpillar shut down the plant and moved the production to Indiana where workers were willing for work for 50% less.  Say whatever you want to say about how cruel Caterpillar is, $16.00/hour is a lot better than nothing and that is what those workers are left with in London.  700 jobs lost, a contentious severance package and Caterpillar becomes even more profitable. 

Believe it or not, the problem isn’t Caterpillar.  Are they evil? Yes.  Are profit hungry? Yes.  The problem was that only a couple hundred miles away were educated and trained American workers willing to work for half of what workers in London, Ontario are willing to work for and the CAW ignored that fact.  Both Obama and Romney are trying to revitalize the American manufacturing sector and this is how it is going to happen.  With a decline in demand in many sectors, it means that Ontario is going to be pitted against Indiana and Saskatchewan against Wisconsin.  The manufacturing jobs in China aren’t coming back for a very long time if ever and we are going to have to get used to the realities that it is going to come down to jurisdiction against jurisdiction and union local against union local.  Those that won’t make concessions or offer subsidies will lose jobs and even if you do, once the subsidies stop, the jobs will move to whoever will give them.

While $16/hour looked repulsive to the local union in London, it looked like a good paying job in Indiana and I have a feeling that is a story we will hear again and again until unions like the CAW understand that no matter how intense their strike, a 50% in wages will attract a lot of companies.  It’s the new normal and it is going to happen again and again.

Down at The Lighthouse, we are getting closer and closer to having our east tower completed.  There is a small common area on each floor and I want to put a small bookshelf on each floor for people to leave books, a kind of a common library for people to take and leave books at.  I also want to do this in both of our common lounges but I need some books to leave behind.  I would donate my books but I am not sure if the 1700 pages of The Power Broker are going to go over that well.  I am thinking that I need some of you who are not as big of a nerd as I am who have to many books will donate them.

I am looking for fiction paperbacks, easy to read biographies, some easy to read history, Reader’s Digest Condensed Stories, stories of courageous dogs (like Big Red), and even some easy to read science books.  Science Fiction, historical fiction, and even some political biographies.  What I don’t want is anything graphically sexual or anything that you yourself have but won’t read if it was the last thing on earth (so nothing by William Shatner). 

Also for two different projects, if you have DVDs that you want to donate or if you have magazines like National Geographic of Sports Illustrated from way back, bring them buy.  I find that everyone will read them and we just leave them out.

If you bring them buy from Monday to Friday during the day, ask if I am in and I can give you a tour for your efforts.

I was asked a while ago about the gear I use around the office and at home.  Here it is in the nutshell.

I use a HP 6910p laptop running Windows Vista as my main machine now.  I use it at home and at work and keep my files sync’d using Windows Live Mesh.  I don’t use a mouse and while the computer has a trackpoint, I tend to use the touch pad for the first time in my life.    I tried to use ObjectDock because I really love the dock but it causes all sorts of problems for my applications so I just use a basic Windows setup.

I keep my music on my iPod.  When my office mate is in the office, I plug them into some Sony MDR-ZX100 headphones.  When she is gone, I tend to plug it into my iStereo dock.

Most of my writing is done in Libre Office.  I have a copy and a license of Microsoft Office but I am ready to give it up.  Libre Office hasn’t caused me any problems and it works for me.

My office rig is pretty basic.  It have a HP dc7800  It’s powered by a 3.00 Ghz Intel core duo and is hooked to a 32 inch display with 2 gigs of RAM.  Hooked up to a it is a cheap generic webcam and 5.1 channel surround sound speakers.  It runs Windows 7. 

I use Gimpshop. Picasa, MediaImpression, Libre Office, and Windows Live Writer and not a lot else

My desk is actually an old boardroom table that has been converted into a desk.  My office has seven chairs in it and I just grab whatever is closest to me.   Yesterday there were only five chairs in here but every time there is a meeting in here, people bring extra desk chairs.

My phone is a Samsung Galaxy Ace which goes with me everywhere and I have an iPad 2.  Despite seeing how well the Logitech keyboard works for some of Saskatoon’s city council, I went with the Apple Bluetooth keyboard that works really well.  I have Numbers and Keynote but I generally only use Pages and Evernote.

As for application.  My day starts and ends in Evernote, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, and Gmail.  Google Calendar, Evernote, and Google Contacts all sync with my phone, iPod Touch, and my iPad, and are available on my notebook and desktop.  Having a centralized place for all of my information is huge for me and really makes any device I am on work the same across all platforms.   I really need to use the cloud to store my iPod and iPad docs but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I tend not to use PowerPoint when I speak as I think speaking is a lost art but if I really need to, I use Libre Impress.  The only program that I really miss here is AbiWord which got buggy a couple of releases ago and hasn’t really gotten fixed.

So there you go, Android, Windows, and two different Apple devices.  It all seems to work.

This still boggles my mind.

Saskatoon should request an exemption to a large-scale free-trade agreement being negotiated between Canada and Europe, a city committee agreed.

City councillors, sitting as an executive committee, voted 5-4 Monday to seek a permanent exemption to the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, a free trade and economic integration pact between Canada and the 27 European Union countries that is in the final stages of negotiation.

The resolution still requires council approval in February and will face some difficulty with two right-of-centre councillors, Coun. Myles Heidt and Coun. Randy Donauer, absent at the committee Tuesday.

I know this will die in council with Heidt and Donauer’s return but still…

Access to government procurement at federal, provincial, municipal, regional and local governments, as well as Crown corporations and utilities, is Europe’s main goal in the pact. Saskatoon has seen interest from European firms on a small number of major infrastructure projects, including the $300-million Circle Drive South project, which drew a bid from a Spanish firm.

Cities only have to be concerned about the effect on construction contracts, not the takeover of city-owned utilities, according to a briefing from provincial officials, Jordan said

“I’m confident from the information I’ve received there’s not much need to be concerned about that aspect of it,” [Michael] Jordan said.

Okay, at least the city managers are thinking clearly on this one.

Coun. Charlie Clark questioned if the private sector could challenge the city to open up municipally operated services such as Access Transit, the lift-equipped bus service, or if city hall could no longer enact a local food first policy or a bottled water ban under the agreement.

“There’s enough unknowns about how this could impact the city and because we don’t have a seat at the table it’s best to request an exemption,” Clark said. “I think that as a democratically-elected city council we should make sure we can make the decisions we need to make to protect citizens and there’s no real benefits from what I can see for cities to be included — so it’s easier to be excluded.”

Can local municipalities actually be excluded under international trade agreements?  The truth is that on big projects like the bridges that we are building are being designed and built by international firms because of their complexity and scope and the consolidation of international design and engineering firms (which as a city we benefit from).   I also hate the idea that we need to protect local companies from international competition.  The reason we need to protect them is that we think as the city grows, they aren’t good enough.  Sometimes they won’t be good enough (which is why international firms exist and why there has been increased consolidation around the super engineering firms) but protecting them from competition doesn’t make them any better either.

Of course all of this was grandstanding because the city doesn’t even have a local procurement policy.

The bigger impact is the New West Partnership which will open up construction contracts over $200,000 to companies across the west.  It will have a far greater impact on small and medium businesses in this province than CETA will, yet that passed.

Wendy went through The Cooking Blog and put together a list of the best Super Bowl Party recipes she could find.  If you are throwing a party next weekend, these are worth checking out.

The City of Saskatoon came out with their strategic plan and it reads and looks good.  As I was looking through it (finally after saskatoon.ca was down all last night), I couldn’t help but notice three of the photos were taken from my Flickr account without my permission.  Again.

It’s happened before and I was assured it would never happen again.  Well it did.  I was initially quite angry but more than anything it shows that copyright and the Creative Commons are not well understood by city employees.  My photos can be used if I am given credit (I was told I was in the City of Saskatoon’s PowerPoint) but in the print/PDF version I was not.  Also, it is not for commercial use.   I was talking with city councillor today who wondered if because the city used it, if it was a bit of confusion.  I replied, “You call yourselves a corporation” but I see his point and I think that may be the biggest problem.  During my discussion on Twitter about it, I was told that some of my photos have been used in other publications, again without permission, attribution and by the corporation.

Coming from the City of Saskatoon, it is the height of hypocrisy as back in the days before digital photography was widespread, the city offered up some high resolution stock images online and had a great many restrictions on use.

I don’t mind the City of Saskatoon using my photos, I just wish they would ask me first.   It’s getting a bit old.

This comes from a December 14, 2011 Question Period in the Legislature.  Direct from Hansard

Ms. Chartier

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Social Services has been housing many people in hotels like the Coachman, the Sunrise and the Quality Inn in Regina. There’s been one man who’s had to call the Coachman home for seven months, Mr. Speaker. He was housed in the Coachman for seven months at approximately $2,676 a month, or about $90 a day. He asked for an increase in his shelter allowance and was denied. The government has made the choice to house people in hotels rather than work with them to find affordable and appropriate housing.

To the minister: why is this government choosing to pay huge hotel bills instead of addressing inadequate shelter allowances?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know specifically the case the member is talking about. But I can tell you that we have raised emergency shelter rates by 85 per cent, and we’ve increased the number of spaces by 130 since we became government. Mr. Speaker, we have new spaces in Saskatoon in the Salvation Army Mumford House. And we know that there is more work to be done in this area, Mr. Speaker. And we also know that our hotel usage has decreased considerably in the last year. In February 2010, we were using an average of 427 rooms a night, and last year it was 30.

Mr. Speaker, we know there’s more work to be done to ensure that people have a safe place to go in the evenings and at night. But we also know that every individual, their cases are looked at to find out why they are still in a hotel, and there’s always answers and reasons behind that.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Riversdale.

Ms. Chartier

Mr. Speaker, being housed in a hotel for seven months isn’t emergency shelter and it becomes someone’s home. And a hotel is not a home, Mr. Speaker.

We heard yesterday that Regina has the lowest vacancy rate in Canada, point six per cent. The average one-bedroom apartment in Regina costs $790 a month. Shelter allowance for a single, unemployable person is $459. Even if someone is eligible for the maximum rental supplement over and above this, this still puts them below the average one bedroom, if they can even find one, Mr. Speaker. While the core issue certainly is a lack of affordable rental units, the immediate issue is inadequate shelter allowances.

To the minister: both people, renters and taxpayers, are paying for the failure to address people’s pressing housing needs. When will the minister recognize shelter allowances fail to match the reality of today’s tight rental market?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Mr. Speaker, we know that the vacancy rates right now are about the same as they were last year at this time. And we know that there’s an increase in the number of people in this province, so we are managing to keep up or get ahead of that pace.

But, Mr. Speaker, we do know that there are people that are in shelters right now and there’s more work to be done. Some of the work that we’ve done in the last while is making sure that we have more affordable units on the market, more people that are buying into the idea of having the rental incentive program and affordable housing program. Right now we have 960 units that have been built since we became government; another 950 are on the way. Places like Regina have got applications for 900 rental incentive units.

Mr. Speaker, there’s more work to be done. We know that, but we feel confident that working with the communities and the developers right around the province, we can address this issue that is part of one of the great parts of about a booming province.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Riversdale.

Ms. Chartier

Just to recap, Mr. Speaker, so the vacancy rate is at point six per cent in Regina. The average one-bedroom apartment is $790 a month, shelter allowance for a single person is $459. Again, even if someone is eligible for the maximum rental supplement, this still puts him or her — their total housing allowance — $69 below the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment, if they can even find one.

The additional money that people pay to have a decent apartment comes out of their very limited living allowance, which means less food on the table or having to choose which prescription to fill.

To the minister: taking everything into account — the low vacancy rate, the fact that the shelter allowances are not enough — is she prepared to immediately increase the shelter allowances so people can find adequate and affordable housing now?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, knowing that people are living in a hotel or in a shelter isn’t something that anybody wants to hear about. But doing this is not something that happened because we became government. The same thing was happening under the NDP. The only difference is we increased the amount of money that we’ve given to people in shelters. We’ve increased the amount of shelter spaces there are, and we’re working on making sure that there are more units for people.

Mr. Speaker, we know that we can’t do those alone, and that’s why we have about 200 non-government organizations that are working with us to ensure that we have places, and not only is it a home but a support for people. Mr. Speaker, the community-based organizations are working with our government, and together we’re going to make a difference to everyone in this province.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Riversdale.

Ms. Chartier

Mr. Speaker, the government is currently paying for people to live in hotels. It costs about four times as much as they are willing to spend on shelter allowances. To the minister: she gave us some numbers, but how much is it costing us to house our citizens in hotels?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Mr. Speaker, I know that the member opposite cares about this issue, as do all of us on this side of the House. That’s why we’re working extremely hard. That’s why we’ve got 5,700 units that are being prepared to be constructed in the next while. That’s why we’ve invested $309 million in housing.

Mr. Speaker, the vacancy rate that was talked about yesterday, there’s another part of it that makes everybody understand that there is work being done. They’re saying, "On the bright side," and I’m quoting from the Leader-Post today:

On the bright side, we’re seeing the market respond. On the condominium side, we’ve seen a two-fold increase (from 2010). We’ve also noticed an increase in rental-designated starts, not just in Regina but right across Saskatchewan.

That’s close to 3,000 multi-unit buildings we’ve built in this province, a 44 per cent increase from last year.

Mr. Speaker, we know that the shelter rates are something that have to be addressed, but in the long run we ought to make sure that there are affordable units for people, that there are places for people to go at night and to look at their individual needs. Mr. Speaker, we will continue to work with the people in the province to make sure they’re pleased to call Saskatchewan home.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Centre.

Housing

Mr. Forbes

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday the Minister of Housing was unable to provide a good explanation to reporters between the difference between social housing and affordable housing. To the minister: does she now understand the difference, and is she able to explain it?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Yes, Mr. Speaker, there’s a number of people in this province who know all about affordable units and social units, and I’m one of them.

Mr. Speaker, the affordable units are 90 per cent of the average market rent and social is geared to income. But, Mr. Speaker, 95 per cent of the seniors’ units in this province are social housing units, and these are the kind of units that didn’t see increases that were talked about yesterday.

Mr. Speaker, we are building more units. That’s a part of our goal as the government is to make sure that there are units for people in the province. And not only that, we’ve indexed them through the cost of inflation seven times since we became government. Mr. Speaker, there is more work to be done, but when it comes to housing, our government puts this challenge at the front.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Centre.

Mr. Forbes

Mr. Speaker, to the hundreds if not thousands of people in affordable housing today, that’s cold comfort as they’re thinking about what to do. But here’s a quote from the minister’s scrum yesterday: "Right now we cannot have people staying in places that are below market value and just staying there."

To the minister: what is the purpose of affordable housing, if not to be below market value?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

We know that the affordable housing markets are 90 per cent of the average market rate. We know that. Social housing is geared to income.

But, Mr. Speaker, all of a sudden after being out of government for a number of years, the NDP now has a real concern about it. I wonder why they didn’t have a concern about it when they did not increase the benefits to seniors between 1992 and 2007, despite during that time having a 40 per cent increase in inflation. And the NDP did not increase shelter rates for 13 out of 16 of their years when they were in government, and at that time there was an inflation of over 30 per cent.

Mr. Speaker, during that time when they were in government it didn’t look important to them to increase the shelter rates. Mr. Speaker, we know as government we have to increase them. We did it seven times in the last four years. There’s more work to be done, and it’s something that’s part of our policy as government. I assure you, Mr. Speaker, this issue is very important to us.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Centre.

Mr. Forbes

Well, Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of Housing was not only confused about social housing and affordable housing, she was also very confused about who’s eligible for the rental supplement. Today I ask the minister does she now understand the difference about who is eligible and who’s not? Can she explain this to the House?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Mr. Speaker, I’ve explained to the member opposite a number of times, and I’ll say it again. With social housing, the rent is geared to income and affordable housing, it’s 90 per cent of the average market rent. Mr. Speaker, that is the premise we’ve been working on. It hasn’t changed since they’ve become government. And we know that there are a number of units, like 10,500 senior units in this province that are under social housing. The rest of them are under affordable housing.

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to affordability and what we are doing as government, we have decreased the number of people that are paying taxes by 114,000. We’ve decreased the debt. We’ve put money back into the pockets of people. Mr. Speaker, single, low-income seniors in our province right now have saved $1,200 per year in their pockets because of the taxes and the benefit changes. And if you’re a couple, it’s $2,000 per year. Mr. Speaker, there’s more work to be done. I know there is. But, Mr. Speaker, this is the work that we’re doing at this time.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Centre.

Mr. Forbes

Mr. Speaker, my question was specifically about the rent supplement and who is eligible for the rent supplement. Would she please answer the question

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

People that are eligible for the rent supplement are families, Mr. Speaker, or people with a disability are eligible for our rental housing supplement. I think the member opposite should know that. We have about 5,900 people right now that are benefitting from the supplement, and it’s something that we look at and we index. It wasn’t done under the previous government, and it’s the type of thing that we continue to look at. It’s an important part of our budgetary process as we go ahead.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Centre.

Mr. Forbes

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday in the media scrum, the Minister of Housing was asked what is the advantage of Sask Housing if rents are going to simply keep pace with the market. The minister responded with this, and I quote: "Because there are still some that are going to be able to have the supplements as well."

To the minister: is it really her view that the advantage of Sask Housing, that people there can live there, can still receive supplements?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Mr. Speaker, I think again that the member opposite knows that in certain circumstances the rental supplements are available to people, Sask Housing tenants. For example, a single mother whose income fluctuates is often eligible for a top-up from both the rental supplement program and from the Saskatchewan employment supplement. Our income assistance divisions and housing authorities work together on these issues.

Mr. Speaker, I know that the members opposite would like to just talk about what happened yesterday. I’d like to talk about what their concern was a number of years ago when we had people who were living in homes that were not kept up. There was no investment into the affordable housing. In fact the last year that they were government, they built 58 units. In the first four years we were in government, we built 968 units, Mr. Speaker. Let’s talk about who cares about people who are needing help from our government.

[14:15]

: —

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Centre.

Mr. Forbes

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. We’re very proud of the fact that we introduced the rent supplement. But the issue today is about the rents are increasing in Sask Housing. The tenants are very upset, so that’s where we’re focusing on this issue today. And that minister should be aware of it and not be talking about last year or the year before, or in the out years.

I just want to ask her a question though. The minister repeated several times yesterday that if the rent in the government’s affordable housing units is not close to rent in the private market, there would be no incentive for people to move out. To the minister: has she changed the mandate of Sask Housing, or is it still to provide safe and secure housing to those who cannot afford other options?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Mr. Speaker, the policies that we have in Sask Housing are ones that are always being reviewed because we’ve got to make sure that the homes we own as government, that the people of this province own, are geared to people who most need them, Mr. Speaker. And you know, what we are doing at the same time is making sure that people have more money in their pockets and making sure that people are in those housing units that belong to the government, if they have an opportunity to move forward because they’ve earned more money, let’s look at it, Mr. Speaker.

But at the same time, Mr. Speaker, I would think the members opposite should be pleased that our province is going ahead, that there are more people that are off the income tax rolls, that there are more people working, that our unemployment rate is one of the lowest in Canada. And together we are making sure that Saskatchewan is going ahead.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Centre.

Mr. Forbes

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday the minister was asked the following question, and I quote, "Where would you find a better deal than social housing?" Her answer was this: "Well if we raise the rents and the rent is higher than you can get in the private market, they probably would move out."

To the minister: is that the Sask Party’s plan, to raise rent in affordable housing units so it is higher than the rent in the private market?

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know whether the member opposite is running out of questions or what he’s doing because right now what we’re talking about is making sure that it stays 90 per cent of the average rent. Mr. Speaker, that hasn’t changed.

But we also do know that there is more work to be done in this area. Mr. Speaker, we’re building affordable units, not just in Saskatoon and Regina and Prince Albert but right across the province. In fact our five point housing strategy talks about involving community partners, involving developers, involving builders, and making sure that right across a growing province there are units for people to be living in.

Mr. Speaker, I know the members opposite are focusing on affordability because they don’t believe that there’s a bright future in this province. In fact they probably are the only nine people left in the province who don’t because the rest of them are on this side of the House.

The Speaker

I recognize the member for Saskatoon Centre.

Mr. Forbes

Mr. Speaker, of course we’re focusing on affordability, and it is the right thing to do. People are talking about that right across the province. So forgive us if we’re doing our job asking about affordable issues.

Well, Mr. Speaker, it was abundantly clear that as of yesterday the Minister of Housing had no understanding about the purpose of Sask Housing’s affordable housing units and when she chose to increase the rents. To the minister: now that she’s got her head around this, about what affordable housing’s supposed to be, will she do the right thing and cancel the rent increases? Thank you.

The Speaker

I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Ms. Draude

Mr. Speaker, out of the 10,500 senior units that are operated by Sask Housing, these are the social housing. None of these units are subject to increase. Out of the remaining, which is 3 per cent of the seniors’ units, they have an increase to their affordable housing. We’ve looked at why, what we can to do to make sure that it’s affordable. And, Mr. Speaker, I’ve told the member opposite that there’s another $1,200 in the pockets of single seniors and there’s $2,000 more in the pockets of couples. Mr. Speaker, the members opposite didn’t look at this issue when they were in government because they didn’t increase seniors’ income benefits between 1992 and 2007.

Mr. Speaker, what is it . . . the people that they have right now, their seniors are important to the people of this province, and making sure that we have double the seniors, the number of people on seniors’ income plan. And after this year’s election three times increased, they have tripled the amount of people under the seniors’ income plan, Mr. Speaker, three times of the amount of money under those people.

To be honest, I wasn’t really all that thrilled with either side of the debate which may be partly the nature of Question Period but still it gives you an idea of where the Saskatchewan Party and the NDP stand in the area of housing.

• The ongoing water problems at The Lighthouse continue.  Today as they were working on the sprinkler system, a line broke under pressure and flooded out the dining room.  In case you are counting, that’s three floods now.  Later in the day as Marcel and I were talking the fire alarms went off again and we both went sprinting up the building looking for a fire or water line break.  Luckily they were just working on the system but by the end of the day we all had enough.  The flood in the dining room was intense but the residents came down and got the dry-vacs and mops out and we had the water cleaned up in a short amount of time.  It took longer to dry but it was contained.  I am pretty sure Gardiner Dam is a little lower because of it but it has been cleaned up.
• Pastor Russ Wilson and Cornerstone Mennonite Church have been taking seriously their calling to make a difference amongst “the least of these” and he has written a couple of blog posts worth reading about what the church is starting to do and different ways to tackle the problem.  In case you don’t click over to this site, read this sobering quote, “Dr. Cory Neudorf who is our city’s Chief Medical Health Officer has told our staff that he is aware of girls as young as 9 who have been diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases here in our city.”  Yeah.
• Thanks to everyone who helped get the word out about The Lighthouse on Twitter  (@thelighthousesk).  DeeAnn and I tend to post from there a couple of times a week and while I am biased, it is worth a follow.  For those of you luddites still on Facebook, The Lighthouse has a new URL, facebook.com/TheLighthouseSK and apparently it is a big deal if you “like” us or something like that.  For those of you who are angry I just called you a Luddite, the haters are going to hate…  We are on Google+ but the lack of a API means that it is really hard to post to there.  Even Google’s Feedburner doesn’t allow social posting to Google+ yet.  When it does, we’ll post there as well.

• In case you are wondering how dogs think (and I know you were), here’s how.  They can learn up to 200 words, can count, and unlike wolves, can figure out intent.
• Had fun taking some former co-workers for a tour and hearing what they thought of The Lighthouse today.  Good to see them and get their feedback.  Both were impressed at the changes to the dorms which is a good thing.  The women are moving into a terrific new women’s shelter later this month and the men are moving into the women’s shelter which is an upgrade for both of them.  No it isn’t housing but it’s better than being outside and from those dorms there is a pathway towards housing.  I’d post some photos of the upgraded space but everytime I have my camera, the room is locked (it’s still under construction).

Most of you know I am working at The Lighthouse Supported Living now but I haven’t gotten into much more than that.  Partially because when they offered me the job, they didn’t know what to do with me (so many of you feel can sympathize).  I was given (half) an office, a computer with a really big monitor (it’s sweet) and kind of left to find my way.  My colleagues had some strong ideas of what I need to do as did my boss but they let me find my own way for a bit which I really appreciate. 

When the dust had settled, I was given the job title General Manager and told to get us to the playoffs in three years.  Looking back I wish they hadn’t hired Tim Tebow the year before.  He’s a nice guy but his throwing motion is horrible. (if that doesn’t make any sense to you, it means you aren’t an NFL fan… don’t worry about it, I was trying to be funny).  The reality is that my goals are to turn The Lighthouse into a place of best practices in the area of affordable living, supported housing, mental health care, and emergency sheltering in the next five years.  It’s a big job but there are a lot of cool things coming down the pike.  I can’t talk about a lot of them but one I will talk about is the Missional Housing Program which is an internship that is modelled on what they do at The Mustard Seed in Calgary and The Simple Way in Philadelphia.  With Bible college’s costing about $10,000 a year now, it’s expensive to go away after high school or to take a year off of college or university to got an made a difference.  For about $400 a month, The Lighthouse will give you (and a roommate) an apartment, free laundry, 21 meals a week (the food at The Lighthouse is exceptional), high speed internet, cable, and access to a gym.  In return you work with us for 40 hours a week as an intern.  You will be assigned a member of the senior staff who will train, mentor, evaluate and if you play your cards right, buy you lunch.  If it’s me, there will be a lot of Starbucks involved.   The formal announcement will go online in a couple of weeks but we are pretty excited about it and at $1600 a semester for the chance of a lifetime, we think others will be excited about it as well.  On top of that is with the new tower will be a new drop in centre, nurses station, employment centre, enhanced employment training (we do it already but it will be bigger and better), a classroom, multipurpose space, lounges on each floor, a library (on each floor) and economic benefits for the downtown core (people will be paying rent below market value which means more money for drinking coffee, eating out, taking in festivals, theatre, and all that downtown offers). 

The reason why I am so excited about a bunch of these things is that I have spent the weekend re-writing and expanding the copy for The Lighthouse’s website.  I kind of subscribe to the Rick Warren approach in that he once said that you don’t really understand something until you can write it out.  By rewriting it all out, it makes me think about the relationship of how everything we do works all together.  Which staff are accountable for what areas, what the lines of communications are, where areas overlap, what policies and procedures we are missing, what I don’t understand (and there is a lot), what video ideas we need to communicate this better, what technology we need to use better, and what my priorities need to be.  Considering all of the work it has been this weekend, it has also been a lot of fun as it also made me think of how awesome some of this is going to be.  I feel a little bit like Kick Buttkowski while answering my phone, “Awesomeness Central, Kick speaking”. 

It’s more than the programs and ideas but also because of the impact it makes on the people.  DeeAnn tweeted the other day that someone spent over 100 days in an emergency shelter bed last year.  That sucks and in every single way is a failure of the system which we are a part of.  On the other extreme Wendy and I were walking upstairs two weeks ago and we walked by a women who had just gotten her own room the day before.  I asked her how it was and she yelled at me out of excitement, realized he was yelling and then told me she couldn’t stop being loud because she was so happy.  We all laughed but that is the impact of being given a home.  It’s been a couple of weeks now and while she isn’t yelling she tells me once a day how happy she is living there.  Take that story and multiply it by 67 other similar stories of people moving in from the street or from unsafe housing.  It’s a big deal.

It’s not all fun.  While The StarPhoenix has said that The Empire Hotel was built in 1910, I found some photos on the weekend that said that it was there in 1905. The Traffic Bridge was built (and last maintained) in 1907 and there are photos of the hotel during construction and apparently before that (although the dates contradict each other).  We found some of the 1905 plumbing this week when a 6 inch piece of wire (it weighed about as much as twoonie) fell on a pipe that broke.  It flooded out two offices.  It was the same day that the cold was at it’s worst.  After cleaned up the water, we turned the water back on which ruptured another frozen pipe that flooded out part of the basement.  My feet were cold going home that day.  Sometimes the biggest enemy at The Lighthouse is the building itself.

Despite the age, it too is undergoing a facelift.  There are nine mental health rooms being renovated right now.  They will provide 8 long term rooms and one emergency room.  It is going to be it’s own unit with staff and supports to ensure they do well.   Along with that is the refurbishment of each of the 64 rooms (actually it will be 55 since 9 are done) so the entire facility feels like home.  New carpets, bathrooms, fixtures and windows.  While the rooms are nice now, they will be spectacular when they are done. 

The shelters are being redone.  A greatly improved women’s shelter will be one of the nicest shelters for women in Canada which will allow us to upgrade the shelter for the men.  While those are both good things, they are bad that they are needed and will offer up the challenge of providing supports and housing+ solutions for more people.  While shelters are never going to go away (you need somewhere to go in a crisis), how do you minimize those stays to keep them as short as possible. 

Of course the big challenge as has been shown in Toronto and Calgary is how do you do this in a booming part of a business district without really upsetting your neighbours who have their own concerns and ideas on how the homeless should be treated.  Developers aren’t used to having a supported living provider as a neighbour and they have their own legitimate concerns that need to be dealt with. I am not ready to accept the Larry Kudlow version of capitalism (if there is such a thing as a fundementalist capitalist, he is one) but people have right to make money and we need to honor that as well.

Finally, the other fun thing about the job is the kind of people I work with.  Don is a visionary.  He sees potential in everything and has the ability to make his ideas come to fruition.  The other staff I work closely with know what’s going on as well on both a big picture level and how to execute their ideas.  It’s a good place to be right now and a lot fun.  2012 is going to be a fantastic year.

I met Mark during his visit to Saskatoon last summer but have been a fan of his work online for sometime.  Here is his story and a trailer for a movie about his work.

Showing how you can change the world via Twitter and YouTube.  You can find more about what Mark is doing at Invisible People.tv

My little brother Lee is turns 30 today.  Whoa.  We are all getting older.  New house this fall, getting married this summer.  It’s almost as if he has become an adult.  I still remember the day that mom brought him home from the hospital.  Happy Birthday Lee.

It’s chilly here in Saskatchewan.  It was –48 (with the wind) this morning which was cold enough that it takes a toll on cars, houses, and especially old hotels.  At work yesterday some pipes froze and while that was being taken care of, a 6 inch piece of wire fell and hit some old plumbing which flooded out an office… the office where some of our vital hardware and networking equipment was located in.  That took down the internet, fax, essential computer systems and made a massive mess.  When the water was turned back on, we had some other pipes rupture which flooded out the basement and women’s dorm.  No damage was done but our three Shop Vac’s got a workout.  

The computers made it through but I assume we will see some warped motherboards in the next couple of weeks but that isn’t a huge problem.  We lost a high speed modem last night and the router this morning.  Of course the second I needed to file my column, Sask Connected! went off line.

Today the flooding wasn’t done and a sprinkler head started to leak at one of our entrances.  It was so cold that the water froze before it hit the ground.  I’m serious.  Wendy and I walked out the kitchen door and we felt the spray.  By the time I had talked to the boss, the water has created an ice chunk on the wall.  It didn’t even run down the wall.   The entrance is heated but with 100 people coming in and out, the cold is just overwhelming.

I did have my USB hand warmer at work today.  It doesn’t heat the office but it does make it a little easier to type. 

I can’t wait until it warms up.

The Atlantic Cities on why there needs to be more wet shelters.

Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, agrees with the Daily News and says one death shouldn’t turn people off the idea of a wet shelter.

"This isn’t a party house,” he told me earlier this week. "Wet in this case refers to the fact that [tenants] can consume alcohol in spite of the fact that they declare to be an alcoholic. They’re there getting served but the understanding is that they can consume alcohol in the process of recovery."

The idea is that this type of home is designed to be transitional, he says. “They can get ready when they’re ready – inside rather than on the street.”

Donovan says the alternative amounts to blackmail.

"You bar a person from a shelter as a way to pressure them to get treatment," he says. "If you’re sick, your judgment is skewed. And you’re taking advice from some punk just out of college who tells you that you need to stop drinking. Do you think that’s going to be a turning point?"

Bill Hobson, who runs 1811 Eastlake, elaborates.

"We are dealing with a unique subset of individuals here,” he says. "These are late stage, chronic alcoholics, normally 45 and older with a minimum of 15 years of street alcohol addiction. They’ve lost everything — families, job, housing. And so they’re transacting their addiction in public spaces."

On the street, Hobson says, "these people have a 5 percent chance of survival." And furthermore, he says, when they’re out on the street, these folks end up in the emergency room, get picked up by police and often end up in jail, costing taxpayers money. He points to an April 2009 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that says the chronically alcoholic homeless people cost the city of Seattle two-thirds less housed in Eastlake than they do out on the street.

Hobson says administrators at Karluk asked him and others at Eastlake for advice before they opened the facility in Anchorage. And Hobson warned them: “people are going to die in your program. These people are medically fragile. So be prepared for it.”

Hobson says 1811 lost eight people its first year. Since then, he says between 30 and 40 have died in the program.

"But at least they’re dying on a warm bed rather than in the street," he says.

Over at the Lighthouse’s blog, I posted about how we are working on keeping the homeless warm and housed during this (and every other) cold snap.

A lot of your have been asking what The Lighthouse needs for donations.  It varies but here is a list of our ongoing material needs.  If you are so inclined, you can drop them off at anytime at 304 2nd Avenue South.  If you have any questions, drop me an email.

Ongoing Needs

• Gloves/mittens
• Winter hats
• Warm clothing
• Underwear (it has to be new for obvious reasons)
• Toothpaste
• Towels
• Seasonal jackets
• Shampoo
• Razors & shaving cream
• Sunscreen
• Men’s and women’s deodorant
• Small soap, shampoo and conditioner
• Kleenex
• Men’s and women’s pants and shirts
• Tampons
• New or gently-used digital cameras for (photography workshop)
• Towels (we always have a HUGE need for towels as many shelter residents only come in with the clothes on their back).
• Cleaning supplies
• Blankets and sleeping bags (Urgently Needed)
• Men’s running shoes (sizes 8-13)
• Alarm clocks
• Laundry soap
• Women’s running shoes (sizes 5-10)
• Bedding and pillows
• Wash clothes and towels

Coffee Bar Items:

• Coffee
• Tea
• Hot chocolate
• Sugar
• Artificial sweetener (i.e. Sweet and Low)
• Plastic grocery bags
• Empty egg cartons
• Can openers

Faith-Based Items:

• Both compact and large print NLT Bibles

A guide to cycling in the most car driven cities in the world, Los Angeles

Los Angles’ reputation as a car-only town has been cracking for years, and recently that reputation may have crumbled for good. The much hyped “Carmageddon” (in which a section of the 405 freeway was closed down for a day) did not, as many predicted, bring chaos. Rather it did the opposite, providing tangible evidence that Los Angeles is not as hopelessly auto-dependent as previously thought. More importantly, cyclists used the shutdown as an opportunity to showcase what they had long known — that biking offers a viable alternative to what is arguably the city’s Achilles heel, namely a transportation infrastructure overly-geared to personal cars.

DeeAnn Mercier takes you on a tour of the renovations that are ongoing at The Lighthouse Supported Living right now.  Mental Health Services is providing funding for nine rooms to be renovated and then used for long term mental health beds.   It will provide increased stability for the residents which saves the system a lot of money and with each resident getting their own room, it provides an increased standard of living for each resident.  It’s really a program enhancement where both the individual, the system, and taxpayers benefit.

As for what is going into the room, the bathrooms are being completely gutted and replaced, a laminate flooring is going down, doorways are being widened (to allow for easier wheelchair access), and windows are being replaced.  It will be quite nice.

Canon has a new camera coming out and had some demo reels made to show of what it can do. This video does that but it is funny. Kudos to Canon for allowing something this creative to be made and for having the guts to poke some fun at itself.

Some arts rapping about how they see life in Riversdale and the urban core.

In case you are a bit squeamish this video isn’t for you.  It’s what happens when botflies bite you and lay their eggs in you.  Thank goodness they don’t live this far north.

I have been fascinated by The Continental in Saskatoon since I was in Boston and saw my first high end boutique hotel.  While the market in Saskatoon would never supported it, I have always wanted to see someone turn The Continental into one. 

Working at The Lighthouse, we park behind it and walk by The Continental a couple of times a day.  Outside the fact that it has bats in the front entrance that freak me out in the early morning, it’s always fun to see what is going on during it’s long renovations. 

If you don’t walk by, you probably don’t notice the structural steel beams along the corners that are more or less keeping the building together. The inside is gutted, even the stairwell is gone so there isn’t much holding it together on the insides other than some steel cables.

Along the south side of the building, the structural cracks are large and many.  Horizontal, vertical, and some zig zagging along the side.  The building isn’t in good shape.  There is some wood between the metal beams and the building and you can see where the building is shifting by the changes in the compression on the wood.  I am not an engineer but that can’t be a good sign.

From what I have heard is to protect the footprint (which would have to be shrunk) if torn down, the interior is being redone and then the facade which would maximize the space and probably allow the building to be saved.  It probably won’t be a hotel when all is said and done but it will be a nice addition to 2nd Avenue.  If it doesn’t fall over first.  At this point, it could go all of the way.

Well my hearing is slowly but surely returning.  The background static is gone and while it isn’t back yet, I can hear enough to function.  Blowing my nose is extremely painful (it pops the left ear horribly) but other than that, it is slowly returning to normal.  I am off the antibiotics but am still using some ear drops to ensure that there is no infection while the ears heal. 

In the end I feel really, really lucky.  I have heard stories from people (and know some) that have had the same problem and lost their hearing.  As a doctor said, if I had waited at all, it could have been a lot worse.

The four lost decades

To me, what is really, really alarming is this: a typical American male who works full time and still has a job is earning almost exactly the same now as his counterpart was back in 1972, when Richard Nixon was in the White House, O. J. Simpson rushed a thousand yards for the Buffalo Bills, and Don McLean topped the charts with “American Pie.”

The figures, which appear in Table A-5 at the back of the Census Bureau’s report (pdf), are these. Median earnings for full-time, year-round male workers: 2010—$47,715; 1972—$47,550. That’s not a typo. In thirty-eight years, the annual earnings of the typical male worker, adjusted to 2010 dollars, have risen by $165, or $3.17 a week.

The Wall Street Journal posted their five favourite economic charts of the last year.

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