Oxygen Masks for Pets

I think I pulled a muscle rolling my eyes over this one. The Toronto Fire Department has joined a host of others in now carrying pet-sized oxygen masks to the fires it attends. This is a great idea! When my neighbourhood is burning down, I certainly want to see a bunch of firefighters trying to fit oxygen masks on Fido, Polly and Mr. Whiskers. And according to the Toronto Star, the masks will even be "small enough to resuscitate a parrot." Thank heavens. I know firefighters have been saving pets from burning buildings for so many years that it's cliched, but this seems to be taking it a step far.

100 Mile Diet No Reason to Oppose Site C Dam

There's been the typical hue and cry from environmentalists and the constant complainers in this province about the news that the Site C dam is going to be built on the Peace River. What of the migratory birds? What about the poor ungulates--whatever the hell those are. (Apparently, ungulates are moose and deer and the like. In that case, absolutely stop a multi-billion dollar capital program to preserve the creature comforts of deer! Yikes!) The richest reason yet for opposing the dam is that it will flood hectares and hectares if land that could be farmed. That's true. 5400 hundred hectares of land will be flooded, but only a small fraction of that is arable land. But, as we all know (because its crammed down our throats at every opportunity) we should all be eating local and following the 100 mile diet. Forget for a second that the 100 mile folks wrote what is the most smug, self-congratulating piece of literature I've ever read and take a look at a map. The Site C dam would be built in the northeast reaches of the province. Even if all 5400 hectares of land could grow delicious grapes, crunchy almonds, ripe avocados, juicy apples, and plump strawberries, they would still have to be trucked hundreds of miles to get to the bulk of the population in the lower mainland. In fact, to get to where I'm typing now, it would have to travel over 745 miles! For that mileage, I could get produce from Washington, Oregon, and even half of California with a smaller "carbon footprint" than this so-called 'local' produce! There are plenty of concerns to take into account when building a large project like a hydroelectric dam but certainly the opinions of birds and the carbon footprint of leeks cannot be among them. BC needs power, BC has rivers, BC should build Site C.

Premier Right to Boycott Vaisakhi Parade

The annual Vaisakhi parade, celebrating the birth of the Sikh faith, went ahead this weekend in Surrey without participation from Premier Campbell and with condemnation from Surrey's mayor Diane Watts. The Surrey Vaisakhi parade has been a source of controversy in the last few years for having floats with images of known terrorists and murderers being celebrated as "martyrs" for the Sikh separatist movement. The reason for the snub this year was the outrageous remarks of one of the organizers that were aimed at MLA Dave Hayer and MP Ujjal Dosanjh. The organizer claimed that these two elected representatives were not welcome at the parade and if they chose to come, they should bring their own security as their safety could not be guaranteed. These comments display an alarming arrogance and hate that has no place in our communities. Hayer and Dosanjh are well known opponents of the kind of Sikh extremism and terrorism that many in the Surrey Sikh community sympathize with. These two representatives have faced repercussions for being moderate and peaceful before. Mr. Dosanjh was severely beaten in the 1980's for his moderate beliefs and Mr. Hayer's father was viciously murdered for being a moderate. This year, by threatening elected officials and refusing to remove the "martyr" floats, the parade has crossed the line. Premier Campbell was right to demand an apology from the organizers and when they outrageously refused to, he was right to boycott the parade. This type of behaviour is unbelievable and unacceptable. So let me paraphrase Mr. Hayer's comments from this weekend and direct them at the parade organizers: "This isn't India. If you are so concerned with India-stay in India." We must expect and demand that those who come to Canada to start a new life actually do so, and don't bring their bitter animosities and violent, extremist baggage with them.

Patient-Focused Funding The Way To Go

The BC government recently announced that it was moving towards patient-focused funding for the province's hospitals. This enlightened move is exactly the kind of thinking the province's health care system needs and is what Minister Kevin Falcon was brought in to do. Our health care system is largely unsustainable with long wait times, rationing of care and a $15 billion dollar price tag that takes up 40% of the budget. With the current block funding model, hospitals get given their budgets ahead of time and each surgery and stitch comes out of that money. With this system, there is no incentive for being efficient. In fact, this funding model creates an incentive to perform fewer and fewer procedures as to not blow through your yearly budget, creating a bizarre scenario where hospitals LOSE money for doing procedures. The patient-focused model announced by the government institutes some funding that follows the patient--it goes to whichever hospital performs the needed procedure. Thus, hospitals MAKE money when they perform more procedures. This injects a much-needed element of competition to the health care system and like most everywhere else the free market is unleashed, choice goes up and price comes down. With the new funding model, hospitals get rewarded with incentives and funding for excellence. For example, if a hospital's maternity ward is exceptional and attracts patients from far and wide, it will get rewarded for that. Unfortunately, the provincial NDP is opposing this new funding model, opting to sound the tired call for more spending and "innovation." One of these demands is unsustainable, the other an empty, meaningless buzz word used by politicians that are out of real ideas. This government plan is a much needed reform, one of several that we need, and will bring down costs, shorten wait lists and improve patient care

The Rich Should Pay Their Fair Share

How often have we heard that refrain, especially from Democrats in the US? Whenever there is a budget crunch, the answer is to tax the rich more. The health care bill just passed does this, taxing the top 2%. If only the rich paid their fair share, everything would be better, we're told. Canada's NDP loves this refrain as well. The Left would pay for everything by increasing taxes on the rich. After all, it is common knowledge that the rich, the top percentiles, don't pay their fair share of taxes. Of course, like most things that are "common knowledge," this too is wrong.
Look at the income taxes collected in the US for example. As a percentage of all income tax that is brought in, here's who pays what:

So, the top 20% of income earners pay over 83% of all the income taxes collected. That sounds like a fair share to me. After the richest 20% get through paying taxes, the government has only 14% to collect form the remaining 80% of taxpayers. What's more, look at the bottom 40%. These people actually receive more refundable tax credits from government than they pay, so as a whole, they pay no income taxes at all. That's 40% paying on average no income taxes while the top 20% pay the vast majority of all income taxes. The highest earning amongst us should pay more tax than the poor and middle class, but let's not indulge those who suggest that taxing the rich is the obvious and equitable way to raise revenue.

Chickens in the City

Vancouver is inching ever closer to allowing residents to keep chickens in their backyards. I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. In general, I am strongly pro-chicken. For a while, I had three chickens in my backyard in Surrey and have had a soft spot for the feathered purveyors of eggs ever since. When I'm at the Safeway, I buy the free range eggs so I know the chickens could run around like mine used to. And the anti-caged chickens wing of the animal rights movement is the one segment I support out of a movement I find grating and naive. My own chicken fancy leads me to want to support allowing chickens in Vancouver. That is, however, until I really recollect my own chicken rearing experience. Chickens are loud. Chickens are really loud. Vancouver is not going to allow roosters, but the male chicken is not the only one who lets you know when morning has arrived. Bright and early each morning, hens have to pass an egg and they let everyone know about it. We never got complaints in the suburbs, but that's because it was the suburbs. With large lots and big houses, there was space between our chickens and our neighbours. Vancouverites won't have that luxury living as close as they do there. Chickens also can attract mice, rats, and play host to a variety of germs and viruses including avian flu and salmonella. These microbial side effects are certain to be worse in the close confines of a city than they ever are on a farm or in the country. And finally, what happens when people get tired of their chickens or the chickens die? What's a person in the West End supposed to do with an unwanted or dead chicken? Well, Vancouver City Council has come up with the solution: a $20,000 compound for unwanted and abandoned chickens. That's a $20,000 tab to the residents of a city with ever escalating property taxes so that they can subsidize the irresponsibility of some of their neighbours. But despite this $20,000 halfway home for farm fowl, I expect this resolution to pass because it helps the city and its eco-Mayor achieve the self-created title of Greenest City in the World. I presume having chickens across the city is supposed to help cut the emissions from all those egg delivery trucks zipping to and fro in Vancouver? But regardless of these concerns, I think I'm going to enjoy this chicken experiment anyways. And what I think I'll like most is the image of all those smug, holier-than-thou, eco-Vancouverites cleaning out chicken droppings and collecting the eggs for their organic egg-white omelets out of the backside of a living, breathing creature instead of from the bright and clean shelves of their neighbourhood Whole Foods. Now THAT will be worth the 20 grand!