Author: Doug Rutherford

Posted on

Oh, wow! Here we go again.

It seems my ongoing surgery merry-go-round just doesn’t want to end. What we originally thought were two fluid pockets on the December incision appears to be an incisional hernia. I’ve been referred to the surgeon and, as my doctor said, “Back to the body shop for you.”

For those unfamiliar, a hernia is a weakness in the abdominal wall. In my case, the weakness doesn’t run in the normal direction up-and-down because muscle tissue separated. Instead, mine developed because of the repair work and the cutting of tissue along the incision from my last surgery. What causes this? There are lots of reasons, although the chief suspect is the fall I had right before Christmas on an icy sidewalk (see a previous post). Also, infection can contribute and, of course, my incision got rather infected as well. Then, any abdominal incision can develop a hernia. And, as my family doctor states, “Oh, you’ve just let go completely, haven’t you?” I really needed that amount of detail. Anyway, the bottom line is that my abdominal wall has a weak spot and my small intestine is trying to escape through it.

So, I presently wait for the appointment with the surgeon to get some idea of when it’s going to be repaired. They sew everything together and then sew a plastic mesh over the top to keep it that way. Think of it as getting a new front grill.

I’m back to my current line of thinking. I’m hoping that, if all else fails, I’m using up someone else’s bad luck for them and they’ll be spared something of their own. Maybe, if there is such a thing, karma may kick in, preferably in conjunction with a lottery ticket…

Posted on

The cost of education

I have been watching the student protests in Quebec over rising tuition costs with some interest. First, I do teach at the postsecondary level so I do have a vested bias in education as a general concept. Throw in the fact that after primary and secondary school and a couple of university degrees, with the longstanding joys of student loans, I do have a decent idea of the significance of paying for an education. I also sit in the third seat involved, namely, that a portion of my taxes paid to the territorial and federal governments go towards providing education services.

All of my experience has led me to wonder about the terminology used in the discussion of this issue and whether or not this has resulted in all three groups considering the issue of the economics of education in the wrong light. Students, of course, complain about the high cost of education. That being said, Quebec has a traditionally low fee structure for university students and the average annual university tuition in Quebec is about $800 year less than that of Yukon College. On average, students leave university with a degree and a substantial debt load. Governments also face increasingly high budget forecasts, with the costs of education transfers, staffing, building maintenance, curriculum revision, etc. And, tax payers constantly call for lower taxes, wanting to reduce the pool of funds available for all government services, not just education alone.

All three groups have missed the main point here. The main consideration is that education costs nothing. Nope. Not a penny. Education is not a cost. It is an investment and students, governments and taxpayers should all keep that in mind when the aspect of educational economics rears its head. Like investments, the monies paid toward education at all levels will often pay off, just not in the “now.” Investing is done for the future and if the any of the parties involved are only interested in what yields results in the present, they deserve a certain degree of disappointment and shouldn’t really be surprised when their contrary opinions are simply, and justifiably, ignored.

Think of the alternatives to education spending. For one thing, an educated workforce means a larger workforce. This, in turn, reduces the requirements for spending on transfers for social assistance, Employment Insurance and low income tax credits. And, people with larger incomes tend to spend more, reintroducing monies back into the economy. As a double bonus, those with higher incomes contribute more to taxation revenues for governments at all levels. There are additional benefits. Consider the arguments used by provinces, territories and municipalities to lure new industry to their region. The big point of any such discussion is infrastructure. Unfortunately, most tend to think of infrastructure in terms of roads, power and facilities for employees. Industry, however, also considers a more valuable aspect of infrastructure, namely, a trained workforce. Finding employees that are capable of fulfilling your needs is difficult, particularly when your requirements involve a staff with a high level of technical training. No one wants to train an employee from scratch and no one wants to try to fill an entire facility with employees gleaned from elsewhere, where the costs of staffing your facility will include incentives to relocate and, often, relocation expenses, as well.

Like any good investment, contributions are required from a variety of levels to make these viable. And, like any good investment, the dividends are delivered over an extended period of time. So maybe, if we thought of education as the investment in personal growth and citizenship contribution it actually represents, all levels would reconsider their rhetoric and just place the emphasis on the topic that it deserves…

Posted on

An open letter to the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner

Ms. Mary Dawson

Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
Parliament of Canada
Centre Block, P.O. Box 16
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

By E-Mail

Dear Ms. Dawson:

I note that, this evening, the House of Commons passed legislation to order two unions of Air Canada employees to binding arbitration to prevent strike action. This action could be seen as being highly beneficial to both the corporation and its shareholders. This raises my question as to the potential motivation and the potential of conflict of interest in some of the members voting in favour of this legislation.

I know that there is a requirement for member disclosure on election on their personal holdings and wish to know how many of the members who voted in this matter have  personal portfolios that  include share holdings in Air Canada or its subsidiaries.  I also respectfully request that appropriate action be taken under section 8 of the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons.

Yours truly,

Doug Rutherford
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

 

Posted on

Time (or tempus fidgets)

With two projects on the go, I have rediscovered how much I like having spare time. Getting ready for St. Patrick’s, not having played a lot in the last 6 months and finalizing the play script for the Homegrown Festival have kept me hopping. In my defense, the script changes are to the part I’m doing and the changes to Heather’s part only involve the adding of a single word so there won’t be huge differences between the script I gave her and the final one.

Don’t forget to add that to work, finalizing the focus of a new column in What’s Up Yukon and looking after a wounded wife, who fortunately doesn’t need that much looking after, with the additional factor that I may need more minor surgery to think of on top of this.

Someone asked me why I don’t do any contract work anymore. I’m reminded at how much more I’d rather have the time than the money.

So, I am remembering how much I like having some spare time. That being said, I’ll probably do a better job of rediscovering it when I actually have some…

Posted on

If it weren’t for bad luck…

I’ve come to the conclusion that the old expression is particularly true. Actually, Ginsberg’s Law may be more so. “You can’t win, you can’t break even and you can’t get out of the game.”

Clara was volunteering for the Arctic Winter Games and went to her shift at the Games Centre yesterday morning. Since our luck has been generally awful lately, she slipped near the entrance to the Games Centre and broke her arm. Apparently, several other people fell and complained that the parking lot was rather icy; however, Public Works hadn’t come up to sand the lot by that point so, down she went.

She called me to tell me what happened and, since I was taking Katrina to the airport first, I said I’d meet her at the hospital. A little while later, she called to say I had to pick her up at the Games Centre. Since it wasn’t a life or death situation, the ambulances on site for the Games are for athletes, not volunteers. In other words, she fell about 7 am and didn’t even get to the hospital until about 8:30.

The good news is that she broke her right arm and is left handed. It was a clean break and still in alignment so she only needs a sling and not a cast or surgery. She goes off for more X-rays and sees the doctor again next week.

You would think, at this point, we would be tired of visiting the hospital…

Posted on

St. Patrick’s Day

All the ducks seem to be in a row for a great time on St. Patrick’s Day. I’m playing at our new neighbourhood pub which Clara and I have grown quite fond of. It’s got quite nice atmosphere and good food. I’ll throw in the additional benefit of the prices being quite reasonable.

If you’re in town and looking for a bit of a time, drop in. Musicians for the open stage are always welcome.

poster

It starts at 8 and ends… whatever. The place closes at 12 normally, but their license is good until 2 AM so if things are still hopping, they’ll hop for a bit more time…

Posted on

I’ve been busy

Needless to say, I’ve been a bit remiss on blog posting for the last little while. I’ll concede that I’ve been a bit busy working on a few projects and have also been laid low with a cold for a bit. Therefore, I should try to explain what I’ve been doing in lieu of posting.

The Nakai Theatre Homegrown Festival is coming up in early May and I have entered the play into it. It’s a festival for introducing local work and is a great venue for introducing new works or works in progress. I’m entering the play, although we’re only doing one scene from it. This will introduce two of the three characters and provide a bit of background to the material. I’m playing one of the two characters, as well as directing and producing. Yes, this has kept me a bit busy.  I’ve also been doing a bit of rewriting since we don’t start rehearsing until next month. Here, by the way, is the latest draft of the poster for the play.

Play poster

The other thing taking some time is another type of rehearsal. I’m playing for St. Patrick’s Day at Bailey’s Pub in Porter Creek, March 17th. It’s been a while since I sat down and played the equivalent of four sets of tunes as I really haven’t been playing that much since surgery so I’ve been working on that as well.

On top of that, I’m going to be writing a new column for What’s Up Yukon. It’s a look at computer security for the non-technical. I’m trying to provide some basic steps people can do to prevent problems. It’s sort of an electronic self-defence course. The first article came out yesterday. We’re still working on the full focus of the column and trying to come up with a snazzy title. More to come on that, I guess.

Throw in work and life in general… and in particular… I haven’t been posting that much in the last little while. I will try to be more dedicated. I promise…

 

Posted on

Hewers of wood?

One of the more common ideas presented about the Canadian economy is that we have a resource-based economy and are liable to fluctuations in resource demand. This is seen, for example, in the recent comments by the Natural Resources Minister regarding the need to ensure that oil/gas and mining development projects should have their approval processes streamlined to ensure that these important components of our economy are developed more quickly.

Unfortunately, this is a misconception. Consider the GDP figures from 2001-2010 for industry sectors in Canada. The two sectors relating to resource production are:

  • Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting
  • Oil and gas and mining extraction

In 2002 dollars (reported in this way for comparative purposes over the 10-year period and I’m rounding to the nearest billion dollars), the contribution to GDP for agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting was $26B in 2010, while that of oil and gas and mining extraction was $54B, for a combined resource-based contribution of $80B.

Now, please do not imply that I’m degrading $80B. If nothing else, it’s far better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. However, comparison with other industry sectors, this is a relatively small amount. For example, manufacturing alone contributed $160B to the GDP in 2010, twice the value of all resource-based industry sectors. The construction industry contributed $74B to the economy in 2010, almost the value of all resource-based industries combined. Of the GDP for just goods producing industries alone, natural resources account for only about 23%.

Where our economy receives its largest contributions come from the service sector. For example, educational services, at $62B is larger than either resource component, as is wholesale ($70B) and retail ($76B) trade, transportation and warehousing ($58B), professional, scientific and technical services ($61B), etc. In fact, the largest industry sector contribution to GDP comes from the financial industry, which has a total contribution of $257B, or more than three times the combined natural resources industries in 2010.

Keep in mind that the service sector does service something. It is safe to assume that, without the goods producing industries, we would not have a large a service industry as well. On the other hand, since industries other than natural resources represent 77% of the goods-producing economy, it is obvious that not all service sector components are dependent on resource production, either.

Are we a resource-based economy? Since natural resources contribute slightly more than 6% of the total Canadian economy, this is a claim that is no longer valid and has not been for some time. In 2001, natural resources represented 7% of the economy, so the actual contribution of resources to the Canadian economy actually declined. This is true in spite of the economic downturn in 2008 which tends to penalize industries related to the production of finished goods more than raw material generating industries.

Perhaps it’s time that the federal government consider its policy development around the largest components of our economy, rather than fixating on one smaller aspect. Policies that support manufacturing industries or encourage the financial industry would have a substantially greater benefit to the economy than making it easier to fast-track mining and oil and gas development projects. Unfortunately, dealing with facts is something our present government seems reticent to do…

Posted on

Excuse me?

Two weeks ago, I had a somewhat bizarre incident where a city truck jumped the line waiting at the car wash. I complained to the city and it was passed on to the City Manager. I finally got a response the other day and I’ve been shaking my head ever since. It contained the following:

“We have dealt with the  issue and now consider it closed.”

Wait a second. Doesn’t  the person who complained determine if a matter is dealt with acceptably? It seems to me that I finally understand why a city employee can conduct himself in an arrogant and superior manner. After all, if the city manager is above the mere mortals who pay his salary, why can’t the remainder of the staff be that way…