It’s MY MONEY dammit!

There’s an old expression that goes something like “Look after the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves.”

$24 Million dollars isn’t a huge amount as a percentage of the tens of billions of dollars spent by the government every year. But put $24 million for 4 temporary meeting rooms in the context of that old adage and it serves as an apt example of why governments and the highly proficient spendthrifts who work for them have absolutely no fiscal credibility.

I live in a rural area. We have a population of about 5,000 people spread over 1000 square kilometres. We have a Town Hall, arena, library, fire service, road maintenance, and all the other amenities you would expect in a rural area. And our municipal budget is under $6 million per year.

So the cost of those 4 temporary meeting rooms would run our township for 4 years, with some left over for decent coffee and really good doughnuts at the council meetings.

But someone in the upper reaches of the federal bureaucracy decided $24 million was a fair price to pay for 4 temporary meeting rooms. And someone at the political level (I assume) signed off on it.

Is it because when you are used to dealing in billions a few million here or there don’t actually show up on anyone’s radar? Are we all so inured to the $50 billion deficit and the multi-billion F-35 deal (numbers which no normal person can even begin to get their head around) that neither the MSM nor the politicos understand that $24 million is still real money?

Because all those billions are spent a few million at a time, and someone should be paying attention.

How better to motivate the base

than by stating you expect your opponent to win 2 of the 3 seats up for grabs in the November by-election?

In this story in the Globe and Mail:

A Conservative source told The Canadian Press the Tories expect the Liberals to take at least two seats.

If head office (the PMO) is worried, then every true blue Harper-worshipping Conservative will be sure to get out and vote. And the Liberal supporters? Well the PMO is obviously hoping they’ll view a Liberal win as a given and not bother to vote at all. Voila - 3 Con seats!

Some pundits have actually come out asking “What were they thinking?” with that announcement. Well it’s actually pretty obvious, and quite clever in a Machiavellian sort of way. Expect to see lots more “We don’t expect to win” messaging over the next 4 weeks.

Cheap shot of the day

In today’s Ottawa Sun Joe Warmington goes on a rant about apparent special treatment afforded convicted killer Russell Williams at Kingston Pen. Warmington’s unnamed sources told him that Williams was met by the warden and given the “VIP treatment” on arrival.

If true, and if Williams is being given special treatment, then that is clearly an affront to everyone who is disgusted by his actions and applaud the fact he will spend the rest of his miserable life behind bars. The report would be more credible if Warmington had anything to offer as evidence other than information from an “outraged insider”, but he has succeeded in fanning the flames so the story was successful.

But then he goes on with this, an unfair cheap shot aimed squarely at Williams wife.

My source says stay tuned for the conjugal visit application which should come around the same time as the taxpayers pay Williams’ too silent wife Mary-Elizabeth Harriman $3,000 for the OPP disturbing her home while they searched for vital murder investigation evidence.

I can’t imagine anyone in their darkest hours would want to go through what Mary-Elizabeth Harriman has had to experience over the past few months. And just what did he expect her to do? Stand beside her man all weepy and supportive as in the “till death do us part” bit? Or create another media circus by publicly decrying the monster she didn’t know? Get serious. Silence was, and is, the best and only option for her.

And as for his unnamed “source” anticipating a conjugal visit any time soon, that’s clearly just another figment of someone’s imagination and unworthy of publication, even by Warmington’s low standards.

Note to Peter MacKay: Don’t buy this sub!

A few more florid than normal faces around the UK Ministry of Defence these days.

One of their newest submarines, an Astute-class boat, somehow ran aground off the Scottish coast.

Now how on earth (or on sea) can a modern warship, with literally tens of millions of dollars of navigation gear, sonar, depth sounding technology, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, run aground? Well that’s what the MoD would like to find out. (One rumour is that the Captain was ashore replenishing his Scotch inventory when the tide went out, but that has yet to be confirmed.)

While the British are feeling very safe in their beds knowing that the Royal Navy is out there protecting their island home, the Ministry of Defence is putting together another offer of a “gently used” submarine for their former colony’s naval forces.

So I say to Peter MacKay, remember the Upholders and HMCS Chicoutimi.

Randy Quaid a refugee?

According to this story, Randy Quaid (yes, that Randy Quaid, of Brokeback Mountain and National Lampoon Vacation movies fame) and his wife Evi have applied for refugee status in Canada.

The article isn’t clear on what basis they have made application, but it did mention an outstanding warrant in California for “vandalizing a Santa Barbara home they lived in” and “allegations the couple defrauded an innkeeper in Montecito, Calif.”.

Right now they remain in a Vancouver jail as designated flight risks while their application is processed.

With all the changes Jason Kenney is making to the various refugee acts to fix the supposed problems with the system, he should put a superfasttrack process in place that would have had Mr. and Mrs. Quaid on the first bus back to the US as soon as the word “refugee” came out of their mouths. That we allow this sort of crap to clutter up our refugee determination system is just plain nuts!

Air Canada nut-free buffer zone gets OK.

When I saw this headline I was quite relieved to know I‘d never again have to worry about having a Harper Cabinet Minister as a seatmate on any long-haul Air Canada flights. Or short-haul ones either.

 

View Full Album

But then I read further and discovered they were talking about real nuts and passengers who had severe allergies.

Too bad. I thought Air Canada was really onto something there.

Why there’s a productivity gap.

A client recently had a requirement to purchase up to 4 high-end PCs for a very specific business function. We scoped out the requirement and approached 4 different local suppliers for quotes. To be fair it wasn’t going to be a huge order (under $10,000), but we were dealing with small locally-owned computer stores which, one would assume, would like the business. We got these results.

Supplier 1 initially told us they were interested in quoting but even after 2 reminders did not. Nor did they acknowledge either of the follow-up requests.

Supplier 2 quoted a system that did not meet one of the key requirements. The error was akin to quoting a pickup truck when the requirement was for a 4-door sedan.When this was brought to their attention they re-quoted with a station wagon.

Supplier 3 quoted a system which seemed the best solution. It was purchased but when delivered a key component had not been installed. It was on a minimum 2-month backorder, which the supplier neglected to mention beforehand.  The system was returned and the order cancelled.

Supplier 4 quoted a system that included several items not in the original specification because “we thought you overlooked them.” (We did not.)

In each case the supplier didn’t read the specifications and/or made unwarranted assumptions without contacting the client. As a consequence none of them got the business, nor will any of them ever get another opportunity to quote on  future business.

I expect this is not an isolated situation as I’ve heard similar stories from others trying to deal with small businesses. The lost productivity hours on this buy alone are significant. Multiply that by several thousand transactions per day and one gets a sense why there’s such a productivity gap in this country. And also, I expect, why small businesses come and go like mayflies in spring.

None of this is rocket science. 1. Read the specification. 2. Configure the system. 3. Verify it meets the specification. 4. Deliver the quote. 5. Win the business.

But for some reason even that basic checklist seems beyond the capabilities of so many businesses today. It’s actually quite depressing.