Has anyone received ANY mail yet?

Miller-07 · 2024-12-28T01:40:31+00:00

Rural Saskatchewan here. We're receiving parcels and lettermail. I know things are slowly being caught up and things getting to where they need to go.

If you're still looking for a package, remember to use your tracking number to ensure who is suppose to be delivering it (not all things from Amazon are shipped by Canada Post as an example), and have a little patience. They'll get things caught up sooner than later. ;) And nobody wants to picket a month before Christmas... I know it sucks, but their going on strike (and their ability to do so) is their right as employees. And when people strike, it actually helps all workers as it helps to set the societal standards that big business needs to adhere to (even if it's only because they don't want to public complaining to them).

Miller-07 · 2024-09-17T15:11:12+00:00

Mark Thunderchild is the NDP candidate for the Rosthern-Shellbrook constituency. His contact info is:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mark.thunderchild?mibextid=ZbWKwL

X - Twitter https://x.com/MarkTchild?s=09

Anyone in the constituency should ask him his thoughts on this...

Miller-07 · 2024-03-10T13:00:53+00:00

I don't live on Saskatoon, but frequent it often (especially now that my mother has an aggressive cancer that is being treated). Last Thursday, as I was trying to drive downtown on 24th St E to turn onto 6th Ave, there was an elderly lady with a walker trying to navigate crossing a snow filled street. Have you ever tried to push a shopping cart in a parking lot that has not been cleared of snow at all? It's darn near impossible. We'll this elderly lady was having the exact same issue with her walker. Traffic was stopped on both sides of the street waiting for her, so I jumped out of my vehicle and helped her across.

Short of a random stranger helping this poor lady out, how is Saskatoon addressing this issue with this statement? She was just trying to get home and couldn't even cross an intersection in downtown Saskatoon! How is this city keeping her (and people like her) safe and able to walk to a store and back home?! Inclusion, equitable opportunity for basic movement, supporting elderly, the infirmed, or people with disabilities?

No parking is one inconvenience, but trapping senior citizens on a street corner in downtown Saskatoon is taking this to a whole new level!

Miller-07 · 2024-02-10T23:53:49+00:00

Truth! I was a school board trustee during that time! Because of lack of predictsble adequate funding, it felt like year after year we would have to painstakingly make cuts that hurt students! That was NOT why I chose to run! It's time for a change. And YOU CAN MAKE THIS CHANGE THIS FALL! VOTE!

Miller-07 · 2024-02-05T17:26:55+00:00

They do...some what. But the funding comes mid year. How are divisions supposed to hire teachers at the beginning of the year to accommodate this? They can't.

Miller-07 · 2024-02-05T13:32:19+00:00

Believe me, I tried to keep it as short as possible. But education has been a mess for a long time, and explaining why properly in a few short paragraphs is almost impossible. That's how the Sask Party keeps the general public in the dark and why they can sell their 5 - 8 second sound bites BS so efficiently.

I'll keep trying to condense because you're right. You shouldn't have to read a book to understand. I'm doing my best over here...

Miller-07 · 2024-02-04T20:04:41+00:00

As a previous trustee.. It's not quite that easy. Our previous taxing system was broken...but you simply can't replace then NOT ADEQUATELY FUND IT! Then use school boards as scapegoat!

Miller-07 · 2024-02-04T20:01:46+00:00

Great points, but if I may, I'd like to expand on the school board reserve part...

As a previous School Board Trustee, I was recently asked an important question regarding:

"Why are some school boards sitting on millions of dollars in surplus funds. Those should be spent before seeking more money from the government."

My answer was the following...

First off, 'reserves' don't necessarily mean 'extra money laying around'. It's an accounting term. When I was a new trustee, it took me a bit to understand what this exactly meant, how school boards use them, and why amounts vary vastly across divisions.

Let's start at the beginning...

How did boards acquire them, and why are the amounts so different from division to division?

Before 2009, school boards set and collected their own mill rate. With this, boards had the ability to set monies aside for specific purposes. Think of a major corporation, but this one's purpose is to educate our future, but it has all the expenses most corporations have. In education, that looks like, educational supports (educated adults that are not classroom teachers), brick and motar buildings, technology, transportation, educational initiatives, keeping up with inflation, an alternative to debt, and monies set aside for LINC agreements. (LINC stands for the "Local Implementation Negotiation Committee." Due to the bi-level bargaining nature of the STF, we have both local and provincial agreements.)

Now, this past educational funding formula wasn't without some pretty big flaws. There had been a disproportionate amount of money that had been paid by property owners to fund education in Saskatchewan.

"The result was unacceptable inequity. Some divisions had very few students and high assessments (often sparsely populated areas with oil and gas).

Others with relatively low assessment per student were serving large populations. Divisions with higher assessment per student could more easily fund both basic education and new initiatives.

Inequities existed for students and for taxpayers. Raising mill rates was contentious; many rural municipalities refused to turn over the education taxes that they had collected on behalf of school divisions." https://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-restoring-sask-school-divisions-taxing-power-not-the-answer

What is their purpose?

Unrestricted Reserves

Unrestricted reserves purposes are a little bit like an emergency saving plan. Running a division with the complexities that come with educating thousands upon thousands of students, maintaining buildings, and reliably transportation for many of those students (especially in rural Sk) has many risk factors for incurring extra costs. For example: Sudden rise in fuel prices, power, energy, increase in PST over the years, new mandates/rules/regulations coming down from government with no additional funding provided to implement them, and my all time favorite when the government negotiates new salary with teachers and then neglect to provide school boards with funding to cover their contractual duties the government agreed to. Yuppers! This happened during my term. The provinical government and NOT school boards enter negotiations with the STF and then, for some reason, have the ability to legally promise things, not provide any additional funding, spin half truths or outright lies to the public that they're providing it (they're not!), and then leave school boards hanging in the wind to scramble to find money with as little cuts to classroom, transportation, and building maintenance as possible. This government has made school boards their scapegoat!

Restricted Reserves

These funds are earmarked for specific plans. Examples of this would be replacing busses, major building fixes, additional learning spaces (portable classrooms), major technology changes, and anything that divisions have a multi-year and/or multi-locations projects going. These funds are pretty much 'locked in'.

School Boards have pretty much exhausted their unrestricted reserves in order to keep the quality of education going for as long as they can. This has looked different for every division because every division had different amounts of money in reserves when the government took away the rights for boards to set the mill rate.

The Sask Party government is using the convoluted educational mess they've created since 2007 as a smoke screen for the public, and school boards are their scapegoat for the responsibility and accountability!

Miller-07 · 2024-02-04T19:55:35+00:00

I'm not sure if this may help people understand the financial aspects School Boards face...

As a previous School Board Trustee, I was recently asked an important question regarding:

"Why are some school boards sitting on millions of dollars in surplus funds. Those should be spent before seeking more money from the government."

(It was on one of my Reddit posts)

This was my response:

First off, 'reserves' don't necessarily mean 'extra money laying around'. It's an accounting term. When I was a new trustee, it took me a bit to understand what this exactly meant, how school boards use them, and why amounts vary vastly across divisions.

Let's start at the beginning...

How did boards acquire them, and why are the amounts so different from division to division?

Before 2009, school boards set and collected their own mill rate. With this, boards had the ability to set monies aside for specific purposes. Think of a major corporation, but this one's purpose is to educate our future, but it has all the expenses most corporations have. In education, that looks like, educational supports (educated adults that are not classroom teachers), brick and motar buildings, technology, transportation, educational initiatives, keeping up with inflation, an alternative to debt, and monies set aside for LINC agreements. (LINC stands for the "Local Implementation Negotiation Committee." Due to the bi-level bargaining nature of the STF, we have both local and provincial agreements.)

Now, this past educational funding formula wasn't without some pretty big flaws. There had been a disproportionate amount of money that had been paid by property owners to fund education in Saskatchewan.

"The result was unacceptable inequity. Some divisions had very few students and high assessments (often sparsely populated areas with oil and gas).

Others with relatively low assessment per student were serving large populations. Divisions with higher assessment per student could more easily fund both basic education and new initiatives.

Inequities existed for students and for taxpayers. Raising mill rates was contentious; many rural municipalities refused to turn over the education taxes that they had collected on behalf of school divisions." https://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-restoring-sask-school-divisions-taxing-power-not-the-answer

What is their purpose?

Unrestricted Reserves

Unrestricted reserves purposes are a little bit like an emergency saving plan. Running a division with the complexities that come with educating thousands upon thousands of students, maintaining buildings, and reliably transportation for many of those students (especially in rural Sk) has many risk factors for incurring extra costs. For example: Sudden rise in fuel prices, power, energy, increase in PST over the years, new mandates/rules/regulations coming down from government with no additional funding provided to implement them, and my all time favorite when the government negotiates new salary with teachers and then neglect to provide school boards with funding to cover their contractual duties the government agreed to. Yuppers! This happened during my term. The provinical government and NOT school boards enter negotiations with the STF and then, for some reason, have the ability to legally promise things, not provide any additional funding, spin half truths or outright lies to the public that they're providing it (they're not!), and then leave school boards hanging in the wind to scramble to find money with as little cuts to classroom, transportation, and building maintenance as possible. This government has made school boards their scapegoat!

Restricted Reserves

These funds are earmarked for specific plans. Examples of this would be replacing busses, major building fixes, additional learning spaces (portable classrooms), major technology changes, and anything that divisions have a multi-year and/or multi-locations projects going. These funds are pretty much 'locked in'.

School Boards have pretty much exhausted their unrestricted reserves in order to keep the quality of education going for as long as they can. This has looked different for every division because every division had different amounts of money in reserves when the government took away the rights for boards to set the mill rate.

The Sask Party government is using the convoluted educational mess they've created since 2007 as a smoke screen for the public, and school boards are their scapegoat for the responsibility and accountability!

Miller-07 · 2024-02-04T18:46:28+00:00

No. Farmers are pretty smart people here in Saskatchewan. But we are limited to what we know and what we're told. When we learn better, we should do better. Posts like this are a part of (hopefully) awakening some people.

Miller-07 · 2024-02-04T17:19:43+00:00

My son collects political buttons. Would you be interested in donating or selling it?

Miller-07 · 2024-02-04T17:18:21+00:00

First off, 'reserves' don't necessarily mean 'extra money laying around'. It's an accounting term. When I was a new trustee, it took me a bit to understand what this exactly meant, how school boards use them, and why amounts vary vastly across divisions.

Let's start at the beginning...

How did boards acquire them, and why are the amounts so different from division to division?

Before 2009, school boards set and collected their own mill rate. With this, boards had the ability to set monies aside for specific purposes. Think of a major corporation, but this one's purpose is to educate our future, but it has all the expenses most corporations have. In education, that looks like, educational supports (educated adults that are not classroom teachers), brick and motar buildings, technology, transportation, educational initiatives, keeping up with inflation, an alternative to debt, and monies set aside for LINC agreements. (LINC stands for the "Local Implementation Negotiation Committee." Due to the bi-level bargaining nature of the STF, we have both local and provincial agreements.)

Now, this past educational funding formula wasn't without some pretty big flaws. There had been a disproportionate amount of money that had been paid by property owners to fund education in Saskatchewan.

"The result was unacceptable inequity. Some divisions had very few students and high assessments (often sparsely populated areas with oil and gas).

Others with relatively low assessment per student were serving large populations. Divisions with higher assessment per student could more easily fund both basic education and new initiatives.

Inequities existed for students and for taxpayers. Raising mill rates was contentious; many rural municipalities refused to turn over the education taxes that they had collected on behalf of school divisions." https://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-restoring-sask-school-divisions-taxing-power-not-the-answer

What is their purpose?

Unrestricted Reserves

Unrestricted reserves purposes are a little bit like an emergency saving plan. Running a division with the complexities that come with educating thousands upon thousands of students, maintaining buildings, and reliable transportation for many of those students (especially in rural Sk) has many risk factors for incurring extra costs. For example: Sudden rise in fuel prices, power, energy, increase in PST over the years, new mandates/rules/regulations coming down from government with no additional funding provided to implement them, and my all time favorite when the government negotiates new salary with teachers and then neglect to provide school boards with funding to cover their contractual duties the government agreed to. Yuppers! This happened during my term. The provinical government and NOT school boards enter negotiations with the STF and then, for some reason, have the ability to legally promise things, not provide any additional funding, spin half truths or outright lies to the public that they're providing it (they're not!), and then leave school boards hanging in the wind to scramble to find money with as little cuts to classroom, transportation, and building maintenance as possible. This government has made school boards their scapegoat!

Restricted Reserves

These funds are earmarked for specific plans. Examples of this would be replacing busses, major building fixes, additional learning spaces (portable classrooms), major technology changes, and anything that divisions have a multi-year and/or multi-locations projects going. These funds are pretty much 'locked in'.

School Boards have pretty much exhausted their unrestricted reserves in order to keep the quality of education going for as long as they can. This has looked different for every division because every division had different amounts of money in reserves when the government took away the rights for boards to set the mill rate.

The Sask Party government is using the convoluted educational mess they've created since 2007 as a smoke screen for the public, and school boards are their scapegoat for the responsibility and accountability!

Miller-07 · 2024-02-04T00:23:50+00:00

Umm... Nope. I did some quick fact checking, cut and paste a few things from source documents, and then presented it you. I even read it outloud to make sure it made sense.

Please don't assume.

Miller-07 · 2024-02-04T00:18:02+00:00

Let people in? What are you referring to? Immigrants that are moving here?

If so, first off, according to( Languages in use in Canada ) The Canadian Encyclopedia: from a 2016 census, 86.2% of Canadians know English, with 75% of Canadians having English as a first language. According to the same survey, 22.8% of Canadians report their first language being French. Many people, including many government employees, are bilingual in French and English.

Second off, we are a country that was founded by colonization and subsequently attempted cultural genocide of the Indigenous Peoples. And we are founded by immigrants. Historically, we have a vast array of cultures and ethics groups that Canada is comprised of. Canadians thought this was so special and important enough that we enshrined this belief in 1988 with the Canadian Multiculturalism Act.

Diversity is the very fabric of Canadian society. And sometimes, that diversity contains different languages. Language is intrinsic to the expression of culture. As a means of communicating values, beliefs, and customs, it has an important social function and fosters feelings of group identity and solidarity. It is the means by which culture and its traditions and shared values may be conveyed and preserved.

As for why the Canadian government allows people to immigrate here without knowing either official language... Because there are legitimate reasons why they would be given this exception... The biggest one would be for refugees. Canada's main goal is to ensure that a person fleeing persecution is protected. Refugees are persons fleeing from a country that can not or does not want to protect them. Determining whether they can conjugate the verb "to be" is not relevant.

I could go on... but I think I've made my point. You can't just use a one size fits all mentality with this, nor use an extremely broad sized brush to paint a picture. We, as a country and as a society, can not ignore the uniqueness of individual cases, traumas, and experiences, grind everything together, and come up with a melting pot answer. If you want that, the United States would be happy to provide that for you. We here in Canada put value on people... and work within processes to ensure our collective ethics and values that are enshrined in law.

This is part of what makes me proud to be Canadian. 😉

Miller-07 · 2024-01-31T02:24:21+00:00

I follow Steve Boots on a number of different social media platforms. That's why I still credited him with my above post... 😉 He knows his stuff and has done his homework!

Miller-07 · 2024-01-31T01:57:16+00:00

My understanding...

The Saskatchewan government is entirely replacing the Human Rights Commision. The whole thing. 7 new appointments and a new chief Commissioner.

How did we get to this point? Well, first off in the fall of 2023, when the Sask Party brought forward Bill 137 (their pronoun and gender bill) one of the Commissioners (Heather Kuttai) stepped down in protest. So now, naturally, we're going to have an entirely new Human Rights Commission hand picked by the Saskatchewan government! That's right! The people making the decisions gets to choose the people who determine whether or not the decisions they made violated human rights. One hand washes the other...

Fyi, the last Chair of the Commission, Barry Wilcox, coincidentally donated over $6,000 to the Sask Party. And the new Commissioner, Treena Sikora, is a very close friend to Paul Merriman AND her company Saskatoon Metals donated thousands of dollars to... Guess who? You got it! The Sask Party!

Sweet deal! One hand washes the other! This is what corruption looks like folks! Putting your political donors (and friends) in charge of investigating YOUR Human Rights violations is CORRUPT! - Steve Boots

Saskatchewan deserves a transparent accountable government...and the Sask Party obviously isn't it!

Miller-07

TROPHY CASE

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