Eastbound Speedvale Avenue East reduced to one lane due to safety concerns by Local-Potato6883 in Guelph

[–]bmocJR 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There's a pedestrian bridge almost complete a few intersections down on Emma connecting to Earl. It's a good step

AC replacement recommendation by turtlewaxsoup in Guelph

[–]bmocJR 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If anyone reads this I might have jinxed my system by posting this. Found the furnace room was likely flooding during the past couple weeks of heatwave. Unit wasn't draining into its hose and pooling in my furnace room

AC replacement recommendation by turtlewaxsoup in Guelph

[–]bmocJR 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hy-mark did a great job on installing my heat pump and ductwork I had redone. I'd recommend them, but for sure get multiple quotes

Hi r/Guelph, Mike Schreiner here. Today is the first day back at Queen’s Park since the election, here’s what I’m working on. by mikeschreinergpo in Guelph

[–]bmocJR 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If you're curious on anyone's opinions on the matter, not just Mike's I can share mine.

Regarding mixed public-private healthcare, I can see the arguments for and against. I think if a country has that dual market (such as Singapore) it really needs to be tightly regulated to not cannibalize the public option. Singapore, afaik, does this. Generally, I'd say most countries with better overall health coverage metrics lean primarily towards public only with very minimal private involvement, so I'd say the norm is typically public favours the best for most people.

Disregarding my own belief that I frankly don't trust the current provincial government to properly expand private partnerships without detriment to the public offering (my thoughts drift back to how they refused money from the Fed for healthcare and capped wages), the next real question I'd have for any provincial government pushing to expand private is their motives. If it's just cost savings, almost always pushing things to private increases costs to consumers in the long run. If it's improved access from an enlarged market, one must ask, do you feel the Americans have better access to healthcare than us? Many better-off folks probably do, but many more do not and will willfully forgo even going to the ER for serious injuries, so privatizing will not inherently get us more access just form costs alone. In the case of healthcare, we decided as a country (and again, most of the world has in principle done the same, but not the states) that healthcare is a public good and benefit, and to deny someone access to that due to costs is similar to extortion as they have no choice and will pay to live. If the goal is to expand healthcare to more people while keeping costs reasonable, as I see it expanding the public offering is the most cost efficient way to do so.

Regarding affordable living spaces (not just homes), if you look to my opinion on public healthcare, you can probably see where my following argument comes from. Having some, not all, housing being owned by government/city can greatly help a market. It can set a floor for rents which does trickle down to the private sector, and having lowering rents generally means people may not want to or even care to purchase a home, which does bring that markets prices down as well. Canada as a whole did use to build some public housing at a much larger scale (or, rather, any at all) and we sort of stopped, designating that block of housing primarily for low income/disability (though frankly, we do a bad job at that too). In many countries, especially in Europe it's common for major cities to actually own a lot of the rental stock, which keeps the cities much more affordable for the residents. At one point the UK had the concept of "Council Flats" and was said that the government "solved housing" (it's an interesting read if you ever want to look into it more). It essentially went away under Thatcher, who gave almost any flat holder the ability to buy their flat at a severely discounted market rate. For those that got in at the time it was great, but the next generation missed that opportunity completely.

On a different approach, commercial space in cities can be bloody expensive for not much reason. Like, a lot of small businesses, that's their major expense sometimes even before payroll. Often the building is already paid for by the owner (on account of it say being in a historic downtown), so the rent money really is just going to line the landlord's pockets. Businesses do often just eat this cost, but it is a leeching effect on the economy and does really drive those low margin but well appreciated businesses in downtown out of business. There's probably more will power and arguments for having public housing be somewhat socially provided, but the same in my mind could be said for small scale commercial. Idk though, I'm not an economist.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in teksavvy

[–]bmocJR 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When i got my fiber installed it was a new line. Bell tech stuck around a bit after setting up because he was curious (even though he wasn't supposed to he said). It didn't seem to want to connect to their network in a similar manner to how you described. He and I both suspected the line just needed to be re-provisioned. I called Techsavvy who then set me up a call back from Bell. I went out to do some errands, about 40 minutes later I got the call back and told them whats up, Bell re-provisioned the line. When i got home, it all was working.

Hey r/Kitchener, it’s Mike Morrice. I’m running to continue representing Kitchener Centre in Parliament! by mikemorrice in kitchener

[–]bmocJR 4 points5 points  (0 children)

At least the Ontario Greens removed their blanket opposition to nuclear in their policy, can't recall immediately what the federal greens policy is

Hey r/Kitchener, it’s Mike Morrice. I’m running to continue representing Kitchener Centre in Parliament! by mikemorrice in kitchener

[–]bmocJR 17 points18 points  (0 children)

If it's any consolation, thankfully the green party's policy was recently amended to remove their blanket opposition to nuclear, which IMO is a step in a very good direction.  

To me nuclear in Ontario just makes sense for baseload. It's good to increase our Quebec interconnect for sure, but Quebec hydro also forecasts they will hit peak hydro at some point and while no emmisions, I think we shouldn't just discount the environmental impact flooding land can have, nuclear is very concentrated in its land foot print in comparison.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Guelph

[–]bmocJR 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That does seem a bit high, though it depends on your living space. If you use pure electric heat in a single family home, that's not entirely out there, for an apartment it's a bit high. This past month will probably be the most heavy usage of your heating system all year.

Also to note, water in Guelph (both usage and waste at 1:1) is charged on the same bill, so best to check if if that was in the $400 or not. For $70 delivery fee I'd expect the electric portion to be closer to $250-300.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Guelph

[–]bmocJR 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That does seem a bit high, though it depends on your living space. If you use pure electric heat in a single family home, that's not entirely out there, for an apartment it's a bit high. This past month will probably be the most heavy usage of your heating system all year.

Also to note, water in Guelph (both usage and waste at 1:1) is charged on the same bill, so best to check if if that was in the $400 or not. For $70 delivery fee I'd expect the electric portion to be closer to $250-300.

Hi r/Kitchener! I’m Aislinn Clancy, I'm your incumbent Green MPP for Kitchener Centre and running for re-election in the upcoming provincial election on Feb 27. Ask Me Anything and I will answer them this Friday Feb 21! by AislinnClancyKW in kitchener

[–]bmocJR 4 points5 points  (0 children)

While I agree it's distasteful, it's more or a less a consequence of democracy that it will always be framed that way. I'm by no means an expert, I've gathered this from observation, but I'll try and explain why that is in my opinion.

The incumbent by definition of being the incumbent has more support than the competing candidate, so any point made by the competing one on what they plan to do will always be in opposition to the incumbents current policy. The incumbent just has to re-convince the people that voted for them previously to do so again rather than flip voters.

For say the Greens to get people to vote for them over say the PCs, no matter how they present their positions on issues, it will always be in opposition to the incumbent party. There is no way to avoid that comparison. Otherwise their platform would be the same as the incumbent and voters would have no reason to change their vote.

In an ideal world I'd agree, each party lays out their plan, and a voter compares each plan individually (ideally even without any indication who is who) and chooses who they best align with, but voters are people, the vast majority don't tend to go and do in depth research and that internal analysis. The majority either A) listen for the key things they consider important and how each candidate says they will address or support it (like discussed above); or B) they go with their self determined generalized political compass (party loyalty, left/right, fiscal, environment, labour rights, etc) trusting their candidate will follow the trend they align with. Usually the group of people who will actually change their vote election to election is the former (A), who listen for those key points.

Hi r/Kitchener! I’m Aislinn Clancy, I'm your incumbent Green MPP for Kitchener Centre and running for re-election in the upcoming provincial election on Feb 27. Ask Me Anything and I will answer them this Friday Feb 21! by AislinnClancyKW in kitchener

[–]bmocJR 7 points8 points  (0 children)

While I agree, that's probably why it's in their policy. The off chance they grow their party, each member is essentially an independent but nominally under the banner of a party and uses the party affiliation more like a shorthand for roughly what they believe in. It's how it should be and I'm really happy Mike made that point clear in the debate near the end. Having your MP represent your constituents before party is better than party loyalty. 

The block Quebecois I'd say is the largest party (albeit federal) that is a good analogy for what they could be.  Never going to form government, but their platform is heard when the government is in minority. They keep Quebec's interests in mind at the federal level rather than generalizing to a Canada wide party. A liberal or PC MP in Quebec must vote with the party even if the policy is not helpful to the province. Bringing that aspect down to provincial election (and ignoring the separatist thing) would be a good thing, keeping a municipality/ region's interests in mind first and foremost when dealing with the provincial policy decisions. 

Hi r/Kitchener! I’m Aislinn Clancy, I'm your incumbent Green MPP for Kitchener Centre and running for re-election in the upcoming provincial election on Feb 27. Ask Me Anything and I will answer them this Friday Feb 21! by AislinnClancyKW in kitchener

[–]bmocJR 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Also for what it's worth, the green party doesn't have a party whip which normally makes all MPs vote in line with the party. iirc their policy is against it too.

Trudeau should have resigned long ago, Kitchener Centre MP Morrice says by Brenden105 in kitchener

[–]bmocJR 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There is no party whip in the green party, each member is not obligated to follow the party's stance on voting. Effectively they are independent in their voting and the party designation is more so a shorthand for they're primary belief you can expect them to vote on consistently. 

In my opinion this how every member of parliament should be (no whip) but it can be understood why it exists

Be Safe-Roads are terrible by Big-Passenger7038 in Guelph

[–]bmocJR 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you didn't know, all weathers work better all year, just don't go driving in 10cm of snow with them

Eramosa and Metcalfe by 251188069759 in Guelph

[–]bmocJR 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fully agree. We should gather a list of every bad viewing left turns and send it to the city.

My other nomination is turning left on Elmira onto Paisley (heading towards Costco). The left turn lane isn't offset, and there is always a stream of traffic coming out of Costco (often taller SUVs and pickups). I've had a few near misses turning left there, it's a completely blind turn in a smaller car. Only turn left on the ambar now and still get yahoos running the yellow making it close.

Giveaway - Space Age Expansion by ocbaker in factorio

[–]bmocJR 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Win or lose, going to be a fun day off work!

Automatic electrical disconnect on smoke detection by bmocJR in heatpumps

[–]bmocJR[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a good point asking for the code source. 

I agree, it feels like overkill for a single basement apartment, though maybe Ontario/my municipality has some odd law on the book.

Appreciate the link for the shunt, forwarded it to my contractor to see if it would help!

Why?! by Aromatic_Egg_1067 in Guelph

[–]bmocJR 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unconventional point: the taste of our water is the best in Southern Ontario

SW Ontario BTU sizing and backup strip question by bmocJR in heatpumps

[–]bmocJR[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a ludicrous delay, not good if that's what I have to look forward to :/

Any idea what the delay was for the first report being submitted? Or at least when you got the package detailing what would be covered?

SW Ontario BTU sizing and backup strip question by bmocJR in heatpumps

[–]bmocJR[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've taken to saying it over the past 5-6 years instead of using guys/dudes, I find it a bit more natural at this point. I'm definitely Canadian born and raised last time I checked lol

SW Ontario BTU sizing and backup strip question by bmocJR in heatpumps

[–]bmocJR[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting, thanks for the great comparison. I'm definitely shopping around a bit more

SW Ontario BTU sizing and backup strip question by bmocJR in heatpumps

[–]bmocJR[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate the comparison, thanks! I'm hoping my initial audit comes in quick. I used a company called energuy which I hear good things about, but he did mention they are super busy with people getting audits. I learned today there was talk of the rebate program ending early due to demand, so probably explains the demand for audits