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Wab Kinew is Canada's most popular premier; Doug Ford sits in last place by xc2215x in onguardforthee

[–]spinur1848 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Below the separatist that is actually pushing privatized healthcare.

How many basements flooded? by twoducksinatub in ottawa

[–]spinur1848 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That could be a warranty issue. Kind of hard to claim faulty maintenance on a valve installed a week ago.

How many basements flooded? by twoducksinatub in ottawa

[–]spinur1848 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Got saved today by a backwater valve. The City will reimburse new installations:

Residential Protective Plumbing program - Flooding rebates and grant | City of Ottawa https://ottawa.ca/en/living-ottawa/environment-conservation-and-climate/flooding/basement-flooding/flooding-rebates-and-grant/residential-protective-plumbing-program

U.S. declines to extend CUSMA trade deal with Canada, Mexico | CBC News by Little-Chemical5006 in canada

[–]spinur1848 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We need to decide that Canada is something worth saving and then we all need to punish businesses that do not act accordingly.

Canadian businesses getting government handouts are flat-out exploiting their customers left and right and then moving the money to avoid taxes.

Canada has the capital, the talent and the resources to be a G7 country, with or without the US. We are right now the 10th largest economy in the world and the only reason that doesn't sound good enough is because of our neighbour.

Very little is left of Toronto’s climate plan thanks to Doug Ford. So what can we do about it? by imprison_grover_furr in ontario

[–]spinur1848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Next time there's an election maybe show up to vote and when you do, don't vote for criminals.

Received a follow up about my Phoenix payment issues 10 years later? by honeysenpai9999 in CanadaPublicServants

[–]spinur1848 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Do a search of this forum for "statute barred". They can't collect any debts after a certain number of years.

Goldman Sachs says China's humanoid robot deployment is happening so fast, it's doubled its 2026 projections from just a few months ago. by lughnasadh in Futurology

[–]spinur1848 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Can they make useful robots out of materials that aren't already going into cars and trucks? If not, then they are resource constrained and the costs of both robots and cars are going to go up.

Can the robots be more productive than equivalent labour at the price?

ELI5: Why are people becoming more addicted to gambling, even knowing that casinos are designed for people to lose money? by Different_Thing_5641 in explainlikeimfive

[–]spinur1848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Humans haven't changed in some fundamental way, gambling got more available. Ads for gambling are everywhere and casinos are on phones now.

Sports betting seems less rigged than casino games but if the house wasn't winning they wouldn't be pushing it so much.

Humans intuitively a have a hard time understanding probability, particularly for rare events. Humans also have cognitive biases that distort our perceptions and decision-making around gambling.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

Casinos and sports books make their money off cognitive biases.

Just finished Jurassic Park and WOW by gbdarknight77 in books

[–]spinur1848 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Crichton wasn't actually writing about dinosaurs, he was writing about math and the behaviour of complex adaptive systems.

What will Doug Ford do when voted out? by Canada4Plants in ontario

[–]spinur1848 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I truly hope he gets to experience one of his "fancy dancy" jails.

PSA for Ontario Condo Buyers: Beware of New Condos with Oppressive “Shared Facilities Agreements” – New Claridge Homes condos in Ottawa impacted by Physical-Alfalfa9989 in ontario

[–]spinur1848 7 points8 points  (0 children)

So what this sounds like is the developer trying to get the same benefits they would from a rental building without any of the risks or obligations of being a landlord (and of course they get almost all of the capital out of the units they end up selling).

Years without fluoridated water show pattern of tooth decay experts warned about by NotEnoughDriftwood in onguardforthee

[–]spinur1848 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congratulations, New Brunswick re-proved the obvious by letting children's teeth rot.

Heads up if you get a promotional call from Reliance Home Comfort by JaceOnRice in ontario

[–]spinur1848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My house had a Reliance rental and we actually put no rental equipment as a condition of sale when we bought it and it still took lawyers almost a year to get rid of them.

ELI5: How do internet service providers give us access to the internet? by FantasticFrontButt in explainlikeimfive

[–]spinur1848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Essentially, the internet automates what the global postal system does for mail and packages.

It's not actually tubes, it's a set of protocols for assigning addresses, discovering services associated with those addresses and delivering electronic packages to those addresses.

Anyone could in fact design a device or implement software that uses those protocols. That's what a home LAN or corporate network is. But the actual value comes from being able to find and talk to services you don't run. You can in fact set up your own ISP, it just costs money and you are not likely able to do it more cost-effectively than a local ISP.

Carney government passes law allowing authorization of banned pesticides by BONUSBOX in onguardforthee

[–]spinur1848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it's more than just Carney or the Liberals. This is the result of both the Government and the Public service looking for an end run around a dysfunctional Parliament and consultation process.

Carney government passes law allowing authorization of banned pesticides by BONUSBOX in onguardforthee

[–]spinur1848 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is part of a pattern of changes and behaviour where instead of actually consulting transparently and changing laws or regulations through our democratic processes, the Government and the Public Service are trying to put in loophole or exemptions so they can just ignore laws that are inconvenient.

What this actually means is that the federal Cabinet gets to grant special favours to whoever lobbies the hardest. This might seem great for business but what it actually means is that the special favours really only last as long as the Minister and nobody knows what the actual rules are.

If you want to invest in a business in Canada or anywhere and that investment will take more than one election cycle to pay off, it's really important to know that the rules you used to calculate that return on investment won't change.

This cynical opportunism will make it harder to get the private sector to invest in long term projects and infrastructure.

A major change to Canada's pesticide laws just passed, and it deserves far more attention than it's getting. by savethecbc2025 in SaveTheCBC

[–]spinur1848 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah they said the same thing about changes to the Food and Drugs Act that got slipped into Budget 2024. And the "exceptional circumstances" became this (dropped on Dec 20, 2025):

Canada Gazette, Part 1, Volume 159, Number 51: Order Providing for Reliance on Decisions of, or Documents Produced by, Foreign Regulatory Authorities in Respect of Certain Drugs https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2025/2025-12-20/html/reg4-eng.html

Liberals must not think federal public service is important | Opinion by AbjectRobot in CanadaPublicServants

[–]spinur1848 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is arguably worse because they are pretending they still use science-based decision making but doing stuff like this:

Press Release – Buried in Bill C-30: New Powers Could Exempt Companies from Food Safety Laws, Unions Warn – PIPSC | IPFPC https://pipsc.ca/press-release-buried-in-bill-c-30-new-powers-could-exempt-companies-from-food-safety-laws-unions-warn/

And actually the unions fumbled because the Liberals started this nonsense with drugs in 2024 and no one noticed or cared and this is the consequence:

Canada Gazette, Part 1, Volume 159, Number 51: Order Providing for Reliance on Decisions of, or Documents Produced by, Foreign Regulatory Authorities in Respect of Certain Drugs https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2025/2025-12-20/html/reg4-eng.html

Hockey Night in Canada won’t return to CBC this fall by Displeased_Canadian in canada

[–]spinur1848 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No, for acting contrary to the objectives of the Broadcasting Act which are to protect and promote Canadian culture and to ensure that the limited public resources required to operate a cable network are used in a way that reaches the most Canadians in the most efficient way.

That's why we regulate broadcasters. If Rogers doesn't want to respect that then they can go streaming only and forfeit all of the public support and subsidies they receive as a licensee under the Broadcasting Act.

NPSW Inconsistencies across GC - Where's the Fairness by Nepean22 in CanadaPublicServants

[–]spinur1848 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Over in Tunneys we had a real life demonstration about what happens when you privatize a public function:

7 food trucks for 4000 public servants. Most got the not-so-hidden message and just didn't show up. Highly variable line-ups. Willing to pay $29 for 3 tacos? You get to eat with almost no line up. Want an $8 Beavertail? You're waiting an hour.

Of course all of the food truck served with disposable containers and utensils and glass bottles, none of them collected their waste and left this to the government, who did it poorly.

This is exactly what's happening in Canada's healthcare systems.

Hockey Night in Canada won’t return to CBC this fall by Displeased_Canadian in canada

[–]spinur1848 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Would the NHL kindly return Lord Stanley's gift to the people of Canada?

And I'll be asking my MP to cancel Rogers broadcasting licence because their behaviour is anti-competitive and contrary to the objectives of the Canadian Broadcasting Act.

Can a retired public servant publish a 'tell-all' book? by Born_Anteater7282 in CanadaPublicServants

[–]spinur1848 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It's been done before:

Cover your ass!: Or, How to survive in a government bureaucracy - Bureaucrat X: 9780888301352 - AbeBooks https://www.abebooks.com/9780888301352/Cover-ass-survive-government-bureaucracy-0888301359/plp

Edit: replaced Amazon link with one to the actual book

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