January 26, 2010 - 8:58 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Not all Vancouver cab companies have the same level of quality control in the leadup to the Olympics.
Yesterday’s CTV story on the lack of knowledge on Olympic venue locations by cabbies was troubling. In a city where personal vehicles will most likely (hopefully) be kept at home for the duration of the Games, taxis are going to be a vital resource for transporting people around the city.
There are four taxi companies in Vancouver – Yellow Cab, Black Top, McClure’s and Vancouver Taxi – and three of four were featured in yesterday’s investigation.
So, I decided to call the one that escaped a starring role on the broadcast to see how they are preparing to host the world.
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January 25, 2010 - 1:23 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Pivot Legal Society Executive Director John Richardson smugly sits in front of his latest publicity stunt.
The Pivot Legal Society specifies its mandate as taking “a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins.”
And when employing the law as “a critical tool for social change,” encompassing:
they can serve as a powerful agent of social change. A few examples include fighting for the rights of protesters around the Woodward’s building in 2002, participating in a Charter challenge on decriminalizing sex work in Canada, and advocating on behalf of keeping the InSite safe injection site open.
But where I have an issue with the tactics of the society is in their tendency to allow cheap publicity stunts to overtake the causes they are fighting for.
Their latest “Red Tent” campaign is a perfect example.
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January 22, 2010 - 3:42 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
City Manager Penny Ballem chose wisely when selecting the tool to make necessary cuts.
My first take on this is that 44 jobs being cut thus far is far better for City of Vancouver employees than the original 120. The fact that “opportunities for potential placements of impacted staff” was always a part of the equation is impressive, and this revised number is the result of such efforts.
As I detailed in an earlier post regarding the services review that was just completed at City Hall:
“Achieving efficiencies, rolling back expenditures and cutting staff are never an easy set of tasks for any organization. That being said, what has happened as a result of the shared services review was something that was years overdo, and previously lacking the political will and the institutional leadership to make it happen.“
One would think that the unions, having plenty of advance notice that the layoffs are coming, will be very pleased with this adjusted result. In spite of the rhetoric from CUPE’s Paul Faoro to his membership in an open letter written last month:
“City Council chose to ignore all of the citizens and organizations, including civic unions they heard from during their consultation,”
it is now clear that the opposite is true.
If cutting a bloated and often duplicated bureaucracy results in a mere 44 jobs losses out of 9,000 jobs within the City of Vancouver, I’d say that it represents an impressive result largely brought about by team effort and innovation.
Alright…enough of inside baseball.
January 22, 2010 - 11:41 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Some former NPA affiliated staffers are running extremely low in the memory department.
So, a Freedom of Information request filed by City Caucus’ Daniel Fontaine has discovered that the Property Endowment Fund (PEF) board did not meet during the calendar year of 2009.
Without the time nor the inclination to find out the frequency of meetings in previous council years, however, the magic of the Internet has turned up some interesting facts about the reign over the PEF by former NPA Mayors/mayoral candidates.
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