Religion not wanted in Schools

It seems that this is the way the Toronto School Board is moving forward and it is a shame.  To look at it from a business point of view, they just lost revenue as there is little religious groups that have accounts full of money which they do not know how to spend it.  These groups, no matter Christian, Muslim, Hindu or others rely on donations from their parishioners and others to provide funding so that the congregation can survive and promote their message.

 

It is disappointing the way government bodies are now turning on groups such as this but it is an easy target.  What does this accomplish?  They were charging different amounts but let us take $900.00/month.  There are 100’s of schools within this school board and if we take 10% at offering the rent to organizations then we can speculate that there is 100 schools charging this each month.  This would total to $90,000.00/month.  Over 12 months this adds to $1,080,000.00 each year.  So instead of bringing in over $1,000,000.00 each year they are bringing in nothing or much less than that.  I guess they will actually need to look at a better way to cut back.  Let suggest cutting the bureaucracy because at least 50% of the budget should be going to maintain a safe environment for the students and keeping student materials up to date and supplies plentiful.  They really need to take a hard look at this to start moving in the right direction.

 

To add to this the non-profits have been grouped into different categories and the religious organizations have been removed as one that receives subsidizes.  I guess they are just too rich.  One can argue they are richer than the Ontario government but are we not all better than them.  I doubt the religious groups are in any position to absorb this.

 

Good job everyone.  And these people are the ones responsible for our children’s future?  How can we blame them when the philosophy is nobody fails.  This is why I use private school and work 2 jobs for it.

Toronto = Kids ? No, Yes, Maybe?

Based on the article http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1225927–deputy-mayor-doug-holyday-s-remark-draws-strong-reaction-from-families-raising-kids-downtown that states Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday does not think that Toronto is a place for children.  Well actually he specified a specific area.  So I would agree that not all areas of Toronto are the best areas for children but I cannot support anyone who would say that Toronto is not a place for kids to grow up.  I will say that Toronto is not the first place people think of when raising kids.  There is a certain type of person that wishes for this.

 

There are some great advantages to this and just as many disadvantages.  The pros and cons are from any area and should be considered when looking for a new area to move to especially if you have or are thinking of having children.   You need to think of what you and your spouse expect for a lifestyle and what things can you put up with.  We can easily say that Toronto has  a higher percentage of carcinogens than the majority of Urban and Country areas.  Based on the population size there is a large number of vehicles, air conditioners and other man-made products that add to the green house, heat and pollutants experienced in Toronto.  Now vehicles is an issue personally for me, but I would not choose to live on a busy street with my children for the fact of an accident is just that, an accident and is not planned for at all.  I am not saying that because it is Toronto your child will have a 50% chance of getting hit by a vehicle but I am looking at this fact.  More vehicles on road for longer periods of times increase the statistical percentage that your child will have a much higher chance of getting injured or killed by a vehicle than other children from other areas that are not a metropolitan city.

 

Now we can all agree that no matter where you are there is a park you can get to.  In a large city sometimes you do need to walk farther than others but in the country a park will typically not exists since the farmer’s field next door or the corn fields behind the house will do perfectly for a day of activity.  So you can always get to a park since we are in Canada.  Now what other differences would we experience.  Well there is heat.  It is a fact that Toronto is typically 2 to 3 degrees warmer than other areas due to the heat from emissions combined with the thermal heating effects of black tar spread out through out the whole city.  Is this really an issue.  I do not put much emphasis on it as you can always stay inside or go in to another building to escape.

 

For activities, any area will have something unless you are looking at a remote location.  Then you may need to travel further to get to a specific destination.  So is there any benefit to being in the city for activities?  More choices is what you get when you look at Toronto.  I do know that even in Toronto you still have to travel to most areas to go and do something.  You may be close to something but not everything.

 

Quickly concluding this.  It seems to come down to a personal choice.  What do you enjoy?  I enjoy waking up in the morning, reading the news, watching the neighbourhood fox run to the neighbour’s house for its morning meal of bread and scraps, listening to the birds chirp, watching the water and sometimes, most days, enjoying the cool breeze off of Lake Ontario.  That’s right, I get all that Toronto has to offer with more nature and fewer vehicles.  I know why I live where I live.  I will mention that it only takes 45 minutes with traffic to get downtown from my residence as well.

No Plastic

   After hearing the news that Toronto has decided to ban plastic bags there has been some arguments made on both sides.  Those that are against the plastic bag spit out the usual reasons that I was fed in elementary school.  Here is what we know, plastic bags take a long time to decompose, they are dangerous to wildlife when littered, they require the use of petroleum to create them.

 

Although these points are valid it does seem that people think that a ban on plastic bags has solved the problem.  Actually, it makes no difference.  Why is that?  Well when plastic bags are taken away as the prize for spending money they are typically re-used or thrown out.  Now anyone with a dog would be holding on to these bags and normally when you enter their home you will see a vat of these scrunched bags sitting near a doorway so they are easily accessible to the designated dog walker.  Or they are used to line garbage bins in the kitchen or bathroom or they are used to hold the waste from small messes outside or inside as they are a convenient size.

 

We now have the bags eliminated and the yearly cost to an average household would look something like the following: Small Garbage Bags at $3.50/36 bags, Animal Waste bags at $10.00/220 bags.  So now let us take a look at the yearly cost this ban has made at this point.  We can easily say that if the household has an animal they should be walked twice a day and there is 365 days in a year.  This makes the cost $10.00 x 3 (660 bags for year) is $30.00/year.  So far this is not bad and negligible.  For the small bags there is  an average of 3 bathrooms and 1 kitchen in each household.  This will make a total 52 weeks a year where the garbage is changed weekly.  This translates to the following equation 52 x 4 = 208 bags for the year.  So let us get the cost where 208/36 = 5.8 or 6.  We will take 6 x $3.50 = $21.00/year to purchase bags for the household garbage bins.  This means that the financial impact is low on removing bags but has anyone noticed that through this whole thing we were agreeing with these amounts and not saying “I don’t use plastic bags.”

 

So we have  an increase in cost per household, but it is negligible.  For the whole year it averages out to $51.00/year with a pet.  Now this can increase or decrease based on the price that is paid per bag.  The best part was that through a bag ban they still have not reduced the amount of bags that are going to landfills or recycling programs.  Well, actually I have a feeling that if the bags are purchased they will more than likely go to the landfill rather than the recycling program.  They are looked upon as a purchased item and not a donated item.  See the ban has removed the marketing thought that I, the store, am giving you back something for being a patron to my store.  We then have a feeling of necessity to recycle or handle this free product, but when purchased the sentiment seems to be screw you I have paid for it so life should be easy.

 

There is the one argument, now for the re-usable bags.  Good idea but still end up in landfills as they do not last forever.  So if they end up in landfills, how long do they take to decompose?