PABob Ratkins
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Back to the drawing board? Council to vote on scraping shelter village site
TBNewsWatch
86HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! This council is a Monty Python skit.
2- PABob Ratkins
'We don't really have any other option' than to support the art gallery, city councillor says
TBNewsWatch 11What a silly comment. This is a major project that will give this village of a city something that might actually give visitors to town something to do. THIS is the kind of thing that money should be spent on and, if you choose not to take advantage of it when it is up and running, you should take a look at why you aren't taking advantage of it. It is incredible to watch people do absolutely everything they can to keep this burg in the 80s. We have ONE shot at making that waterfront something that non-residents, and residents alike, can, and will, enjoy. ONE shot. We need to do it if we ever want anyone to come here. We can't keep complaining about our taxes going up if we spit on every attempt to increase revenues brought to town. We should stop spending money on social pity projects and start building more things like this that give our youth (and everyone else) a place to go and learn something.
55- PABob Ratkins
Miles Street moved forward as temporary village site
TBNewsWatch 60Hamilton says this free, unenforceable homeless village will offer people a "spectrum of wellness." A "spectrum of wellness"?? Lol This is a prime example of what is wrong with these councilors. What he is REALLY saying is that nobody will be able to criticize this ridiculous zoo of a project because the success of it will be on a "spectrum." Right there is where they will start explaining away open drug use in the camp bc that's part of the "spectrum." How about the city says you either get yourself up and off of public lands or we move you up and off of public lands. Alberta did it. There is no reason Ontario cannot also do it. These ghettos are public safety hazards, at a minimum. Saying we can't force people to do things is a complete abandonment of Western structures. No problem forcing people not to speed, not to avoid their taxes, not to shoot each other or even fish without a license. . Forcing people off public lands should be enforced. It always was, and should be again.
3- PABob Ratkins
‘People are united’: Patty Hajdu on Canada’s response to looming U.S. tariffs
TBNewsWatch 40What a clown. Do your job, recall parliament and stop leaving our nation flapping in the wind. It's not Canada's job to sit on the sidelines while your party sorts out it's internal dramas. You've got some nerve acting like you're "proud" of anything that's going on right now.
21- PABob Ratkins
Owners permanently closing Galaxy Lanes
TBNewsWatch 13This is very sad to see. Galaxy has been an amazing place forever. Lots of great memories for a lot of people. The Liberals strike again.
46- PABob Ratkins
'This generation's Cher', drag night to celebrate Lady Gaga
TBNewsWatch 43This is exactly where this sort of thing belongs. In an adults only venue. Have at it. Why Wiggins feels the need to be in front of children in public spaces with an adult fetish is beyond the common sense marker for life, but an adult venue should be looked at as fully acceptable. You want to put your fetish on full display, do it behind a bouncer who is carding people. If it had stayed like this, nobody would have ever had a problem with drag shows. God knows nobody cared before it started getting forced down everyone's throat.
11- PABob Ratkins
Tenant who owes almost $10,000 gets a deadline for payment
TBNewsWatch 52It's nice to see the tenant board standing up for landlords after all this time watching tenants get away with figurative murder. If this continues, maybe more people will be willing to become landlords which would result in more availability of housing. Absolutely nobody wants to rent anything to anyone with the laws allowing tenants to avoid evictions for years. Good job, tenant board!
1- PABob Ratkins
Consumer carbon tax cancelled, gas prices plummet
TBNewsWatch 39Let's be clear about this. The tax has not been cancelled. It's still 100% on the books,. All they did was lower the effective rate of the tax to 0%. This is obviously great, but let's not pretend that the tax is gone. It's just as easy for them to raise it right back to where it was whenever they want. I'll give it to them that we all need this break, but we shouldn't be fooled into thinking that they have somehow cancelled it.
11- PABob Ratkins
Federal funding announced for harm reduction, addictions support initiatives
TBNewsWatch 46I cannot believe that our tax dollars are now being used to quality check illegal drugs being used by addicts living in tents. Is there no new low that this Liberal government won't hit? Not a new treatment centre. Not more cops to take the drugs off the street. Not those actual aids, but a quality control setup so the addicted can carry on using. This country is truly upside down.
3- PABob Ratkins
Councillors say yes in final decision on shelter village site
TBNewsWatch 48So, with an operational budget of $1.5 million, we can expect, as is the case with most operations and not specific to this one, that the actual operating costs will well exceed $2 million. Who is paying for this? Is it The Corporation of the City of Thunder Bay who is footing the bill for the ongoing costs? If it is, where is this capital coming from? Thunder Bay is not flush with cash and we don't have an annualized revenue stream that can absorb an extra $1.5-$2 million in expenses. Are we borrowing this money and, if so, at what interest rate? Council is claiming that it will "leverage" the camp to revitalize the park. Ok, but what infrastructure and how is it going to be leveraged? They aren't building a community center. $5.5 million to end up with some water pipes run down to the park for a fountain in 5 years? I believe council should release a FAR more detailed briefing of their plan for the public to see. This just reeks of "by the seat of our pants."
- PABob Ratkins
‘Missed opportunity’: Indigenous org. leaving library on bad terms
TBNewsWatch 45"The spirit of reconciliation" and "making the library more welcoming to indigenous people" really says all you need to know. They had contracts. What is this "spirit of reconciliation" besides an expectation that non-indigenous business/groups will just bend the knee to whatever the given indigenous group is asking for? This makes zero sense. They should have written a better proposal for extending the contract if they wanted to stay. The library is publicly funded and has every right to change direction. And how exactly is the library supposed to be "more welcoming to indigenous people?" Is it not welcoming, now? Are indigenous people not free to use library services whenever they want, at the same loss cost that everyone else is welcomed with? Or are we now expected to make indigenous people feel special when they walk into a library? Nobody gives ME a cookie when I borrow a book. Should we be giving indigenous people one? It's a library....not a support group.
1- PABob Ratkins
Hajdu maintains seat at Liberal cabinet table
TBNewsWatch 38Gross. Just gross. This smug piece of work can't get booted out of office quickly enough.
5- PABob Ratkins
We ‘cannot compel people to move,’ says city staff
TBNewsWatch 40Something tells me that the city would have absolutely NO problem "compelling" me to move if I pitched a tent in a public park or on the side of the road. Maybe it's life experience speaking, but I guarantee that there is no way that the city would allow me to spend the weekend drinking in the sunshine outside the tent I pitched at Boulevard.
3- PABob Ratkins
Federal funding announced for harm reduction, addictions support initiatives
TBNewsWatch 40Not a word? You can't buy a pack of smokes without seeing 5 cancer warnings. Tobacco advertising is extremely restricted. Tobacco is taxed at levels way above the norm for consumer products. Smoking is illegal near doorways. No smoking indoors in public. Restrictions on volumes allowed to be transported inter-provincially and internationally. I don't even smoke and I can see how heavily restricted it is. You must be too young to remember the 1990s and before.
2- PABob Ratkins
Hajdu orders union vote in Canada Post labour dispute
TBNewsWatch 24Ah, yes. And here we have Patty Hajdu in charge of yet another portfolio that she is entirely unqualified for. Minister of Health? Sure! She ran shelter. I'm sure she handed out vitamins and fresh fruit. Qualified enough! Indigenous Affairs? Sure! There were Indigenous people in the shelter in Thunder Bay, so we're all good on that one! I wonder what her Anthropology degree taught her about union negotiations and worker's rights? Can't wait to see her call everyone who disagrees with her in a labour dispute a racist like she did every time she was contradicted while testifying in parliamentary committee while holding her last post.
18- PABob Ratkins
Local health care advocate 'shocked' by $225 bill at private clinic
TBNewsWatch 38Hold on a second. So, Jules knew that he would have to wait "for a number of months or whatever to get the surgery." He suddenly found himself with a way to jump the waitlist and is now acting surprised that there was a relatively small bill for $225 when he opted to take advantage of the offer? In what world does anyone get to jump a multi-month long waitlist and come out of it with no bill? Maybe being offered something that he knew most people weren't being offered should have prompted him to ask some questions. They aren't "hidden fees" just because you don't bother asking. Why not let people who can afford to pay, pay? It'll make room in the free places for folks who can't afford to pay.
4- PABob Ratkins
Powlowski would support prorogation to pick new leader
TBNewsWatch 27Never forget that this clown of a candidate has had the back of their party leader throughout the carbon tax debates, the billions sent to Ukraine and Africa, the gun buyback legislation, the "safe" injection sites, the free narcotics for addicts, the fake housing initiatives, the DEI initiatives, the freezing of private bank accounts and criminalization of citizens who disagreed with their leader, the vaccine mandates, et al. Never forget who these Liberal MPs are in their hearts. They've all been right there, in lockstep, during the denigration of our nation.
13- PABob Ratkins
Distress call ends with one person rescued from Lake Superior
TBNewsWatch 26And, in it's infinite wisdom, city council thinks building a giant homeless encampment right beside a river is a good idea.
13- PABob Ratkins
Thunder Bay police lay 16 charges against a suspect in reported armed vehicle theft
TBNewsWatch 35So, you not only name local police officers as they go through the courts, but also post a picture to go with the name. A guy catches 16 separate charges related to the violent misuse of a firearm, and no name. No picture. Nothing to help the general public steer clear of this person. Interesting way to conduct "journalism."
4- PABob Ratkins
2SLGBTQIA+ community targeted in nearly half of police-reported hate crimes last year
TBNewsWatch 36“These incidents cannot be proven to have been motivated solely or in part because of the person’s bias/prejudice towards the victim but include some type of hateful overtones.” is a very interesting part of this article. If they cannot be proven to be motivated by bias/prejudice, exactly who is determining them to be a hate crime and how is that being determined? If someone says something that someone else doesn't like, is that suddenly a hate crime because someone said it had "hateful overtones"? What, exactly, is a "hateful overtone"? This sounds very much more like someone's opinion of what happened, rather than a hard standard that's been set. It's quite a thing when someone can be accused of a hate crime simply because someone else doesn't like what they said. No doubt that there were real instances, but this seems like a pretty flimsy test.
2- PABob Ratkins
