Many grocery stores in Ontario have started charging a five-cent fee for single-use plastic bags.  The City of Toronto has mandated a five-cent fee for plastic bags at retail stores in an effort to cut down landfill volumes. The city has said it wants to reduce plastic bag use by 70 per cent by 2012. The retailers get to keep the nickel under the Toronto law.  However, there is no Ontario law and the retailers are charging because they make 400% return!  Actually its 500% because it was an expense with no direct revenue.

Metro, Loblaws and Sobeys  have instituted a five-cent charge for all of Ontario (some national).

Loblaws has reported that 75 per cent fewer plastic bags than normal have been used since it started charging fees nationwide on April 22.

Many regions in Ontario recycled stretchable plastic, including grocery bags.  Many of the “single-use” bags are used multiple times for all kinds of household uses including;

1 ) Re-Use as a grocery bag
2 ) Sorting recyclables
3 ) Re-Use as packing material. Wad the bags up and pack around the materials to be packed.
4 ) Re-Use them as trash bags.
5 ) Storage bags. Simply store and hang items you need to put away.
6 ) Shoe Liners for those wet days
7 ) Emergency Rain hats.
8 ) Emergency Diaper (nappy) cover. In a pinch a plastic grocery or bread bag makes a nice emergency disposable cover!
9 ) Dog poop picker uppers

This is a classic case of big business gouging the consumer disguised as a corporate good citizen.  If they truely wanted to help, they would offer paper bags for free.  The same ones they changed from when they found plastic bags for a fraction of the price.

Six weeks union bullying and the Toronto Mayor gave away the farm to striking city workers. Fiscal responsibility was taken out with the trash!

The union wanted a pay raise and 18 sick days a year, so  Miller rolled over and gave it all to them.
Millar has always cared more about appeasing unions than representing the interests of Toronto taxpayers. It’s like Howard Levitt wrote in the National Post, “expecting Mayor David Miller to deal effectively with the unions was always the equivalent of expecting a fox to responsibly administer a henhouse.”

A union victory again through extortion.  Unions should be deemed criminal.  While GM and Chrysler workers are giving up wages and benefits to save the inductry in these economic times, the City of Toronto Unions need a pay increase and a ridiculous 18 days of sick time per year that they get to bank.  What idiot made that deal in the first place.  Well we know who did it this time!

Miller should have sold out taxpayers at the beginning of the bargaining process as this would have at least spared the citizens the hazards and anguish of a strike.

Taxpayers will now pay for this ridiculous deal.  So hang onto your wallets Toronto, Miller’s just  getting started with his socialist deals .

The latest road blockade at the GM plant in Oshawa brings up the issue of unions, or union members, engaging in criminal behavior for personal gain. The criminal activities include bullying, threatening, assault, vandalism, and now blockades. All of these activities have been executed under the disguise of unionization.

Criminal activity in Canada is criminal activity and no company, government or union should support this behavior and leave its victims helpless. Yet in almost every case of criminal activity by union members, there is a stipulation of immunity in the settlement agreement.

It is time we put a stop to criminals being immunized against prosecution! their victims are being treated unjustly. A law that prevents the negotiation of criminal charges needs to be enacted!

There is a place for unions, to protect workers in situations where they are being treated unfairly. A union should be there to negotiate contracts on behalf of its members so that wages and benefits are fair and working conditions are safe. Past that, power hungry executive wanna be’s like Buzz-off Hargrove should be put in jail so that there are no more victims of his union. Buzz does not stand alone in this.

Job security is not negotiable! How possibly can you guarantee job security without crippling a business’s flexibility to compete in the market place. You want to know why the Japanese are the industry leaders in Automotive Manufacturing? It is clearly because the employees are motivated to do quality work. Motivation for quality is something that is severely lacking in North American Auto manufacturing.

Seniority should not play a factor in the promotion of employees. Although the original principal behind this was to protect older employees from being passed over due to age. Now companies are forced to promote undeserving candidates purely because they passed the right educational requirement. Employees with less tenor and more drive and motivation are likely better candidates than the lazy 40 year old that is looking for an easier day and more money.

Now I know your ready to scream out loud in my comments section, but remember I agree there is a place for Unions, I just think they forgot where that is!