Discussions

I get out of bed everyday and head off to work just like everybody else. I earn my keep, I work hard, and most times go above and beyond what is expected of me. I enjoy my job, and the folks I work with. Every other week I get a paycheck with no frills. I don't have banked sick time, no pay premiums, and virtually no job security. I'm ok with that. I'm just happy to have a job.  
The older I get, the more it seems everyone has 1 hand in my pocket, and the other hand out begging for handouts. I don't even want to start thinking about my privacy and freedom to do as I wish. It seems I have to worry how others feel when how I feel has no value.  
I am a husband and father, I own a modest home, a couple of toys, and no bills. I live paycheck to paycheck.  
My tax dollars are grossly wasted on government employees on every level, federal, provincial, and the municipal level. Unions are barely more than safe haven for the weak and lazy. I often refer to unions as a sort of professional welfare. I worked seasonal for the city for 4 years before I moved to Alberta many years ago. It was a joke then, I'm sure things haven't changed much.  
The thing that has me worked up now is the oil industry. Finally, after a decade of paying ridiculous amounts for gas, it is finally reasonable. It feels like I just got a raise. It saves me about $150 a month. I heard last week the Saskatchewan government is looking to spend double digit millions to clean up unused and abandoned wells and sites. They call it job creation. I call it ridiculous. If my yard is a mess the city is all over me to clean it up, but if an industry has a mess to clean up its different, I guess we pay for it. There is also talk of all countries working together to cap oil production in order to ultimately increase profits. Now, why would I care if that industry wants to make more money when it is going to cost me $150.00 a month.

I feel exactly the same way, and it's frustrating as hell.

unfortunately the way our system is set up we pay either in taxes or with high prices, i do get frustrated with it too but such is life

Those oil companies are responsible to clean up and remediate well sites, I don't know WHY the government of SK would entertain the idea that taxpayers should be doing that instead!!!! Are the oil companies going to give us credit at the pumps??? no way!

Tater said "Those oil companies are responsible to clean up and remediate well sites, I don't know WHY the government of SK would entertain the idea that taxpayers should be doing that instead!!!! Are the oil companies going to give us credit at the pumps??? no way! "

while its is true that the company is responsible for capping the well if it hasn't produced in 2 years, my guess is that these wells are from companies that have gone bankrupt so there is no resources for the government to go after so the tax payer is on the hook

The wells that need cleaned up are from orphan wells. Those are from companies that don't exist anymore - likely from many years ago before regulations were in place. I personally think it's a smart move from the provincial government. Those wells/leases need cleaned up anyways. Year after year the prices only increase. Why not take advantage of the slow economy and create jobs to clean up our environment while at the same getting great pricing because companies are reducing costs to just get by. When it's super busy they will charge top dollar for those sites to get cleaned up. With everybody slowing down on work and companies asking for price reductions those wells will get cleaned up for discount prices while helping keep jobs in the province.

You're not alone. A lot of us, including myself, feel the same way, maybe a bit more on some issues and a bit less on others.  
 
I work. I'm sick of having my money taken and wasted on useless government programs and studies. I like having a job. Working and providing for myself gives me a sense of pride and accomplishment. I've never been on welfare, no one in my family has ever been on welfare and I don't want to be on welfare. I'm not going to bash people who are on welfare, many of them need it. However, we are all aware of people who are abusing the system in one way or another and some of those ones seem to be living better than many of us working folk. Aside from wanting to work and provide for myself, another reason I wouldn't want to be on welfare is that I wouldn't want government telling me what to spend my money on. The way things are going I find myself wondering sometimes if I'm going to end up there anyway. I get damn sick of hearing that the solution to end poverty is increasing the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage doesn't do anything to reduce poverty at all. It just increases the cost of living. Yeah , if you work in a minimum wage job, your paycheck will get a little bigger, but the increase in the cost of basic groceries, clothing and everything else will eat up any increase in your income pretty quick. If you're in a union job you won't be any better off in the long run either. Sure, you got a wage increase, but the cost of living went up proportionally along with your raise in pay. The people who really get screwed though are the people who don't get paid a wage or salary, the people who are paid a commission, a percentage, etc. Seniors on fixed incomes, people who are trying to save a little for their future, they're the ones who really take the hit. Then we are always hearing governments tell us "Canadians aren't saving enough". These are the same governments who are proposing raising the minimum wage to $15/hr, which will result in inflation well beyond the laughable interest paid on savings accounts and GICs. It doesn't help when the banks take more money out of our accounts every month in the way of "service charges" than they pay us in interest.  
 
We have way too many laws and government bureaucracies making us jump through a seemingly endless amount of hoops, put in place to protect us from everything, including mainly ourselves, twenty four-seven-three sixty five, making many things that used to be relatively easy to do, prohibitively expensive and in many cases, almost impossible to do. In the interest of protecting everyone from anything that could possibly happen, no matter how remote the chance of it happening and protecting the rights of rocks and the shadows of decaying tree stumps, we are lucky if we are allowed to do anything anymore, at least without it resulting in months, if not years of government "red tape" and a huge expense and it's getting worse. We are losing more and more of our freedoms everyday it seems. Our property rights are almost non-existent and our basic freedom of speech is constantly being whittled away by legislation intended to prevent the possibility someone may be offended by something someone else says. It doesn't seem to matter too much whether we elect a rightwing or leftwing government either. You would think that a rightwing government would do more to protect freedom of speech and property rights, seeing as how freedom of expression is protected by the Constitution, but sadly, political correctness still seems to win out even when rightwing governments are in office. When it comes time to pay for all of it, the left wing government imposes a tax, the right wing government calls it a fee, but in both cases the end result is the same, it's more money taken out of all of our wallets.  
 
Yes, big companies should be required to pay for cleaning up their own mess. We have to clean up our messes in our yards and pay for it ourselves. If we don't, the town or city will order it done and bill the homeowner for the cost. Even though you can't do half of the things you want on your own property, the city, town or municipality can order you to cut your grass, clean up your yard and then require you to maintain, cut the grass on the boulevard and clear snow from the public sidewalk. However, as one Winnipeg homeowner found out, being required to maintain the boulevard doesn't give you the right to remove the grass and replace it with decorative rocks or plant a flower or vegetable garden in place of the grass. Definitely one sided favoring government.  
 
Why should you care? Why should any of us care? I don't know. We could probably be a lot happier if we didn't care and if we could fool ourselves into believing we were better off.  
 
 
 
Edited by Triplethreat, 2016-02-22 20:06:51