Currently, contract employees for the City of Ottawa make minimum wage. The minimum wage currently appears to be $9.50/hr. Alex Cullen supports a move to increase minimum wage to what he is calling a 'living wage' of $13.50/hr.
I don't see what justifies this 42% pay increase. Who is going to pay for this 42% pay increase. Cullen is already pushing for or getting:
- A tax hike for residents (~4%)
- A transit fare hike on March 1st (~7.5%)
Combine this with the new HST rip-off that is coming into effect that will essentially be increasing costs across the board.
What about people who live smart and within their means? Who's going to help them out? And just how bad is $9.50/hr? These people surely won't be living on the street. I don't see why they need subsidization at the expense of the taxpayer.
Alex Cullen repeatedly shows a lack of care and respect towards the city taxpayers. Why would we want someone to shows such blatant disregard for us to represent us as Mayor?
Maybe Cullen is trying to get votes from the city's contract workers!
Check this Link out for more information.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Cullen's Crew Causes Headaches Again
So OCTranspo is at it again with these articulated busses, which, as we already know, are useless in the winter. Since the city hall here in Ottawa seems unable to negotiate and come up with a non-brain-dead solution for transit, we must rely on the crappy overpriced bus service that is in place. The City cannot even ensure we get working busses and Alex Cullen, as the city's representative on public transit, should shoulder the blame for the ineptitude of this service.
We need decent public transit. This means providing the highest quality service possible at the lowest price possible. I, and many others, beleive that we are paying too much for an inadequate service. It seems like everytime you open the newspaper its always 'service reductions' or 'service changes' which means service reductions. I honestly don't think we can have the entire city managed the way OCTranspo is currently being managed.
The Problem in Question
So the latest problem here was pretty tame as compared to busses buried in snow. A few service reductions on the major routes over a relatively calm period at no cost to the City is pretty much the optimal solution for repairing cracked engine mounts. The issue here is why the engine mounts are cracked in the first place.
Maybe they could have spent the effort making this instead on finding us some quality busses. We're paying like three bucks a trip anyways.
Let me know what you think. Follow this blog and if there's enough support maybe we can get some real journalism up in here.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Cullen Claims Victory on New Tax Hike
In the press release below Alex Cullen decides it would be a good idea to claim victory over a 3.8% tax hike for the people of Ottawa. These tax increases will surely place a higher burden on the people of Ottawa during an already difficult economic climate. This is no time for tax increases, in fact, there should be either a tax freeze or tax reduction to promote economic activity in the city.
Bus service is already terrible and I don't see how the city could reduce service without just resorting to having main routes only. I mean there currently exist some brain-dead routes. For example, check out route 159. This route was designed so that people don't bitch that service between Carlingwood and Westboro was eliminated when the 18 was cancelled. This route comes once every never and only between 9:30 and 2:30 which is asinine.
The U-pass idea, which has been around for along time, is one of the stupidest ideas I've ever seen. The idea, generally, is that schools levy money from students to pay for bus passes they may or may not use. This penalizes every student that lives on campus or doesn't take the bus and INCREASES COSTS FOR STUDENTS. Cullen is blatantly LYING when he claims this will bring 50 000 students into the public transit system because many of those 50 000 students don't use transit or use it infrequently enough that the 125$ / semester levy isn't justified for their needs. Universities are full of this 'everyone pays for services only a few use' model but this U-pass idea goes too far. It essentially doubles the current student union fees.
A press release from Thursday:
From: Cullen, Alex
To: Media Only
Cc: info@wwwebworks.ca
Sent: Thu Jan 28 16:22:16 2010
Subject: Transit Committee Chair Cullen claims victory as Transit budget approved with no service cuts and a new U-Pass program
Media Release:
Transit Committee Chair Cullen claims victory as Transit budget approved with no service cuts and a new U-Pass program
Councillor Alex Cullen, Chair of the City's Transit Committee, claimed victory as a result of City Council's budget decisions today (January 28, 2010) as City Council restored cuts to 53 bus routes and approved a pilot U-Pass program for university students at Carleton and Ottawa Universities. Said Councillor Cullen: "This is a victory for transit today - the public spoke loud and clear that they didn't want to see their bus service cut to achieve a tax increase target and City Council listened." On the U-Pass, which City Council adopted on a 22-2 vote after three previous tries, Councillor Cullen said: "The U-Pass will bring some 50,000 students onto our public transit system at a rate they can afford - congratulations to the student federations of both universities for their work in campaigning for this initiative."
Last November during the development of the draft 2010 budget the City's Transit Committee recommended a $364 million budget for public transit, but the Audit, Budget & Finance Committee (chaired by Mayor O'Brien) proposed to cut $3 million in cuts to public transit, affecting 53 bus routes and 597,000 passenger rides. Public reaction to these proposed cuts was strong and negative, both at individual ward meetings and at the City Council public hearings. As a result, during the budget debate an omnibus motion was moved that adopted a number of measures that kept the tax increase near its 3.9% target while re-instating the ABF Committee's proposed transit cuts.
The U-Pass success came about after 2 previous tries at City Council where Transit Committee had endorsed this proposal but had been rejected by City Council over funding concerns. U-Pass programs are currently found in 18 cities across Canada.
Alex Cullen
Councillor, Bay Ward
City of Ottawa
110 Laurier Ave. W.
Ottawa K1P 1J1
(613) 580-2477 fax: (613) 580-2517
e-mail: alex.cullen@ottawa.ca
www.alexcullen.ca
No matter what corporate confidentiality disclaimer may appear below please feel free to share this message as you wish.
This e-mail originates from the City of Ottawa e-mail system. Any
distribution, use or copying of this e-mail or the information it
contains by other than the intended recipient(s) is unauthorized.
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify me at the
telephone number shown above or by return e-mail and delete
this communication and any copy immediately. Thank you.
Le présent courriel a été expédié par le système de courriels de
la Ville d'Ottawa. Toute distribution, utilisation ou
reproduction du courriel ou des renseignements qui s'y trouvent
par une personne autre que son destinataire prévu est interdite.
Si vous avez reçu le message par erreur, veuillez m'en aviser par
téléphone (au numéro précité) ou par courriel, puis supprimer
sans délai la version originale de la communication ainsi que
toutes ses copies. Je vous remercie de votre collaboration.
Bus service is already terrible and I don't see how the city could reduce service without just resorting to having main routes only. I mean there currently exist some brain-dead routes. For example, check out route 159. This route was designed so that people don't bitch that service between Carlingwood and Westboro was eliminated when the 18 was cancelled. This route comes once every never and only between 9:30 and 2:30 which is asinine.
The U-pass idea, which has been around for along time, is one of the stupidest ideas I've ever seen. The idea, generally, is that schools levy money from students to pay for bus passes they may or may not use. This penalizes every student that lives on campus or doesn't take the bus and INCREASES COSTS FOR STUDENTS. Cullen is blatantly LYING when he claims this will bring 50 000 students into the public transit system because many of those 50 000 students don't use transit or use it infrequently enough that the 125$ / semester levy isn't justified for their needs. Universities are full of this 'everyone pays for services only a few use' model but this U-pass idea goes too far. It essentially doubles the current student union fees.
A press release from Thursday:
From: Cullen, Alex
To: Media Only
Cc: info@wwwebworks.ca
Sent: Thu Jan 28 16:22:16 2010
Subject: Transit Committee Chair Cullen claims victory as Transit budget approved with no service cuts and a new U-Pass program
Media Release:
Transit Committee Chair Cullen claims victory as Transit budget approved with no service cuts and a new U-Pass program
Councillor Alex Cullen, Chair of the City's Transit Committee, claimed victory as a result of City Council's budget decisions today (January 28, 2010) as City Council restored cuts to 53 bus routes and approved a pilot U-Pass program for university students at Carleton and Ottawa Universities. Said Councillor Cullen: "This is a victory for transit today - the public spoke loud and clear that they didn't want to see their bus service cut to achieve a tax increase target and City Council listened." On the U-Pass, which City Council adopted on a 22-2 vote after three previous tries, Councillor Cullen said: "The U-Pass will bring some 50,000 students onto our public transit system at a rate they can afford - congratulations to the student federations of both universities for their work in campaigning for this initiative."
Last November during the development of the draft 2010 budget the City's Transit Committee recommended a $364 million budget for public transit, but the Audit, Budget & Finance Committee (chaired by Mayor O'Brien) proposed to cut $3 million in cuts to public transit, affecting 53 bus routes and 597,000 passenger rides. Public reaction to these proposed cuts was strong and negative, both at individual ward meetings and at the City Council public hearings. As a result, during the budget debate an omnibus motion was moved that adopted a number of measures that kept the tax increase near its 3.9% target while re-instating the ABF Committee's proposed transit cuts.
The U-Pass success came about after 2 previous tries at City Council where Transit Committee had endorsed this proposal but had been rejected by City Council over funding concerns. U-Pass programs are currently found in 18 cities across Canada.
Alex Cullen
Councillor, Bay Ward
City of Ottawa
110 Laurier Ave. W.
Ottawa K1P 1J1
(613) 580-2477 fax: (613) 580-2517
e-mail: alex.cullen@ottawa.ca
www.alexcullen.ca
No matter what corporate confidentiality disclaimer may appear below please feel free to share this message as you wish.
This e-mail originates from the City of Ottawa e-mail system. Any
distribution, use or copying of this e-mail or the information it
contains by other than the intended recipient(s) is unauthorized.
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify me at the
telephone number shown above or by return e-mail and delete
this communication and any copy immediately. Thank you.
Le présent courriel a été expédié par le système de courriels de
la Ville d'Ottawa. Toute distribution, utilisation ou
reproduction du courriel ou des renseignements qui s'y trouvent
par une personne autre que son destinataire prévu est interdite.
Si vous avez reçu le message par erreur, veuillez m'en aviser par
téléphone (au numéro précité) ou par courriel, puis supprimer
sans délai la version originale de la communication ainsi que
toutes ses copies. Je vous remercie de votre collaboration.
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