If you’re coming, I hope to see you there and I really hope my talk on MuniFibre gets you thinking about the possibilities!

I know this story is several months old now, but it isn’t too late to talk about it. St. Joseph’s Hospital and London Health Sciences Centre embarked on restructuring the hospital system here a long time ago and both hospitals say they are very well “integrated” now. Cliff Nordal, the current CEO of both hospitals, had a significant role in this restructuring.

Cliff Nordal is retiring, and good for him. Why wouldn’t he? He took in almost $800,000 in salary and benefits last year! Considering he’s been the CEO of St. Joseph’s for over 20 years, I’m sure he’s got a very comfortable nest egg to retire on.

Then the debate began: should LHSC and St. Joe’s continue under one CEO or go back to two? Well, St. Joe’s decided they wanted to go back to having their own CEO because “St. Joseph’s remains a health-care centre with a mandate based on Catholic values.”

I thought this was an interesting argument for a publicly funded organization. While some of the folks over at the blog of AM980′s Nathan Smith (a very well written blog entry at that) pointed out that Catholic-funded schools obviously promote “Catholic values,” they are also required to teach a provincially mandated curriculum. Don’t think for a second the potential similarities haven’t crossed my mind!

What I find most interesting is the “Catholic values” they want to promote, and the experiences friends of mine have had at the hands of the practitioners at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

So, exactly what “values” are the staff so concerned about protecting and promoting that patients can’t get elsewhere?

• The Catholic Church is anti-contraception. Given the seemingly rampant increase in sexually transmitted infections being seen in seniors engaging in promiscuous sex, would St. Joseph’s Hospital staff still promote the use of condoms?
• Gluttony is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Would overweight/obese patients be treated differently, given staff may believe the patient is going to Hell? (Yes, it makes me laugh a little every time I see an overweight Catholic)
• Greed is also one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Would very wealthy patients be given the cold shoulder because they spent their lives pursuing wealth? After all they’re going to Hell too, aren’t they?
• What about members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities? I can only imagine what treatment they might receive!

Publicly funded healthcare institutions should adhere to the Canada Health Act and be done with it. Promoting Catholic “values” is irrelevant to providing good diagnostics, treatment and bedside manners. Leave your personal beliefs at home, stop costing taxpayers more than needs to be expensed (e.g. hire a single CEO to replace Mr. Nordal) and get on with providing the healthcare patients so badly need!

Photo by plousia

London implemented a pilot project last summer that supposedly cost $140,000. The project? Letting people park overnight on city streets. The $140K cost comes from the apparent revenue loss of parking tickets that are normally issued to the poor saps caught leaving their vehicles on the road in the middle of summer.

A lot of people loved being able to leave their cars on the street. House parties, people too drunk to drive home or hail/call a cab (admit it, you’ve been there!), or a simple lack of parking in your driveway or on the lawn. The reasons you may need to leave your car on the street are numerous.

And yet when it came to studying the pilot project and deciding whether or not to allow this permanently, city council voted no. Why? Well, heaven forbid they lose that $140,000 for a second year in a row!

The travesty of it all!

If I recall correctly, and something that Gina Barber pointed out in her blog earlier today, is a system that Judy Bryant proposed. While Ms. Bryant is a city councillor I respect very much, I disagree that her system of issuing temporary parking passes to those that request them would actually work. It may sound good on paper (though I disagree that it sounds good at all), the task of requesting, issuing and tracking said temporary parking permits would probably cost the city more than the revenue it could possibly generate.

Where would people get the passes? How much would they cost to make? How much would they cost to track? How much would it cost to make sure they’re hard, or nearly impossible, to forge?

I see people abuse disabled parking permits more often than I’d like to admit. Wouldn’t such a small system be easily abused? I can only imagine the predicted revenue and then subsequent massive discrepancy such a system would generate in the city budget.

Photo by Video4net

An acquaintance of mine posited that extending the hours that people need to pay for parking would probably make up for the lost revenue. I agree with him. Downtown parking meters only require payment between 8am and 6pm. Why not extend that to 8pm year round? That should more than make up for allowing overnight parking.

So what did London city council approve last night instead? To give themselves back the 5% pay cut they took in 2008 as a “gesture,” as Gina Barber so nicely puts it, to show they understood what Londoners are going through. I challenge any city councillor to explain, with a straight face, to someone who’s been out of work for most (if not all) of the economic downturn/recession how they can support giving themselves back the 5%.

My biggest problem is that this council seems to get very little done. If I felt like London taxpayers were getting their money’s worth, I wouldn’t complain. But I don’t believe they do! There are some terrific city councillors, but the majority of them seem to prefer just sitting around and debating things instead of actually getting things done. In fact I think London would get a lot more done if some councillors/Board of Control members would just up and quit or retire.

So to end this rant so succinctly… London city council, either start getting things done that deliver visible, measurable results or risk being voted out in October. I hope that Londoners are finally sick and tired of being hosed and really pay some serious attention to this fall’s elections!

Photo by see phar

Several acquaintances/friends of mine and I have had the opportunity to speak to a few City of London councilors and employees at various local events over the last year like AgendaCamp and SMarts London. We’re also encouraging them to attend this year’s PodCamp. I find myself usually running into Nancy Branscombe; while I don’t always agree with her (mostly about the cartoons), I know that I and several others appreciate the effort she makes to get involved in community/grassroots events.

People like Shawn Adamsson, Bill Deys, Titus Ferguson and I have all taken those opportunities to speak to Nancy, voicing our concerns for the city; some of these concerns have to do with the lack of an open data initiative for London, how the city’s engaging citizens (or rather, how it’s not), and more recently Bill Wittur has been talking about making London a “digital destination.” It looks like our concerns have been heard, because Nancy decided it would be a good idea to let engaged folks speak to some City councilors and staff. Last week we had a 90 minute meeting with several higher-ups from the City.

Digital Extremes Logo

Those in attendance at this initial meeting included Adam Caplan, Bill Deys, Bill Wittur, Jodi Simpson, Shawn Adamsson, Titus Ferguson, Keith Tomasek, Jeff Fielding (City of London CAO), Joseph Edward (City of London CTO), Nancy, Judy Bryant (councilor), Elaine Gamble and several staffers. The “normal” citizens had a chance to explain open data (as opposed to open source), making London more attractive to digital businesses (like TVWorks, NDS and Digital Extremes), and how the City can engage citizens more effectively.

Some of the outcomes of the meeting included some breakout meetings happening between people currently involved and those we think should be involved (e.g. Mike Schmalz of Digital Extremes), setting up an online presence (which I’m taking care of right now over at ChangeLondon.ca), along with sending Gavin Newsom’s (Mayor of San Francisco) guest blog entries from TechCruch.com to City employees/councilors in order to give them a politician’s perspective on open data.

Photo by Kevin Van Lierop

So what’s next? Well, more meetings will certainly be taking place. We’re all busy people, so the online presence is crucial to fleshing out our ideas, letting anyone in and around London comment and get engaged, and for setting up future face-to-face meetings and discussions. We hope that everyone in the London area will find something interesting to get involved in, or at least comment on, and start driving London and Middlesex County to be even better than they are in several ways.

When ChangeLondon.ca is ready for public consumption, you can bet you’ll hear about it here and elsewhere! What other areas do you think Change London should focus on?

Food 2030

The UK government recently unveiled Food 2030 – a food strategy designed to ensure that Britons have access to high quality, sustainably farmed/grown, food that benefits both the farmer/grower and the consumer. At the same time Food 2030 should ensure that people have good jobs, a reduction in greenhouse emissions and food waste.

Not bad for something that only went out for public consultation in August 2009! That’s right – the British government invited citizens and other stakeholders to comments from August till October 2009. It seems Defra took the results of the consultation away, compiled the strategy and released it last week to the masses. The 24 page strategy summary (PDF) goes over what the UK wants by 2030 (informed consumers making good choices, less impact on the environment, a secure food chain, etc), along with how the government proposes they get there. The BBC covered the announcement here.

Tomatoes by Ben

Overall, there isn’t much to gripe about. I’m sure that some folks won’t like the mention of research and science helping to produce crops that require less water, fertilizer and chemicals but the reality is that high yield crops are a must if we are to food a growing population. Earth will hit 7 billion before we know it and we all have a responsibility to make sure those folks get the nutrition they need.

It would be great to see the Canadian government be so forward thinking. Just one year after massive drought caused food prices to skyrocket (more so than they did here) and caused riots, the UK has taken the initiative to put together a plan that will encourage citizens to take more responsibility for themselves. It’s especially encouraging that 3 major grocery stores only sell free-range eggs now – a move by Loblaws/Real Canadian Superstore or Metro like that would further sustainable food cycle efforts immensely!

Web Communities

Farmers and consumers alike are increasingly turning towards the Internet in order to identify where the nearest source of sustainably grown food can be found. Change.org identified 5 popular websites where people are connecting and I particularly like Local Harvest because it includes Canadian sources. If you’re a Canadian farmer producing organic, sustainable or low impact produce please add yourself to Local Harvest to make it easier for the rest of us to find you! Better yet, if you know of a good Canadian directory please leave me the link in a comment.

Vertical Gardens

There are many examples of people growing vertical/urban gardens. Again, Change.org has linked to several different ways you can setup your own urban/vertical garden, from thrifty to eco-chic. One of the greatest benefits I see from the vertical garden boom happening is a greater amount of plants taking carbon dioxide out of the air, a much cheaper way to grab fresh produce when you need it and also something nice to look at in your home. This is also a good way to use typically unused space in a home or apartment.

I hope that provides you with some food for thought – both literally and figuratively! While it’s becoming easier everyday to get your hands on food that was produced in a sustainable manner, it will still be some time before all the pieces of the puzzle come together. We can all chip in and help out though.

I will also mention that I’m going to be speaking to the folks over at Local Food Plus soon about their organization – how it works, how we can get it to expand beyond its current Toronto-centric focus, where they get their funding, etc. I hope it proves to be a mutually beneficial conversation!

1. Integration of RPX. This means you can login using your Google, Yahoo!, Twitter, OpenID, Facebook or LiveJournal account and start participating in comments/discussions.
2. The current theme/layout. This theme has a lot of hidden features. One major one I’d like to highlight is if you hover your mouse over the top-right corner of the webpage, you’ll be given options to increase/decrease the size of the text and also the ability to change from a fixed-width version of my site to a fluid-width version of my site.
3. Addition of a formspring.me form. Formspring.me provides you with the ability to ask me any question. Clearly there are some I won’t respond to, like sexually explicit questions, but I’m going to do my best to answer every question asked of me as honestly as possible. The form is just to the right.
4. The book store. I used the Amazon Associate aStore feature to setup my own book store featuring books I enjoy or want to read. These books are laid out by topic area (food, education, etc.).
5. Dedicated pages for issues. For example, the London 2.0 page. It’s not done yet, but I’m using it as a public way to flesh out my ideas and opinions on topics. London 2.0 is just the start – I’ll be adding more as time goes on.

I hope that gives you a good breakdown of what’s new and maybe not so noticeable. My ultimate hope is that knowing more about how the site works will ultimately lead to more engagement with readers and a general satisfaction with your visit.

Publish your offers on your websites. That way the public is informed, the media has access to it and the “other side” can’t distort your numbers because everyone can fact-check.

Unfortunately, ATU Local 741 President Pat Hunniford has already replied to my idea basically saying that it’s not going to happen. Here is the full text:

Good afternoon ATU Local 741,

I am submitting this message via your website in the hopes that it reaches union President Pat Hunniford.

I have a great idea: hopefully you are willing to listen.

If you’re afraid that the LTC will distort the numbers in Local 741′s latest proposal, then make the proposals available for the public to view online. That would take about 5 minutes to either put it up as text on the union’s website or to put it into PDF format for download.

That’s it, that’s all it would take! Then the general public has the ability to fact-check the other side and EVERYONE wins.

I’m not interested in what the offer is because I’m not the mediator. But this would go a long way toward building goodwill amongst the citizens of London despite the strike. At the very least it would look like something’s getting done.

President Pat Hunniford replied:

It is the Union’s position not to negiotiate in the media or to publish offers or the company position on any web site. The company and city hall has taken that action and has caused more problems that it has solved.

I also e-mailed LTC General Manager Larry Ducharme the following text:

Good afternoon Mr. Ducharme,

My name is Derek Silva. I live in the London area and work in the city of London. I’m contacting you in the hopes of helping to move the strike forward as far as negotiations go.

Mr. Hunniford recently stated in the London Free Press that he doesn’t trust the LTC not to take their numbers and twist them somehow. I’m not siding with either the LTC or the union, but I believe I have a solution to this alleged problem and have already sent a message to the union regarding this idea.

I propose that the ATU Local 741 and the LTC make their proposals and counter-proposals available on their respective websites, either in plain text or PDF format. This would allow the general public and the media to act as fact-checkers and quelling the war of words currently going on in the press. It would take just a few minutes to make this happen assuming that the latest proposals were probably written in word processing software (WordPerfect, Word, OpenOffice, etc.) and saved to a hard drive somewhere in the organization.

I hope you take this idea into consideration going forward. This would allow the LTC to receive proposals in writing and also to counter-propose in writing.

If I receive a response from Larry, I’ll post it here.

Lately it has been clear that the requirement and use of unions in the developed world is no longer necessary. Indeed, unions seem to be doing far more harm than good these days. First it was the catastrophic downfall of the North American auto manufacturers (not the only cause, but a big one no doubt). Three months ago, here in Ontario, the union representing driving examiners at the DriveTest centres, which are run by a private company called Serco (clearly outsourcing it was a big mistake) went on strike and there’s no end in sight to that one.

The DriveTest strike has so far caused people to lose their licenses due to non-renewal, delayed young drivers from getting their G1 learning permits and also caused people testing for new licenses (A-Z, A-D, etc.) to lose the opportunity for employment. What good is that doing for the province and our economy?

But that’s the reason for me writing this. Lately, every strike in the developed world (I refer mostly to much of Europe and North America) is about money. Many well-paid, hardly skilled workers wanting more money for work that almost anyone can do with little training. Automotive factory unions, retail unions and the like no longer do the economy, the companies they are employed by, or the employees they represent any good.

If you think I’ve gone off the deep end on this one, think again. I previously worked at a non-unionized automotive parts plant making good money with plenty of opportunity for career advancement. I started out machining parts (adding bolts, clamps, etc.) and then moved to the manufacturing portion because I made it known that I would like to (yeah, that’s really all it took!). They needed help, they had a willing participant… I got the call.

If an employer really cares, they listen to their employees. That’s one of the good things unions have brought us – better rules, a more level playing field. But much of that progress has ended, and now all they want is more money.

Case in point: The LTC strike. From what I can tell, bus drivers are currently paid over $24/hour to DRIVE A BUS. This requires little special skill minus a driver’s ed course and passing the driving exam. But that’s what they get paid, and they want more. Somehow the union has got it into its members’ heads that they’re worth… get this… $30 an hour. That’s what they want! And, unfortunately, precedents have already been set in other cities (Hamilton is often cited though the Hamilton area is almost twice as big as London). They want to be paid over $200 a day to drive a bus around the city. Where do I sign up?!

And this problem certainly isn’t isolated to London, Ontario or Canada. A Boeing plant in Seattle lost a contract to another division in South Carolina because Boeing saw the Machinists Union in Seattle as a big strike threat. Why? Because the Seattle Machinists Union has gone on strike over 3 of the last 5 contract offers from Boeing. Meanwhile the South Carolina plant voted to decertify the Machinists Union there in September.

If I was a Boeing shareholder, I’d be applauding the decision.

And in the other London (England), a union that runs the bus service on the east end of the city started a 48-hour strike on Friday. Why? Stereotypically, they want better wages and benefits. Those drivers are currently paid between $49,000 and $62,000 a year (I converted to Canadian dollars for a better comparison). I know the cost of living in England is higher than it is here, but that’s got to be decent money still. If I’m wrong, please let me know.

The rumours I heard when Toyota was looking for a location for their new plant, before they settled on Woodstock, was that they were screening people for their attitudes towards unions somehow. If this is true, I’m sure they went about it in a way that didn’t violate any laws (or at least they tried to). But still… clearly there’s an aversion to unions by business owners. Why? Because it becomes clearer and clearer every time that unions no longer help to progress fairness in the workplace – they want money, and as much of it as they can get; business viability be damned!

The solution? I think the solution is to elect good political representatives (and stop voting for a particular party but for the best candidate) and make your voices heard. I think the solution is to walk with your feet – if your boss won’t listen, go to HR. If HR won’t listen, talk to a lawyer. If your lawyer tells you you don’t have a case, then either what you think is an injustice either isn’t or there isn’t a law against it yet. Either way, you should probably re-examine the so-called “problem” you have with your employer.

Not to mention, it’s easier than ever to start your own business. So if you hate your boss that much, be your own. There are a lot of ways to start a business, either with your own money or someone else’s.

My solution to the LTC strike is one that has been echoed on Twitter: Shutdown the London Transit Commission. Start up London Transit Services instead (or London Street & Rail, or the We’ll Get You There Commission – who cares?), post up jobs for as many full-time drivers as it takes to staff the service and start them off at $17 or $18 an hour with raises according to performance or the consumer price index (CPI, a.k.a. the cost of living). I bet you this new London Transit will get thousands of qualified applicants clamouring for jobs. Screen the hell out of them, make sure to hire some people who haven’t worked for the old LTC and let’s get going.

I know what at least some of you are thinking – what about the people who still want a union? No problem – if they don’t like raises indexed to the CPI, let’s give them a performance based system. Let’s make sure comment cards along with golf pencils are available, as well as a feedback page on the website, knowing full well that people who complain will be more vocal than people who really enjoy the service.

Promote the heck out of the fact that drivers will be based on their courteousness, how often the bus is on time (taking factors outside of their control into account like construction and accidents), and how often they don’t stop for people that are running for the bus (I’ve been a victim of this and have seen it happen too many times – meanwhile the same bus driver has time to stop the bus, get off and grab a coffee at Tim Horton’s). Make it EASY for people to give this feedback, one way or another, and put together a scorecard. Done.

There are thousands of people who can’t get to work, school, the grocery store, the pharmacy, etc. thanks to this ridiculous strike. It’s clear the drivers are only looking out for themselves – let’s treat them to be a little more altruistic by incorporating a good customer service attitude into their performance evaluations.

And I know I’m not alone.

I want my $451,000 back. That’s right, every single penny of severance that was recently afforded to Diane Beattie after the LHSC Board of Directors forced her to resign.

When a scandal like this one breaks out, there is no reason whatsoever that such gross misconduct should result in such a comfortable severance. $451,000 is almost two years worth of Ms. Beattie’s annual pay ($250,000 – not bad, huh?).

This entire issue has been handled very poorly. The audit outing the $3.3 million untendered contract was produced 2 years ago, yet the public wasn’t made aware of it. Her friend Kelly Butt telling the London Free Press that what she did was right in the business world. That’s a load of bull seeing as the LHSC doesn’t belong to the normal business world – it’s a world where taxpayers foot the bill in an era where we very rarely see tax decreases even when promised… and those decreases usually lead to increases somewhere else.

Not to mention that if a CIO were caught mishandling $3.3 million at any other company when it can be proven someone else could do the work for cheaper, you can bet your ass they would be fired with no severance whatsoever. It’s gross misconduct and breaks every due diligence rule in the book. Why the LHSC Board of Directors didn’t just throw her out on her butt is beyond me.

I really like the way the Autopro at Wharncliffe & Riverside put it:

“Break Company Rules
Get $451000
Where Do I Sign Up?”

Indeed! Maybe it’s time we replaced the entire LHSC Board of Directors and C-level executives? If they’d like to keep their positions, I urge the Board to begin including all tenders, bidders (along with proposals) and winners into the annual report. It’s my hard earned money they’re spending and I have a right to know where it’s going and how it got there.

Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government really, really needs to clean up it’s act. This week was the first time I agreed with something Andrea Horwath and that, to me, is not a good thing. Lastly, CEO Cliff Nordal, stop looking for the source of the leak. They did the right thing and exposed something very, very serious. You’re only making yourself look like a jerk and that’s the last thing you need. If I were on the Board of Directors, I’d be asking for your head on a silver platter.

Let’s start with a great example from Vancouver: The roof of the Vancouver Convention Centre has been turned into a green roof. What does that mean?

Well take a look at this article from Fast Company and then take a look at the Vancouver Convention Centre’s website – it’s quite the marvel to behold.  Not only are they decreasing their cooling costs by doing so, but look at some of these statistics from the Fast Company article:

The Vancouver building also has black water treatment systems and desalination machinery to water the plants, a heat pump that uses seawater, and cooling via radiant floor. The bottom line is a water-use reduction of 60% to 70% over similarly sized convention centers.

I know darn well the Thames River is filled with fresh water, and not saltwater, but surely taking some of these ideas (plus others in the same vein) and incorporating them into city-owned buildings here in London would benefit us and our environment in the long-term! In fact if we end up reducing the bill, maybe we can get a cut on our taxes?

The six-acre “living roof” atop the convention centre also recovers rainwater for irrigation thanks to the over 400,000 plants it houses, and the West Building expansion was built to LEED standards. And living/green roofs have been around in Europe for over 30 years – why are we often so slow to adapt things like this in North America?

Next up – solar power trash compactors. Boston began installing these almost 3 years ago and the press I read on the issue was largely positive.  Basically it’s a trash bin with a solar panel on top and a sensor activates the compacting functionality whenever necessary. They hold over 567 litres of trash and clearly need to be emptied less often. I’m certain the city of London (and all others) could still sell advertising on the sides as they do now.

Just a few of the BigBelly trash compactors would probably handle all of the needs the city of London’s public trash bins handle now, but I’m looking at the reduced manpower needed to empty them out. Another potential big money saver in the long run especially in places like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. Plus the added capacity would certainly help eliminate the spillover that I so often see downtown in London and in Toronto – and that’d just plain disgusting.

It seems there are design issues that need to be addressed, according to some of the behaviours that Boston residents took to as opposed to opening the compactor’s door and depositing their no-longer-wanted/needed items, but I’m sure the manufacturer would be willing to hear some ideas in return for business.

Third – Find someone who can deliver smart grid technology. What’s smart grid technology? Click here to read up a bit on it. Basically what I would really like to see happen is smart meters on every house in London that can eliminate the need for manual reading (either by London Hydro or the homeowner). AT&T and SmartSynch are already delivering the functionality to a utility in Texas – why can’t we do it here?

The smart meters in that EcoGeek story enable a utility to remotely connect and disconnect the power when people move out/in of houses, immediately alert the utility of power outages and therefore allow London Hydro to deliver their services in a smarter way. Rogers, Bell and Telus all have robust enough networks to facilitate this or we could even build our own WiMAX network here – so why not?

Fourth – Free bus fares! I won’t go too much into this because Tyee Magazine has already done a 5-part series on the benefits and how to pay for it. It’s terrific – check it out.

Fifth – Open our data. Vancouver did it recently and I’m confident they can expect bountiful tools and revelations to come out of it. There’s something very freeing, both to the city and to its citizens, when data about the city is open to all.

And lastly I want to end off with some related articles. Fast Company announced their top 13 cities of 2009 – only 1 Canadian city made it on. Guess who? That’s right, it’s Vancouver. Is it any wonder why?

I really like this video about New Urbanism and urban planning. Please watch it.

And finally there’s on article by ComputerWorld on using technology to build “City 2.0” which basically takes in all of the initiatives I mentioned earlier into account and then some and how this will shape our cities going forward and why how technology can make our lives better.

Please comment – I’d love to hear your thoughts even if they contradict mine!