Clearly her emotions got the better of her when she spouted after the game "the ref decided the result before the game started", but Christine Sinclair was speaking for all Canadians outraged at the refereeing in Monday's soccer loss to the Americans. It was a great game despite the ref's worst efforts, especially the call against goalkeeper Erin McLeod for wasting time that led to a U.S. goal. There were several earlier blown calls as well. It's sad when a ref's efforts help determine a game's outcome.
Adding more fuel to Canadian Olympic angst was the judging in yesterday's boxing match between Dartmouth's Custio Clayton and Freddy Evans of Great Britain. Clayton was clearly the better boxer, but as was in the case in the previous match, boxing judges have a problem in getting their decisions right. Clayton was robbed, no if's, and's or but's about it.
Late night ferry service week nights will be cut, but city council decided yesterday to save late night service Fridays and Saturdays. Council's decision will see ferry service end after 10:15 except on those two nights. Ferry service will also be reduced to every half hour from noon until two and service won't start Sunday mornings until 11:30. And once more parochial thinking carries the day at city council. Middle Sackville's Brad Johns for example arguing it wasn't fair to keep the ferry running while bus routes in his district were cut back. But despite evidence the ferries actually make more money than bus routes, council voted 18-4 to make the cuts.
Just over 2 months now until election day.
Council did unanimously vote to approve a comprehensive review of Metro Centre operations including the cut the city gets from all ticket sales. In 2006, Trade Centre Limited, under Freddy MacGillivray, took over control of the box office without any formal agreement and apparently without the knowledge of city council. Auditor general Larry Munroe reported last month the city received only 40 cents for every ticket sold after the takeover. From 2006 until this year Trade Centre Ltd made $1.7 million off ticket sales while the city earned a little less than $600,000. Something clearly stinks about the situation and council's decision to spend $50,000 to get to the bottom of it was the right call.
Talk about a bloated bureaucracy. We spend nearly $50 million a year on the salaries of health care administrators in Nova Scotia. 400 of them make over $100,000 a year, 62 at the IWK alone. We know this thanks to the Public Sector Compensation Disclosure Act that forces all public servants earning over $100,000 to make that information publicly available. Nova Scotia has 10 district health authority CEO's. They earn $2.6 million in salaries. Alongside them are 62 more vice presidents. The growth in the health care bureaucracy has, as Tory leader Jamie Baillie put it, grown right along with wait times. Nova Scotia of course has some of the longest wait times for procedures in the country. Why do we need 10 district health authorities with its over the top bureaucracy? In a province of fewer than 1 million people, one would do.
Have a great day. Get involved. And if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
Rick Howe
