Canadian Personal Finance Blog

A preliminary report from the City of Ottawa garbage folks has floated the idea of removing the Garbage Collection portion of the City Taxes and turn it into a user fee. With this move City Taxes will drop by $86 which sounds like a nice idea, however, the User Fee for Garbage is slated to be $195 per household which is about a 115% increase in the cost of paying for Garbage in Ottawa.

How is this possible? Let’s look a little closer:

• $86 is our original garbage fee, so we’ll keep that
• $41 fee for the black and blue box program in place (say that 5 times fast)
• $68 for the new Green Bin program for organics and compost and such

Now that is an expensive program. If you are a rural Ottawa person you won’t have to pay for the Green Bins, since you won’t have them, but you’ll still have your garbage fee go up by around 50%.

My suspicion is that garbage collection will become more like water and sewers and will become a bi-monthly billed program, which will then spiral in price to match the cost of garbage collection.

Do I have any other options here? No, I can’t opt out, I can’t claim I don’t use the service, so I must pay, as must my neighbours.

Care to complain? November 10th is your day.  Read the briefing notes, very interesting accounting discussions there.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day

For those with any UK heritage it is, in fact, Guy Fawkes day today. Hopefully there aren’t any more gunpowder plots out there!

Thankfully the markets (in Canada at least) are closed and we can all sit back and enjoy a lot of turkey and family and be thankful for all that we have in our over-abundant lives.

For some however, Thanksgiving is a terrible time, and that is for the Meleagris Gallopavo, or the Wild Turkey (ZZ Top even sings about the horrible Wild Turkey Bite (but I suspect that may not be what they really mean)).

Constantly hiding and ducking from now until January 2nd, think of these poor creatures as you scarf down their kins legs and breasts! Mmmm… kin…

Happy Thanksgiving?

Oh and one of my favorite Thanksgiving TV episodes:

There is Gold in them thar Cow Plops!!!

At least that is what this National Film Board short seems to suggest, where an inventor has come up with a good way to extract methane from cow poo, which is usable with cars and such.

The description of the short does it justice:

This short film presents Mr. Bate, an inventor who discovers a substitute for gasoline in barnyard manure. Even though he fits the classic mould of single-minded know-how and practical dreamer, his discovery is tried and tested. He demonstrates how his home-made digester does turn manure into potent methane gas that powers his auto. And for good measure, he demonstrates his latest sustainable invention – a bicycle powered by the bumps on the road.

Now that is what I call a really GREEN solution to a problem, given we need cows anyhow, why not use their DUNG for fun?

Mass Transit?

That is one of the big questions I have to think about given my new appointment.

In my previous job, there really was no reason to take the bus because:

• It took 4 times the time to take the bus as it did in a car
• The Bus did not run often enough and did not cover the times I might need to come and go to work
• Parking for my car was free

Variable Changes

With my new position the financial variables have changed and it now I might again look at the transit equation again:

• Parking now costs money no matter where I put my car (varying costs but none are very cheap).
• The amount of time to get to work by car is now only 1/2 the estimated bus time
• The transit tax write off comes into the equation as well

To bus or not to bus, that will be the question, but for now I will drive.

Biking?

That is another interesting point to consider for this trip. Straight biking to work while excellent for the health can be dangerous in traffic (some of the route has bike paths but not all of it), and I am not sure whether there are showers at work (I do sweat a great deal). The electronic bike is an interesting idea I have been looking at, but whether I can recharge at work is another interesting question to think about.

Car Pooling?

I do know someone at my new job who I might be able to car pool with, which might be an excellent choice as well. I have previously car pooled which works well if the people car pooling all work the same hours, which can be tricky, but the more interesting question is how do you arrange to compensate folks for car pools? Anybody with any ideas, please feel free to post them.

This is an unsolicited book review of the book: “75 Ways to Save Gas: Clean, Green Tips to Cut Your Fuel Bill” by Jim Davidson of Car$mart published by Penguin Books (ISBN: 978-0-14-317205-5). I borrowed this book from the Ottawa Public Library but it costs $6.25 at the bookstores.

Useful Book

For the price this book is well worth borrowing from the library and even worth purchasing, because while most of us have heard most of the “tips” in this book, it is still worthwhile reviewing them and there are actually a fair number of explanations as to why these tips are important. It is a quick and easy read and I would guess it might be a useful reference book after it has been read (if you purchase it, or if you check the web site).

Lots of very interesting reminders for me that I forget sometimes, but some excellent highlights are:

• Walking is an excellent way to save gas! Sounds like a D’uh! statement, but remember that the next time you drive to the store to pick up a litre of milk.
• Nitrogen in your tires can be better than air, and he explains why, which is impressive (I thought it was just a fad, but there are actual reasons why).
• Drive thrus are not good for your mileage either, which is true, but I never really thought of it that way, but it is a very good point (especially if you are #10 in the Timmy’s drive thru).

Just a few of the entertaining points put forward that I enjoyed being reminded about. The book is well written and I enjoyed it a great deal.

I would say give this book a read if just to remind you that maybe it is time to get your oil changed and get your snow tires off (remember it’s JULY).

Recommendation: A very good read.