Between the Two Divides - the Electricity Rates..

Just as Recently as few weeks ago, there were lots of Goings On in the Republic of the Philippines in Regards to the Electricity Rates charge by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and is said to be the highest in Asia next to Japan (as we all knew Japan has the highest Cost of living in all Asia). There was an Attempt by the Government Pension Agency, known by its initial GSIS to take over the Management with a promise that it will be able to lower the rates. The current management is under the Lopezes, the Old Oligarch families who have been the on-and-off controlling majority interests of the country's largest Electricity Distributors.

Now to compare the typical electricity rates between the two Particular comparable situations, I posted our household billings which maybe compared by those who has the experience of paying the Highest Rate of Electricity in Asia Next to Japan:

Account Number***
000 776 93
Meter Number***
***altered to maintain privacy1024

Statement Date Amount Due Due Date Amount Paid

Jun 25 2008
$145.53 = (Total Bill for 61 days for the total usage of 1160 kWh + 43 kWh system loss (3.76 %)). Exchange rate of $1 to 42 Pesos:
Jul 12 2008

SCARBOROUGH ON
CoTttactm"ar 416.542.8000
Page
1 / 1
● Website
www.torontohydro.com
A 1.5% monthly late payment interest charge will be applied if received after due date

Your Electricity Charges

Electricity
394.628 KWH @ 5.000 cents/KWH 19.50
808.987 KWH @ 5.000 cents/KWH 40.45
Delivery 62.32
Regulatory 7.97
Debt Retirement Charge 8.12

138.59
Your Total Electricity Charges
6.94 = 5 % Federal Goods and Services Tax.
G.S.T. (G.S.T. Registration 89671 8327 RT0001)
Compare your daily usage

Read Date kWh Usage
r->10 JUN 08 i:;l58W«!ffi;; 1.160
10 APR 08 W$$$$ii88iS 1.394
08 FES 08 *?*.S::::;S;:;;i:5;;;;:S 1.324
07 DEC 07 iiiiiilisi 1,269
10 OCT 07 SSlliSiigg: 1.265
09 AUG 07 :sS;j:s:;:;jSS!:?;iS}:'?:;S 1.717
-3»08 JUN 07 fiisliiii;;: 1.125
10 APR 07 iligiill 1.268
08 FEB 07 kWh/dav c ,,..,, ^513
10 20 30 40 50 60


Your previous charges
Amount of last bill
Totai Payments-Thank you
Balance Forward
169.64 169.64
0.00

Amount to be Withdrawn Jul 12 2008
$145.53
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Your electricity usage

Meter Number Meter Reading Period Number of Days Read Type Units Self-Contained Current Reading Previous Reading kWh Used Loss Factor Adjustment Adjusted kWhUsed
10248265 APR 10 2008 To JUN 10 2008 61 Est. 1 9505 - 8346 = 1150 X 1.0375* = 1203.616

Further comment by Me:
(* Technical Loss at 3.76 % added to the charges... Billings is for 61 days, from April 10 to June 10 as per meter readings. The surge on the usage between the first 30 days and the later 31 days is the use of central air due to the heat wave during the days of late may and early June...)

Breakdown of delivery charge by the distributor:

Transmission Charge1 - 1.02¢/kWh
Distribution Charge - 1.87¢/kWh
Lost Revenue Adjustment Charge (New) - 0.08¢/kWh
Shared Savings Charge (New) - 0.09¢/kWh- (This charge was for the lost revenue incurred for last year shared savings on conservation measures...the goal here is to conserve energy, yet still not burden the taxpayers for the shortfall in revenue but instead the users of electricity...the more you use the more you compensate for others savings.
Customer Charge - $12.97/30 days —(Fixed Charge)-
Also very important note: Charges by the Generators of Electricity are collected by local Distributors without Markups on behalf of the Generators:

Note: highlighted and referenced notations are mine:

The 2008 Toronto's Gay Pride Parade - June 29

“Do Tell” it’s Ok... for the first time, members the Canadian Armed Forces joined the Gay Pride Week Parade this Year.




Crowds flock to watch the Pride Parade...

"It's a huge thing for me personally," said Warrant Officer John McDougall, a parade participant who has been an openly gay member of the military for 13 years. "To be able to be in public and be recognized not just for being a soldier, but for being a soldier who happens to be gay is amazing”.

McDougall and his colleagues joined 5,000 drag queens, bikers, and scantily-clad men who marched in the parade in front of scores of spectators. Other participants in the flashy celebration included Liberal MPs Bob Rae and Belinda Stronach, Toronto Mayor David Miller, and Federal NDP leader Jack Layton
2008 Gay Pride Parade

WE ARE SORRY

Three Little Words, uttered in the Hushed House of Commons Yesterday, History-Making words, “we are sorry”, Prime Minister Steven Harper apologized on behalf of the Federal Government and of the Nation to Canada's First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples for their suffering in the once-obligatory residential school system.

Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools. The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history.

In the 1870s, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligation to educate aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools. Two primary objectives of the residential schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, "to kill the Indian in the child". Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.

Most schools were operated as "joint ventures" with Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian or United churches. The government of Canada built an educational system in which very young children were often forcibly removed from their homes, often taken far from their communities. Many were inadequately fed, clothed and housed. All were deprived of the care and nurturing of their parents, grandparents and communities. First nations, Inuit and Métis languages and cultural practices were prohibited in these schools. Tragically, some of these children died while attending residential schools and others never returned home

As the PM spoke, School Survivors in Public Galleries wept, their tears a tribute to every mother’s tears who cried for every child forcibly taken over from her for Generations.

Text of the Prime Minister’s Speech we are sorry
After the Official Apology...what are the next moves?? Check the rest of the story here>>

Voices

apology not going to fix what happened

Oldest victim of schools happy to witness the speech apology brings ‘hope and comfort’

Reactions to Harper's Speech

The Prime Minister on High Gas Prices...

Canada's Prime Minister Steven Harper

The Prime Minister on High Gas Prices..

PM Harper says Canadians hit hard by High Gas Prices should not look to Ottawa for relief at the Pumps..
Harper says that the ability of the Government to affect the price of gasoline is so small that it is not worth doing at all...

The PM says that the Energy Prices in his belief will continue to rise and you can not fool the Public into thinking otherwise.

In response to a question on Fuel Prices, the PM said that the “ability of the Government to affect the Price of Gasoline per se is so small that it is not worth doing”.

“What you’ve really got to do is lower the costs for consumers generally, rather than try to fight the upward trend in the Price of Gasoline”

The PM also said that overall Tax Cuts, like the two percentage points his government taken off the GST (goods and services tax), from 7% to 5%, are the best way to bring saving s to consumers.

Pump prices have risen 11.6 per cent from last April, while fuel oil and other fuels surged 36.9 per cent...

...ON THE OTHER HAND
Oil Prices have doubled from where they were a year ago, surpassing a record $132 US on commodities market yesterday. Yet the Prices at the Pump while painfully high have not doubled.

According to this week’s survey of pump prices by consulting firm M.J. Ervin, Canadians paid an average $1.27 per litre. Last May, a year ago today, the average was about $1.12 a litre, the difference of average 15 cents...

The Price of the crude oil last May was $66 a barrel and this May $132, the difference of $66..yearly double...

The average increase of 15 cents a litre is Big, but not as Dramatic as that of the Crude oil and why it that so?

There are other costs involved in the processing of fossil fuels into gasoline. You wouldn’t get a match to match increase in prices.

The increasingly very expensive raw product, the Crude is an important part of the equation, but there are other costs, like taxes as well as refining and marketing cost that well determine the final pump price.

Also the Fact that the Canadian Dollar is now in Parity with its US counterpart also keep pump prices relatively lower, since oil is benchmarked in U.S. currency..

Provincial Health Plan will Cover John changing into Jane..

TANNIS TOOHEY/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Health Minister George Smitherman announced Monday that a new $500,000 fund will help families meet expenses incurred while waiting for organ transplants. "I can't pretend this is a perfect fix for the situation, but it's a good beginning," he said.


Provincial Health Plan will cover “Sex- Change” operations...

It was 10 years ago that the previous Progressive Conservative government declared the operations were no longer eligible under the taxpayer-funded Ontario Health Insurance Plan, which had covered the surgery since 1971.

Now the Liberal Government will again cover the Procedure..Health Minister George Smitherman said the decision to resume coverage will only cost the Plan $200 thousand (at approximately $20 thousand per procedure) as only 8 to 10 individual will pass the ‘very rigorous’ psycological evaluation required before sex reassignment surgery...(well what happenes if more than 20 or 50 passed the VERY RIGOUROUS psycological evaluation, George?)

It's a very serious medical condition that affects a very small number of people," he told reporters, noting that other provinces including Alberta pay for the surgery.
Smitherman acknowledged the coverage could be controversial in some circles, given the heavy demands on Ontario's health-care system from people with rare, life-threatening diseases, for example.

"I think that people should be careful not to use what is $200,000 on a $40.2 billion health budget as an excuse to try a bit of a `them and us' conversation," he said

More on if you want to be woman johnnyhere


In a Majority Decision 5-4 Canada’s Supreme Court struck down another provision of the law which deal with Young Offender’s Act which require young offenders convicted of Serious Crimes why they should be sentenced as Juveniles.

"Young people who commit crimes have historically been treated separately and distinctly from adults," said Justice Rosalie Abella, in writing for the majority.
"This does not mean that young people are not accountable for the offences they commit. They are decidedly but differently accountable," she said.

The ruling is seen by many legal experts as one of the most important judgments on youth justice in Canada in a century, solidly affirming the concept that young offenders do not have the moral culpability of adults and are entitled to be dealt with in a separate justice system.

The case before the Supreme Court involved a Hamilton teenager identified only as "D.B.," who was convicted of manslaughter for sucker-punching and jumping on another youth at a shopping mall in Dec. 2003. The victim, who'd been standing on the sidelines watching a fight, died of his injuries.

D.B. was on probation at the time.

The Crown was seeking an adult sentence of five years in light of the seriousness of the offence. The youth court judge, however, concluded a youth sentence of three years would be sufficient to hold D.B. accountable for manslaughter.

Writing for the minority Justice Marshall Rothstein said there is "no consensus" within Canadian society that violent young offenders must be subjected to lesser penalties for justice to prevail.

youths are different SC rules...

Rudolph must die! --How about Chicken Little?

A reindeer is seen resting in a field with its fawn at the Toronto Zoo. For the first time in the zoo's history, newborn calves were "euthanized due to being male" for herd management reasons, officials said. (Michael Peake, Sun Media)


Wait until Santa finds out. Toronto Zoo starts killing male baby reindeer to manage the herd. Staff are heartbroken -- and furious By Mike Strobel


Toronto Zoo brass say ... Rudolph must die!
Dear Santa: I hope you are sitting down.

The Toronto Zoo is killing baby boy reindeer.
Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now Prancer...

The first was dispatched shortly after his birth April 8.
His mom, Hayzel, bellowed mournfully for two days. You could hear her from Meadowvale Rd.

The second met the same fate at the point of a hypodermic on April 22.
His mom, CUPE, is named for the zoo staff's union.

And their only fault were being born of the wrong gender, boy!! one is coming anytime soon, and hoping it is a girl...
Read the rest at Toronto Sun here
***************


RON BULL/TORONTO STAR
Lucky Clucky feasts directly from the bowl of plenty while behind her Sally and Heidi forage on the backyard lawn. The chickens are illegal in Toronto, a situation their owner is hoping to change.

It is Legal in New York, Portland, Chicago and Seattle and dozens other cities in the U.S., but Toronto By-Laws forbid poultry for Health reasons but allow raising Pigeons provided they rest, roost or perch only on their owner’s property.
And which comes first, the Chicken or the Egg? Find out HERE