Latest / Kvetch & Release / AM800 CKLW Monday Roundtable with MPP Andrew Dowie, Essex Deputy Mayor Robbie Shepley, and Kristen Siapas - June 25, 2024

Transcript

AM800 CKLW Monday Roundtable with MPP Andrew Dowie, Essex Deputy Mayor Robbie Shepley, and Kristen Siapas - June 25, 2024 · Kvetch & Release

0:07
Good morning everyone. I hope you're all doing well. John Lecke here on
0:10
AM one hundred c KLW. We're playing a game of h I guess just
0:15
a musical chairs. There's not so much music in it though. I'm here
0:19
hosting for Dan McDonald, who was here hosting for Mike Kcook who was joining
0:24
the mic with Lea Hanson. It's been one of those days, and it's
0:28
going to be one of those weeks. We're looking forward to it. Nine
0:32
oh six. Time for us to kick off the week with our round table.
0:36
Glad to be joined by Windsor to come c MPP Andrew Dowie, how
0:40
you doing? Oh? Doing great? John. It was quite quite a
0:43
weekend visiting carousels as I could manage, and boy boy, it just reminds
0:47
me of how fun a place that we can be when we put her mind
0:51
to it. What's your favorite carousel? Andrew? You'll always see someone you
0:55
know at the Greek Festival. You see that convergence point, so I know
0:58
I'm going to see lost people from my life at the Greek Festival, There's
1:03
no doubt about it. So it's always nice to reconnect. I'm impressed that
1:07
you actually answered that question. When I had Fred Francis on last week and
1:11
of course executive director over at the MCC which puts it on, I asked
1:14
him and he very diplomatically and very quickly said, what you're asking me to
1:18
pick amongst my favorite children? I couldn't possibly do something like that. They
1:22
all have an opportunity and a different palette for you, So kudos. It's
1:26
the Greek Fest for you and you hate everyone else? Id I'm just joking,
1:30
of course, not Andrew Dow. He loves all of the care I
1:33
love every carousel. Everyone did a phenomenal, phenomenal job the last two weekends.
1:37
It was incredible. Well, thank you so much for that. Also
1:40
joining US Essex Deputy Mayor Robbie Shepley, how you doing very good? Thank
1:44
you for having me. It was a busy weekend for sure, and I
1:47
will give a shout out to our Polish festival or carousel that we had.
1:52
It was very well attended. I was by there yesterday it was just packed,
1:55
so it was great. Did you get some good food yes he did,
1:57
yes, PERROGI yes, and very very very much appreciated. It was
2:04
delicious. Also joining us is Community Advocate Kristen siapas you hear often on AM
2:09
eight hundred as well as my co host with me on ro City Politics.
2:14
How you doing, Kristin Streue. We cross paths quite often these days,
2:16
don't we. It's like we're back in high school, crossing through the hallways.
2:21
Memories, memories. Yes, well, let's dive in. We don't
2:25
need to have a long extended homage of me singing. Listen if we need
2:30
to do a music theater segment, I'm game, I'm up for it.
2:34
Lord knows that you are. I mean, you went to school for it,
2:38
you work in it. It's kind of the whole thing. Well,
2:40
let's dive into this. We've got a new national school food program and it
2:45
could be in place before the end of next year. The government is setting
2:49
aside a billion dollars over five years for the program that was promised during the
2:53
twenty twenty one election. Some are saying, why do I have to feed
2:57
your kid? Do you agree with this programmer? Should schools find other ways
3:00
to feed their students, or quite frankly, should I just be left up
3:04
to the parents. Kristen, When we went to Walkerville, there wasn't a
3:09
breakfast program that I'm aware of which I don't know do we need to all?
3:14
Lease? Is it? Would it help you as a mom? You
3:15
know what? It would. Absolutely I've seen the impact of the various levels
3:21
of it a breakfast program or a snack program at my kids' schools where they've
3:24
gone, and it really is a game changer for kids, even kids who
3:30
are well supported at home and get what they need at home. It creates
3:32
a wonderful, equitable base that everybody comes from, and then everybody is fed,
3:38
everybody is ready for school. And I mean as far as people think,
3:40
you know, you know, why should I be feeding your kid?
3:43
Why should you be educating my kid? Why should you be giving health care
3:46
to my kid? Because when we do something like this, we support all
3:49
of society. We help everyone to get better. And really it's public health.
3:53
It's a wonderful thing that if we can offer it, if we can
3:55
put it together, you know, it helps make everybody's lives not only easier,
4:00
but healthier and stronger. Well. And you get the scalability of it,
4:03
right, I mean, it's it's a cereal is incredibly expensive price days.
4:09
But if you are a school and you're buying cereal in bulk right,
4:13
the price drops down, and so the parent who's spending five six dollars per
4:17
box of cereal now might not need to spend that because it's actually a four
4:21
dollars spend because it's being you know, born out by everyone. So the
4:25
scalability makes sense. Robbie, I want to bring your voice in here.
4:29
I imagine that the breakfast program won't be a six pack of Steimer Donuts like
4:33
you have raced us here with in the studio. What's your take though on
4:39
a school food program? You know, I think that it's something that you
4:46
know, it's definitely warranted. I just I'm wondering the affordability of it.
4:50
You know, it's even sitting in the municipal politics. I'm sure as it
4:55
grows that we got to cut that piece of pie up quite a bit to
5:00
spend that tax dollar. And I just I know it's very important. I
5:02
just wonder at how many times we can slice it up. And you know,
5:05
I I you know, it's it's a tough one for sure. I
5:10
I do see the need. I know years ago, my sister worked in
5:13
the Windsor one and I was pretty shocked to hear some of the stories she
5:15
told me about for the breakfast program they were having there. How how neat
5:18
it it was. So it's it's a it's a real tough one it but
5:21
it is needed. So I I couldn't imagine starting my day off without having
5:26
a full belly, quite frankly, especially if I was going to school and
5:29
trying to learn. And you know that's it's tough. You get distracted,
5:32
you get tired. I also appreciate that you were talking about cutting up the
5:38
piece of pie there after we talked about the donuts. It seems like we're
5:42
on a carbo kick right now. You're just hungry this morning and get a
5:46
chance to eat. I just my focus is everywhere else. Andrew, what
5:49
is your take on this one as the representative from the provincial government. Well,
5:54
thanks John. Obviously, the prompts one here of funds the entire student
5:58
nutrition program last year's thirty eight million dollars of investments and provides six hundred thousand
6:03
school age kids with something to eat. Now, I guess there's this.
6:09
I know that there's this question as to whether the demand meets the supply.
6:14
And also I've certainly heard the comments about well, perhaps we ought to provide
6:19
to everyone to reduce any sort of stigma. So if you go to access
6:24
the food that you don't want to be shunned as a student just because of
6:28
your home situation for having access that food. And this is just getting to
6:33
to Rob's point. This is why it's a challenge. We have a finite
6:39
ability to tax people and to derive income from the citizens of Ontario, and
6:46
there are so many needs out there, so many asks. We're going to
6:53
run out, or if we do run out, something's got to go.
6:57
We can't just keep on increasing costs for people, especially in an affordability crisis.
7:01
So this is one say. I think there's a model in there,
7:04
and the province has their program. I'm looking forward to hearing the details the
7:09
federal program. We don't know how much of that will come to Ontario,
7:12
whether it's a top up of the existing program or if it's going to introduce
7:15
new programs. It's big question mark. But hey, I think there's some
7:19
merit to providing fresh food and healthy food, not the dolerama food, but
7:27
the nutritious food that that can really keep our students shining through and through.
7:32
Yeah, I think that this is a really good program. A billion dollars
7:36
sounds like a lot of money, but it's a billion. It's over five
7:40
years, two hundred million a year, and quite frankly, if again kids
7:46
aren't able to be well fed, they're not going to be able to be
7:48
as productive as possible at schools. I've got no problem with this. I
7:51
don't like means based testing models, where you know, demonstrate an income level.
7:56
I think, just let the kids have food. It's like, let's
8:00
let them eat the Claire's Well, let them eat foods that help them to
8:07
get through this. I'm trying to make school more fun. You've come at
8:11
donuts to everybody's days at a time. Although I respect it, I respect
8:13
it, you know. It's it's interesting. You raised an interesting point,
8:16
Andrew, about the the affordability piece to that that we can't keep taxing people
8:22
and that we do have an affordability crisis right now. But I wonder if
8:26
this helps to to benefit those families in a different way. Because the rise
8:31
and cost of food probably outpaces the rise and cost of taxes, you know,
8:35
there is an affordability balance there. I think where if we can provide
8:39
those things to families, we can make their lives better from Uh, from
8:41
an equitable standpoint, you know, through the schools. Even if it means
8:46
taxes are raised a little bit, it's it offsets the cost of food that
8:50
would they would normally be purchasing for their families. I mean it's it's it's
8:54
the age old question. Uh, where's the where does the balance lie?
8:58
And is this going to be based on some's income level if they pay more,
9:01
or is it on the sales tax based on consumption? When when you
9:05
raise a tax where you know how how hard does it hit you? And
9:07
at the lowest side of the income scale, you're you're paying more for goods
9:11
and services so relative to your overall income. So I think this is it's
9:16
still a I think it depends on how much you insource. If there are
9:22
certain people who don't access a program to pay into it, obviously that's that
9:24
that allows for more of the the new the those the need to access it.
9:30
But it's it's a challenging one for sure. I think everyone wants the
9:33
best outcomes for students, and if having a an ability to have nutritious food
9:37
and fresh food, I think everyone agrees is important. I think the nice
9:41
thing about this is that everyone gets to access the program regardless. And so
9:43
if if taxes are based on your income, if they're scaled that way,
9:48
then we you know, the key component is making sure that everybody gets what
9:52
they need. I also appreciate Andrew you saying that we can't go taxing people
9:58
infinite. The federal government would probably argue with you on that one, considering
10:03
they've put in some streaming taxes and Spotify is now going up because they're choosing
10:09
for them. And I'm not saying that we should go raise taxes, Willy
10:13
Nelly, but I mean we could theoretically find other revenue streams. And it
10:16
sounds like this has been built up like there was a fund to pay for
10:20
this for the school nutrition program itself. You know, there's a billion dollars
10:24
that's been set aside for that program over the next few years. So it's
10:26
not as though this is going to cause a new tax to occur, at
10:30
least you know, in the short term future. Well, as John alluded
10:33
to, there's a significant, significant federal deficit and growing debt which future generations
10:37
will have to pay for. So there is a cost and it's on our
10:41
future generations. Now. It's sort of like maybe you could look at full
10:45
phil softly from Okay, I'm putting in an arena and debt financing it for
10:48
thirty years. The users in that thirty years are actually paying all the costs.
10:52
So now we're charging our future generations for the breakfast today, and they'll
10:56
pay it off during their careers. I suppose that's the FED philosophy by incurring
11:01
all this debt. But at certain point we have other services too, and
11:05
those debt servicing churches are significant, costing more and more every single year.
11:11
Well, I remember when I was at the university telling one of the presidents
11:13
when they we're looking to get the new sporting complex built, and how they
11:18
were going to fund it, and I said, why don't you just have
11:20
today's students vote to pay for the student's money and you know, ten years
11:24
from now, and we can debt finance it. And he went, we
11:28
can't do that, and I went, why not? And that's kind of
11:31
the model that actually ended up happening. But I mean, there is,
11:33
of course only so much money in people's wallets, and eventually you either you
11:39
get turfed from office because you spend too much, or they go, hey,
11:43
I like this program and we'll reelect you. We'll have to see how
11:46
it all enrolls nine seventeen. Right now, we're going to take a quick
11:48
break. When we get back onto the side, we will keep our round
11:50
table going with MPP Andrew Dowie, Essex Deputy Mayor Robbie Shepley and community advocate
11:56
Kristen c Appis John Lydkey here on AM eight hundred. We talk often hear
12:01
about housing and how expensive it's gotten, whether or not you're buying or renting,
12:07
and even if you're selling. Quite frankly, it's tough because congrats you've
12:11
sold your place and now you've got to go find a new place to live
12:13
in. And it's, as I just said, you know, really expensive
12:15
these days. And the question is is are we being priced out of affordability.
12:20
There's a new study that's out that analyzed middle income affordability across ninety four
12:26
major markets and eight countries China, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand,
12:31
Singapore or the US and the UK, and they say a score under
12:33
three is considered affordable, three point one to four is moderately unaffordable, four
12:39
point one to five is seriously unaffordable and five point one to eight point nine
12:41
is considered severely unaffordable. And they also added a new category this year,
12:46
impossibly unaffordable for cities that are above nine. Next year, hilariously, Toronto
12:56
ranked at a nine point three on the unafford Bill list as the eleventh most
13:01
unaffordable. Vancouver came in at twelve point three. The question is is is
13:07
it becoming too unaffordable to live in this country? Andrew, I want to
13:11
bring your voice in. Obviously, the provincial government has a goal of one
13:16
point five million homes to be built. It's proving to be difficult. There's
13:22
the meme that goes around on social media of the three spider men all pointing
13:26
at each other, and I kind of feel like that's what's happening right now
13:28
with different jurisdictions. The FEDS are blaming the province. The province is saying,
13:33
we're trying to do our best, but we don't know what's going on
13:35
with the counts of the cities. The cities are going up and pointing at
13:37
both levels, going you told us to build, we're trying to build.
13:41
I'm not at all putting this squarely on your feet that would be very rude
13:45
of me as a host. But I do wonder what you think about this
13:48
issue. Well, you know, one of the aspects of the Ford Billion
13:52
in Toronto I get to witness. I spend about four days a week there
13:56
during the legislative session. But the rent is the same as an example of
14:01
the apartment that I have is twenty eight hundred dollars plus per month, single
14:05
bedroom. It's not the largest thing in the world. It's far more affordable
14:09
to live here on a monthly basis than it is in Toronto. However,
14:13
we have transportation costs there. You can walk or relig on transit. But
14:18
all that being said, this is a serious issue. When I go door
14:20
knocking, this is what I hear about. My people are worried, sick
14:26
about paying their next rent check. They're worried sick about being able to afford
14:31
their mortgage if they have known their home. And it is something that we
14:33
need to be incredibly sensitive to. So I think what you've seen the province
14:37
try to do is take away some of the government imposed costs on creating new
14:41
supply. Think of development charges, think of infrastructure. There are two new
14:46
wastewater and water infrastructure programs that are underway and available for applications to municipalities.
14:52
It's important that we look inward because we can't always control the market forces.
14:58
So we need to look inward and say, Okay, does the government need
15:01
to impose this cost on creating new housing spaces or is this a public good
15:07
where we actually provide spaces for young people and seniors to live in. And
15:11
if we're going to constrain the supply, we're just going to bid over top
15:16
of one another and not get to an outcome that leads to actual roofs over
15:20
people's heads. So we're going to keep on doing it provincially, trying to
15:26
find ways to reduce that cost of delivering new supply and that will moderate the
15:31
market. But boy, we also need we can't control everything, and that's
15:37
I think we learned with interest rates, for example. You know that ended
15:41
a number of development projects in our community, many that had been worked on
15:45
for for years. And I don't know every municipality is feeling it too,
15:50
where they've issued building permits and there's no building that follows because the financing doesn't
15:56
work. That the builder will not build if they're going to lose money on
15:58
the build so uh, it has taken all hands on deck approach. But
16:03
a nimble, a nimble direction is important because the issues here today now and
16:10
waiting five years for approvals is not going to solve the issues today. Robbie
16:15
Essex is obviously smaller community. Yeah, not insulated. However, from I'd
16:21
imagine the increase in housing costs. What's it like out there? Well,
16:25
you know, we we enjoyed many years of very reasonable housing costs in this
16:30
area. We're now hit with with the Toronto market and surrounding has had for
16:33
years. It's it's created quite an impact on in our area and I don't
16:37
I don't foresee it ending anytime soon. When you look at there's there's so
16:42
many pieces to this puzzle that are sitting there when you when you figure last
16:47
year, I believe it was almost a half million New Canadians came to Canada
16:51
and we're in a housing crisis and we can't build them fast enough, and
16:55
we're bringing them in faster than we can build. And I'm not certainly nothing
16:57
against the New Canadians, welcome everybody, just we have to get a handle
17:02
on this housing market at some point. And for municipality, it's tough for
17:07
us to get the infrastructure in place to accommodate these new homes as well,
17:12
and then the interest rate when we are already there. Right now, they're
17:17
not building. We've got a lot of lots sitting waiting for houses to go
17:19
on them. And to be honest, I'm not sure who could afford them.
17:22
They when they talk about a small home being affordable at four hundred and
17:29
fifty thousand dollars, it's it's it's pretty tough to figure out how somebody could
17:32
afford that starting out. It's it's a real, real, real picklever,
17:36
it really is. Kristin. You got a couple of kids, I think
17:38
three of them, in fact, not a couple four. Oh my god,
17:41
number one showed up nine years ago. But thanks for coming. That's
17:45
all right. It's got to be something at the top of your head as
17:48
your kids are, you know, moving the ages absolutely absolutely, I mean
17:52
the future for them. I often kind of joke and sort of morbidly that
17:57
I think I'm the last millennial that was able to buy a house. We
18:00
were very, very lucky to buy at the time that we did because we
18:04
had an opportunity, but again, it was like a friend of a friend
18:07
was selling a house from a grandmother, Like I feel so grateful to have
18:11
gotten the opportunity to purchase a home when I did, because it's insane now.
18:17
I don't understand how anybody can afford, especially if you're just starting out.
18:19
And when I look at my kids and think about the opportunities that they
18:23
might have versus the opportunities that I had, it's night and day. It's
18:27
just impossible. And I think there's a lot of pieces that go together with
18:32
this. It's not just building. It's not just I mean, we need
18:34
to increase the housing supply huge, that's the bottom line. We need to
18:38
build more faster and incentivize it and make it happen, and add density to
18:44
places so that we have the opportunity for people to live in their own home,
18:48
whatever that looks like, and increase that opportunity for our upcoming generation and
18:55
really the generation now people in their twenties and thirties who can't afford to buy
18:59
a house either. But I also think there's there's a question of that balance
19:03
between how much things cost and how much we're paying people, Like we haven't
19:07
seen wages keep up with inflation we haven't seen people paid fairly in a lot
19:11
of places, and we haven't been able to meet that demand. So I
19:17
think it's I think it's a problem on both sides, one that we will
19:21
keep our eye on and of course continue to talk about. I don't think
19:22
things are changing overnight nine twenty nine. We've got a break right now.
19:26
The nine to thirty Information Update comes up next, and we'll get back to
19:29
the roundtable after that. Two months ago, Austria started to enforce an eye
19:34
catching tactic tactic to curb reckless driving. They said, hey, if you
19:41
are exceeding the speed limit by sixty kilometers an hour or more, we're going
19:45
to take your car and we're going to sell your car and we're going to
19:49
add it to our general coffers. Listen, they've got higher speed limits than
19:55
we do here. So this is essentially akin to driving on the expressway and
19:59
instead of doing one eighteen, you're doing like one seventy eight, a bit
20:03
faster than I think most people would want to see. But it's an interesting
20:07
tactic. Do you think that it could help reduce speeding? Andrew, I'll
20:11
bring you in first. You know what done last year or actually twenty twenty
20:15
two, government Voluntario brought in even stricter penalties for speeding. It just go
20:21
as far as Austria. We don't repossess your car and sell it before you've
20:23
had a chance to even breathe. But still the penalties are significant and people
20:30
still do it. So there's this question that exists, is like are you
20:33
doing what are you doing in four Is it to change behavior? Are you
20:37
going to learn from your behavior if you are stunt driving at speeds like what
20:44
Austria is talking about, or are you going to actually penalize that person's future
20:49
to be rehabilitated if they are in a case where there's no upside to actually
20:56
adhering to the law. They've lost their car there. I mean, perhaps
21:00
they could buy a new one, but most people don't have that kind of
21:03
money in the bank. It's important to align the penalties with the infraction or
21:08
else you are going to, you know, cause us some societal problems.
21:12
You do not want to leave someone in a way that they can't get to
21:18
a better place. And I have a family member who he was actually arrested
21:23
as a young person very he was knocking over mailboxes and speeding and doing everything
21:30
and became a very successful professional in his career. And so, you know
21:37
what, everyone can make a mistake and it's important that we don't throw away
21:40
their opportunity to to to make a go of it. I do think our
21:45
penalties are very very strong in Ontario too Austria. I guess everyone will watch
21:49
them to see whether it actually does reduce the instances. I suspect that it
21:55
won't. There's a limit as to how how these these penalties will actually work.
22:00
Yeah, it's it's there's two sides to every coin, and this seems
22:03
to be one of those. You don't want to go and remove someone's ability
22:07
to still be, you know, a productive member of society, get to
22:10
work, take their kids to school. I mean, seizing a car is
22:12
a pretty big step, especially considering the cost of Wondering what your thoughts are,
22:18
Robbie and Essex and lesson. I mean, there's been times where I've
22:22
been known to maybe drive a little bit too quickly on a county road because
22:27
you can see as far as the road goes. Quite frankly, what are
22:33
your thoughts on that? Well? I can attest that I've been known too
22:36
at times get a little bit too on the gas and I actually myself and
22:41
even the mirror in Essex both have got to have a roadside chat with her
22:47
policing for being a little over the speed within a week of each other.
22:51
I think, so, you know, but that reminder for me was enough.
22:53
That was what I needed and I found, you know, to be
22:56
honest. Through COVID, I tended to pick up. That was where my
23:00
heavier foot game was through the COVID years, and now I've curved it back.
23:03
Not I was never that egregious of a speeder though, of those kinds
23:08
of kilometers. I think that to seize the car, I agree with Andrew.
23:11
I think it might be a step too far. I think we've got
23:15
some pretty harsh penalties in Ontario now. I know it's not probably not taking
23:21
care of everybody, but it's certainly losing your car for a month, and
23:25
those heavy fines is pretty substantial. I think we need to leave that in
23:30
place for a little while longer before we consider a step of confiscating and sailing
23:34
selling a car. We're essentially confiscating their car for a month now, so
23:38
I mean, I couldn't imagine losing my car for a month or my ability
23:42
to drive for a month even that would just be life changing for me.
23:45
So I think we we're good where we're at right now. Yeah. I
23:51
think COVID definitely allowed for people to drive a little bit quicker, primarily because
23:57
there were no cars on the road because there was nowhere to go, So
24:02
it was just when you did have to go do your things, it was
24:04
like, oh, there's like eight of us out here right now. Everyone
24:07
else is in their backyard. And that pace of traffic seemed to be traveling
24:11
at that higher rate too. It's just, you know, it seemed the
24:12
whole pace was was at that rate, and now it's it's nice that it's
24:15
coming back down to a little bit more reality, a bit more relaxing,
24:19
a little bit, yeah, calming. Those were some tense days COVID.
24:22
Kristin, what are your thoughts about this one? Should the Austrians come and
24:26
sees your car if you are driving too quickly? John, we talked about
24:30
this. Your Austrian accent is terrible. I'm sorry, I'm pretty sure it's
24:33
ten out of ten. Put me on a stage and I'll go do it.
24:36
Listen. I think this is hilarious. I mean, I'm happy somebody's
24:40
doing it, so I could sit back and watch and see how it pans
24:41
out. It seems a little extreme, Like I don't I don't want it
24:45
to show up in Ontario tomorrow. But I wonder if if other uh factors
24:52
aren't working, if other if other types of fines and confiscating your car,
24:56
confiscating your license or whatever it is. I mean, if that's not working,
25:00
where do you go next? Like it seems like you know when dad
25:03
gets mad and then he's just had it. There's nothing else you can do
25:07
anymore. Fine, I'm taking your car and I'm gonna sell it or get
25:11
it. You're not getting it back this time. Like it's it seems extreme,
25:15
It seems like a like a lot, But I would be interested to
25:18
see if this level of fine or whatever this would counteract some of the behavior,
25:26
if it would actually change behavior. And like you said, I mean
25:30
we're talking about higher speed limits, Like this isn't somebody going one hundred and
25:33
sixty, which is I mean, that's not great either, but this is
25:37
maybe going closer to two hundred klometers an hour and there's some real serious concern
25:41
there. There's some real serious dangers. So maybe it's worth it. Maybe
25:45
the extreme measures are going to have some effect. We'll have to wait and
25:48
see. The Austrians aren't known for going light handed on things, so it's
25:52
not surprising that there'd be a little bit of an extremity to I guess we're
25:57
gonna take a break right now before I go wandering too far into the deep
26:02
end. When we come back on the other side, we will keep the
26:04
round table going. Don't go anywhere, folks. While Donald Trump clarified his
26:10
immigration proposal to give green cards to all non citizen college students he graduate from
26:15
American universities, saying that there would be an aggressive vetting process that would be
26:21
put in place, far cry from the Donald Trump of a Muslim ban.
26:26
I've closed the border of build the wall, and now I guess he's looking
26:30
at a situation going, oh, we need people, and if they're going
26:34
to be coming here, we might as well not have them. Take the
26:37
talents that they've learned and take them back home. They could become good productive
26:42
members of American society. I wonder do you think that something like that should
26:47
be imposed here in the country. Robbie, let's go to you first.
26:49
Well, I'm i think if you take the Trump out of his ideas,
26:53
he has some great ideas. So I don't know that they get received well
26:59
because some people have such a vitual dislike for him, some really love him.
27:03
But if you take if you take his name out of his ideas he's
27:04
got he does come up with some pretty good ideas. He's had some solid
27:07
policies over the years as well. I'm not saying all of them are great,
27:11
but this is a good one. I think it's you know, it's
27:15
anytime you can keep your most educated people and keep them in your country and
27:18
put them to work for you, that's that's we're definitely going to benefit from
27:22
that. I think even it'd be great if we did that here. It's
27:25
it's a it's a to me, it's a solid plan. You're taking your
27:27
you're most highly educated in putting them to work for you. There's I can't
27:30
see a whole lot wrong with that. Yeah, I gotta agree on that.
27:33
I like the idea if you can take the Trump out of the ideas,
27:37
sometimes there there's there's a bit more nuanced necessarily than always the verboseness that
27:41
he brings across Kristin, What do you think I mean, I'm inclined to
27:47
take everything that he says with a grain of salt because I don't really trust
27:51
him, and I think he's terrifying as a leader just putting that out there.
27:53
But I do think that anything we can do to bring to bring talent
27:59
and to our country and to bring folks into our country, I think that's
28:02
a great thing. So so yeah, I mean, let's do it.
28:06
Sure, I mean, I think the hypocrisy is real here. But if
28:08
he's willing to flip and go pro immigration suddenly, all right, that's fine.
28:15
Something tells me though, it'll be further nuanced and we'll find out which
28:18
pro immigration it is, from which countries and which way do people maybe look,
28:22
I remember him saying the first time around, He's like, we want
28:23
more immigrants from like, you know, Sweden, right in Switzerland. Right,
28:27
This is what I'm saying, Like it's it's I'm going to take everything
28:30
with a grain of salt that I'm going to go through it and find where
28:33
the flaws are because I just can't trust a broad policy like that. But
28:38
in principle, sure, fool me once. Shame on you, Donald Trump,
28:45
Shame on me. It's not really a saying, but it works,
28:48
We're gonna make it fun. We're gonna make it great again too. Andrew,
28:52
how about yourself? What do you think about this one? Well,
28:53
just to piggyback on this on what Kristin Drob just said, look like the
29:00
Trump campaign did release a statement specifying that he will exclude all communists, radical
29:04
Islamits, COMMA supporters, America haters, and public charges. So just it
29:11
looks like there are some caveats to this rule. But on the general philosophy,
29:15
we do spend a lot of time educating people in Canada, particularly UH
29:22
and we we want to retain their talents. We are our public institutions are
29:26
sported for for the generation of knowledge and UH and and research and to provide
29:32
a quality education for students. UH. It seems to be in a one
29:37
way ridiculous that we train someone only to have them go somewhere else and put
29:42
that investment in them, and so on the surface, I think, if
29:47
if all the pieces fit, and you know we've just earlier talked about housing,
29:52
if if we have the infrastructure to accommodate uh and and find the right
29:56
balance, I don't think there's a partic little flaw in the general idea that
30:02
we would want to have our students stay here uh and and practice here and
30:07
provide the services and work the professions that we need here. So I think
30:11
there there, there's there's merit to to the idea, provided that we do
30:15
build up our infrastructure to support the increase in population. But but still that
30:21
that skill set is maybe something not that we don't find today, and it
30:26
would be quite interesting to see if if we could fill our our our skills
30:30
gap, uh through our through our existing student population, what that would look
30:34
like. It makes me question to like, you know, you look at
30:37
a policy like this, and I'm always hesitant to like, yep, sounds
30:41
great. Like you you want to pick it apart and say, okay,
30:44
well, what what are the drawbacks? What are the potential drawbacks? What
30:47
would the impact be like if we had a sudden influx of you know,
30:49
a great number of people to the country, which we've kind of seen already
30:52
as we kind of discussed, as you said, with housing. But but
30:56
I also think, like when a when a program like this is implemented,
31:02
how are people going to use it? You know, how will this draw
31:07
people to the country? And is there a way for people to sort of
31:11
use it as a loophole to get in or to you know, graduate.
31:15
I mean, I'm trying to find a drawback. I don't know. It
31:15
doesn't sound bad if people are like getting higher education and then contributing to the
31:21
economy. That all sounds great, but you know, it makes you kind
31:23
of question what could be the impact and is there any negative drawback to that?
31:29
Well, I think just the recent changes the federal government had made to
31:33
student immigration. I mean, there were some apparent bad actors where they would
31:38
enroll a student and then the student wouldn't attend class and we don't know what
31:41
happened to them. And that's a potential drawback here. If you take all,
31:47
like all unconditionally, then now graduates, I think is something that is
31:52
probably very far more, very defensible. That might very well be proposal here,
31:57
but it's important that we I think you see that follow through so that
32:01
we minimize the loopholes. Just as you said, yeah, I agree,
32:05
a graduate would have to be a caveat to that for that to happen,
32:08
I think for sure. Well, let's shift gears a little bit. One
32:13
last one we want to get to right now, after fifteen years of recession
32:16
and austerity and three rescue packages with tough conditions attached. Labor in Greece is
32:22
no longer being strictly regulated. Collective agreements have been frozen for years, and
32:28
in many businesses staff work on the basis of individual employment contracts. While the
32:34
forty hour work week is still officially in place, employers are now permitted to
32:37
require staff to work up to two unpaid hours per day for a limited period
32:43
in return for more free time. That's right, Greece is introducing the six
32:49
day work week. Andrew thoughts, you know what we hear from economists very
32:55
very significantly about Canada's productivity gap and that we're losing out on pro prospective careers
33:02
and and UH investment in our people if we do not start to address that.
33:08
And as much as UH, you know, I I enjoy a good
33:13
long weekend, we we have more than we used to and UH, this
33:16
is one of those barriers to productivity. So it looks like Greece is rethinking
33:22
what they have and UH are are looking to try and achieve some of the
33:27
success that we've had in attracting investment and and UH and and making sure that
33:31
they're the people have have good careers. Uh, but I know how exhausted
33:37
I can be. I mean, I work seven days a week right now,
33:40
so it's not like it's something that U that I'm not used to.
33:45
But all the same, I know there's a burning point and a barrier that
33:52
that that might that that might be a be that might really lead to an
33:57
end to that that particular policy or or a lack of adherence to it.
34:04
Uh. If an employer asked for six days, perhaps they would balance the
34:07
hours a bit. I guess I'll I need to know a bit more.
34:10
But still I think there's a one to watch, just like the Austrian one.
34:15
I'm not sure. I'm not sure it's going to deliver everything they hope
34:19
it will, but I'm open minded. But still, you need downtime.
34:23
Everybody needs some downtime. And that's why we have weekends and why we don't
34:28
have a seven day a week work week without adequate compensation for for you to
34:35
to really make you take care of yourself. Robbie, let's bring your voice
34:39
on well for me. At since I was a little boy, I worked
34:45
seven days a week. I mean I just we we started a company and
34:49
we worked seven days a week. We worked because we didn't know when the
34:52
rain wasn't going to be shining in the or the when the rain was gonna
34:55
come, and we worked when the sun was shining, so to speak.
34:58
And we just we continued work. And now even with I'm getting on where
35:04
I'm not working as much on the tools in my flooring company as I used
35:07
to. I'm picked up. I'm now a municipal representative, so I'm working
35:12
seven days a week still and putting in lots of hours and lots of education
35:16
to be able to do my job well. So I do I think they
35:20
should demand it. I don't know that that would work. I think if
35:22
you reward your people well enough, a lot of them will jump at the
35:28
opportunity to make the extra money when they can. I just don't know.
35:30
I don't know about demanding it. Yeah, there's some really curious pieces here.
35:34
I think the idea that you can be not only asked to work this
35:37
sixth day, but required to work this sixth day is sort of a different
35:39
thing than what we've experienced. You know, we even looking at our elected
35:44
officials that we have here today. You sort of take it on knowing that
35:46
you're going to have long work days, and you're going to have to do
35:50
work on the weekends, and you're going to have to do those things.
35:52
It's sort of part of what you sign up for. But this sounds a
35:54
little bit more like there's like voluntary over time that's not really voluntary and is
36:00
not really paid. So there's a lot of folks that are you know,
36:04
they're protesting and they're concerned about how this chips away at workers' rights. For
36:07
me, that's the question. It's you know, when you put something like
36:10
this in place, when you put like a law or you know, actual
36:13
legislation in place to provide some structure around this, it does kind of enshrine
36:19
the idea that you're you're able to chip away at those workers' rights. And
36:23
that's a huge concern, I think, and that's that's why I think we're
36:25
seeing all this public outcry about it, especially compared to other countries within the
36:30
European Union, that there is you know, a culture piece there that that
36:36
the hours are different and the the I don't know, the time off is
36:39
different and that kind of thing, and so Greece is really in a tough
36:44
place. I think, well that wasn't one more thing like that, I'll
36:47
just throw in there. You know, I've noticed a shift we being an
36:52
employer and having people work. I've noticed a huge shift in we get their
36:57
availability now instead of we do a schedule and you show up. Now it's
37:00
we get an availability list and we hope that you can make it for these
37:05
days. It's a it's really a different atmosphere out there anymore as an employer
37:09
employing people. I mean, I've got fantastic staff. I don't I would
37:14
never suggest anything different, but it is a different world when they have to
37:17
bring their availability before you're allowed to do a schedule. Do you know what's
37:21
so interesting too? So I'm going to pick on my daughter right now.
37:23
She's sixteen. She just started a job. In the last year, she's
37:28
been working in fast food, and they asked for summer schedules and she puts
37:31
in her schedule and she goes, well, I didn't put in for Thursday,
37:35
Friday and Saturday because like, I don't want to work those days.
37:37
I want to go out those days. And we had this conversation she put
37:39
in her schedule. It was like, yeah, I just I don't want
37:42
to work those days. I'm totally making fun of her right off, so
37:44
sorry, but really we had to sit down and I was like, no,
37:47
no, no, no, no, that's not how this works.
37:49
Like you are available, you have to work. It's not I understand prioritizing
37:53
and work life balance and self care and all those things are very important in
37:59
there. It's important to be part of our conversation. And there's sort of
38:00
new concepts in the last whatever five ten years for us to really bring this
38:06
to the forefront of our vernacular. But there is a balance there, and
38:09
some of it is you have to work to make money, my friend,
38:13
and you have to have your availability. I think that's really important. Well,
38:16
that's a good place for us to put a pin in this. Let's
38:20
shift into Plugged in a segment where we let people shout out what they think
38:25
needs some attention. Kristen John, it is a big week for me right
38:30
now. We are along with my partner Valerie Banassa, we're running Just Cake
38:35
Productions. We're putting together Jazz in the Park, this wonderful series and it
38:39
kicks off this Thursday at Lansbury Park with a twelve piece band orchestration is going
38:45
to be playing for us. So we're inviting everybody to come out six pm
38:49
on Thursday. It's the last day of school, bring a picnic, bring
38:52
your kids, get some ice cream, hang out with us, put out
38:54
a lawn chair and enjoy the music that's going to be flooding Lancepear Park thanks
39:00
to lend Temaline Orchestraction and definitely follow us Just Cake Productions on Facebook and Instagram
39:07
and you'll see the rest of the dates in our series. We're doing basically
39:09
every other Thursday throughout the summer, lots of different artists, lots of different
39:14
parks. Hopefully we are hitting one near you. And how great you're going
39:16
to be able to bring your daughter to it because she doesn't have to work
39:20
apparently she doesn't have to work day. And I should say thank you so
39:22
much to the City of Windsor. We are doing this with an Arts,
39:25
Culture and Heritage Fund grant and we are very grateful for it. Absolutely.
39:29
How about yourself, Robbie Well, I just want to let everybody know the
39:32
Essex Fun Fest is coming up from the fourth to the seventh of July.
39:36
On the fourth will be our third annual Sip and Shop, which is a
39:39
fantastic night and it's been growing in popularity. Also, we have the car
39:45
show on Friday night uptown Essex and many other events. If you want to
39:50
visit the Essex Funfest dot com and we'll give you a list of all the
39:52
events that are going to be happening in Essex over that that weekend. And
39:58
again and lastly, I want to thank all of our our fun Fast Committee
40:00
for all their hard work that they're putting in and we'll be putting in over
40:04
the next couple of days to get ready for this and all the volunteers that
40:07
showed up and we'll be showing up to help out put this event on there.
40:10
We couldn't do it without them. Thank you for that. And how
40:14
about yourself, Andrew Well John, We're getting close to Canaday, I think
40:19
the proudest day of the year for me, and I can't wait to be
40:22
part of the downtown Winster Canaday Parade as well as the celebrations at Lakewood Park
40:27
and to come see so looking forward to seeing as many people out there as
40:30
possibill celebrating the great, great country that we've got and celebrating the diversity of
40:35
culture, of thought, freedom to be who you are. It's something incredible
40:39
for us and I couldn't be prouder to be a Canadian and it's a great
40:44
way to show off our national pred. Absolutely lot to look forward to this
40:50
week and the coming week, so you should get out there and enjoy it.
40:53
That'll do it for us here on the round table this Monday. Big
40:59
thank you to MPP Andrew Dowie, Essex Deputy Mayor Robbie Shepley and the producer
41:04
of Just Cake Productions Kristin Ciappis, John Lidkey here on AM eight hundred CKLW.
41:09
We're going to take a break. We got the ten o'clock news coming up next