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AM800 Monday Roundtable w Kristen Siapas & Paul Synnott · Kvetch & Release

0:02
You're listening to the Dan McDonald Show with guest host John Lidcky on AM eight
0:07
hundred. Hey, good morning everyone, John Lidkey here filling in for Dan
0:21
McDonald. I guess you can say filling in. He was just here.
0:24
He was on the Morning Drive, so I mean it's I am filling in.
0:27
But it's not like he wasn't in the building today. If you were
0:31
listening, you know all of that. And if you weren't listening, he
0:34
should be tuning in to the Morning Drive from five till nine. But it's
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nine oh seven here on this Monday, June the third, which means it
0:43
is time for us to kick off our round table segment. Glad to be
0:49
joined by Kristin ciappis Kristin, how you doing, Good morning, Good morning,
0:53
Happy Monday. Happy Monday to you. I have to apologize because I
0:57
feel obnoxiously cheerful this morning. And it's not a it's just it's not a
1:00
good mood for a Monday. So it's okay. You know, been a
1:03
good weekend. Hey, how's it going. Everything's super happy Monday everyone.
1:06
I'm the obnoxious person right now. Listen. That's a good way to start
1:08
off the week, because if you're feeling down in the dumps, maybe it'll
1:11
warm or like warm rub off. Maybe it's like osmosis, right right,
1:15
you know, maybe I'll like bring a little sunshine into your life. Yeah,
1:19
or maybe people won't warm up to it and they'll see it as obnoxious.
1:22
Maybe we'll see, we'll see. Also joining me right now, Paul,
1:25
Senate Paul, are you as an obnoxious and chipper this morning? Oh?
1:29
Hell no, I've never not though I'm not a morning person, even
1:33
after spending so many years with the military and everything else. I've always been
1:36
a night person. So I mean, I'd be happy if Dan had it
1:38
been night to four in the morning shore or something. I'd joined him as
1:42
a guest. It's a little harder for me to get up in the morning.
1:45
It's kind of foggy out there, so I mean it was very foggy
1:49
on the run. Yeah, that would be nice. I am eight hundred
1:51
after dark, that would be something else windsor after dark. Quite frankly,
1:56
that's a show that should happen. I think there was one call that for
2:00
many years we well Local Guy and Mark I think did one. Well'll bring
2:04
it back. It's an app title I mean it's right there for the take,
2:06
and let's dive right into the first story that we have here on the
2:12
round table. Residents may be noticing changes to parking operations if the city in
2:17
the city of a report receives council approval. Last week, the Environment,
2:21
Transportation and Public Safety Standing Committee was presented with and approved a report that would
2:25
see metered parking moves strictly to online app based payments rather than allowing for any
2:34
card or cash options. The committee approved the immediate discontinuation of cash payments at
2:38
all metered parking and for handheld and mobile license plate recognition technology to be implemented
2:45
for buy law officers to know when the parking time has expired. Last year,
2:49
total revenue from metered parking was just over two point one million, with
2:53
one point two million from cash deposits, five hundred and sixty thousand coming from
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app payments, and three hundred and twenty thousand from credit debit from parking lots.
3:00
The city says implementing an app payment system for street parking will encourage users
3:05
to transition to digital, reducing the need for physical cash. I suppose it
3:10
would encourage it, as it would be eliminating it entirely. Christy, you
3:15
can go back to those numbers again, what is it? Half of it?
3:19
One point two million, one point two point one came in, one
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point two came from cash, five more than half, five sixty from apps,
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three twenty from credit or debit. We're getting rid of the five sixty
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or the one point two million from cash, and the three one hundred and
3:31
twenty from credit or debit. Okay, So I have some questions about that.
3:35
I think if if more than half of what we're bringing in right now
3:38
is through cash, that says something about user behavior that I think we should
3:43
listen to. At the same time, maybe one point two million is not
3:46
enough to justify the cost of processing that cash. Like I imagine that the
3:51
labor involved and the processing involved in like actually collecting physical cash and having a
3:57
person go out to a meter maybe costs more than one point two million dollars.
4:00
I would have guessed maybe, And so there's a reason for it.
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But I think you're going to have a really hard time changing user behavior on
4:08
this. I think it's going to be really difficult. I was thinking about,
4:11
you know, I heard the story this morning, thinking about people coming
4:14
to town tourism. Not everybody. Like when I go visit a town,
4:16
I don't want to download that town specific parking app necessarily so that I can
4:21
park there for the one day that I'm there. I think it's going to
4:25
be an unnecessary hassle. Yeah, and we see here in the story as
4:30
well that administration estimates that by switching to app based payments only, they estimate
4:34
six hundred thousand in revenues due to fee increases, increase time of enforcement at
4:41
meters by the hour, due to new LPR readers, that's that license plate
4:45
recognition technology, sunday enforcement, and other changes as well. So while Sunday
4:50
enforcement oh soccer bloo oh no would have changed, Paul, I mean,
4:55
these are significant changes if approved by council for parking, and let's be honest,
4:59
parking and windsor is a pretty significant issue at times. Yeah, Unfortunately,
5:02
I need a chance to read the actual report. But I mean,
5:06
at the end of the day, administration has to give counsel all the options.
5:11
So I'm not surprised to see them have that cash. I can see
5:16
getting rid of it. You're right, it's it's very labor intensively. I've
5:23
watched them do it. You know, there's a cylinder they have to pull
5:26
out. It's a very secure system for the safety of the people processing the
5:30
cash as well. So they take the cylinder out and I've got a big
5:32
carrier and the clumps into that. It's almost nostalgically slow. Sure, like
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it's this methodical process of like actually physically removing coins. Like how many places
5:43
do you go anymore where you're actually using cash or you actually have coins.
5:47
But it's trained behavior, So I mean, I can't see them going app
5:53
only though, that makes no sense at this point in time. Dan was
5:57
talking about earlier this morning. I mean, my parents, a lot of
6:00
parents, grandparents don't have smartphones. There are a lot of people may not
6:04
have their phone with them. It's just it's way too early to go completely
6:10
without tap. Cards are standard Canadian banks and credit unions and everything else.
6:16
No, so credit card, debit card and say an app is fine.
6:23
It will save us a lot. I mean, I don't know if they're
6:25
going to do it over time, because there's got to be an expense was
6:30
replacing all these meters, getting rid of the coin slots. It will be
6:33
phased in. There is a cost of one hundred and dollars to do this,
6:39
sweitch wonder. I wonder, like there's some places where you go where
6:43
they've got like one machine for like the whole block where you can where you
6:46
can park in like a zone and you can throw it. As Detroit,
6:50
that's what they want to do. By going to app only, they can
6:53
get rid of the act of a lot of the meters, get rid of
6:56
the meters. But to me, like have a thing where you can punch
6:58
in your life like this isn't I'm thinking my Detroit experience. You like punch
7:00
in your license plate, you say what zone you're parked in, and then
7:03
you can use a card or you can I don't even know if maybe you
7:05
can plunk in cash or something, but if you need to limit it,
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if it's like too difficult, I don't know, man, I think that
7:12
it's gonna be a really hard thing to turn people over on that cash was
7:15
a no brainer, and I'm not surprised to see them get rid of it.
7:18
People will, You'll get some people will complain, but I mean it's
7:21
no different than people who complain when we got rid of the penny. Well,
7:26
and some things make sense and need to be done, and we need
7:28
to move forward. There's so many places that are cashless now. There's a
7:31
lot of places people have to get used to it. I mean there's going
7:33
to be some complaining. It makes no sense to go with app only though.
7:38
I mean the apps themselves are can be clunky, you know, they
7:44
there's too much going on there. I mean five ten years from now,
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maybe not now. Well, cash and card users will still be able to
7:54
use their cash and card, but only in parking lots and garages. We
8:00
are making a distinction. I'm with you Christin. I think that if we
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had one pay booth that was set up along a whole block and you could
8:07
either go to it and put the thing in and you know, get a
8:09
piece of paper out and you pay cash or with your card or whatever,
8:13
I think like that does make sense. But if you want to go to
8:15
just card based and app, I can see the merits for that. Or
8:18
if you want to just use your app on your phone to pay for it
8:22
and not have to go to that one machine on the block, that makes
8:24
sense too. But I don't know. Making it difficult for people to park
8:28
who might not have cash on them or are used to using tap and now
8:33
they can't do that, and I just set up tap on my iPhone watch
8:37
and I now I can't use that. What's the purpose of having this new
8:41
technology? I mean, things are just they evolve so quickly, and I
8:43
don't know. I understand what Council Augustino's saying that this is going to lower
8:48
property taxes because it's going to bring in more revenue over time, but I
8:50
don't know if that's actually going to be going directly to that. Actually,
8:54
I think, you know, i'd be interested to see the stats since they
8:56
brought in the app now, because the app actually has the potential to lower
9:03
revenue because it may be tracked differently because it comes from tickets. But if
9:09
you have the app, you can set a warning five, ten, fifteen
9:11
minutes ahead of time when your meeter's expired, then you pull out your phone,
9:16
pay and you're good. So rather your adaption of the app is actually
9:20
going to lead to less fine revenue from people getting parking tickets. Well,
9:26
it's one We're going to definitely be keeping our eye on this report. We'll
9:28
be going to Council at the June the tenth meeting, so just in a
9:33
week from today, and if approved implementation would start within a month. It's
9:37
nine sixteen. We're going to take a quick break. When we get back
9:41
on the other side, we're going to continue the round table with Kristen Sappis
9:43
and Paul Sennate. John Lidkey here on Am eight hundred, continuing our Monday
9:48
roundtable with Kristen Sappis and Paul Senate. City Council wants people living on the
9:54
Windsor Arena land. Mayor Dilkins announced last week that the barn is among several
10:00
properties council proved for private residential development during a closed door meeting earlier this year.
10:05
The decision is part of the Housing Solutions Made for Windsor strategy to address
10:09
the housing crisis. Windsor Star put this one out. The city's going to
10:13
be seeking requests for expression of interest from developers keen on repurposing the property.
10:18
It's been unused for more than a decade. We know that the Windsor Express
10:20
At a couple times have expressed interest in getting into that place, and council
10:26
wants housing on that site, but they say they're open to mixed use proposals
10:31
that include demolition as well. Big news here in the downtown core. We
10:37
know that housing is needed. Is this the best use for that space?
10:41
It's a very historic space. Seeing it demolished would lose a lot of the
10:46
history that we have there. The Detroit Red Wings played their first games there
10:50
before they were able to play in Detroit. Kristin thoughts, I think housing
10:56
is a magic word. Honestly, we are in a housing crisis. We
10:58
are desperate for how So, if somebody's going to come in and they're going
11:01
to turn this development or turn it into a development where we can actually house
11:05
humans, I think everyone is going to be super into that. I do
11:09
have. I have a deep love for the history and the heritage of a
11:13
place, and it is really hard to see something like this. I mean
11:18
it's been hard to see it empty for so long, like it's such a
11:20
significant place and nothing has been done with it really since it closed. And
11:26
I think if there's a way, you know, I think about some of
11:28
the other historic buildings that I've seen in other cities, where you know,
11:31
you might have things on the first floor where there's like an homage of some
11:37
kind to the history of the place, and really being the original home of
11:41
the Red Wings, I think is a huge legacy piece that we can't lose.
11:45
But do we have to lose it if we take down the building itself.
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I mean, it's still the barn Well. Architecturally, it's not overly
11:54
significant considering the amount of work that has been done to cover it up and
11:58
keep it from decaying. It's just got a bunch of it's got a bunch
12:03
of stucco on it. As I understand, Parks and rec used it as
12:05
a salt depository for winter road clearing for a number of years, which degraded
12:09
a bit on the inside. But we also do learn Paul that Mayor Dilkins
12:13
says that a development here could also include the Windsor Water World site immediately to
12:20
the east of it as well included in it, which right now is housing
12:22
the H four hub, but which of course will be moving at a later
12:26
date. Paul, what do you think about these potential moves the signaling towards
12:31
something I'd like it. I mean, I was glad to hear the Spencer
12:35
Butcher proposal was back on the table again. It's going to take some time
12:41
because they have essentially sent in an unsolicited proposal, so the city can't just
12:45
accept that. I mean, if they are interesting going down that road,
12:48
they'll have to do another at least an expression of interest to allow others to
12:52
go in. Would I would, certainly in some ways, I would favor
12:56
that right now. There are a lot of other houses projects in the downtown
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core and the pipeline right now. So as much as yeah, we do
13:05
need housing, we do need community assets as well. The barn would make
13:09
a great small to mid size venue as opposed to Caesar's or WSCU with some
13:18
of the others along with the wider They're not looking at it as an arena.
13:22
They're looking at pulling out the arena or the ice hockey portion of it.
13:26
It's volleyball, the Border City, roller skating, border City derby,
13:33
you know a lot of other things. I think it has a lot of
13:37
value there. I saw some of the art artists drawings from their initial proposal.
13:43
It's about opening it up again as well, so there would actually be
13:46
shops on the ground floor. Wouldn't be just like a monolithic dead block like
13:50
a kind is now the only thing I didn't kind of like about it.
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I mean, Butcher wants the the Old water World included as part of the
13:58
proposal. That I'm kind of against, or at least it should be a
14:03
shared use. I'm sure the reason they want it is for the Express.
14:07
I mean, the Express would be probably their biggest tenant, and Express needs
14:11
a practice facility, so that's water World. On the other hand, we
14:16
need water World back for the Glengarry community. They need a community center back
14:20
in that community. It wasn't a full fledged community center, but it's certainly
14:24
the gym. There were a lot of great programs going on there and that
14:30
was taken away. That needs to be brought back. So ultimately, what
14:33
I'd like to see if they want is do this as a dual track.
14:37
Put out the expression of interest to develop it as the arena and at the
14:41
same time put out an expression of interest to develop at his housing. Do
14:46
them as a dual track, and then sit down and decide and see what
14:50
goes best. But I mean, I'd really personally love to see the Spencer
14:54
Butcher along with, like I said, a shared use and put that community
14:58
center back in the community. Yeah, I agree. I mean the piece
15:03
about the windsor water World, that was a promise to that community, that
15:07
was meant to be a support to that community and they're they're really hurting without
15:11
having that kind of community support in that neighborhood. It's a neighborhood with a
15:16
lot of need, and I think they would benefit greatly from it, but
15:18
it's it's frustrating, I think, to see that it's just kind of felt
15:22
stalled in that area for so long. And I think with the I mean,
15:26
so so the Spencer Butcher proposal, I just want to make sure I'm
15:28
on the same pageer. The Spencer Butcher proposal is to turn it into an
15:33
entertainment complex, and that came through a couple of weeks ago that they wanted
15:35
not just the arena but also the Windsor water World site. And the timeline
15:41
on the Windsor water World site is like the H four Hub is planning on
15:45
moving within the next three to five years to another location. Yeah, so
15:50
once that, yeah, I mean we're looking at the timeline on this being
15:54
you know, probably what five years of the earliest, I would say,
15:56
before anything happens here. But if the H four Hub leaves and that leaves
16:00
this space, and now that we've had this unsolicited proposal from Spencer Busher to
16:04
turn it into a different kind of entertainment complex or an upgraded maybe entertainment complex.
16:11
Now as the city's opening it up, they're saying, maybe it could
16:15
be entertainment, maybe it could be housing. Yeah, but at a time
16:18
where we need so much housing, I think that's the one that's going to
16:22
cause the most friction. Like now that we've said housing, who's going to
16:26
come back and say, you know what, forget housing, let's make it
16:29
another arena. I think it if you dangle that carrot, like people are
16:33
really dying for housing right now. They want to have more housing, and
16:37
we need more density, we need more people in the core. So I
16:40
don't know. I think it raises some interesting questions about what it could be.
16:42
And I mean I guess it'll be up to council to decide. You
16:45
know, we've got street car costs, we've got esplanade costs, we've got
16:51
hopeful costs for Jackson Park bandshells that most likely probably won't happen. I mean,
16:56
it's an assessment at this point. I don't know at the app but
17:00
Titus right now for more amenity based projects, when the conversation is as you
17:04
know, the very money that's coming forward to development, which I don't mind.
17:08
I mean, all the city has to do is give them, you
17:11
know, twenty five fifty year lease or or whatever the case may be.
17:15
But ultimately, Butcher's bringing the money to the table and saying, well,
17:19
we're gonna we're going to renovate it, We're going to fix it up,
17:22
we're going to operate it. Do we look at it as a city though,
17:23
and say, oh thanks boy. If we open up proposals to everybody
17:27
and housing comes through, housing might be the thing that we choose, something
17:30
that we'll have to keep our eye on for sure, and we're going to
17:34
be doing just that. Well, then we're doing the roundtable with Kristen Ciappis
17:37
and Paul Sinnett. Came across a story that caught my eye this weekend,
17:44
shared by none other than the food professor Sylvain Charlebois from the Agrifood Institute at
17:51
Delhousie University. He was talking about a Quebec restaurant that was charging people additional
17:56
monument money to share a play from their menu. In this case, this
18:03
restaurant which operates in both Quebec and Ontario. And I'm gonna refrain from naming
18:06
them right now, just because I don't want to do a whole name and
18:07
shame thing. If you share a main dish, they say on their website,
18:12
seven dollars will be added to your bill. Listen. I understand that
18:19
restaurants in the hospitality sector is going through a lot right now, but this
18:22
doesn't look like it's a new thing for them. And in fact, I've
18:26
seen that there have been restaurants in the province that have been doing this at
18:30
least going back as far as twenty sixteen. But I think as people's wallets
18:37
are feeling slimmer these days, they're taking more umbrage to this. Chris,
18:41
have you ever seen something like this where you get charged to share food that
18:45
you've ordered? Yeah, for sure, Yeah, for sure. Well,
18:47
I mean it depends on the restaurant, right. I think that if you're
18:51
in a restaurant that's like full of service or there are plates, you know,
18:56
yeah, like there's a cost to that. There's a cost to running
19:00
the restaurant. There's a cost of having people at the table. Like if
19:02
you if you want to split a dish, great, if it's gonna be
19:04
I don't know seven. I haven't seen seven dollars. I've seen like I
19:07
don't know, maybe five bucks or like two bucks to share your plate with
19:11
your kid or whatever. Like, there's still a cost to doing the dishes
19:15
and serving the drinks and having the people around, and that is rolled into
19:18
the cost of the food, the cost of your meal, so you know,
19:22
charging some kind of surcharge. I can totally understand that if you don't
19:27
like it, you can get takeout and you can share and not be charged.
19:32
You could share that with as many people as you want once you take
19:33
it out of the restaurant. But if you're in the restaurant and you're getting
19:37
that service, yeah, maybe there's a fee for being there and enjoying the
19:41
service. I think that's reasonable. And you know, we're feeling the pinch
19:44
as consumers, but people are feeling the pinch in the restaurant industry. I
19:48
don't know how anybody's opening a restaurant these days. It seems like it's so
19:51
expensive. So there's there's a cost involved. I think it's respectable to charge
19:55
that. I've said before on the show, you got to be a crazy
19:56
person to start a business, let alone to start a hospitality business. At
20:00
this very moment in time and place, I have a ton of respect for
20:03
people who are jumping out there and taking that. Respect is one word for
20:07
the crazy people, But that's nice for you on the other side of that,
20:11
No, God bless them, because we need entrepreneurs to go out there
20:12
and try it. We know vast majority of businesses aren't going to exist past
20:15
one year, let alone three, let alone to five. And if you
20:18
make it past that, you're on a good course and it's a tough thing
20:22
to do. This business also charges one fifty if you bring your own cake
20:26
into the restaurant, which I haven't heard, but I get it. You
20:29
know, yeah, but you're bringing your own cake in. But as you
20:32
said, there's the plates that are being used. But Paul, one thing
20:34
that I've seen on social media pushing back against this is if I'm at a
20:38
table with my kid, you're not going to be heating someone else at the
20:44
table with me. So is there really an added cost if the kid just
20:48
eats off of my plate, they don't need their own plate to it.
20:51
I guess, do you see? Is there another side of this from your
20:52
angle? Yeah, I mean there is an Each restaurant has to make their
20:56
own decision. I mean, I've personally run into this, but I can
21:00
see it from the restaurant's perspective. It's certainly a much more commonplace in the
21:04
US. I think that it is in Canada. Maybe just slowly be be
21:08
catching on here. But I mean, yeah, I if a kid's just
21:12
eating off your plate, that's one thing. Adding an extra plate changes the
21:17
dynamic a little bit. You have to look at how restaurants operate, you
21:21
know, as Christy had said, I mean it's based on certain revue and
21:26
overhead. You look at a restaurant, a fifty seat restaurant expects to turn,
21:32
you know, turn three times, three and a half times in an
21:33
evening, and they've got it valued at an average of thirty dollars a seat,
21:37
or fifty dollars a seat, or seventy dollars a seat. Now,
21:41
especially with adults, if you've got four people sitting at a table and your
21:44
or owning ordering two entrees, that's two seats you're taking it. Or it's
21:48
you know, say it's two people and only one person's eating. If they
21:52
know about it, you may have an optionacle sit at the bar, and
21:55
maybe they won't charge your sharing at the bar because you're not taking up But
22:00
you have. You have to look at both sides. I think restaurants would
22:03
probably be more likely to be flexible with with kids, But then more than
22:10
likely a restaurant that's going to have kids isn't going to have the sharing.
22:14
They've got a kid's menu, they have other options, and they're used to
22:18
adapting the kids. Anyways, I think this is going to trend in the
22:21
higher medium to higher end restaurants, and maybe this is a way of discouraging
22:26
you sad online last night they said it's very common in Italy and a lot
22:30
of restaurants get pissed off. You know. They call them the cheap tourists.
22:33
They said, you know, they go to a restaurant four people,
22:36
they order one pizza, two beers, two salads, and two waters and
22:41
then set at the table for two and a half hours. Well that's a
22:45
lot of lost revenue for for a restaurant and they're trying to survive. Like
22:49
so the answer to that then is to raise the prices for everybody else or
22:55
gentry. Yeah, I mean, well that's essentially what it is. Right.
23:00
I got I have four kids, and and I've been there when I've
23:03
got you got your kids with you you got to go in the restaurant,
23:04
like they're all coming with me. They're not gonna wait in the car while
23:07
while me and dad go out dinner. Right, So, so I mean
23:11
there are times where you have all of them with you and maybe one of
23:12
them doesn't want to eat, or one of them doesn't want and and I
23:15
think part of this is like you read this on the menu and it's like,
23:18
wait, if so, how much food is sharing food? Like if
23:22
my three year old steals my fries, or are you gonna charge me two
23:26
bucks for it or you charge me seven? Right? Well, this is
23:30
it feels like like you feel a little policed as a parent. You know.
23:33
It's like I would just order a side, dump it on my right,
23:37
on my entree, and then here you go get here's your here's your
23:41
place, Here's I don't think it is targeted at the restaurant, so I
23:45
mean, I don't think you'd see it in Applebee's or places like that,
23:48
at chains or anything else that would be more likely to have kids. Yeah,
23:52
I mean, at the same time, like if you bring your kids
23:53
in a restaurant, there's you're gonna have to pay for them. Like there's
23:56
it's expensive. They are expensive little humans to carry around, so there's going
24:00
to be a cost there. Well. Being able to deal with those expensive
24:03
little humans might become a little bit easier with this new story. Right now,
24:07
as Ontario high school students will soon need to pass a financial literacy test
24:11
and we will graduate one of a number of changes coming back to high schools,
24:15
including the return of home ac home economics. Our Minister of Education said
24:21
that this is critical for right now. They need to know how to budget,
24:22
They need to know to know how to save for their home, for
24:25
their retirement, how to protect themselves from financial fraud. So starting in September
24:29
of next year, Grade ten students will complete a new mandatory financial literacy graduation
24:34
requirement as part of their math course. I like this one a lot.
24:40
I've made a lot of fun about this government over the past year and a
24:42
half when they announced that they're bringing back cursive writing, and I said,
24:45
maybe before bringing back cursive you teach kids how to deal with taxes and budgeting
24:51
and all the stuff that's going to really start to hit them hard when they
24:53
turn eighteen nineteen years old and start, you know, acting for themselves in
24:57
this economy. Kristin, you got four as you said, good news story.
25:02
Yeah, I mean I don't do you know what, It's already there,
25:04
So I don't I think that this is just repackaged old news, honestly,
25:07
Like I we we're taking all of this information and focusing it and putting
25:11
it in grade ten and and saying, you know, we're doing a thing,
25:14
and this is financial literacy. And yes, financial literacy is important.
25:17
But I have a kid in grade eight and I think it was last year
25:19
she had an assignment where she had to do budgeting for the month and she
25:25
learned about you know, variable costs and fixed costs and monthly budgets and yeah,
25:30
so that was she already did that and I know that. Yeah,
25:33
well, and I don't think that was invented by the teacher, Like I'm
25:36
sure that was part of whatever curriculum. And I know we've had discussions,
25:38
we've talked about taxes. Calculating taxes is already part of the math curriculum and
25:45
doing things like interest and you know that those types of calculations like banking and
25:49
stuff like that, a balance sheet is part of basic math and business skills
25:56
that they learn at some point. Like so I have my My oldest is
25:59
in grade ten right now. So I've won in grade ten, one in
26:00
grade eight, and one in grade six. And I would say that they
26:04
have all touched some aspect of financial management of some kind, Like they all
26:11
have done something to do with money and got you graduating around the same time
26:15
we did. Yeah, did you learn this stuff in high school? Yeah.
26:18
So for anybody who thinks that they didn't learn taxes and budgeting and stuff
26:22
like that in high school, I swear to god, you were just not
26:25
paying attention. I'm sure that there were pieces. John, I don't know
26:27
what you were doing in high school. I actually no, I do know
26:30
what you were doing in high school because we went to the same high school.
26:33
But yes, it was there, friend, it was there, at
26:37
least some part of it. Like I say, this isn't bad. I
26:40
think it's great to put it in the curriculum if it's going to be focused
26:41
and maybe give more in depth or expanded or even just the reinforcement of learning
26:47
it several times over. As evidenced by your experience, John, maybe we
26:51
need the reminder. Maybe it was just the musicals we were doing and I
26:53
missed those classes and I just got the market. If you just focus on
26:56
playing the horn like that's it, that's you're not going to make I don't
27:00
know, what do you think about this one business, formalized business. Even
27:06
universities, colleges have been screaming for this for more than twenty five thirty years,
27:11
and it's actually it's a tighter focus. It has been being slowly brought
27:15
into the curriculum, but it needs to be more than just that. I
27:18
mean, think of it as I mean, yeah, a lot of these
27:19
skills that they're using have been tied to lessons that are already taught. You
27:25
know, we're teaching fractions, we're teaching percentages and everything else, right,
27:29
but now it's a practical application of it and more in depth. These are
27:33
I mean, employers are telling governments all the time, we're getting these kids.
27:37
They have the skills, but they don't know how to use them.
27:40
They don't know the practical application of the skills. Do you know what.
27:44
I'm going to push back on that because I don't think that is just this
27:45
area. I don't think it's just finances. I think it's it's the way
27:49
that our kids are being brought up and released into the world and not being
27:52
able to apply that theoretical knowledge in a practical sense. Sure, but this
27:56
is just the basic skills that they're that they're not getting. And I get
28:00
it. I mean talking to kids. Some of the kids I know in
28:03
university right now are absolutely clueless about compound interest and everyone they start getting into
28:10
credit cards and everything else. I mean literally clueless to some of the aspects
28:14
that they're facing. And I experienced it myself to a certain degree. I
28:18
mean I went to school in the seventies and eighties, graduated in eighty three.
28:22
I joined the Navy. I hated math. I was horrible at math.
28:26
I had convinced myself that I couldn't do it. You know that I
28:30
joined the Navy and I'm in operations and communications and cryptography. All of a
28:34
sudden, math, because I was interested in it became easy. I was
28:38
using complex out algorithms, I was plotting relative velocity on radar plotters and everything
28:45
else. That practical application of the skill absolutely unlocked everything that I needed.
28:51
Had I had more practical applications in school, it probably would have done better
28:55
in school. And the same sort of thing for industry. You know,
28:57
people are going to get into tool and die and everything else. These are
29:00
all practical skills, but we're not infusing that into into our curriculum as yet.
29:07
And I think the test now is going to force us to be more
29:11
aware of that and how not how we're teaching it, but what we're teaching
29:15
and examples we're building in well. And I think that comes because you had
29:18
the skill that you're learning. There is the personal responsibility to apply that knowledge,
29:22
and that applies to any field, whether we're talking about finances or math
29:26
or you know, whatever it is, or writing or whatever. The thing
29:29
that we need to instill in our kids is the sense of independence and self
29:33
reliance and that kind of self sustainability that's going to carry them through. And
29:37
to me, adding another course on financial learning or whatever is, you know,
29:41
that's great, But the skill that they're actually missing is how to apply
29:45
that in every sense. I like the practical application that you're both discussing there.
29:51
I've still never used Pythagorean theorem, right, But I think maybe if
29:55
I had taken shop class, it would have made more sense, because then
29:59
I would have been able to see that A squared plus B squared equals C
30:03
square. You're in the radio business, and you know radio deals with amplitude
30:06
and everything. Well, that's Ed's in the producer studio there. I don't
30:08
have to deal but some of that communication works. The light bulb turns on
30:12
sometimes when you see uh and you see a practical application of these things,
30:18
all of a sudden, it's like, oh, wow, that's why I
30:19
get it. I get it in that stuff. Absolutely, there's still one
30:22
story that I just have to get to North Korea. North Korea has said
30:27
that will stop sending trash carrying balloons into South Korea, saying yesterday the campaign
30:34
left the South Koreans with enough experience of how much unpleasant they can feel.
30:41
This announcement came hours after South Korea said that they would soon punish North Korea
30:45
with unbearable retaliatory steps over these balloon based activities. Why did this happen,
30:52
Well, South Korea has been sending pamphlets over the border for quite some time,
31:00
letting the North Koreans know about the world beyond their borders. They also
31:04
have big loud speakers that broadcast foreign TV and radio programs into the country because
31:10
the state is obviously all controlled. So North Korea has decided to send these
31:15
garbage filled balloons to make things uncomfortable, filled with cigarette butts, scraps of
31:23
cloth, waste paper, and vinyl. But nothing dangerous, says the Joint
31:26
chiefs of Staff. We're asking right now. I don't think you've had retaliatory
31:32
action by a foreign hostile state, Kristin, I haven't. I haven't received
31:37
any trash balloons at all. Good. But what's the worst thing that you've
31:40
seen a neighbor do? Without naming anyone specifically, Oh, I wasn't prepared
31:45
with the worst neighbor story. I actually was going to say, I have
31:48
the best neighbors ever. Well, that's the worst thing that I get.
31:49
That's a really smart pr I mean, yeah, sorry, I know,
31:53
but I do. I have so my neighbor. I love my neighbor.
31:56
Shout out to my neighbor. He has his entire our backyard instead of a
32:00
lawn, is a farm like in the middle of the city. He has
32:04
like every kind of vegetable and he's the best. So I the best thing
32:08
that I get is like tomatoes, like I'm but not thrown at you.
32:12
No, not throw not tied to a balloon either, like just your little
32:15
basket of tomatoes and dry. Yeah, we like exchange produce. It's great.
32:19
See this is what diplomacy can yield. That's right, So that was
32:22
good. We down with trash balloon Lettuce. We took that trash bag,
32:27
tied it with a bow, and we can move right on to Paul.
32:29
You see you later. Do you have bad neighbors? Not now? I
32:32
mean I have experienced it, I mean growing up. I mean, first,
32:37
I gotta say, you know, I hate North Korea as the repressive
32:39
regime it is, but I mean their solution to retaliate was actually pretty creative
32:44
sending the garbage back. I mean, somebody in the regime got bonus points
32:47
for for figuring that one out. But I love that it's described as absurd,
32:52
irrational acts of provocation that a normal country can't imagine. Yeah, it's
32:57
like, I'm sorry, they're just weird and awful. I experienced heart growing
33:00
up though. I mean I lived in Gwelf We actually lived in Gwelf Street
33:06
in Guelf. It was a post war suburb. We had fantastic neighbors,
33:12
the Hostlers. We grew up together. They had five kids, we had
33:15
six kids. Went to the same church, the same schools, you know,
33:19
kids all grew up together. Fortunately, I think it was in the
33:22
Jesus I was still living at home, probably mid to late seventies. Missus
33:25
Hostler unfortunately passed away most of the kids that had already moved out, so
33:32
initially they didn't sell the house, but they rented it out. And the
33:37
first family they rented out too for about three years was a young family.
33:39
They had three young kids, but they were into motocross racing. Oh my
33:45
god, all hours of the day and night with the motorcycles in the yard.
33:51
Made worse by the fact my dad worked midnights, so he's at home
33:54
during the day trying to sleep, and the kids are home at lunchtime reving
33:58
the bikes. And then on top of that, I mean, noise is
34:00
probably the biggest complaint all round, I would imagine between bad neighbors. And
34:06
then for it's time as well. I mean, we had little eight ten
34:09
year old kids. My mom was trying to ask them, you know,
34:12
be polite or whatever else, and this is again late seventies, and they're
34:15
like cursed my mother out like a sailor. So mother, of course,
34:20
is scandalized. My dad was to throttle somebody. It was. It was
34:23
a long and painful three years. And I mean and even the affected US
34:27
kids. But you know, Dad would be out there partying on the weekend.
34:30
He'd be out with their his bros. At two o'clock in the morning,
34:32
reving up the bikes. You know what I mean. You know the
34:35
other neighbor back with the who was learning how to play the bagpipes. We
34:38
thought that was bad. But I did have a neighbor learning how to play
34:42
the bagpipes on I remember. I think I was like ten years old,
34:45
and I remember it to this day. Nothing worse than like bagpipes on their
34:47
own. Not my favorite instrument all the time. No I was. I
34:52
was on the East end. This was over on lows On Road. Because
34:53
I was gonna say, I think I know who that was. Was it
34:55
you? Learning to play them was so much worse than play them properly.
35:00
I can barely handle playing them properly. It's like ten's dying all at the
35:04
same time. It's just just absolutely, oh my gosh. No I was
35:07
learning trumpet myself and upsetting the neighbors. Let's move on to our last segment
35:12
here in the roundtable. It's time for plugged in where we allow our guests
35:16
to shout out something they think needs coverage. Kristen, what is in need
35:22
of attention? Well, I've got a list for you, John. You
35:24
know I'm here represented university players and I always give you your local theater round
35:30
up for the next two weeks. So we've got a whole bunch of shows
35:32
coming up this week. At Walkerville Collegiate, Cyclops is opening. It's an
35:38
adaptation by Jeff Marrintate and it should be lovely, starring the students at Walkerville
35:43
and that's presented in conjunction with Korda. On Friday, Narnia is opening at
35:50
the Capitol Theater with Windsor Dance Experience. That is a beautiful piece of dance
35:53
theater directed by Tiffany Chan. I believe that's going to be a lovely thing,
35:59
So if you like, please check that out of the Capitol. On
36:01
June fourteenth, we have two shows opening, Two Gentlemen of Verona out in
36:06
Leamington at the Bank Theater a Little Shakespeare for your Shakespeare fans, and at
36:10
the Courtizon Theater The Trench directed by Jeremy Burke, and that has a stellar
36:15
cast, absolutely, a very very strong cast and they're saying that's the Canadian
36:19
premiere of The Trench, so if you want to check that out, that's
36:22
going to happen on June fourteenth. Also showed out to Riverfront Theater that is
36:25
hosting their auditions for the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. So if you have kids
36:30
who you'd like to get into a show, check out Riverfront Theater Company.
36:34
Their auditions are coming up in July. But the Best Christmas Pageant Ever is
36:37
going to be full of kids, so if you'd like your kids to get
36:39
involved, that's a great opportunity. And we are in auditions right now with
36:43
Windsor Light Music Theater for their upcoming production of A Christmas Story that won't open
36:47
until November, but it has all the makings of a fantastic show for anybody
36:52
who loves that movie. And I will shout out finally, University players.
36:58
Our season subscriptions are now open to the public. You can purchase individual tickets
37:01
or season subscriptions for upcoming sixty sixth anniversary season kicking off with Doctor Jekyll and
37:08
Mister Hyde in October, so please check it all out. And we also
37:14
have a great family production of Charlotte's web coming in November, so check out
37:17
our website University Players dot com. As always, thank you. This is
37:22
your local theater roundup. I love the comprehensiveness of it because when I bring
37:25
in someone like Adriano and I ask like, Hey, what's going on,
37:29
He's like, oh, I don't know, And it's like you put these
37:30
events, check the website. Yeah, I'll ask him like, hey,
37:34
how was the event yesterday? Like what was that? I also I want
37:36
people to know that there is so much theater happening. I think that that
37:39
part of the you know, the big list, making sure that we get
37:43
through the whole thing. I want people to know that there's always two or
37:45
three shows opening, There's lots happening. Get out there and check it out.
37:50
Always something to do, Paul, what needs to be plugged in?
37:52
Not so much a plug as a call to action. I'm sure the roundtable
37:58
is going to be discussing it some more. But you're coming up with the
38:00
city Hall esplanade and the potential skating rink and ice pad, and the ice
38:08
pad and the possible splash pad. Whether you're for or against, it's been
38:14
delayed till the next council meeting June tenth. I just want to encourage people.
38:19
I mean, read the articles about it, educate yourself with it,
38:22
and then take five minutes three minutes email or text or call your city councilor
38:30
and let them know what you think. I've seen all kinds I mean,
38:35
hundreds and hundreds of comments online, in Reddit threads and on Facebook. Take
38:42
that same energy and get off Facebook and everywhere else. Call, text,
38:47
and email your counselor and let them know what you think. I mean.
38:51
And this isn't you know, demand them I want this, or I'm not
38:53
voting for you. That doesn't work. Just give them your honest opinion.
38:58
This is what I think, and you know this is what I would like
39:01
for you to vote for. But get informed, get involved. This isn't
39:06
small. It's fifteen million estimated, which means probably I bet you it comes
39:10
in at seventeen five by the time it's done. Take time now and let
39:17
your voice be heard. Counselors rarely get this stuff, trust me, they
39:22
rarely get it on these issues. So if they start getting forty fifty sixty
39:27
calls, emails, text, they're gonna listen. That has an effect.
39:31
So take the time, call, text, I mean, some of my
39:35
counselor friends are not gonna be happy with me, but you know, hey,
39:38
that's why they ran, so bug the hell out of them and let
39:42
them know what you think. I love this making counselors lives busier. I
39:46
love the civic engagement. Thank you so much. Kristen Siappas, University of
39:50
Windsor Players, Paul Senate, The Daily Bungle