Latest / Kvetch & Release / AM800 Roundtable with Hilda MacDonald, Fred Francis, & Rukshini Goulin

Transcript

AM800 Roundtable with Hilda MacDonald, Fred Francis, & Rukshini Goulin · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Dudu you dad, everything is nothing fucking have you.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm in and guy, good morning.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: We're all doing well. Nine oh six here on AM
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: eight hundred c k l W. John Lydkey filling in
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: for Dan McDonald last day of this week. I'm in
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: next week for him as well. Friday roundtable. Gosh, this
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: is such a great group. I love it when the
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: three of you come together. We have Ward and Hilda
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: McDonald here. How you doing?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Hey?
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: Above average again today?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: When I come here, then I could that be it?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: That's you know, I'll take it. I like we also
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: have counselor Fred Francis. You know we have we have
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: father Fred Francis, not father, not father in the religious connotation,
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: father as in you you now have buy in in
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: our society and our.
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: Apparently yeah, based on what we're hearing in the news.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Apparently yeah, yeah, thank you. It's about yeah, three weeks tomorrow.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: So my wife and I, Carolyn, welcome to our baby
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: girl beyond three weeks ago.
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: So thank you.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm on three hours sleep right now, so I
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: don't know what I'm gonna be saying in the next hour.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: We'll see if we can get you from a to
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: be also just you're showing the photo just.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Full head of hair, yeah right right, right from the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: beginning of life. Full head of hair. And uh, you
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: know I had a full head of hair when when
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I see my baby picture. So I wasn't too surprised. Hey, listen,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: you know she's you know, Lebanese descent, Italian descent, full
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: head of hair. I'm not surprised.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: You can I ask a question, John, please, what do
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: you call her? Do you call her baby? Do you
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: call her Bianca? What do you call her? Because I
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: always found that was the at the beginning. It was
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: hard to start calling them a grown up name.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we call her Bianca and and like her
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: little nickname is Bianci. So you know, I don't know
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: if she's gonna like that when she gets older, but
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: we call her baby be Bianca Bianki. So we're kind
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of playing around with it. Three weeks in it, we're
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: kind of playing around with it. I might start calling
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: her Warden soon enough.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: Oh well, hey, I've got it, or no one's gonna
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: call her hill though, let me tell.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: You that right out of the gate again, congratulations. We
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: also have joining us around the table, Rukshini Punaya Gulin
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: from the Downtown Mission.
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: How you doing good?
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: Thanks for having me as always, John, Always a pleasure
• 2:10
  Speaker 6: to be here with this lovely group of people.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: It's a great group.
• 2:13
  Speaker 7: Thank you.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: It is nine oh eight. Let's dive right into things
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: with today's AM eight hundred news poll question. A new
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: poll says three out of four Canadians think that the
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: taxes they pay are too high for the services that
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: they receive. Do you agree? You can answer at AM
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: one hundred kW dot com or you can text us
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: at five one nine seven nine two CKLW Warden. I'll
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: bring your voice in on this one. It's interesting. As
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: an elected official, I mean to ask you this question,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: but you know you're also a resident as well, And
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: so when it comes to taxation, do you think that
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: people are getting what they deserve for what they're paying
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: or is there some waste in there that we could
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: cut away or is there a need to maybe see
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: some more revenue sources.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, we don't have a lot of areas
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: to get our taxes or our money for our revenue.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: To run a municipality, it's it's fees and fines, and
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: it's permits, and it's and it's taxes, property taxes. But
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: then again, I've not heard people say to me, well,
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: you know, cut my garbage back, cut my don't don't
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: go out and snowplows early, don't tend parks. We don't
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: want you to have events at in our case, our amphitheater.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: So I'm not hearing that people want their services cut.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: I am hearing they don't want to pay as much.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: But then again, you get something for that money. And
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: I know I'm going to get bashed for this my
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: my monthly because I pay monthly.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: House.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: My insurance is almost the same as my taxes. Do
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: you really see something for your paying your insurance unless
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: an event happens, and then I've had it before something
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: happens in the insurance company decides they don't want to
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: don't want to cover me anymore. So to me, for
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: your taxes, you're getting emergency services, police ambulance and so on.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: You get your roads, You get roads, you get sidewalks,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: you get them plowed, you get infrastructure increased. I feel
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: like you get something for your money, but we all
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: think we pay too much. Would I rather pay less? Yes?
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: But when I'm sitting there a budget time and trying
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: to figure out how to get these jobs done, how
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: to keep the water services going, how to make sure
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: that sewage gets cleaned, and circle back. All of that,
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: we have to find a way to pay for it.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: And then I've had the comment, well you should get
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: rid of staff, But then I get the flip side,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: Well stuff takes too long. Well, yeah, stuff takes too long.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: You have to have staff to do the work. So
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: if you cut back staff, the job's not going to
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: get done.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: So we're always conflicted.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: And at the municipality, we have money in reserves for
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: a reason I got bashed during the last campaign because
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: we had too much in reserves. But I look at
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: some communities in the region that have nothing in reserves,
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: so they can't do things like buy schools or acquire land.
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: And that's been something we've been able to do because
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: we wisely put money away for opportunities. So our tax
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: is too high. I like them to be lower. I'd
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: love that because then everybody would love us. But it's impractical.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: It can't be done.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: It's a tough balancing act. And again I am it
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: takes a unique person to decide to run for elected
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: office and deal with all of that nonsense, quite frankly,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: that you guys have to put up with when it
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: comes to setting budgets and priorities, and then people like
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: me criticizing things, and the phone calls coming in from constituents,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: counselor Francis. I'll bring you in on this. I think
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: you know you're one of the most fiscally minded counts.
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: You know what my answer is.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well I think I do. Of course, taxes are
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: too high, let's cut them, and there's more efficiencies to
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: be found.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: To answer your question, listen, I prescribe to what President
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Reagan said. I believe as President Reagan said, the problem
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: is not that the people are taxed too low. The
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: problem is that the government spends too much. And that's
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: what it comes down to. It just comes down to
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: government spending. Now, we can get into the details of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: a particular budget and get line item line item, probably
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: can't do that in an hour long show, but you
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: always have to look at government spending. Now, that's what
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: it comes down to. Is it difficult, Is it tough?
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: Yes?
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Do you have to prioritize yes, do you have to
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: put needs over wants? Yes, But you also have to
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: understand someone's paying for this. And it's easy for politicians
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: to be generous with other people's money, but it's other
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: people's money, and you have to keep in mind that
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: people are living on fixed incomes. There's a lot of seniors,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of pensioners, there's a lot of people
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: that are living on fixed incomes. And you know, we
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: can raise their taxes, but they're not getting more income
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: to pay for it, so they're struggling. So you know,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: we're looking and currently high inflation. Inflation's coming down, thankfully,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: we're looking at affordability crisis.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: And that's what it is.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: If we want to help people during an affordability crisis,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: you know what, we could cut their property taxes. We
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: could cut their income taxes. We could cut you know,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: land transfer tax, we could cut HST, we could cut
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a number of taxes that would go a long way
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to keeping money in the pockets of the residents of
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: not only the city, the county, but also the province
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: in the country. At the end of the day, if
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: government spends less, if government takes in less, that's going
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: to afford people to have more money in their pockets.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: And if people have more money in their pockets, what
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: are they going to do. They're going to spend it.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: They're going to spend it in their local economies. They're
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: going to spend it investing in their investments, financial homes, whatever.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: So I think if you allow people to have more
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: of their own money in their own pocket, they will
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: spend it to the benefit not only of themselves in
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: their households, but also of their local communities. I think
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: people could spend their money better than government can for
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: the most part.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: And listen, I mean, I think a lot of people
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: would agree with you on that one, but a lot
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: of people don't understand like what the behind the scenes
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: of government is. But I think it's important also note that,
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: you know, as as not sexy as it is to
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: talk about you know, roads and sewers and that kind
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: of infrastructure, when people see, for example, you know, like
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: a free streetcar for example, that has ended up costing
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: almost fifteen million dollars and going, is this a priority
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: right now? When there are other things there?
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: Sure we need?
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: Sure?
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: And I agree with you, John, I voted against that. Yeah.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: So that's an example that's a perfect example of a
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: priority and a need VERSU want and I can only
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: tell you that when it came to me voting yes
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: or no for that, I voted against that when it
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: came to the ten million dollar price dare Well because
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: I thought the money could be spent on better things
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: like road sewers, parks, et cetera, et cetera.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: I do like how you consistently put it, as you know,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: these are nice things. They'd be great to have things,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: but not right now things.
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: You know, And it's running a butt in this.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: In the city's budget, we have about a billion dollar
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: operating budget and a billion dollar.
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: Capital budget, so all in all, it's about.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: A two billion dollars annual budget that we have to
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: meet on and focus on and prioritize. But don't get
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: lost in the numbers just because they're so massive. It's
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: no different than a household. Are you spending more money
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: than you have coming in? If you're spending more money
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: a month than you have coming in, you're gonna get
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: in trouble. Right If you want to put in a pool,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: but you don't have the funds to put in a pool,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: maybe you just do landscaping that year. You have to
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: budget based on the money you have because the average
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: person can't just go, well, I want to put in
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: a pool, but I don't have one hundred thousand dollars
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: to do that. I'm going to go to the bank
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and they're going to give me a hundred thousand. The
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: bank's not going to do that. But the difference with
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: government is, you know they're going to go, well, we
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: can always go and raise taxes, and that's something governments
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: can always do. But again, that's other people's money and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: someone has to pay for that.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: You're reaching into someone's pockets.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so can I ask?
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: Sure, you've got wages increasing every year, You've got the
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: cost of services and supplies. How do you not at
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: least keep par with the cost of living. I don't
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: see how you can and do zero or negative when
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: your costs are increasing. That that's why I'm saying, then
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: tell me what services you want cut. We try to
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: do regional waste pickup. Some people still get garbage twice
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: a week. They don't want to go down to once
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: a week. We're talking about doing organics every week and
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: doing regular garbage pick up every other week. People don't
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: want that. So there has to be some give and take.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: And I'm not talking about frivolous things. Oh sure, Sorry
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: that I shouldn't have said that. We try to balance
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: quality of life and needs. And when you've got an
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: aging community and your sewers are fifty years old, what
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: are you supposed to do? That's not the sexy stuff,
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: that's the boring stuff, but still needs to be done.
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well don't. I don't disagree. I don't respond.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah sure, I mean, okay, we're no. No, I don't
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: want to.
• 10:51
  Speaker 6: I don't.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: We got to take a quick sorry, and I do
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: want to make sure that we get a hot on
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: this topic as well as as great as to hear
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: from funny thing.
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: Hilda and I are on the same page on this.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, good, Well, nine seventeen. We're gonna take a quick break.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: We'll be back with our Friday round table. Don't go anywhere,
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: John Lydkey here on AM eight hundred.
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: Hey, we're here on AM eight hundred.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: CKLW. It is nine to twenty one. Sorry about that,
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: we have to jump in. We can keep the sponsors
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: going forever, but I don't think they're just going to
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: keep paying the bills. It's not how it works. Unfortunately.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: Wanting to keep this conversation going with our Friday roundtable,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: we're talking about what is that right level of taxation?
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Do you feel like you're getting enough for what is
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: you know, what's being taken away and out of your pocket.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: I want to bring in Rukshini Punaya Ghulan's voice from
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: the Downtown Mission because I mean, when we're talking about taxes,
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: I mean, the Mission is a reliant on you know,
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: the goodwill of other people of the municipality and from
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: other levels of government through funding. So I wonder just
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: what your perspective is on this one, specifically as the
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: executive director of an organization that is reliant upon you know,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: taxation to an extent.
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: I mean, that's a very good point that we rely
• 12:04
  Speaker 6: on the generosity and donations of our community members, right
• 12:09
  Speaker 6: who are the ones who are struggling to pay those
• 12:12
  Speaker 6: increased taxes. So it's difficult for even us to continue
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: providing the services that we provide. And you know we've
• 12:21
  Speaker 6: talked about it before, right, Sometimes decisions have to be
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: made unfortunately that are not always popular. But we have
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: only so much in funding, in grants and things like
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: that that we apply for that we get from year
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: to year, and otherwise we just depend on donations from
• 12:37
  Speaker 6: our community. So sometimes it is difficult to continue providing
• 12:41
  Speaker 6: all the services with the same dollar amount when as
• 12:46
  Speaker 6: Maror McDonald's talked about, when costs are going up, including
• 12:52
  Speaker 6: obviously staff, right, So we need more staff to provide
• 12:56
  Speaker 6: more service, and more staff who are now paid a
• 12:59
  Speaker 6: lot more than they were even five years ago. Right,
• 13:03
  Speaker 6: So we have to keep up with the demands. And
• 13:06
  Speaker 6: it's the same thing I would say one hundred percent
• 13:09
  Speaker 6: for all levels of government. Really they're being asked to
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: do more and more and more. But where's that money
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: coming from?
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: And I think last I think it was last week
• 13:18
  Speaker 6: you guys were talking. I don't remember who was on
• 13:21
  Speaker 6: your round table. I believe we were talking about the
• 13:25
  Speaker 6: LCBO strike at the time. And you know, there's both
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: sides of it, because if you don't get the money
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: from the LCBO, where's that Where are those dollars coming
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: from to provide the hospital or the medical aid and
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: the schools and things like that right the provincial levels.
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: So it's definitely difficult, but unfortunately decisions have to be made.
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: Sometimes people have to do the best they can with
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: what they have. But it's also then on the flip
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: side of that, in terms of need, people are going
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: to potentially need more help, which is also difficult.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Well, and we know, you know, as as the boomer
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: demographic continues to age, there's going to be far more
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: costs associated with that on the healthcare sector, and that's
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: going to have to be born from somewhere. And I mean,
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: these are these complex issues. It would be nice if
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: governments did have another magical revenue stream that could help
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: fund I suppose you guys could go open up some
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: businesses and go into competition with private sector, but that
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: wouldn't go over well, it'd.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Be horrible, horrible, Well, I don't think you'd be able
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: to do it.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Well, quite frankly, no offense to you guys here, I agree,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: well intentioned, of course, But is there a conversation counselor
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: Francis about, you know, regionally a duplication of services that
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: we see.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Well one hundred percent And I know, uh, you know,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Hill is probably going to stay silent on this one.
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: So I respect that, Hills. So let me get on
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: and get in on this.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, absolutely, I mean through the short listen from
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: a city perspective, it's a popular idea increased regionalism, increase
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: regional cooperation, especially when it comes to cost sharing. There
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: is you know, you have five town hall you have
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: different police services, different fire services, you have different communication services,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: you have redundancies of services.
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know if we're there today. I don't think
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: we are, But hopefully one day we get to the
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: point where we are one Windsor Essex region and there's
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: one communication department, one fire department, one police department, and
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: we're all paying into this same service. Because it's very
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: basic math, four hundred and fifty thousand people paying into
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: a service is a whole lot better than two hundred
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and fifty thousand people paying into a service. Right, So
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: if we're able to share that expense burden across a
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: larger stream of people and taxpayers, that should help alleviate
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: some of that tax burden. But I also get it
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: from the county side, the county side saying listen, we
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: like our services and we don't want to get it
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: mixed up with the city services because our taxes will
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: go up, just like the city's taxes will go up. Right,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: So I understand the other side of it, But one
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: day I just don't see how we cannot have increased
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: regionalism and regional cooperation when it comes to the purse strings,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: because you see it in other parts of the province
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: and it's just basic math. Having more people pay in
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: to the cost sharing of a service is going to
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: reduce that burden for the individual taxpayer.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Do you want the county's point of view?
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: No, of course absolutely.
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: I too believe regionalism will be coming. I think the
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: province is going to be careful. Well, I think at
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: some point I don't.
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: Want to get you into trouble with the residents.
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: No, No, I do think there's a point in time
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: where it will come. But you have to remember something
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: and really really find. Example is homelessness. So the province
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: gives the money to the city. City is the fund
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: manager and then our answers in the early days, not
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: so much anymore because we've worked out a relationship. But
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: in the early days, was you have homeless people, send
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: them to this city.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: That's not what we want.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: Leamington in particular, at the farthest end of the county
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: does not want to be sending they're homeless people or
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: people with housing issues to the city. Some of them
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: have jobs in Leamington. They've got family in Leamington, and
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: this goes this is I'm just saying it. Leamington is
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: my as my hometown. The same goes for the other municipalities.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: Fear of loss of control, fear of their residents not being.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Serviced the same.
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: That's where there is the hesitancy. Loss of control is
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: the biggest thing. But again that inability to service your
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: own people within your own boundaries is what keeps the
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: regionalism thing on the side of evil.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Now, now let me just respond to that. The city
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: does provide funding for homelessness, and part of that program
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: is asking the county to provide land to provide homelessness
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: shelters and homelessness services in the county. So the county
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: municipalities can offer that and say, yeah, we offer this
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: plot of land in any part of the county municipality
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: to offer these services. As of right now, we have
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: yet to see any of that. So that's why you
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: see a lot of the services still in the city.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: Oh wait a minute, though, we have a homelessness hub
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: that we are now doing in Living right now.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm not just talking about leamingtam and talk about
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: other parts but we need more of that for regionalism.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: But let me use this as another example, because this
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: is a popular example. Ec Row ec Row Expressway, I
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: would argue, is not a singular city infrastructure piece. You
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: have people from LaSalle Amersburg to come see Lake Shore
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: are using easy row, but you only have the city
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: taxpayer paying for it. That's one example of unfairness in
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: my opinion. Now, if the province takes up a responsibility
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: for eac row, then we all benefit. But if imagine
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: if all the residents in Windsor Essex County paid for
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: ec ROW, that would reduce the cost bird in on
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the city taxpayers, because let's be honest, not city taxpayers
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: are not the only ones using easy row.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: We're going to put a pin in it right here,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: and I am going to go and scrap I think
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: the rest of the hour, and we're going to keep
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: this conversation.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: We are.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this is actually a really interesting one
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: because I do want to bring in rich Shini's voice
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: in regards to regionalism and the homelessness issue and how
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: that could be better spread around. And I think that
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: could be a good jumping off point to keep this going.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: So Hey, if you already had access to my show
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: sheet before, you might as well throw it out because
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: that's not what we're doing. We're doing what I just
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: talked about nine nine, I went too late, Sorry about that,
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: producer LEXI. John Lydkey here on AMA eight hundred back.
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: After this.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: And the news, Rob sa.
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: I just.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: Hey, we're back. John Lyncky here on AM eight hundred CKLW.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: We have a contest for you. It's time for Jackpot Radio.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Head to AMA eight hundred CKLW dot com and enter
• 19:35
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• 19:39
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• 19:42
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• 19:50
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• 19:52
  Speaker 5: Good Luck.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: Well, this conversation is getting spicy. We're having a lot
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: of fun with it. It's our Friday round table. Hilda MacDonald,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: Mayor of Leamington, Warden of Essex, glad to have you hear.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: Counselor Fred Francis, Executive Director of the Downtown Mission. Rukshini
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: Punaya Ghul and kin I want to bring your voice
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: in right now we were talking about regionalism and the
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: duplication of services and counselor Francis and Ward and MacDonald
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: were both sort of preaching the same song a little
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: bit different here or there, but it was like you
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: were in harmony, maybe not singing the same lead part
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: together completely.
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: But I can't sing differently.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: I can't sing.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Let me just put it that.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: Lay while it was still sounding good. But I want
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: to bring your voice in Rucsheni because we were talking
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: about homelessness and how there needs to be more homelessness,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: help support hubs throughout the entire county, not just in
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: windsor Proper, And I wonder what your thoughts are about
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: that as someone who deals with you know, that population.
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: Well, I'm going to say, and I don't know if
• 20:56
  Speaker 6: this is going to be a popular response or not,
• 21:00
  Speaker 6: but yeah, it's definitely needed in other parts of this
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: of our county for sure. We were just talking about it,
• 21:08
  Speaker 6: you know, on the break that these are issues that
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: people are facing all over the county. Winds they're Proper
• 21:18
  Speaker 6: and the county one hundred percent, and guess what all
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: over Canada too, if not the world. So these are
• 21:25
  Speaker 6: things that we as communities, smaller, larger, however, it is,
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: we need to embrace every individual in our community. Every
• 21:34
  Speaker 6: individual in our community is a member of our community,
• 21:37
  Speaker 6: and they deserve as much compassion and love and support
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: as any other person, regardless of whether they we were
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: talking about it, make you know, thirty thousand dollars a year,
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: or have no real income themselves, or they're making millions
• 21:51
  Speaker 6: of dollars a year. Everybody matters, and that's what we
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: as communities need to all embrace and try to remember
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: that people are people.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: So what would you say then if someone said, like, no,
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm sorry, our small, little bedroom community in
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: the county, we don't want to deal with that homelessness issue.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: We don't have a homelessness issue here that we can
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: see on our streets, and it's just gonna, you know,
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: attract a bad client tell who might hurt our businesses,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: hurt the community, hurt the downtown cores of a walkable neighborhoods.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: What would your response be to something like that?
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: I think you have to actually talk to your community
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: members and service providers within your community to see if
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: that's actually the truth.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: Because it's probably true that homelessness is already there.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hidden.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: So how can it be hidden, because you know, in Windsor,
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: I mean you walk downtown and you can see it.
• 22:46
  Speaker 6: People couchsurf, people find friends and family to live with.
• 22:51
  Speaker 6: If they're having a difficult day or week or months,
• 22:55
  Speaker 6: they will find someone to try to spend you know,
• 22:58
  Speaker 6: a night with or or week with, or whatever the
• 23:01
  Speaker 6: case may be. Or they might find unfortunately a park
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: bench somewhere, under a tree, somewhere, whatever it is, to
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: stay safe and to get that night's sleep. Or they'll
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: try to come to Windsor. And it's great that there's
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: now some transportation coming into Windsor, but that's an added
• 23:20
  Speaker 6: stress on an individual. And now you're bringing someone to
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: Windsor or other places, not necessarily just Windsor, but to
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: like say Leamington too, which now has the Homelessness Hub
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: there as well. You're bringing people out of their home
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: where anyone who cared about them or was supporting them
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: or helping them get through life is now not in
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: their world anymore. Right, So let's try to keep individuals
• 23:47
  Speaker 6: where they're coming from and try to support them there.
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: That I mean, ideally, that's what I would suggest.
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: Mary McDonald.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: I wonder, you know, you were talking about the homelessness
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: hub that's now in Leamington. I wonder what it took
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: to get that buy in to get to that point,
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: and also how do you engage with residents that give
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: across that view that I was suggesting where they go,
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: we don't want this here, it's just going to bring
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: in a bad crowd.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: Well, how it started was in twenty nineteen a group
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: of faith leaders came to me and said, we have
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: people sleeping in cars in our parking lots. And again,
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: like you said, it was, it was hidden. I had
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: no idea, and over the next few months I learned
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: where to look. You have to know where to look
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: because the couch surf they find places that are hidden,
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: that are away from the public eye. You just need
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: to know where to look. So I called a number
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: of service providers in Leamington at that point in time
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: together and say let's talk about this. What can we do.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: I couldn't believe the response I sent out. I think
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: maybe twenty five emails. Eighteen people from different organizations. Organizations
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: showed up and said, how can we help? So we
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: started with a g roots movement. Then I approached the
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: city and said, can you explain to me how this works,
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: how we can do it better. I said, I'm not
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: looking to take your money. I'm just finding a way
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: how can we make this work because we have an
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: issue in Leamington in particular. And then we started, we
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: brought the county in and it just started to go
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: together and County Council jumped on board and said, yeah, well,
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: we're willing to kick in some money to sure certainly
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: not going to solve the situation, but to make life
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: better for some people. We aren't at the point yet
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: of doing the housing piece we were looking at that.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: We're trying to increase the housing stock in our communities.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: That's what we're trying to do at this point in
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: time because some of those affordability issues are because people
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: can't pay twenty three hundred dollars a month. When it's
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: more than thirty some percent of your wage that you're
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: spending on housing on housing, yeah, you end up with
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: no money left for your kids and food. So anyway,
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: we also have a private faith based group that have
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: opened the Leamington Center of Hope, which is the old
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: Presbyterian Church. They also are providing food and shelter for
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: homeless people not overnight but during the evening hours, and
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: some services like addictions resources and so on. So we
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: are solving the problem one drop in the pond at
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: a time. And yes, I understand we have communities that
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: have basically higher socioeconomic demographic in Leamington, we don't. We
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: run the scale from extremely poor to extremely wealthy. And
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: so when you have a diverse community like that, you
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: tend to have those problems where if you've just got
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: basically one demographic that's in the six figures, you're going
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: to not see the problems to the same extent as
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: a community like ours.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Is that a lot of talking on my part.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: Very good, It was very good, and it just it highlights,
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: you know, what the very real issues are. I find
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: it so interesting the fact that you know, as you said,
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: like you were blind to what some of these issues were,
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: not knowing where to look to see it. And then
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: when you finally do get told, then it becomes like
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: you're no longer missing the forest for the trees and
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: you can just see it a counselor Francis, I mean,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: these are these are tough topics to deal with because
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: you know, trying to get that buy in that I
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: was talking about can be very difficult.
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: Well, listen, and let's let's be honest.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, municipalities are not going to solve the housing
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: crisis in the country. They're not going to solve the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: homelessness crisis in the country. They're not going to solve
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the mental health issues in the country. You're not going
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: to have municipalities, you know, fix these problems. And you know,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: I heard it this week. You know, the federal government
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: has all the money, the provincial government has all the power,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: and the municipalities have.
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: All the problems.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: And you know, we we we are the closest form
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: of government to the people. So everyone calls us, regardless
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: of whatever municipality you're living in or representing, with all
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: these problems. And let's be fair and let's be honest.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: You know, we need more provincial support. We need more
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: provincial funding for mental health. Last time I checked, healthcare
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: is a provincial mandate. It is not a municipal mandate.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: And we have tax dollars from the City of Windsor
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: going to health care issues that they should not be
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: going to healthcare issues.
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: That's a provincial mandate.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Over the last ten years that I've been on Council,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the downloading of responsibilities and downloading of costs from the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: federal and provincial government two municipalities has grown year after
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: year after year. And the taxpayer, the municipal taxpayer, should
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: not be shouldering that burden because they're already paying income
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: tax and other forms of taxes to shoulder those costs
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: from the provincial and federal government. And that that's when
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: we circle back to budgeting and priorities. From a federal
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: point of view and a provincial point of view, how
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: is that money being spent? How is spending being done
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: at the federal and provincial level to ensure that cities
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and towns and villages across Ontario and the country are
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: not paying for things like education, healthcare, or you know
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the example we always use, like, you know, no one
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: the federal government's not going to come to the City
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: of Windsor and ask to buy an F thirty five
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: because you know, national defense is not the mandate of
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the municipality. So it's unfortunate that municipalities have to kind
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: of horse trade, bicker, negotiate and say and point fingers,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: that's not what we should be doing because we should
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: be cooperating and working together and understanding that the provincial
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: government and the federal government should be providing the financial
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: resources for us to help deal with these issues. Because
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: if the provincial government the federal government are hoping that
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: cities are going to fix this, it's never going to happen.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: We're not resourced.
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: To do that.
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: Can I say that's another reason for the increase in taxes.
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: We are now paying at the municipal level for things
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: that ten, fifteen, twenty years ago the province used to
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: pay for. One bur in my side is physician recruitment
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: and retention. I blame the first municipality that thought putting
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: some putting some plumb out there to bring doctors into
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: the region was a good idea. Because now municipalities that
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: can't afford it are doing that. We have to put incentives.
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: Our taxpayers are paying for incentives to bring doctors into
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: our region. That shouldn't be on us. That should not
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: be even mental health, homelessness, those kinds of things that
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: are rooted in mental health and addictions. That kind of
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: stuff is on us. We're that that's what we're now
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: paying for that.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: We didn't used to pay.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, yeah, don't don't think it's going to be
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: the whole song. I figure halfway through I'll be saying
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: something else or doing it well.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: Whatever, Yeah, you know where we go.
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: We're friends, we are we can we can agree to disagree,
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: right that that's what the beauty of it is. We're
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: not We're not going to leave here being mad at
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: each other saying hey, John, we're never coming back because that,
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: you know what.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not sitting here, but I disagree probably the time.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, i'd be going double digits.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: We'll find out exactly what that percentage is during the break,
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: and we'll get back to Counselor Francis. I gotta say, though,
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: it would cost a bit more than the street car,
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: but I'd be down if Windsor wanted to get an
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: F thirty five. But I think one hundred and fifty
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: to two hundred million dollars is a little bit much
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: though for us. But it would sure make for a
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: quick commute. Let me tell you nine forty six, we're
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: gonna break.
• 31:31
  Speaker 7: We'll be back after this.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Hey you're back John Rick's gear on AM one hundred SKLW.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: Hope you're not feeling like you need a little bit
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: of peace of mind. I think we're having a pretty
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: good conversation here, but nothing like a little bit of
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: Boston to come in after the commercial break. I don't
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: know where I want to take this right now. We've
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: been having such a free flowing conversation about you know,
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: regionalism and taxation and okay, let's flighten it up a
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: little bit. Okay, you're gonna be watching the Olympics.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'm looking for he Is it true the opening
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: ceremonies are on the river and the athletes are coming
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: on boat?
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: Is that true? Is that something I just saw on Facebook?
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: That might not be true?
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: That I've heard that.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to tonight. Then good, good job team
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Canada cheering on all our local athletes, obviously from Windsor
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: in Essex. And you know, I love the Olympics, always
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: have winter summer and I get enthralled with that. I
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: love track and field, so I'm looking forward.
• 32:48
  Speaker 5: To that event in week two. But yeah, I'll try.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: You know, i'm gonna have a little baby on my arm,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna have some time at night, so I'm assume
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be consuming a lot of that coverage probably
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: around three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: Well that's part because you know there are the other
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: side of the world I watch. How about yourself, mayor McDonald's,
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: are you a big fan of the Olympics.
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: I love the Olympics, but I love France and Paris,
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: so I'll be watching it based on that as well.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: To me, just bringing the world together and seeing the
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: talent out there. It's just a fun fun thing to watch.
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: And really in the summer it's great because there's nothing
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: on TV anyway, So why would you not spend time
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: watching that? So yeah, well, well it'll be on the
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: tube at our house. Absolutely, I'm not feeding a baby
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: and you said consume, I might be having a beverage
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: or two. You know as I'm watching it, whether it's
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: coffee or tea.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I look forward to it.
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So it's just to me, it's always a fun thing.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: I know my grandkids are looking forward to it. So yeah,
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: it'll it'll be a big It'll be a big deal
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: at our at our.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: Place, it's a big to do. It's fat How about yourself.
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: Or me as well? I think you know, even growing
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: up living up when I lived at my parents' house. Obviously,
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: it was always a family thing that we would do
• 34:02
  Speaker 6: from the you know, especially the opening ceremonies and the
• 34:05
  Speaker 6: closing ceremonies, those are so like like their heart, they're heartwarming.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: There.
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: It's wonderful to bring see the world coming together, right,
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: all of the countries are there representing themselves, but then
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: all working together and celebrating together. So it's such a
• 34:21
  Speaker 6: great feeling to be reminded of that of the great
• 34:24
  Speaker 6: things happening all around the world. And again, people are people.
• 34:28
  Speaker 6: We just need to all get along, right, and remember
• 34:30
  Speaker 6: that myself and my husband, we depending on our life
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: at the moment. I mean, I'm sure we will be
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: definitely tuning in tonight to the opening ceremonies for sure.
• 34:41
  Speaker 6: Beyond that, whatever we can whenever we're available and at home,
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: we'll do it. Or even if we're doing it one
• 34:49
  Speaker 6: or the other because he's home at different times than
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: I am. Sometimes we'll definitely be watching whatever we can
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: because it is so amazing to celebrate what the world
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: is doing. All of the these young people too, right,
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: they're just incredible.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I wonder, counselor Francis, I saw that
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: your colleague Word three councilor Ronaldo Augustino actually just is
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: getting back from Paris.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he told me he was going to catch a
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: few events.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very very cool that he was over there. I
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: just hope that he was able to get his drone back.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: Oh listen, no, listen.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: The problem with Ronaldo going to Paris and coming back,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: He's going to come back and then call for a
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: knifel tower downtown Windsor. So I'm a little bit concerned
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: about some of the ideas that he's gotten over there
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: and probably keep them to scale when when you come
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: back from Paris to Windsor.
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: But listen, we'll look forward to what he brings up
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: from what he saw there.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: I heard he's bringing a motion forward to get the
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: twenty thirty eight Olympics, and I'm not.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Going to be surprised. I'm not going to be surprised.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know where Detroit Windsor joined them.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: It should be regional, Okay, Windsor Detroit.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: We'll put a Canada house right in the middle epicenter
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: of the entire county region.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: I know we're joking, but man, that would be so cool.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: It would be really cool.
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: The international Olympics like that only so good?
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: Do you think that's a good idea? You should text
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: us at five one nine seven nine two CKLW you
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: should winsor put.
• 36:04
  Speaker 6: In I love it.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: I loft such a funny statement. Okay, now I'm the
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: spoil sports. Sorry, Okay, you've sold me.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: You've always wanted to win a gold medal, John, Yeah,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: I want to do like the bite into the metal
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: and make sure it's I don't know, real gold.
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: I guess, yeah, that'd be great. Okay, time for plugged
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: in segment. Counselor Francis what needs some attention shouting out?
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: I would say it's you know, your daughter.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and it's kind of tied into that. Three weeks ago,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: my wife and I welcome our first baby girl, and
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: we did so at winds the Regional Hospital met Campus.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: We went through the whole experience and I just have
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: to say, the doctors, the nurses in.
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: The baby unit. I know there's an official name to it,
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: but I call it the baby unit.
• 36:48
  Speaker 7: Uh.
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: I couldn't tell you how.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Amazing those nurses were, the doctors were, all the healthcare professionals.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: A big thank you to all of them at Windsor
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Regional Hospital. I can't do that job. I don't have
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: the capacity or wherewithal to any of it. So I'm
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: in awe of all of them. And they're just so compassionate,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: helpful and professional. And I just want to say a
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: big thank you to the doctors nurses at the Baby
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Unit at Met Campus at Windsor Regional. We had a
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: great experience. And Bianca thanks you as well.
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: The Baby Unit, I love it. Hey, congratulations counsel, thank you,
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: thank you very much for yours that's great. How about yourself,
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: Mayor McDonald? What needs some attention?
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: Oh? This week weekend is hopping the next two weeks.
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: Three weekends. This weekend is Leamington Arts at the Marina
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: and Saturday night the Windsor Symphonies coming to the Amphitheater.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: So it's going to be a great weekend for being
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: out and interacting and so on. And then next weekend
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: is Hogs for Hospice, which really doesn't need a whole
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: lot of plugging because they do their own plugging. But
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: the two concerts the Justin Moore on on Friday, the
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: Country Concert, and then on Saturday is the Stone Temple Pilots.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: I always call them the wrong thing my kids. That
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: was their sp Oh is that what you call it?
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: See I'm more of a crooner kind of person than us. Hey,
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: we're getting that later in August. We're getting a CCR.
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: What do you call those?
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: Cover band?
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah? No, like the ones that what do you call them?
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: When they copy somebody?
• 38:14
  Speaker 6: Oh?
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Cover bit?
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: Ever band?
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: That doesn't sound.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: Right because they cover their songs.
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: Oh I thought it was like cover of an album.
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that's see see how old I am. I'm
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: still thinking album covers. Oh Heaven's sakes, but covers are
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: come to Leamington this weekend and next because there's happening
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: things going on.
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: Don't say there's nothing to do right last, but not
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: least Ruke Seney, what needs some attention.
• 38:37
  Speaker 6: I just want to give a huge congratulations to our
• 38:42
  Speaker 6: Downtown Mission Phoenix Recovery Program and Enterprise Program Job Training Program,
• 38:48
  Speaker 6: which both graduated some amazing individuals last Friday, and it
• 38:53
  Speaker 6: was wonderful to see our community members, their family and
• 38:57
  Speaker 6: friends coming to support them as well our community partners
• 39:01
  Speaker 6: coming to support them as they celebrated that momentous day
• 39:05
  Speaker 6: and celebrate what's coming next for all of them in
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: their lives, So thank you to all everyone who made
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: that possible last week and coming up this month, I
• 39:14
  Speaker 6: want to do a shout out and invite everyone to
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: join us at five to one nine beer House and
• 39:21
  Speaker 6: to come see for the on a Mission for the
• 39:24
  Speaker 6: Mission crew who's they're the ones who put on our
• 39:28
  Speaker 6: Automission for the Mission bike ride at the end of August.
• 39:31
  Speaker 6: So on Sunday, August twenty fifth, and they'll be actually
• 39:35
  Speaker 6: at Howgs for Hospice as well promoting their event and
• 39:38
  Speaker 6: also supporting their friends at Howgs for Hospice. So anyone
• 39:43
  Speaker 6: any any Wednesday night during the month, come on out
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: to five one nine beer House or if you're a
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: biker and he would like to join us, it is Sunday,
• 39:51
  Speaker 6: August twenty fifth that the bike ride will be happening
• 39:54
  Speaker 6: in support of the Mission's food bank.
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: Well awesome, awesome, thank you for that, big thanks to
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: the entire Friday round table from the Downtown Missionshini Punaya
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: Gulin ward One Counselor and Windsor Fred Francis and can
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: I like it's Mayor and Warden like you is there
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: one you prefer?
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: No, it doesn't matter. You can just call me Hilda,
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: that's good, okay.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Well, Hild us here and I'm not gonna do that.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: Mayor and Warden, Hilda MacDonald, thank you so much for
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: joining us in studio.