Latest / Kvetch & Release / AM800 Tuesday Roundtable with Sherry Bondy, Robbie Shepley, & Luciana Rosu-Sieza - June 424

Transcript

AM800 Tuesday Roundtable with Sherry Bondy, Robbie Shepley, & Luciana Rosu-Sieza - June 424 · Kvetch & Release

0:05
Good morning everyone, Welcome to the Dan McDonald show. Your ears Aren't receiving
0:08
you? Is John Lyddy here filling in Dan. Was just in on the
0:11
morning drive from five to nine. It's another day at the AM eight hundred
0:14
of musical chairs musical shows. Not quite sure why it's happening, but quite
0:18
happy to be here. I can tell you that it's a Tuesday round table
0:22
this June the fourth, nine oh seven. Really glad to have sitting around
0:26
the table. Deputy Mayor of Essex, Robbie Shepley, how you doing really
0:30
good? Thanks for having me, Thanks Rick, thanks for joining. We
0:33
also have joining us Lucy Razu Sieza, the head of the Anarexia Bulimia Association.
0:40
How you doing. I'm doing very well. Happy to be here,
0:43
thank you, Thank you. Also joining us Sherry Bondy, Essex Mayor.
0:47
How are you good morning? I'm great. Continually making news, oh man,
0:52
got to give them something to talk about, no doubt about that.
0:54
Well, let's dive into something right now that we can talk about. The
0:57
AM eight hundred CKL News poll had to AM eight hundred CW dot com to
1:00
answer what would you like to see at the windsor arena site, a sports
1:06
and entertainment complex, or a housing development. We have heard conversations about the
1:14
Windsor Arena, the Old Barn, the first place that the Red Wings ever
1:19
played, potentially be well not being put up for an expression of interest by
1:23
the city for development into housing. There is the potential, says Mayor Dilkins,
1:29
to retain elements of it or potentially even see it torn down if it
1:33
meets the city's objectives of getting that additional housing. And there has been a
1:38
proposal put in by a private group before the EOI came out to hurt the
1:45
arena itself and some of the surrounding area into a housing development as well as
1:51
a recreation development. There's some retail in there as well. So the questions
1:55
we're asking right now, what would you like to see there at the Windsor
1:57
arena site, sports and entertainment complex or a housing development or heck, you
2:00
know what, we can just throw it all together here on the roundtable and
2:04
say what do you think about both? Robbie, let's go to you first.
2:07
Geez, I don't know, it's a tough one. I think we
2:09
definitely need the housing, but I think the downtown would probably really enjoy having
2:15
the sports and entertainment more so. It would it would probably help with the
2:17
revitalization of the downtown downtown core. Yeah, you know, I'm somewhere in
2:23
between the two. We missed out in my opinion, when the when the
2:28
WFCU Center was built and we lost the spitfires out to that end of the
2:31
city, and quite frankly, there really hasn't been that much development there except
2:35
for some housing around it, but we never got the entertainment and the restaurants
2:38
and the bars and everything that was supposed to come with it. And it
2:42
would be great to see that downtown, the Express downtown and then a retail
2:46
square and like activity happening. Lucy, how about your thoughts. Yeah,
2:51
I you know, it's funny because Shery was just saying it's fifty to fifty
2:53
pretty much on the poll, and I would say that that's where my head's
2:57
at as well. I think the entertainment piece like sort of using it as
3:01
a multiplex and you can have a variety of things happening. I'd love to
3:05
see the windsor Express coming downtown. I think it would benefit that area,
3:08
and I think the downtown coren part of that revitalization. But that being said,
3:14
affordable housing is something that we're really looking for in the city, and
3:16
I think that's been a hot topic. So I feel like I'm fifty to
3:20
fifty, but I really do see the benefit of you know, they were
3:23
talking earlier just around having some mentorship, having some sports and in walking distance
3:28
for some of these youth, and I think that would be very beneficial,
3:30
and then bringing people downtown, which in turn would bring the other stuff which
3:35
we're you know, looking for, like the restaurants and sort of the other
3:38
people, retailers, et cetera. Trying to thread that needle of like what's
3:43
going to draw people downtown and also what do we need to do to just
3:46
make sure people have a place to live. Has to be tough. We
3:47
talk about this one often, Sherry. I think whenever you come on the
3:52
show, quite frankly, just first off, what do you think about the
3:54
proposals? So I'm always cautious to speak about another city without intimately knowing,
4:00
you know, the politics and the needs and wants. Right I live and
4:03
breathe Essex hero called Chester McGregor every day, So to say, you know,
4:08
they should do this, I'm really hesitant to do. You know,
4:12
I think there's a lot of things. I think the best thing the city
4:14
can do is do public consultation because I believe you could never have too much
4:18
public consultation. What I think the city. You know, if I was
4:21
in on city council is I wouldn't want to get into something that is going
4:26
to lose money, lose taxpayer money, right like it is hard. Like
4:30
we just raised in Essex. We just raised our ice rental rates yesterday only
4:34
one point five percent. But it's because we can't can you know, we
4:38
don't want to have taxpayers subsidize amenities. So that's my question is what do
4:43
we need in terms of entertainment. Are we looking at a public private partnership?
4:46
Is it something that you know the taxpayers aren't going to have to pay
4:48
for, because if it comes down to something that the taxpayers need to pay
4:51
for, I think the ultimately we need housing. We need supportive housing.
4:57
We need more transitional housing to help get people off the streets, to help
5:01
you know, balance out our social housing and you know, get the right
5:05
people back into social housing and get people that need more supports into a different
5:12
better facilities for housing. I'm also a big proponent of people living downtown.
5:15
I think that it helps drive downtown and helps drive businesses. So I need
5:20
a lot more information before I was going to voice a solid opinion, although
5:26
I did vote, and I voted for housing because I think we need we
5:30
just need housing. I mean housing. Housing is the key thing that we
5:36
know that we need. I mean I look to what housing prices were when
5:41
I entered university a number of years ago, now to when I graduated university
5:46
to now, and it's just they have gone up astronomically. And it's not
5:49
just in the west side of Windsor where you know, ten fifteen years ago,
5:54
you could buy a three story house, really nice, stately house that
5:57
needed some work, had good bones though, but you could pick one up
6:00
for like sixty seven eighty thousand dollars housing. Now those houses are three to
6:03
seventy five four head. Well, then this is the thing I mean right
6:08
now, the market is demanding. There's two demands from the market. One
6:12
is million dollar houses because that's what people want, and the developers go,
6:15
well, that's how I make my ten points on that, and one hundred
6:17
grand is much better than making ten points. One hundred thousand dollar house because
6:21
that's only ten grand. And if the developing class isn't going to go and
6:27
respond to what the needs are, then the government needs to come in and
6:29
create incentives to create the opportunities for that to happen. So maybe it is
6:32
something like a dispossession like this where they sell off the property for a buck
6:36
or they lease it for ninety nine years for a buck, and it comes
6:41
with the built in need for the affordable component. But I mean, it's
6:46
interesting that all three of all four of us sing around the table, all
6:47
three of you are saying, yeah, a bit of A and a bit
6:50
of B seem really good, but A seems like it's more important, and
6:54
of course A being the housing component. It's hard to look towards the amenities
6:59
when you know there's people that are on our streets that are sleeping and in
7:02
need of mental health and addiction support. And as you said, a roof,
7:09
Yeah, it's we're talking about roofs over people's heads, right, like
7:13
how And it's not really even just the sole municipal responsibility. You know,
7:16
there's a responsibility to the province, to individuals, to everybody in the town
7:21
of Essex. We're putting out our Hero High School property, something I didn't
7:25
want to do, you know, just to be on the record, but
7:28
we're looking to have an affordable housing component in that property, in that property.
7:31
So municipalities do have some tools to work with developers to say, hey,
7:35
you know you're allowed to build here. You know, we will sell
7:39
you this property, but five, ten, fifteen percent of the units need
7:42
to be affordable just you build it in. Those are the terms and conditions.
7:46
We're going to take a quick break right now. We are off to
7:48
a rolling start here on the Tuesday Roundtable. Glad to be joined by Robbie
7:54
Shepley, Lucy razu Sieza and Sherry Bondi. We'll be back. I'm John
7:59
Lydkey. Listened to AMID hundred right after this. Hey, folks, we're
8:03
back John Leuke here on amid hundred CKLW. It is the Tuesday Roundtable,
8:07
joined by Robbie Shepley, Lucy Razusieza and Sherry Bondi. We're gonna keep this
8:13
going. We've got announcements coming out of the Province of Ontario, the Ford
8:16
government seeking to reduce weight times for MRI and CT scans. Right now,
8:24
there's a ninety day weight for MRIs and an eighty one day weight on average
8:28
for CT scans across the province. That's a lot. Having had to wait
8:33
sometime for a CT scan, I can tell you it wasn't a lot of
8:37
fun. But this expansion here is seeking to reduce those weight times by sixty
8:43
days. How So, they want to provide new licenses expected in the fall
8:48
to provide one hundred thousand more scans annually. But what is the sitch here?
8:54
They want to expand into private MRI and CT clinics to do so,
9:01
but it would all still be funded through OHEP, so you would not be
9:03
pulling out cash. You would not be pulling out your debit or your credit
9:07
card or even a tap on your phone or your watch. You'd just be
9:09
pulling out the old health card to use. The question is do you support
9:16
this move to reduce the wait times for MRIs and CT scans, even though
9:20
it means expanding into more private clinics. Let's go to you, Robbie first.
9:26
Oh unfortunately? Me first? Ah, yeah, Now I would support
9:30
it. I mean to me as a family I had a family member who
9:33
was waiting a long long time for an MRI and we were right at the
9:37
point where we were calling Michigan to get them to get them booked in to
9:39
get it done because we'd waited so long. I mean, they were living
9:43
not their best life while they were waiting. And I think anything we can
9:46
do to reduce those times where and as you said, it's it's not going
9:50
to cost you anything, so it's just going to help help reduce those weight
9:54
times and anything we can do to help our healthcare and move it along.
9:58
I think it's a posi thing and I would fully support it. You know,
10:03
when it's someone who's in your family that you're dealing with, it's like,
10:07
I don't care about any ideology or anything. I want to get this
10:09
done immediately however possible. So I mean, listen, I was there with
10:13
my broken wrist waiting and I was going, can I pay it this moment
10:16
to get it dealt with? Lucy? What do you think about this one?
10:20
Yeah, I'm on board. I think that you know, Minister Jones
10:24
was talking about you know, we're looking at one hundred thousand more scans per
10:28
year, right, so reducing wait times is one of the biggest hindrance to
10:33
healthcare. I think at this time, we're sort of living in a crisis.
10:37
I think there's a human resource crisis as well. We're losing a lot
10:39
of people to privatization in general, and so definitely on board with it,
10:46
but with the caveat of we do need to invest in publicly funded you know,
10:50
hospitals and community organizations because I think we need to get back on track.
10:54
I think we've had a bit of a I mean post pandemic, as
11:00
all of us say, right, so we've lost a lot of people to
11:03
and so there's not a lot of staffing to sort of offer these services.
11:07
So it's not about the machines, it's not about this, it's sometimes it's
11:09
just the staffing element, right. So I think we need to regroup and
11:11
reset and say how can we support publicly health entities in general? But I
11:18
think a strategy, as you know we were just hearing, yeah, when
11:20
it comes to a loved one and it comes to ourselves, we would like
11:24
to see that MRI or CT scan within the twenty eight days rather than the
11:28
ninety. It's life saving, right, and I think the cost overall is
11:33
probably going to lessen. We know, as people wait for service, they
11:37
get sicker, and obviously we're losing a lot of people to that as well,
11:41
So I'm in favor of it. Yeah, I mean, our healthcare
11:43
system is in triage right now. I don't want to say the word free
11:46
fall. I've had pushback from people in the healthcare sector on that one,
11:50
but triage is the word that everyone seems to be very comfortable to utilize.
11:56
I will make clear that triage is a system that in war means that you're
12:00
deciding who gets to win, live or die, win or lose. I
12:03
suppose we're in a tough situation. I'm on board with this expansion. I
12:09
think I'd be more on board with it if it was a temporary one,
12:11
if they were signaling, look, we're going to go and expand our hospitals
12:13
and eventually get these units out of the private clinics and back into our public
12:18
hospitals. But this is the quickest way that we can address the issue.
12:22
Today, I'd be like, I'm one hundred percent on board, but I
12:24
think I'm on seventy five percent on board on it right now. So they've
12:26
already got my buy in on it, Sherry, what's your buy in?
12:31
I'm not convinced. No, buying and I'm not convinced. I need a
12:33
lot to be convinced, right. I see it as a slippery slope potentially
12:37
heading down the road of a two tiered medical system. You know, you
12:41
can google it and see that people are you know, I'm suing because they
12:46
were overbuild and all of these things. I don't know why the province and
12:50
whatever party it is, let's just say because it's I'm sure it's the Liberals
12:54
have had some you know, it's not just the current provincial government, the
12:56
province in general. I don't know why we're not focusing more on public healthcare
13:03
like we you know, we were given mandates to grow our town, to
13:07
increase population. But one of the things that's just occurred to me in the
13:09
last six months or so is sure, we're going to look at sanitary,
13:13
hydro waste water, water, but we're not looking at how we can grow
13:16
that health care capacity at the same time. So we're bringing more people in,
13:22
we're building more homes, but we're failing when it comes to medical procedures,
13:26
wait times, hospital offload delays. So instead of making this two tiered
13:31
system where now our public our public doctors, servants, nurses, are going
13:35
to gravitate towards the private system and make the wait times worse in the public
13:39
system. You know, I just have a problem with that. I think
13:43
I think it needs to be seriously looked at before we continue down this slope,
13:46
because I don't want that too tiered system. And you know, the
13:50
federal government is obviously looking to address this as well. We just heard from
13:54
our immigration minister. I'm throwing you all at curveball right now. None of
13:58
you know that the story was coming up, but our Immigration Ministry yesterday announce
14:01
changes to the Immigration Act to provide permanent residency status to anyone coming to the
14:07
country to become a caregiver. Upon entering the country, they'd be granted permanent
14:15
residence status immediately. The hope, of course, to be helped to alleviate
14:20
a bit of the tension from our existing healthcare sector. Maybe you have more
14:22
people that are coming in they work for these services that can go to people's
14:26
houses and provide help. What do you think about that, Robbie, Well,
14:28
right now I'm wondering. I worry about bringing more, opening the door
14:33
more. We already have a housing crisis. I mean, it's such a
14:37
serious issue right now. I welcome everybody that can come, but we need
14:41
a place to put them. They need to have a home to move to,
14:43
and right now they're in hotels and that's not a great welcome to Canada.
14:48
Welcome, here's a hotel room for you to live. And I would
14:52
like to see us maybe step back, scale that back a little bit until
14:54
we get this housing crisis under control. That's my concern. Yeah, determining
15:00
how we roll out the welcome matt to people that we're inviting here is a
15:03
really important thing. I think that we're actually have done a big disservice to
15:07
a lot of people. Lucy your thought, Yeah, I agree one hundred
15:09
percent. I think it's it's we need to think things out a little bit
15:13
more. I think there has to be a strategic plan in terms of what
15:16
the role of the people are. The hotels are full, that's that's disheartening
15:22
for me. I look at kids getting cabbed to different schools and a lot
15:26
of displacement and so and as we know mental health, and I'll bring this
15:31
up because that's the sector I work in. I work in eating disorders.
15:33
We've seen an uptake in eating disorders. We've also seen an up tap in
15:37
mental health and we need the services to be able to provide that service to
15:41
everybody. And so therefore, I think we need to strategically think about the
15:46
roles and what what are we providing in terms of livelihood and quality of life
15:50
for everybody. I mean, you look at under the Trudeau government, immigration
15:54
to this country has been just huge numbers, more than we've ever welcomed before,
15:58
and I'm all for it. Roll out the welcome mat. I mean,
16:00
immigration is what makes our country an incredibly great place to live. Heck,
16:04
just look at windsor Escus. We've got some of the best foods quite
16:07
frankly, in the world, not to mention some of the best people as
16:10
well. But I also do remember last year the story coming out of Stats
16:12
Canada going, oh wow, there's an extra million people in the country and
16:15
we had no idea, we weren't talking with the other departments, and there's
16:19
an extra million people in the country. That seems like it's a problem.
16:22
Sharing. Everything needs to be done with data and you know, different policies
16:29
and procedures in place to make sure that you have adequate housing. We want
16:32
to make sure we're taking care of our people here. We want to also
16:34
bring in people, especially ones that have skill sets. I'm also the bleeding
16:38
heart, right you know, if I know a family's in distress, I'm
16:41
like, hey, you know, come live with me, right like,
16:44
just like rescue cats. Like, I'm like, hey, we want we
16:47
want to help. I get it that we want to help, but I'm
16:48
I'm very also data driven. I was just at a presentation with Saint Clair
16:52
College and the number of international students from twenty fifteen to now has like quadrupled.
16:59
So it's it's really something that we have to see. Okay, what
17:02
are we doing it for? Is it a money grab or is it calculated
17:07
for the benefit of our region. Got a couple comments that came in here.
17:11
I want to get too quickly. One person saying, of course medical
17:14
test should be moved to private or semi private. It only makes sense.
17:17
Another person says, I support this one hundred percent. I had to wait
17:21
for a year and I've been in tears because of this. It's unacceptable.
17:25
Another person saying, what's wrong with two tiered pay? I think that it
17:27
could work. Maybe if we get that, all the windsor nurses won't even
17:32
have to go work in Detroit and think about that. And then finally one
17:34
person said, we told immigrants it would be good to come here. It's
17:37
not. It's just making the standard of living worse for them and for all
17:42
of us. So not a variety of comments on that one. Sherry,
17:47
you are the outlier. It looks like I usually am. Well, we
17:49
appreciate it regardless. Thank you. It is nine twenty seven. We're going
17:55
to take a quick break right now. We'll get back to the round table
17:56
with Robbie Shepley, Lucy razusi ASA and Sherry Bondy. I'm John Lydkey here
18:02
on the Dan mcdonaldjo on AM eight hundred CLW. Don't go anywhere. The
18:04
nine thirty Information Update is coming up next. Hey folks, we're back.
18:10
John Lydkey here on AM eight hundred ckl W. It is the Tuesday Roundtable,
18:15
joined by a Deputy Mayor of Essex, Robbie Shepley, the head of
18:18
the Bolimia andarexi in Rvosa Association, Lucy Razu Sieza and the Mayor of Essex,
18:26
Sherrie Bondy. We are keeping things light and breezy today, which is
18:30
that's a joke. If you haven't been listening for the last half hour,
18:33
but we're gonna keep things going sort of in the same vein as what it
18:37
was. With recent data coming out of the US Census revealing that more than
18:42
one hundred and twenty six thousand people moved from Canada to the US in twenty
18:48
twenty two. That was a seventy percent increase from the previous year. But
18:55
maybe you're saying, like, hey, maybe those were all just Americans who
19:00
had come to Canada. No, fifty three thousand of those were born in
19:03
Canada, forty six thousand were Americans who did return home, and thirty thousand
19:07
were people who had immigrated to Canada from outside North America and then chose to
19:14
leave. And one of the main reasons, according to an immigration lawyer,
19:18
is the cost of living. We're asking right now and you can answer by
19:21
texting in at five one nine seven nine two c k LW. The question
19:27
is have you considered leaving Canada due to the cost of living? Robbie,
19:33
how about yourself? Wow, No, I have considered leaving Canada. I
19:36
mean in retirement years. Maybe you know we've had this discussion amongst my friends
19:41
in the future that you know it would be much more financially beneficial to retire
19:47
somewhere else because of the cost of living. Our dollar would go much further
19:49
elsewhere. But you know, it's funny when we were discussing a few minutes
19:53
ago, but all the people were bringing in and then to find out that
19:56
twenty thousand have just left to go somewhere else. That's shows you where we're
20:00
at in this country right now. We need to get some grips on our
20:03
costs of housing in that yet. I mean, there's a lot of stories
20:07
of Ukrainian refugees who came to the country, some in our area specifically,
20:11
who have decided to go back to Ukraine, to a war torn country because
20:17
they go Canada it seems like it's a great country, really nice people,
20:21
good opportunity, but like it can't make enough money to actually live in the
20:23
place. Seems to be a big problem. How about yourself, Lucy,
20:27
Yeah, I definitely have not considered leaving. I'm a Canadian and I want
20:33
to live here. But I definitely see the inflation is an issue, and
20:37
I think the housing and that's one of the largest issues amongst other things like
20:41
gas prices and food and everything else. That has obviously inflated over time,
20:45
but you know, looking ten years ago in terms of getting into the housing
20:49
market and sort of the hopes for young people to get into the housing market
20:53
or for people to make a move right, whether it's a lateral move,
20:57
it makes it very difficult. As we know, and we talked a little
21:00
bit about this about affordable housing. So when we're looking at rent as being
21:06
you know, obviously very hard to save any money to buy a house,
21:10
very hard to live, I definitely see where the appeal is. I think
21:14
also people are we're a border city, so we have to sort of remember
21:17
that here as well, that people are definitely marrying Americans, and so that
21:21
may be another sort of reason as well as opportunities maybe for jobs right so
21:27
they're getting paid more, their cost of living is less. I can kind
21:32
of see the benefit for that. For myself, no, have not considered
21:34
that, but definitely inflation has had an impact on those who are coming into
21:41
the country and those who live here. Yeah, housing affordability is one of
21:45
the biggest points for this. This immigration lawyer resides in Washington State and points
21:51
to a house near where he lives that is going for sale right now.
21:55
For half a million dollar. He works in Vancouver, so he does commute
21:57
forty five minutes across the Bold order to come into Canada. He says,
22:00
a same similar house five miles north of Vancouver area goes for two to three
22:07
million dollars, So two and a half million, let's call it here in
22:10
Canada, five hundred thousand in the States. Call that seven to fifty eight
22:14
hundred thousand dollars Canadian A big gap between eight eight one hundred and fifty thousand
22:18
to two and a half million dollars more than double. It's tough there,
22:22
Sherry, for people to not only be able to afford a house the roof
22:26
over their head, like you were talking about, but as Lucy said,
22:29
as well, all of the other things that have been going up in price.
22:32
I think life is becoming unmanageable for many people. And I think I
22:37
think, I look at it at is a big way. I'm not leaving
22:38
Canada. I'm bunkering down. I went and got a generator. I'm getting
22:42
a tiny house in my backyard, so you know, eventually all live in
22:47
the tiny house and then I can rent out my bigger house, which isn't
22:49
big. But I'm here for the long haul. Sorry haters, but I'm
22:55
here. I'm not going anywhere. I think we've lost intergenerational family, where
23:00
you know, you come together and maybe your grandparents or your parents live with
23:04
you and you help each other out. I also think we've got away from
23:07
some of the older customs like canning, sewing, trading. Some of those
23:11
values are getting phased out, which makes which makes living harder. Right,
23:17
I just I just look at myself, right, you know I don't can,
23:18
so I think I could save money if I cans. Right, I'm
23:22
buying a lot more takeout. You know, there's less there's less cooking,
23:26
so there's less you know, meal sharing with extended family. So I think
23:30
it's time for us to really reflect on our lifestyle, our lives. And
23:33
I know inflation is high and it's really hard for people, but I think
23:37
there are ways to counter that, and I'm trying that in my community.
23:41
You know, we did a yard sale, reduce, reuse, recycle.
23:44
You need dishes, here's a buck, right, Like, let's look after
23:47
each other. You know, I'm looking at doing a kid's clothing swap to
23:49
save people money. I've used my kid's clothing swap and I save about five
23:53
six hundred dollars a year. So times are tough, but that means we
23:56
need to also change our habits right less, take out less consumer goods,
24:02
and think about how we can save money and work together to save money,
24:04
get your friends and family together, and start building those villages of resiliency which
24:08
I think we've got away from. You know, we have had a big
24:12
push following again going back to World War Two, the benefits that came from
24:18
mass mobilization and then coming back in democratization and in industrialization. It led to
24:23
the Greatest Generation and of course the Baby Boomer generation being able to reap a
24:27
lot of rewards from it and build the society that we live in today that
24:32
hasn't been able to keep pace with what those expectations were. And really in
24:37
the span of like human history. But if you want to just go with
24:40
like modern times back down't know, eighteen fifty, maybe, I mean the
24:42
trend has not been living alone in an apartment or in a house. It
24:48
has been multigenerational families in one home. It was post war homes where you
24:56
had a mom and dad raising four kids, sometimes in a two and a
24:59
half bedroom home with one bathroom. I mean that was the standard. It
25:03
wasn't a twenty bedroom house with a swimming pool and a hot tub and a
25:07
potting yard in the backyard, all of the fun things that a lot of
25:11
developers are including these days. But I also think, surey what you were
25:14
saying, the idea of if you're making food and you have some extra food,
25:19
you can go to your neighbor and say like, hey, do you
25:22
guys want to have some leftover food? And maybe they do that, And
25:25
a way that you can be able to reduce your food cost is through that.
25:27
Do I dare say collective action? Well, think of how many groceries
25:33
we throw in the garbage too, food waste to hie like, you know,
25:36
we have to get back to some basic things that our grandparents wouldn't do.
25:40
If my grandma came over and saw how much food I throw in the
25:42
garbage, like, she'd put me in the corner. Yeah, so we
25:45
have that we have a more throwaway society now and that you know, and
25:48
for example, you know, my my parents don't help me with my children
25:52
like some families used to, or some families did. That's a fifteen hundred
25:56
dollars childcare bill. I have a month right so that life is hard and
26:00
we need to see how we can work together. Yeah. You know,
26:03
my father moved to Cuba years ago and lived down there, and the life
26:07
he lived down there is crazy to think, like food, foods. I've
26:11
never found the food to be all that good. But he lived down there.
26:14
He walked everywhere he went, and he lived like king down there on
26:19
his pension. When he come back to Canada, he's so limited, and
26:22
then his food choices have changed to he's just he's not as healthy as he
26:27
was down there. I don't want to say he's unhealthy, but he's not
26:30
eating the same way, he's not walking, so he's changed quite a bit.
26:33
I think he would have probably been better off had he stayed there.
26:37
And I've got a son right now who's seventeen, who keeps talking and talking
26:41
how he wants to go. He wants to move to the state. See,
26:44
that's where he wants to be, and he sees he sees more options,
26:48
more chances to excel over there than in Canada. Opportunity is what it's
26:53
always going to come down to. It. Just like water will find the
26:56
easiest way down a hill, people are going to find the easiest way to
26:59
work. It's money to be able to put that roof overhead, pay their
27:02
bills, create a family, and move forward. And there's no it's not
27:06
surprising that younger generations have some of the highest rates they've ever dealt with of
27:10
depression, rates of suicide, thoughts of suicide, ideation, issues that you
27:15
deal with on a regular basis. I'm sure, Lucy at BAMA, I
27:18
mean, this younger generation is going through a lot of hardships right now.
27:22
I'm not surprised to see a number of people looking to quite frankly leave the
27:29
country. I mean, I'd rather not see something like that, but I
27:33
don't know what you do when you don't think that you have opportunities. It
27:36
seems that we need to really have some kind of a fundamental shift in how
27:41
we deliver our basic needs to the people who require them. As great as
27:48
it is to live in a consumer based society with fast food options all over
27:52
the place, I mean one just on the fast food side, I wish
27:55
I could go through a fast food drive through and get something healthy and not
27:57
just like a burger and f I mean, it's nice they're reducing the size
28:02
of the cookes, but like it doesn't help with the burger the fries aspect
28:04
of things. But we live in a society that's been dictated by a free
28:10
market that's run the way that it has, and I guess we shouldn't be
28:14
surprised that people are feeling a crunch a bit more here in our country and
28:18
are looking towards other opportunities. Nine to forty five are going to take a
28:22
quick break right now and we get back on the other side. We're going
28:25
to keep this going, So don't go anywhere, folks. John Lydkey here
28:27
on AM eight hundred. Hey, folks, we're back. John Lecky here
28:30
on AM eight hundred CLW keeping the roundtable going here for these last ten minutes
28:34
of the nine o'clock. Our news coming out of Toronto and Ottawa quite frankly,
28:41
with a potential summer strike at the LCBO, with more than nine thousand
28:47
workers set to hold a strike vote between June twelfth and June fifteenth. The
28:52
union has said yet to say what they have decided to do if they are
28:56
given a strike mandate. As well, the nine thousand workers for the CBSA
29:00
and the Public Service Alliance of Canada have secured a strike mandate, they go
29:04
into mediation. They went in yesterday and they will be in a position to
29:08
strike as of June the sixth. Our question for the roundtable, is you
29:15
afraid of a you know, summer slow down due to strikes and or job
29:18
actions be a big deal for the LCBO and the border to let alone shut
29:25
down, just slow down, Robbie, how about you? Well, you
29:29
know, I drove truck for a little while and I crossed that bridge on
29:33
a regular basis. Nine to eleven was the end of me. And we
29:37
sat through many times when there was a slowdown because of a work action,
29:41
and it's it's pretty terrible for the truck drivers and the commuter traffic to have
29:45
to sit through that. I really hope they can solve that issue because I
29:49
mean, that's our economy everything. We need that bridge to be running smoothly
29:53
at all times, whenever possible. And the LCBO, I mean, we
29:56
can hopefully that settles as well as I hate to see the summer disrupted,
30:00
but you know, yeah, I don't know. I'm not a big I'm
30:03
not a big drinker, so for me, it won't won't change my summer.
30:07
Yeah, fair enough, How about yourself, Lucy, Yeah, I
30:08
definitely think the LCBO not too concerned about that, but definitely I echo the
30:15
you know, truckers and people driving truck and commuters. We have to think
30:18
about how many commuters we do have in the slow down there and how that
30:22
can impact you know, them getting home at ten o'clock at night and things
30:25
like that. So hopefully all of it can be resolved and come to a
30:29
resolution. I think that's the hope for everybody. Well, that's all that
30:32
anyone really wants. And I always like to go back to my prior labor
30:37
routes and learning about it all in school. Strikes our labor piece. Slow
30:42
downs our labor piece. This is the negotiated settlement that we all came to
30:47
as a result of the labor movement. Before it was like dealt with with
30:52
pitchforks and setting buildings on fire and whatnot. So strikes are labor piece as
30:56
much as they seem like they're not. How about yourself, what do you
31:00
think about this? Well, I'm more sympathetic towards the workers than I am
31:04
towards all of us who want to get our vodka right. I mean,
31:07
hey, if you're worried about and strike at the LCBO stock up now if
31:11
you can, if you can afford to, if not going on having a
31:15
dry couple days or a couple of weeks or is pretty healthy. I go
31:19
on and off the wagon, you know when I'm personal training and running and
31:22
all that stuff. So but the border, I think that's going to going
31:26
to cause a lot of issues. So I prefer not to see it,
31:29
of course. And I think that when workers strike, you know, my
31:33
experience with striking workers is they're asking for fairness, so they need our support
31:37
and pressure and however it is, and it could be you know, with
31:41
the rising cost of living, it could be their benefits, it could be
31:45
their wages. You know, we see this at at the town and different
31:48
boards I'm at. There's there's a lot of struggling people out there that are
31:52
employees that are really you know, wanting to be compensated fairly. And you
31:56
know we see this at town in county. You know, we all well
32:00
like if one of us at the town or county raises wages just because there's
32:04
pressure to raise wages because we do reviews, then somebody else has to,
32:07
right. So it's this is the reality is that wages are constantly going to
32:10
be escalaning up right, so we have to prepare for that, you know,
32:14
paying more someway or another. It's kind of challenging. Well, in
32:17
a world of increase, you can't blame them for wanting a little more.
32:20
I mean everything around us is. We've discussed it today several times. It's
32:23
a world of increase, and so you can't fault them for wanting more.
32:28
But my grocery bill goes up one hundred dollars a month, but my wages
32:31
don't go up one hundred dollars a month. That math only goes one way
32:35
as far as I know. I also think one other thing is contract positions.
32:38
I think if we want to talk about that for a second, because
32:40
I think there's a lot of contract people on contract people working part time with
32:45
no benefits, and I think this is what we're sort of seeing as well
32:47
with the increase obviously cost of living, but then there's also feeling a sense
32:52
of security and having a job. We saw a large drop and unionized members
32:57
over the last forty to fifty years and the private sector, although an increase
33:00
in the public sector, but that disparity might showcase what we're seeing on the
33:05
streets right now, in people's houses, in their wallets and their grocery bags.
33:09
What we're gonna do right now at the last couple of minutes here of
33:13
the round table is dive into our plugged in segment where our guests get a
33:16
chance to shout out something important they think is deserving of attention. How about
33:22
yourself, Robbie, Well, I just want to let everybody know that this
33:27
weekend on June eighth is the Great Quirky Walleye Derby out in Colchester. Our
33:30
beach is award winning beach. It's looking beautiful and it's one of the biggest
33:35
derbies around I think, and it's definitely well worth attending. And we have
33:39
a kid's derby that starts at eight thirty am and that's free to the kids.
33:44
And also ice cool treats at the beach is now open for anybody out
33:47
there that wants tossed up in for a cool treat. Love that you can
33:51
definitely entice me with a nice cool ice cream treat. Lucy, how about
33:55
yourself? What needs to be plugged in? Yeah? I would just like
33:58
to give a shout out to the teachers this time of year. It's getting
34:01
hot out. It's going to be about thirty degrees today. So just dealing
34:05
with a lot of restlessness in the classroom. Kids are ready to be on
34:07
summer break, and I know teachers sort of struggle this last month. So
34:10
on to give out a shout out to our windsor I six teachers. Oh
34:14
that's really nice. There is what Yeah, still about probably twenty days left
34:17
in this school year. In earnest and oh, I remember sitting in some
34:22
squeltering classrooms and with no AC and that was a number of years ago.
34:27
So it's hotter today, no doubt, Sherry. What needs to be plugged
34:30
in? So I'm working with Laneway Homes and they build additional dwelling units or
34:36
they can convert groages. And I just want to say the crew there is
34:39
really amazing. They've put up a fence along my neighbor's yard to make sure
34:44
that we're not impacting my neighbor. You know, they're they're holding my hand.
34:46
I'm not a contractor, I know nothing about construction, so they're holding
34:50
my hand, you know, along the every day saying this is what we're
34:52
doing, that's what we're doing. So yeah, I'm building a tiny home,
34:55
my backyard. It's a little contentious, you know, you know,
34:58
knowing me, that's that's kind of what I But I want to lead by
35:00
example for the housing crisis, and I'll be sharing my story. I think
35:05
we're on the windsor star. I think Amy one hundred covered it recently too,
35:07
So if anybody wants any more questions, contact Lea May Holmes or myself.
35:13
Very cool stuff, Thank you so much. One last thing we will
35:15
do here before we do the outro is take two of the comments that have
35:20
come in over the last hour that we are going to read. One person
35:23
is saying I'm a dual citizen, referencing leaving the country. He goes on
35:28
to say, my wife has five years left until she retires. Arizona,
35:31
Colorado. Here we come and another person talking about caregivers and said we wouldn't
35:38
be short caregivers if we paid them a better wage. That's what it comes
35:45
down to. Hey, got to agree with that one, folks. It's
35:47
been a heck of a Tuesday roundtable. Glad we've been joined by the Deputy
35:52
Mayor of Essex, Robbie Shepley, the head of the Bolimia Andarexia Nervosa Association,
35:59
Lucyeza and Essex Mayor Sherry BONDI thank you so much to all three of
36:04
you for joining me in studio. We're gonna take a break right now.
36:07
We got the ten o'clock news coming up next. Don't go anywhere, folks.
36:12
I'm John Lidkey here on AM eight hundred CKLW.