cisco

Not into unions either man. Just stating facts. 1. Hospitals told PT workers to either work for them or LTCs but couldn't work at both. 2. Way better pay and so workers chose hospitals over LTCs. 3. LTCs don't pay sick days and pay way less so workers have to work to get income. 4. If a worker doesn't go to work at an LTC they can be laid off/fired/given less shifts or worse jobs afterwards. These are important reasons outbreaks and death happened at such a high level at LTCs rather than at hospitals. I didn't use the 'u' word at all so hope that satisfies you. You can now fantasize as to why hospital workers are treated better than ones at LTCs. Maybe by reading the Canadian Constitution/Bill of Rights thingee you will find Canadians have the right to collectively bargain.

Wow! That's why here in Ontario the gov't has radio ads "Paid for by the gov't of Ontario" selling the idea to go work at a Long Term Care home. Minister of Health also says during interviews "We are training LTC workers". ALL at tax payers expense. So we all pay to try and convince people to go work at LTCs to 'help' the private profiteers who run them. No way more pay is coming for workers there especially with the economy getting worse. We also are paying hospitals to train LTC workers and newly hired people by using existing hospital staff (both FT and PT ones) which then means available fill-in shifts are spread more thinly so all Part Timers now only will get 1 or 2 shifts per week at all hours and THIS after them being told to give up working Part Time at LTCs or give up working at hospitals since they aren't allowed to work at both. Duh they need both jobs to pay bills to survive. So most choose keeping the way better paying hospital job and NOW their one and only job has hours slashed due to all the people brought in for training. Training that they have helped do. Here's the 'kicker'. The Ontario gov't through the hospitals will screen applicants so will kick out the new hires before 3 months very easily since they aren't union-protected until then and will 'guide' them to go work for LTCs...."OK we have to let you go but here is a card for a local LTC that needs you". New worker "But their pay is crap!" Hospital-"Too bad but hey a job is there and with the crummy economy you better go there fast!" All this is pointing towards gov't not providing more $ for LTC nor hospital workers. It points to gov't lying to people at tax payers expense and screwing front-line hospital staff all to support corporate and hospital administrators greed. Gov't is hoping to make LTC cleaning more uniform and better. Idiots. Low pay, no labor protection, no sick days mean absolutely nothing will change long term. Nothing. Oh but gov't will be doing more inspections hoping this will force LTCs to do a better job so LTCs will not pay better but rather hire and fire to keep workers who work more as slaves than as 'respected front line car givers.' All the inspections will be, again, at tax payer expense. But all the improvements will be through paid-off inspectors/worker slaves getting the same crappy pay as before.

Update on my last post. Part time workers were working the shifts they were scheduled but some were too scared with coming in when called for more shifts. So hospitals hired way more Part Time workers to compensate for this. This point seems a bit fishy since many of the new hires were from LTC (Long Term Care) and the Ford gov't mentioned they are 'retraining them' with no details. IMHO the gov't considering paying front-line hospital workers more due to risk has been answered by hiring more part-timers instead of paying existing workers more. So I very much doubt more hourly pay is on the horizon for front-line workers. Up to the unions to protect incomes but unions are too close to management and work hard to collect their dues only IMHO. Not sure if and how many here care about Covid 'updates' but nice to vent on things explained to me by workers there. Seems the 'reopening' will be based solely on keeping ICU Covid numbers at or below the max.. Numbers are OK now but air travel is starting back up and the US/Cndn border re-opening will no doubt raise numbers again. The US has some serious outbreak states and many may want to get here. Their UI runs out end of month and desperation may interfere with food shipments to Canada. So stock up on things just in case. Big bag of rice....canned/frozen veggies and fruit. Canada has just had its credit score dropped and banks are eager to soon start foreclosing and absorbing assets. The economy cannot recover with so many lost service jobs and businesses restricted by social distancing and employers will surely drop wages as supply/demand offers them workers desperate to work.

Did some snooping and seems hospitals are 'pigs to the trough' getting gov't funding to stuff into their Admin pockets. Gov't has somehow been conned into believing that bad training at Long Term care facilities (LTCs) is the big issue...enter hospitals who get paid to retrain the workers.....but this retraining means hiring (they call it redeployment) the LTC workers to walk around with hospital workers learning what they already know....how to clean. Hospital Admin stuffs the loot into its greedy pockets while not using classrooms to teach but instead have no social distancing as hospital workers train the new hires. Only thing the Admin gives is gloves, masks and uniforms. AND gets $$$$$ for nothing and cheques for free..... as the song goes. But now the Part-time ranks are swelling with these new part-time hires and this means drastically cut hours for existing Part Time hospital workers. So much for 'championing' front line workers and 'considering' paying them more money for the hazard faced from Covid-19. Part Time workers are earning less take home now. Meanwhile the 'lack of training' isn't the problem at all. There are three differences as to why hospitals have hardly any Covid-19 outbreaks compared to LTCs. 1. Relatively lower pay at LTCs which forces workers to go to work sick to pay the bills. 2. No sick day provisions at LTCs so days off sick mean less pay/ability to pay bills. So again, off to work.... 3. No union protection at LTCs. Come in sick or maybe get punished. With Covid-19 you are ordered to take care of the same number of residents but now do way more work due to isolation protocol, sanitizing and increased resident needs. Oh and with scant protective equipment provided by the PRIVATELY owned LTCs who are in it for the $$$ and nothing more. Kinda like 'take your work home with you'. Catching Covid and taking it home to family is a 'bonus' to front line workers. Gov't preaches but is either playing or is dumb for real. Hospital Admin salaries and bonuses are based on how big their budget grows and how much is not spent at years end since not-for-profit corporations like hospitals can't carry profit into the next fiscal year. $$$$$BONUS time$$$$$!!

Maybe he has potty mouth.

Also check with the marinas/dealers you prefer. They may have some coming in from folks upgrading. May help a sales person selling when they can tell their prospect they can sell their old one.

OK herring in K bay. Good to hear but hardly anyone mentions them caught ice fishing. They were supposed to be a benefit to lakers but have laker stomach contents been asked about to see if so? I haven't caught a herring yet south end but hey, maybe they don't live around 30' and hit small minnow imitations? Are the herring eating shiners or ? Maybe laker fry.....? Would be nice to see research to see whether the benefit as food source is outweighed by them being a laker fry predator? We used to drop a short line with a trebled pearl below whitie spoons and quickly haul up off bottom to the level the herring school was marked at and get them regular. haven't bothered as herring seem bony and don't appeal taste wise compared to 'yum' whitefish.

Anyone actually see any pics from MNR of laker 'spawning shoals' on Simcoe? Any kinda before and after pics as well? As OF reads it does seem they prefer large areas of boulders/rubble. But in Simcoe are they settling for less? Also I have fished many times where light taps and the occasional goby resulted in areas I was after perch. These things eat small stuff like eggs. It's what they do. After opener I have also noticed just after whities have left the shoals and go deep the shoals I fish seem thick with small perch. We also need keep in mind that herring didn't take. What happened to them? Could the same 'culprits' be at work? I felt that cormorants were their nightmare since the herring school up often closer to the surface which is perfect for the cormorants to find and destroy, but I think lakers do not generally school up as tight and are in deeper water so..... Oh BTW I have noticed far less cormorants than before. Nature doing its thing re cyclic population control perhaps? Or maybe their food source has depleted so they left or starved to the point of lowered reproduction. What is REALLY REALLY needed is a properly researched report on what other jurisdictions have been finding out about laker and herring population declines with specific research done on such things as stomach content analysis of possible predators. Getting tired of expert assertions with no field study backing. I mean come on is it that hard to catch and open up stomachs of goby/cormorant/perch? Can't DNA of contents find whether goo in there is really laker egg matter? What do we pay MNR for if not to do such obvious research? What mitigation efforts have been tried elsewhere and with what success? To say it's our fault due to siltation/fishing is just fine but is made from behind a desk by someone with a 'defeatist excuse' perspective who wants to keep a big salary without doing anything new/innovative to justify it. Honestly, the MNR folks reading this, and they are, should be ashamed if they are not addressing the above. No funding? Then if useless quit if you can't do your job or successfully argue the need too. Over the years I have heard many excuses such as "Well it is basically a private lake so....." or, "Well native harvest is bad so....." or "Well development is causing siltation so...." And have even heard ludicrous claims like "Cormorants have no impact of (insert name of any fish) populations so......" or " Zeba mussels are in there so...." or "There is no evidence (insert name of any fish) are declining so..." Getting to be a joke. Years ago the MNR District Manager gave out press statements on any issue. 'Experts' at MNR would give interviews. Not now. CSB (Communications Services Branch) has taken the place over, while political party in charge has placed a kindly older lady type at the helm and in nothing gets out without CSB amateur scrutiny and approval for political gain/damage control. Statements come out from there not at the local level where DMs and RMs make same high salary but have zero accountability to the public. Tail is wagging the dog kinda thing. Politics is behind access road closures/transfers to money/control grubbing municipalities and even worse things are going on to reduce public enjoyment of the outdoors. Fun to rant feel a tad better now. Hope it helps readers understand the kind of things going on. Losing ground even though licence fees and lottery money was supposed to assist. Was but once entrenched became another government revenue stream to be pissed away.

The pic with the two x markings shows same issue with both side keels. IMO the crack runs beneath the keels so hard to get at from the outside. Both are right beside the trailer carpeted slide bunks so my guess is somehow the bunks are involved. Too much pressure from.....water weight in the boat while stored or maybe a rear-end collision where motor was hit hard or trailering over bad bumps and pressure went to crack the hull both spots. Check to see if transom is straight and not angled and check health of knee braces inside as HF advises. Me, I'd get at the hull inside to see if the crack(s) are bad. Regardless I would clean inside with acetone/steel wool and lay a couple strong kevlar fiber mats there using epoxy resin/hardener. Want to reinforce the spots where weakness has happened and may grow. Oh and what a nice healthy trophy pike!!! Hard to beat that one for sure.

Fleming students are technicians who work carrying out the research projects designed and overseen by University grads like with PHDs. Problem with them PHDs is some of them think they know everything but in reality the PHD just means they have a greater understanding how to find/figure stuff out. Not many credible PHDs at MNR these days if tagging studies is the best they got. Only goal of this is to try and determine if a reduced season or slot or harvest or equip restriction or ? should be considered. LOL! We here who fish Simcoe and see/hear what is caught already see the writing on the wall. Maybe MNR can't see it cuz their doctoral diplomas are all on the wall obscuring the OBVIOUS. LOL!!!

Other fish can be released and goby killed and stomach contents examined. If goby is why no laker eggs/fry then develop a trapping program. Matter of fact a good idea right now or post spawn to catch goby there and see what they're eating. ZERO excuse not too. Tagging was done but no shoal traps? What ever happened to developing new research for a new problem? Is MNR incapable of that? Maybe some university student could think through it and lead the way. (sarcasm intended).

I agree with you Bill BUT what I am suggesting is that the dramatic end of seeing small lakers may be directly related to the onset of ,say, gobies. We would be catching at least a few small lakers if it was a spawning bed issue since IMO there is no possible way that 'suddenly' all laker spawning habitat got covered in silt to the point of zero natural reproduction. Some small vestiges of adequate spawning habitat has to be in the lake somewhere to produce some small lakers. But none are caught from what I have heard, read or seen. As for over fishing being the issue that cannot be logically asserted since there are lakers there of spawning age so again, we should still be seeing some small lakers from them. The tap got turned off and better research is needed to develop and to then explore hypotheses. Tagging studies are not right for this application to determine what is preventing any natural reproduction. IMHO time to use underwater cameras to watch what happens after lakers spawn on the very best spot to see if fry emerge and if so what may be there eating eggs or fry. Cordon off the area with buoys and markers off limits to angling and watch the bed closely. Cormorants? Gobies? Catfish? Perch? siltation? Whitefish? ????? Constant running cameras with researchers watching from the FMU office/lab. We need to know not just make speculative defeatist conclusions like that siltation is the problem and over fishing. No small lakers caught suddenly points to something else in my view any ways. Or a combo of things very drastic rather than gradual hit the laker pop'n.

Fisheries Management Plans have more going on than the average person knows. The whole idea is to balance the pressure and keep pressure off fragile ecosystems. Balsam is very fragile so with the slot many meat fishermen hit the Kawarthas and many trophy anglers hit Quinte.

Hard to say what amount and impact of the amount of 'runoff/silt' is on lakers. As long as a fertilized egg gets oxygen should be good to go. To have all midlake spawning shoals covered by suffocating silt seems a bit far fetched. Some should still be producing lakers. Don't see that though. However a new species such as goby eating small stuff on shoals is something more feasible IMHO. That's why some have been pushing MNHR to properly investigate rather than a tagging study which does not address the spawning habitat issue whatsoever. Perhaps even Goby traps set at spawning shoals can restore spawning success to an acceptable level if this is the case.

Gord is a smart man. That lake has a few magnet areas for walleye and thus would be easily fished out with standard slot limits. With the 'reverse' slot limit anglers let many go which are prime breeders. MNR does try new methods to experiment with different ways of managing a fishery. Your son catching two shows it may be working. To not be able to keep the two may simply mean wrong spot or presentation. These days most carry cameras so if a 'trophy of a lifetime' was caught (yeck to eating it anyway) a pic would probably be taken by another person in the boat as being released and should be no issue getting a replica mount done if desired. With Quinte abounding the past years with easily caught monsters a true trophy these days is no longer 9lb but wayyyyy bigger and prob around 12lbs. so very hard to find one anyways. The lake is kept secret by many and anyone going there knows the regs so have to deal with it. Or else hit other places.

MNR forestry folks force the logging companies to build proper bridges/install culverts over stream crossings to protect specks. After operations cease the MNR likes to close off the roads to hinder access of motorized vehicles that hunters would use to deplete moose especially. Also MNR stocks lakes with specks/splake/lakers to provide fun for their own enjoyment and the enjoyment of workers in the bush there for a while. You should contact MNR for each WMA you want to fish and request the stocking list for past several years to find out what is where. I see a couple fellows here going to such a lake making great speck reports and you can bet if one was an MNR guy he knows which lakes have been stocked some of which done quietly for MNR people's enjoyment. LOL! Oh and any crown land logging road is fair game unless blocked or maybe posted since dangerous equipment or worker safety during hunting season prevails. Usually the roads are blocked before the first stream by tree/brush piles to deter access. Recall one case where a fire tower crew had a small lake nearby with nice specks in it for rangers to do well at. Now with satellites the towers aren't used far as I know but you get the idea. Also many lakes along the rail lines have monster largies in em due to line-building crews wanting food and fun so stocking of easily transportable fish (largemouth are fine in warm water and back then no refrigeration) was done about everywhere. Former member here told me how he fishes these and gets biggees. Pal near North Bay also caught a 6lb and said he lost a monster way bigger in a relatively small unnamed railside pond/lake. Hope this helps.

Those're givens I thought. Ling and musky and walleye also givens that they also eat em.

Good info.. Ya with whitefish spawning not too deep maybe the eggs get into stone/rocks where they are harder for gobys to access. I think with lakers their fry go deep asap to prevent blindness. Yet they are not reproducing from what I hear/see caught with only larger fish being caught. I have to think gobys may be involved buy again, opinions are good to learn from here. Re carp I know they love weeds/weed roots and that's why wild rice beds have been destroyed so many places. Many places in Simcoe don't have weeds so maybe the perch are also controlled by the carp.

Looking back I do wonder whether and how the gobys have affected our fisheries since they scrounge around on bottom slowly and get easily eaten by even whitefish which have apparently started moving shallow to feed on them. Sure they must eat tons of eggs/fry from bottom egging native fish (lakers is my biggest worry) but perch egg the weeds and so far I haven't personally noticed a drop in them. Pike seem to be exploding so are they profiting from gobys also? Maybe whitefish spawn too deep to allow easy access by goby? Possibly whitefish have shot up since what normally eats it's eggs/fry are getting eaten by goby? Starting to think that deep or weed spawners are least hit by them while loving more food due to them. Oh and of course it isn't acceptable to allow any exotic into an ecosystem so don't anyone get weird over this discussion, ok? The smelt pop'n seems almost gone (an exotic) and herring/cisco haven't taken so, why ??? It does seem the nutrients in the water column have been moved more to the bottom due to filtering by mussels and the advent of gobys and the attendant other species which focus mainly on bottom including whitefish. As well the zebra mussels which when young are best referred to as 'popcorn shrimp' since their shell is so thin/soft that all fish have adapted to eat them everywhere including off docks and spots wherever the mussels are which is about everywhere shallow and even quite deep. So are the gobies also somewhat controlling the mussels now? Thoughts?

Definitely need look at the bottom fins. Does look like sculpin due to wee top fins.

If gov't run homes do this as protocol then obviously staffing levels and ?pay? need be addressed. But your post misses your earlier thought that gov't run would mean tooo much money spent thus keeping only people of high income there. Also, if that 'gov't run one' was so poorly staffed then what do you think would happen if a private company ran it? Profits to (non-lawyer BTW) Harris and other paid BOD members along with profits to shareholders. Then even less would be used to staff and assist residents. Ask your Director relative if he'she tries to cut costs wherever possible. Ask whether profit/share value/shareholder dividends/BOD salaries are always in the back of his/her mind. Ask whether any concerns from them re expenses were raised about the pandemic and ts possible effects on the budget there. Ask about when he/she was interviewed for the job. Ask whether the question of "How would you save money" happened or instead the question arose of "How would you spend more money to make residents more safe and comfortable". I'm guessing the former. As I recall you retired from building management/maintenance so I suspect your interview was similar. Profit-driven companies are profit driven. Old people shouldn't be caught up in this without serious and critical gov't oversight. Oversight got lax lately at least and this is why profits crept ahead of resident safety.

I think you're way off Terry. Now a Board of Directors and shareholders along with their profit-maximizing (chosen for that reason) management take allot of the $ the residents pay. OK if set up like hospitals which are not-for-profit corporations then the diff is simple. A volunteer Board of Directors hire a CEO to run things to favor the BOD 'volunteer members'. BUT if gov't ran them then you simply have civil servants under the direction of the Min of Health and LT Care running them. No one to skim $$ profiting as is now. The $ from residents can be largely (corrupion is always sneaking around) put towards the overhead excluding the profiteers there now.

Hope he checked to ensure no lien was against it. Maybe bought it and now will find he has to finish off the payment plan on it the guy had like with a car.

Leaks mean little or allot depending on where it is/how bad. Many leaks can be fixed relatively easily and cheaply. If a seller thinks it is worth little because it leaks and is asking little, better check out the leaks since the boat may be a great deal.

The military I think carries the liability not insurance companies. Otherwise the military budget would be more for insurance than equipment. Way cheaper to pay any damages for some happenings than to ensure against any possible happenings. Also many of the details of any military accidents would be a secret thing so insurance companies wouldn't have any ability to assign blame/responsibility by getting all the relevant info for many claims.