Top Navistar officials talked about brighter profit prospects Wednesday but offered no new insight on the future of the company’s idle truck assembly plant in Chatham that has kept employees off the job for almost 8 1/2 months.
Many Navistar employees, who earned an average of about $24 an hour, have started to look for new work or careers because of the lengthy shutdown and no sign of a resumption of operations, according to union officials.
When the budget comes down later this month, one casualty of the “crunch,” as Mayor Cliff Barwick portrayed the city’s financial reality this year, is the transit system, in particular the paratransit component.
A report to council Monday advised St. Thomas Transit is shedding riders, and maintenance costs for the four newest buses in the fleet could escalate at an alarming rate once the warranties expire.
Dealing with the latter issue first, why would the city purchase these vehicles, which Dave White, supervisor of roads and transportation, admits are only used by a few other communities, with little “historical data” on them?
They are prone to major component failures and have spent a disproportionate amount of time out of service.
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St. Joseph’s Regional Mental Health Care St. Thomas will be a new hospital for forensic mental health, built on the existing lands in St. Thomas. It will provide specialized inpatient and outpatient forensic services, including assessment, treatment, outreach and support services to individuals with a mental illness who have come into significant contact with the criminal justice system.
Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will work with St. Joseph’s to build the hospitals, which will remain publicly owned, publicly controlled and publicly accountable. Infrastructure Ontario is a Crown corporation dedicated to managing some of the province’s larger and more complex infrastructure renewal projects – ensuring they are built on time and on budget.
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While investment analysts are telling their clients to get out of solar power firms and warning about the continuing risks in wind and bioenergy schemes, Ottawa and the provinces are on a mad populist stampede to throw billions of dollars at the green energy monster. The politicians don’t seem to be keeping up with the trends. “Don’t try to catch a falling knife,” warned J.P. Morgan this week in a report that told investors the market continues to fall out of the solar panel module market. It downgraded a bunch of solar companies that have already been in a tailspin since the fist signs of a solar crash back in 2008.
Other alternative energy sectors are hitting walls. Jurisdictions with wind power regimes face continuing issues related to the fact that the wind often doesn’t blow much, turning investments in wind farms into cash-draining albatrosses. In Ontario, the 1,100 megawatts of built wind turbine capacity are often running a few megawatts at a time, and even on the best of days have trouble producing 150 megawatts.
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Posted by Ian:
When the budget comes down later this month one casualty of the “crunch,” as Mayor Cliff Barwick portrayed the city’s financial reality this year, is the transit system, in particular the paratransit component.
A report to council at Monday’s meeting advised St. Thomas Transit is shedding riders and maintenance costs for the four newest buses in the fleet could escalate at an alarming rate once the warranties expire.
Dealing with the latter issue first, why would the city purchase these vehicles, which Dave White, supervisor of roads and transportation, admits are only used by a few other communities and there is little “historical data” on them?
Continue reading
Salary figures released March 31,2010 for 2009 – 2008 salary in brackets.
St. Thomas-Elgin General Hospital
COLLINS,PAUL President/Chief Executive Officer $204,727 ($200,920)
CRAIG, DR. IAN Pathologist $469,263 ($421,529)
FLETCHER,KATHRYN ANN Pharmacist $115,866 ($117,347)
GRANT, ANITA Director, Patient Care $108,617 ($104,240)
HILLMAN, MARY-ELLEN $103,804 ($117,733)
HOPKINS, MALCOLM Vice President, Corporate Services $154,130 ($150,778)
KOLATOR-COTNAM, SUSAN $103,929 (new)
LAMBERT, BRENDA Vice President, Patient Services $128,995 ($125,294)
MOORE, ANNE Registered Nurse $104,711 ($101,902)
THOMPSON, HEATHER Director, Patient Care $105,387 ($101,338)
WASTY, DR. FASAHAT Pathologist $334,805 ($149,963)
Elgin St. Thomas Public Health
KUNTZ, CAROLYN $114,221
MCLACHLIN, LAURA $114,221
ST. JOHN,CYNTHIA Executive Director $150,075 ($123,627)
Canadian Mental Health Association, Elgin branch
DEBRUYN, HEATHER $104,541 ($101,180)
Community Living Elgin
MCCALLUM, TOM $103,610 ($104,814)
Family and Children’s Services of St. Thomas and Elgin
POTGIETER, ROD $135,000 ($132,382)
West Elgin Community Health Centre
ABUSHAWISH, GHASSAN $119,836 ($203,096)
MARDELL, KEVIN physician $259,400 ($222,072)
MELITTO, CATHERINE $112,819 ($108,403)
VON Middlesex Elgin
LECLAIR, LINDA $103,000 ($100,042)
Figures released March 31, 2010 for 2009 salaries – 2008 salary in brackets
Aylmer
KNIGHT, MICHAEL Sgt., police $107,517 (new)
LAWRENCE, PAUL Const., police $103,418 (new)
REYMER, ANDREW Deputy Chief, Police $117,274 ($109,815)
SEGUI, BILARDINO Chief, Police $118,791 ($107,236)
Township of Malahide
MILLARD, RANDY Chief Administrative Officer/Clerk $112,226 ($106,792)
WILSON, SUSAN $102,152 (new)
Salary figures released March 31, 2010 for 2009 – 2008 salary in brackets.
CROCKER, DON Fire Chief $103,519 (new)
LARMOUR,SHARON Director, Financial Services $106,400 ($101,716)
LEITCH, DONALD N Chief Administrative Officer $113,833 ($108,386)
PERRIN, LLOYD Director, Physical Services $113,833 ($111,669)
Figures released March 31, 2010 for 2009 – 2008 salary in brackets
BEECH-ROBERTS,RHONDA Director, Long Term Care Homes $110,686 ($106,840)
BUNDSCHUH, JIM $111,885 (new)
MCDONALD,MARK Chief Administrative Officer $160,700 ($143,288)
UNDERHILL, HARLEY Director, Human Resources $111,686 ($106,840)
WATTERS, CLAYTON Director, Engineering Services $110,686 ($106,840)
