Nobody but Ric McIver

More than half of Calgary’s city council has failed in a report card compiled by a coalition of business lobbyists.

The newly formed Coalition for Property Tax Fairness released its assessment Monday on how well the mayor and 14 councillors have done in defending the interests of taxpayers through spending and fiscal management.

The group gave Ald. Ric McIver top marks, saying his actions most accurately reflected the needs of the business community, winning him an A+. Ald. Andre Chabot placed second with an A.Mayor Dave Bronconnier received a D, while aldermen Druh Farrell and Linda Fox-Mellway both scored the lowest, each with an F.

Council member Total score Grade
Ric McIver 95.6 A+
Andre Chabot 87.9 A
Diane Colley-Urquhart 76.5 B+
Joe Connelly 68.3 B
Jim Stevenson 65.4 B
Ray Jones 49.7 C
Dale Hodges 40.9 C-
Bob Hawkesworth 35.6 D
John Mar 35.1 D
Gord Lowe 28.7 D
Joe Ceci 27.6 D
Dave Bronconnier 26.7 D
Brian Pincott 23.8 D-
Linda Fox-Mellway 19.7 F
Druh Farrell 19.6 F
Source: Coalition for Property Tax Fairness
Seven aldermen received a D+ or lower.

The report card was issued by a coalition of nine organizations, including the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).

The group examined 32 issues dealt with by council in the past 18 months — such as curbside recycling, election donation reform and new pedestrian bridges — and awarded points based on how each council member voted.

For example, votes against raising business and property taxes earned each council member points.

“We selected the voting record based on how important they were to the member groups in this coalition,” said Bill Partridge, executive vice-president of BOMA.

The coalition did not count voting records on topics such as environmental, social or infrastructure spending, saying it created the report card to raise awareness of what it feels is an anti-business sentiment on city council.

“Our small business members are growing increasingly frustrated with the direction of this council. From excessive spending to increasing taxes and a lack of movement on the extra business tax, small business owners are looking for more,” said Janine Halbesma, acting Alberta director of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Most of the points were based on voting records, while the rest were awarded based on:

•Staying within office and travel budgets.
•Number of taxpayer and business-friendly motions.
•Proactively seeking feedback from stakeholders, and responding to letters and meeting requests.
“Hopefully this will be a wakeup call to the mayor and aldermen on the importance of defending the interests of small business owners and taxpayers for the remainder of their term,” said Halbesma.

“I put very little value in it,” said Farrell, who ranked last. “It’s always easy to vote against something but at the end of the day is that the best decision for Calgarians?”

Ald. Jim Stevenson, who received a B, said how the people in his ward feel is a more telling barometer.

“What really counts is the poll on election day. But I’m out there to fight for my constituents. The community’s had to be brought back to the table and I believe I’ve done that,” he said.

The next municipal election is in October 2010.

SMOKE

 

我今天嗓子很难受，因为这破空气。

网上有人说，“今天Calgary的空气和中国很像。”

电台里有人说，“It’s like China.”

同事跟我说，“Outside is like China.”

BC森林着了大火，所以我们这里就这样了。

怪了，为什么没人说象莫斯科？难道因为还不够厉害？

Inception

里面的雪山场景取景地原来是kananaskis，虽然看的时就就觉得是洛基山的场景，但是瑞士也说不定。

 

Fortress Mountain 这个滑雪场还没去过，这个冬天一定要去。

一锅端

NND，Suncor收购Petro-Canada，项目很可能暂停甚至取消，再次面临失业的危机。

 

新成立的公司将成为加拿大最大的石油公司。怪不得Suncor前段时间把所有项目全部暂停，甚至即将竣工的项目。怪不得我们这个Petro-Canada的合同迟迟不签。一切都昭然若揭。

 

SNC要被全锅端了。

春节lunch

Ken居然没有失业，但是每天只能上二小时班，这太搞了，做公共汽车也要花钱吧？

 

每天太闲了，无聊之余每天去公司网上数员工人数。电话薄每天都有人更新，所以人数很好数，数过一次后只数最后一页就可以了。基本每天都在少人，有时候会多一两个人，但第二天又少回去。名义上我们还有600多个人，实际上有10％是没有电话和办公室位置的，也就是说，这些人已经不在公司上班，要么回家生孩子去了，要么就是强迫休假，强迫休假三个月后，要是公司还是没有起色，就不用回来了，因为再晚连申请失业金都有问题了。。。。还有一些是甲方代表和分包商员工，大概也占10％吧，这大概就是电话薄有时候会多人的缘故。所以，即使算上Ken这样的半失业人士，我们还剩下400多，和高峰期的2000人相比，减少75％以上。

 

周五的时候有个前同事死活要请我们这些幸存的中国人吃饭。她原来就是被强迫休假的，结果过了圣诞节，被我们公司的另一个分公司要去了。去那家公司也要面试，我们部门送了6封简历去，他们要了两个，剩下4个就失业了。一些连简历都不许递的就直接失业了。被送去那家公司的不属于我们这里非留不可的，所以当时也算没面子。而她当时直接就给强迫回家休假了，所以我们当时还给她饯行了。

 

现在看来，留下的我们这些人危险系数更高，因为他们是做市政府项目的，经济危机的时候政府一定会加大投资刺激经济，所以一定不会失业，还忙得要死。她一去新公司报道，就立即要请回我们。最后饭我们吃了，只让她替我们出了小费，就当庆祝春节了。好歹我们当初是那么多人请她一个啊！再说我们也还没有真的走到失业那一步。

尸横遍野

尸横遍野。。。。今天杀戮还在继续，暂时还没到我们部门。看来明后天还有更大规模的杀戮。

 

刚刚有一个四年以上公司经验的失业了，大大出乎我意料，基本跟我同一批进来的，算是元老了。

 

我们经理的老友（our design lead）也没逃掉，piping所有的sub-lead全部遇难。看来这次人人自危，只有那些身怀绝杀秘技的才能幸免于难。

 

即便武功练到高手一级，遇到大屠杀，照样不能全身而退。只有那些高手中的高手，能杀进武林排行榜的，才会笑傲江湖。

血流成河

血流成河，血流成河，血流成河。。。。。。。。。刀光剑影，血流成河。

 

仪表部门２２人，只留４人，连lead都阵亡了。Piping所有contractor全部阵亡，就一下午的功夫。据说６０多人（包括staff）只能留下１７个。我们部门要砍一半，还包括去另外一个笈笈可危的项目抢地盘的。也就是说另外一个项目无疑也要大开杀戒。

 

今天开会说，被裁的时候不要哭，不要争辩，因为这是最后的决定。。。。如果要离开Calgary，可以写信给manager，可以做reference。

 

Don’t cry. Don’t argue. This is final decision.

 

我估计老板娘（manager老婆）要回家了，因为老板肯定要保护好自己。没有３年以上公司经验的中刀概率９０％，连lead都不能幸免。其实老板娘算得上一个很好的员工了。

完了,全完了

完了，工程公司全完了。油价低于５０，所有的新项目都没有投资价值，迟早全部得停。

Petro-Canada内部已经在裁人，所有工程公司都会裁人。

回想一下，３年前油价４０元的时候，多么幸福啊！各大石油公司都抢着上项目，结果人工翻番，材料价格翻番，直接导致今天的局面。还是马克思英明，资本主义唯利是图，必然导致经济危机。

今天的股市：

GM最低1.70，最高4.0，收盘2.88，比昨天高９分，坐了回过山车，又回到原点。

Symbol Price Change % Change
CNQ.TO 35.43 -9.71 -21.51%
UTS.TO 0.72 -0.02 -2.70%
GM 2.88 +0.09 +3.23%
PCZ 16.43 -2.93 -15.13%
C 4.71 -1.69 -26.41%
TLM.TO 8.58 -1.65 -16.13%
SNC.TO 27.27 -2.33 -7.87%
SU.TO 18.83 -3.37 -15.18%
GE 12.84 -1.61 -11.14%

看来养老金又缩水了１０％以上。。。。

 

2008，群魔乱舞

2008，群魔乱舞。

 

上半年中国的伤痛就不提了，岳母的病也不提了。

 

枪战，大量的枪战，诸如街头偶遇的火并，蓄意的伏击与追杀，以及中餐馆扫射，就发生在我们这个人口刚刚100万的城市。

 

下半年，我们一个中国女同事逝去了，脑癌，仅仅支撑了两三个月。以前我们一起做过项目，说过话，看起来很精神的样子，居然就这么去了。。。才３８岁。

 

不久前又一个认识的人逝去了，车祸引发的大火，留下３个未成年的子女和一个好像什么都不会的中年妇女。前一天还在网上发帖，讨论经济危机怎么了，突然就撒手去了。。。又是３８岁。一个对生活如此热爱，如此有激情，精神上如果强悍，如此乐观向上的人，居然会以这种方式告别这个他如此热爱的世界。

 

经济危机来了。前段时间我还在说经济危机还没有正式开始呢，没想到已经悄悄地正式的来到了我身边。公司仅有的两个项目，一个半死不活了一年了，是死是活没人知道，估计死的几率是活下去的十倍以上。另一个我现在正做的项目，前段时间还有班加，突然不许加班了，然后突然宣布暂停了，明年再决定做还是不做。

 

一转眼间，没有任何人是安全的了。虽然我们还没有开始裁员，因为早就没剩几个人了。但是正因为人少，真要裁的话，如果裁员超过一半，连我都会有危险。太子党差不多占了四分之一，管理层差不多也占了四分之一，裁无可裁之下，只有天知道会发生什么。我号称是可以以一挡十的，但是再牛也牛不过太子党啊！

 
今天刚刚有人开玩笑，年底每人降薪15％。这恐怕是好消息，因为大家就不用失业了。

 

狼真的来了。。。

In a few hours you will hear about all of the downturn in the Calgary marketplace due to cancellations of Major Oil Sands projects by their owners.

PetroCanada has decided to cut the size of its Oil Sands and Upgrader complex by about half. They have also decided that they will not be working with Jacobs and/or Colt from now on, (November onwards) and has
suspended all work being done by Jacobs and Colt. They are pissed off at them for apparent poor quality work.

Shell has decided to delay their next Oil Sands project called Upgrader 3 which we at AMEC had already won, for about six to nine months.  Colt was also awarded the Froth Plant from this project and it is now delayed for a year.

Suncor has decided to delay all future SAGD projects for at least a year. The existing ones with Colt and Jacob will continue to engineering completion in the middle of next year.

Canadian Natural has postponed the next phase of their expansion for nine months. We at AMEC had already won it. In its place they have awarded a small project to us to serve as a bridging phase which also
supports both the phase 1 work and future Phase 2 work.
 
Total Deer Creek is pissed off at the apparent poor quality of work received from Colt and now has to redo all of the preliminary engineering, which will delay their project for at least nine months.
This has forced them to delay their project until the second quarter 2010 pending the results of the revised preliminary engineering.

PetroCanada released about 200 contract staff last Friday.

Bantrel has given notice to about 180 contract staff as of today.

The rumour mill has stated that Colt has given notice to 800 staff for layoff by the end of next week.

Another rumour is that Jacobs will be giving layoff notice to about 1,000 staff before the end of this week.

All shitty news for this market and our profession.

 一瞬间，你就听到市场陷入低谷的消息，因为主要的油砂项目被取消。

加拿大石油公司已经决定把它的油砂及初炼项目缩减一半。同时他们也决定以后再也不同Jacobs和Colt合作， 这两家公司正在进行的项目全部暂停。他们已经被这两家公司的粗制烂造气疯了。

壳牌石油公司已经决定推迟开展下一个油砂项目，也就是AMEC之前得到的原计划６到９个月完成的油砂初炼厂３期工程设计。Colt本来也得到这个项目的泡沫处理厂设计，现在也推迟一年。

Suncor石油公司决定推迟所有的SAGD项目，Colt和Jacobs正在设计的部分明年中结束。

加拿大自然资源公司已决定推迟他们的下一期工程９个月。AMEC本来已经拿到这个项目，还有一个小的给一期和二期使用的桥梁项目。

 Colt的低劣设计还把Deer Creek公司给彻底折磨疯了，所有的初步设计都要重做，延期9个月完成，导致所有设计2010年第二季度才会全部完成。

加拿大石油公司上星期五裁掉200个合同工。

Bantrel今天给180个合同工裁员通知书。

谣传Colt已经给了800个职员裁员通知书，下个周末回家。

另一个谣传是Jacobs已经给了1000个员工裁员通知书，这个周末就得回家。

送给这个低迷市场和我们职业的该死的消息！