Working Hard to Safeguard Paddling Assets for All Canadians

All about Whitewater

All about Whitewater
A Blog about River Preservation and the need to protect our free flowing whitewater resources

Friday, November 18, 2011

What the F$$K - MF Global disappears segregated funds?



In Canada brokerages are "insured" or insure their clients money via their membership in the Canadian Investor's Protection Fund the CIPF.
Fund resources. CIPF is funded by its Members.

The CIPF Board sets the size of the fund to be maintained for the client assets it protects. It also sets the quarterly Member assessment and the policy on how monies in the fund are to be invested.

Fund size: The Board uses a model to assist it in setting the fund size. The model weights client assets for the relative risk of the Member that is responsible to the customer for those assets. Members with strong internal controls, profitability and capital will have lower risk scores.

Assessments: The model is also used to determine the amount of the quarterly assessment that is allocated to each Member. Members with relatively more client assets, or a higher risk rating, will pay a larger percentage of the total assessment. CIPF also levies an additional assessment on Members that have not complied with the industry rule that requires them to maintain positive capital at all times.

Investment Policy: All investments must be in highly liquid Canadian or provincial government guaranteed debt obligations that mature over an 11-year period.

Other resources

For liquidity purposes the Fund has two lines of credit provided by two Canadian chartered banks totalling $100 million.

The Fund has also arranged insurance in the amount of $116 million for any one loss and in the annual aggregate in respect of losses to be paid by CIPF in excess of $100 million in the event of Member insolvency.

To put this into context:

The losses at MFGLOBAL are in excess of $600 million.... Poof!


The term for this is "taking a haircut" the investors must take a haircut....

Is anybody upset about this?

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Some Thoughts on "Occupy" Wal nuts

from the commments
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/11/16/f-rfa-macdonald-occupy-wall-street.html

"The people won't make a revolution until revolution costs less than status quo".

The tent cities have mostly come down. The problems that encouraged their advent have not gone away.

From Neil MacDonald, CBC
Wall Street, in the years leading up to the crash in 2008, created what amounted to a giant, multi-leveled con, packaging and selling garbage, while secretly placing bets against the very products they were peddling.

When it all collapsed, the 'Masters of the Universe' turned to the politicians they'd helped install in Washington, to be rescued with a few trillion in taxpayer dollars.

The business model here was nakedly obvious: privatize profits, socialize loss."



Don't make saints out of the Silicon Valley types. Much programming and data centre work is farmed out to developing countries so they can pay much smaller wages taking jobs from domestic markets.


OWS has focused media attention on the 1% corporate-government kleptocracy in a way that Neil and his complacent colleagues somehow failed to do -- despite their messaging virtuosity and fine hygiene -- over the decades that this system of organized looting has taken shape.


1. Revamp tax law to close loopholes. Not until you plug the holes can you have time to fix the sinking ship.

2. Remove Corporations as people in law. Make executives directly accountable for their actions and decisions.

3. Better distribution of pay in business, perhaps like a military pay scale.

4. End Too Big to fail. If a business can't maintain itself it doesn't deserve tax-payer bailouts. Add regulation to stop that from ever happening again.

5. Limit the number of lobbyists per business sector. It's ridiculous right now.

6. Government prints their own currency again. Every dollar borrowed from the central bank is repaid with interest. You can not get rid of debt by adding more debt


Take heed, we have only seen the beginning of a revolt, that will not go away Neil, mark my words.
Now that they have a clear message(s), bigger and general strikes are bound to be the next level in this bar of social revolt. Look Out!!

MSM press performance is something to be either 1) explained or 2) ashamed of.



To say the Occupy Movement has thrown it all away or that it's over and done with when the unfairness of the current social structure is becoming more obvious and affecting more people as time goes on seems quite premature at this point. The media should not be too quick to tie a neat bow on this and move on to the next sound bite. It's not over yet.

Citing Apple as somehow 'good' or at least not as bad as Wall Street shows a misunderstanding of the extent of the rot. Apple products are made by virtual slave labour at Foxconn (13 suicides) in China. Apple is an advocate of software patents which act to stifle innovation.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the
support of Paul.'
-- George Bernard Shaw


The movement is more than tents in a park. It's profoundly anti-death-of-the-planet, profoundly opposed to life as a series of opportunities to consume. It is the antithesis of the trivialization of the human being. It is revolutionary, not reformist.
Note, as well, it is occurring before the massive cuts in social spending coming down the line.
It is a majority opinion that bourgeois media will not be successful in ridiculing. Time is on its side.
The problems won't go away with the tents


let me get this straight. A group of people who do not have the capacity or resources to function well in a complex capitalist society cannot articulate precisely what needs to be changed in order to give them the capacity and resources. Well, I guess that means everything's okay then.


Me?

I agree with what Neil has said.

Those encampments are being pulled down, but the people are still riled.

By removing them, the government may be creating a subterranean monster, out of sight and much more deadly.

It isn't over until its over.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Nicole Foss Lecture


We had 50 people come out to Nicole's lecture. It was enough to pay her speaker fees but in the end it did not break even.

Still I was happy to have brought her in.

It raises the question: what would I have to have done to get more people to attend?

Canadian Rivers

Canadian Rivers
I speak for river users too!

The Queen is not amused!

The Queen is not amused!
http://www.ispeakforcanadianrivers.ca/

The Damned Dam - 2005 -

The Damned Dam - 2005 -
22nd Annual Kipaw Rally has modest turnout. - 23rd does better

The Ashlu river: it could happen to you

The Ashlu river: it could happen to you

Whitewater Ontario

Whitewater Ontario
Working Hard to Protect Canada's Paddling Resources

Whitewater Ontario - Mission Statement

It is Whitewater Ontario’s mission to support the whitewater paddling community through the promotion, development and growth of the sport in its various disciplines. We accomplish this through the development of events, resources, clubs, and programs for personal and athletic development, regardless of skill level or focus, to ensure a high standard of safety and competency; We advocate safe and environmentally responsible access and use of Ontario’s rivers. Whitewater Ontario is the sport governing body in the province, and represents provincial interests within the national body Whitewater Canada and the Canadian Canoe Association http://www.whitewaterontario.ca/page/mission.asp

Kipawa, Tabaret, and Opemican

Kipawa, Tabaret, and Opemican
If Hydro Quebec is not actively pursuing Tabaret what is that bite out of Opemican for?

Kipawa Dam: After

Kipawa Dam: After
Laniel Dam at 2006 Rally

Where is the Kipawa

Where is the Kipawa
Kipawa flows into lake Temiskamingue, running from Kipawa Lake, under hwy 101 in Quebec

Kipawa Dam

Kipawa Dam
laniel dam at 2004 River Rally

Tabaret is a Bad Idea

About the Kipawa



The best thing paddlers can do to help the cause of the Kipawa:

1. attend the rally and bring others including non paddlers to attend and buy beer and have fun

2. write your MP /MNA and raise the issue and post your objections -1 letter = 200 who didn't write

3. Write Thierry Vandal the CEO of Hydro Quebec strongly opposing the 132 MW standard decrying the use of "diversion" as the most environmentally inappropriate method of power production

4. Write Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec protesting that either the algonquin or the tabaret project will eliminate all other values on the Kipawa River by turning it into a dry gulch.

5. See if you can get other allied groups interested by showing your own interest, ie the Sierra Defense Fund, Earthwild, MEC, and so on.

6. Demand further consultation

7. Currently we are at the point where we need to sway public opinion and raise awareness.

However, if all else fails, don't get mad, simply disrupt, foment, and protest . The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Have you read Edward Abbey?

Important Addresses
CEO,Hydro Québec, 75 boul René Levesque, Montreal, P.Q., H2Z 1A4Caille.andre@hydro.qc.ca



Tabaret is a Bad Idea (Part Two)

Les Amis de la Riviere Kipawa is poised to use an application to the Federal Court to issue a Writ of Mandamus to ensure the Minster does what he is supposed to do, protect the public's right to navigate the water control structure at Laniel, Quebec using the Navigable Waters Protection Act. (see http://www.kipawariver.ca/)

In the now gutted Navigable Waters Protection Act lay the means by which the Minister of Transport could keep the public right of passage down our great Canadian Heritage, our rivers and streams which are threatened especially by resource corporations and power brokers such as Hydro Quebec.

These powerful entities continue to petition that 'this' river or 'that' stream is not navigable and therefore not protectable.
I don't say that dams and bridges should not be built, only that if they are, historical navigation rights should be considered and preserved by making reasonable accommodations for recreational boaters.

It is the Minister of Transport, in exercising the right to allow or disallow work on or over a navigable waterway is what keeps boats and recreational boaters plying our waterways.

To many recent cases launched in the Federal Court concerning the Navigable Waters Protection Act, most recently the case of the Humber Environment Group of Cornerbrook Newfoundland versus the Cornerbrook Pulp and Paper Company indicates that the important oversight is not being faithfully performed. Have we really come to the point now where we must say "such and such a stream is one foot deep, possessing so many cubic feet per second flow and so on?" The answer to this is... YES!

The honourable Mr. Justice John A. O'Keefe, ruled that it had not been shown that the river was navigable. How convenient was that to the Minister? But either the Minister of Transport acts to protect our rivers and streams as a public right or he does not and that means rivers and streams currently enjoyed by kayakers and canoists.

Enough of the cheating, and double-talk. Canadians! our rivers and streams are our own, lets urge the Minister of Transport and the our government to protect them.

Peter Karwacki

Tabaret is a Bad Idea (Part Three)

10 Reasons WhyTabaret is a Bad Idea1) Tabaret is too big. The station is designed to useevery drop of water available in the Kipawawatershed, but will run at only 44 percent capacity.We believe the Tabaret station is designed to usewater diverted from the Dumoine River into theKipawa watershed in the future. 2) The Tabaret project will eliminate the aquaticecosystem of the Kipawa River.The Tabaret project plan involves the diversion of a16-km section of the Kipawa River from its naturalstreambed into a new man-made outflow from LakeKipawa. 3) Tabaret will leave a large industrial footprint on thelandscape that will impact existing tourismoperations and eliminate future tourism potential. 4) The Tabaret project is an aggressive single-purposedevelopment, designed to maximize powergeneration at the expense of all other uses. 5) River-diversion, such as the Tabaret project, takinglarge amounts of water out of a river’s naturalstreambed and moving it to another place, is verydestructive to the natural environment. 6) The Kipawa River has been designated a protectedgreenspace in the region with severe limitations ondevelopment. This designation recognizes theecological, historical and natural heritage value ofthe river and the importance of protecting it.Tabaret will eliminate that value. 7) If necessary, there are other, smarter and morereasonable options for producing hydro power onthe Kipawa watershed. It is possible to build a lowimpactgenerating station on the Kipawa river, andmanage it as a “run-of-the-river” station, makinguse of natural flows while maintaining other values,with minimal impact on the environment. 8) The Kipawa watershed is a rich natural resource forthe Temiscaming Region, resonably close to largeurban areas, with huge untapped potential fortourism and recreation development in the future.Tabaret will severely reduce this potential. 9) Tabaret provides zero long-term economic benefitfor the region through employment. The plan is forthe station to be completely automated andremotely operated. 10) The Kipawa River is 12,000 years old. The riverwas here thousands of years before any peoplecame to the region. The Tabaret project will change all that.

Problems on a local River?

  • There is more to do as well but you have to do your research and above all, don't give up.
  • IN the meantime prepared a document itemizing the history of navigation of this spot and its recreational value. Use the Kipawa river history of navigation as a guide: see www.kipawariver.ca
  • Under the Ministry of Environment guidelines you have a set period of time to petition the change under the environmental bill of rights, you may have limited time to take this action. But it involves going to court for a judicial review of the decision.
  • 4. contact the ministry of natural resources officials and do the same thing.
  • 3. contact the ministry of the environment and determine if they approved the project
  • 2. determine if the dam was a legal dam, approved under the navigable waters protection act.
  • 1. research the decision and timing of it to determine if an environmental assessment was done.

Minden Ontario

Minden Ontario
Gull River Water control at Horseshoe lake

A History of Navigation on the Kipawa River

Prior to the environmental assessment there was no signage at the Laniel Dam

T-Shirts Area: These are available now!

T-Shirts Area: These are available now!
Send $25 and a stamped self addressed envelop for the Tshirt, and for the bumper sticker, a stamped and self addressed envelope with $5.00 for the bumper sticker to Les Amis de la rivière Kipawa, 80 Ontario St., Ottawa, Ontario, K1K 1K9 or click the link To purchase a Les Amis "T" contact Doug with the following information: Number of shirts:Sizes: Ship to Address: Method of Payment: cash, cheque and paypal, Shipto address:

Bumper Stickers Now Available

Bumper Stickers Now Available
Get your bumper sticker and show your support for the Kipawa Legal Fund ! - send $5.00 in a Stamped, self addressed envelope to: Peter Karwacki Box 39111, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1H 7X0