Lakota PowWow on July 21, 2013

Renewable Energy Used

From a MJ Times Herald report a couple years ago:

Retired teacher and Wood Mountain Mayor Michael Klein lives in a home that was outfitted to utilize the sun as much as possible — employing devices for both solar power generation and solar water heating.
“My goal is I would like to see a great number of households in this province do this,” Klein said during a “family choices” session at the Alternative Energy Forum and Consumer/Developer/Producer Fair in SIAST Palliser Campus on Saturday.
Brent Veitch, co-owner of Rock, Paper, Sun (www.rockpapersun.com) installed the solar systems in Klein’s home. Veitch said coal still represents 44 per cent of the entire electricity source in the province.

Saskatchewan Liberal Leadership Contender in Gravelbourg

For an opportunity to meet Ryan Bater and share your ideas for the future of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party:

Gravelbourg – Coffee Meeting

Saturday, August 9th
10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Café Paris
306 Main Street

For more information about this event, please contact Mike Klein at:

266-2115 or mklein(at)sasktel.net

Part I: Are Canadians Being Set Up 1930s Style?

By Pilot:

I’ve often heard people wonder how the German people were able to be hoodwinked by the fascists. However, the parallels of what happened then exist today. None more so than what Harper’s government is doing to Canadians.

Their first step was to build false allegations against opponents. Whenever an opponent dares to point out truths as opposed to the created truth, full scale attacks were undertaken. Wherever possible they silenced any creditable sources and then did what ever they needed to do to discredit creditable sources. Once they gained power then they changed the rules so than they could not be removed from power. At this point they had gained absolute power and nothing the public wants to do matters any more because you have all the levers. The fascists created a scapegoat for the country’s perceived problems. They controlled the media to ensure only their message got out. They removed knowledgeable people to ensure their voices could not tell the public about anything that did not match their controlled message. They even went so far as to burn books to ensure their message was not contradicted.

So what are the parallels that exist. Here are some facts of this current Harper government. They managed to be presented with an issue that was real in nature but would allow them to try and convince the public that their chief rival the Liberals were all corrupt.(scapegoat). That imagery was enhanced by the NDP when they called for a RCMP inquiry into supposed wrong doing by the then Finance Minister. An allegation that should never have been made and was done so for only purely political reasons by a desperate NDP party. These allegation have been shown to be totally off base, but that information is normally ignored.

On taking power, the Conservatives presented the first budget, which included a tax cut for large corporations and a tax increase for middle and low income earners. We were also rewarded with a 1 point GST cut. Thus if you spent about $8500 you could gain back the increase of taxes actually experienced. Of course the message was that we all experienced a tax cut and therefore should feel very thankful. The number of lies now being put forth has substantially increased and the grain of truth the lies are normally built around is getting smaller. What is most important is to have all Conservative members speak only on topic. The government at this point has undertaken to ensure that the only message remains the controlled message.

Other parallels include the following. Web sites are purged of any information not suited to government propaganda. For example in its first weeks the government ordered the word Kyoto removed from any web site with that term included. At the same time the government has been systematically removing any bureaucrats who dare to tell Canadians the truth. At this point they have removed key information people in Agriculture, Environment Canada, in the nuclear industry, in ethics. All removals were of individuals who steadfastly did their jobs despite Government orders to not do so.

At this point they have damaged the credibility of various government agencies whose legislative role was important to Canadians and who where supposed to have what is termed “arm's length” from government. The situation with AECL and the Chalk River reactor and the situation with the manipulation of the Canadian Wheat Board are good examples. They even went so far as to try justify their Wheat Board actions by having a corrupt vote. Appearance is most important when you are trying to fools most of the people. Hide the truth and replace it with your own version. State it constantly, and ridicule anyone who opposes. Hey, does this sound familiar?

...

Saskboy adds:

Aaron at Macleans has some interesting, and related thoughts on the tone of this government.

No advantages accrue from consolidating schools

Published in LeaderPost: Thursday, December 06, 2007

I have read with interest how the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) is preparing us for another round of school closures.

The new minister of education indicates how closures are inevitable and that he will work to develop a new set of criteria.

The common denominator in all of this is the continued destruction of what was once a very good educational system.

The SSBA asks if it is better to keep a school with 20 kids -- or to combine our resources in order to provide supposedly a better education. It bases this assumption on some untested theory that resources provide education. Again, no information is forthcoming to show how that theory has any basis in fact.

I can only say that, after gathering what information I could relating to whether or not keeping that school of 20 students is better than combining resources, the information I've gleaned is a very definite "yes".

In our own case, which saw a school of 50 students closed in order to consolidate resources, we also experienced a substantial decline in educational quality.

Along with that decline, there was also a decline in quality of life, a decline in extracurricular opportunities, an increase in absenteeism, an increase in family problems and a threefold increase in costs. All of this after a guarantee in writing by the department that there would be no negatives. We have yet to find a single positive.

Given that information, the answer to the question about whether it would be better to keep the school of 20 students or to consolidate is self-evident. The fact that the department has refused to live up to its guarantee only confirms that the attitude of "don't confuse me with the facts" is leading our educational system into very poor future prospects.

The mindset demonstrated by the SSBA and the new minister of education indicates a very costly, yet ever-increasing decline in a system that clearly is in need of a major overhaul.

Michael Klein
(Klein is mayor of the Village of Wood Mountain.)
Wood Mountain

On CBC in Winnipeg

CBC NewsWorld is showing a story about West Nile Virus where they interview my Dad on camera, while he was outside a Winnipeg apartment building the other day. Fortunately he's not contracted West Nile (which is picking up infection pace in Manitoba and Saskatchewan right now). He has made it onto national CBC news before, on the cbc.ca website, after he needed to be hospitalized due to a house cat bite.

Honourable Minister asks agent to deliver "flowers" to Administrator

The Village of Wood Mountain made an effort to annex an area that didn't border the existing limits of the village. It was an interesting idea that would have potentially benefited both areas involved in the maneuver. However, a Minister of the Government of Saskatchewan informed an agent involved that he'd get further in securing the favour of Administrators responsible for approving the zoning, by delivering them nice things of little monetary value.

That might fly in many parts of the world as sound government practice, and certainly describes the habits of lobbyists throughout the continent, but in Saskatchewan citizens hold their civil servants to a higher standard. Accepting gifts to curry favour is not only dishonest, it's also a major crime.

So it's not surprising that many people consider Saskatchewan a difficult place to conduct development. It seems the government is waiting for favours that developers can't legally offer, and the government employees can't legally accept. Deadlock.

Wood Mountain fined $1000 by SERM

You can read more about the court case here. More details and analysis will appear on this blog in the coming days.