Early Birds Minutes, June 29th, 2023

Early Birds Minutes, June 29th, 2023

- Brett Bain mentioned the dry conditions in Strathmore and the dire situation of farmers. He shared the tragic incident of a friend losing their 25-year-old son in an accident involving another son backing over him.

- Mike Boyle noted that work was going well with various clients, but what was on his mind was the budget for their condo. He pointed out that the board prepared them for increased costs. However, there was a significant and largely unexpected increase in electricity costs for the complex, from $70k to $150k annually. Naturally, the owners' bills will increase.

- There was also a significant increase in condo fees over two years, from $636 to $850 monthly.

- Don Davis talked about productivity and Canada's poor standing in world productivity rankings, mentioning a conversation with his 16-year-old grandson regarding a summer job that fully displayed the problem. When Don asked if he would get one, the son looked at him as if he had two heads.

Don reminisced about his bulb farm experience at 14-15, working manually with a spade for 35 cents an hour - and a LOT of hours. 

After more news of residential school graves, he also wanted to make a point. He clarified that many children died of natural causes, particularly TB, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging all of the facts. 

- Matt Dart shared insights from an employer check-in practice at Johnson Controls, highlighting that regular check-ins resulted in up to a 70% increase in productivity.

He then introduced us to the science of equipment pressure ratings. He explained that the letter of the law changed over the past few years to indicate that everything connected to a pressure vessel had to be rated the same as the vessel itself. Authorities had seldom been rigid with the law. The law is now being enforced according to the letter of the law, and it will mean substantial additional costs for compliance for many customers. Up to $50,000 in some instances. 

- Dave Hicks discussed the economies people can realize with LED bulb conversions. Some clients can completely ignore complicated and expensive lighting schemes simply by converting to LED.

He also grinned while mentioning his daughter's new driver's license and her drive to Airdrie to get cookies. From South Calgary! Clearly, she isn't yet responsible for paying for gas.

- Don Doolan expressed concern about a strike on the West Coast ports and hoped that the federal government would intervene the way the US Government had when a similar situation occurred.

He also updated us on some of the particulars of the friends who'd needed an ambulance and medical tests while they were visiting the Doolans in Montana. 

USD 1950 for the ambulance, $6200 for the hospital, more for the tests, likely around 17-$18k in the end.

Don's friend also forgot an essential piece before starting the process - calling the insurance company BEFORE everything got rolling at the hospital to get a case number. Everything is handled between the insurer and the US medical system when a case number is in place. Don's friend has to dig up all sorts of details, receipts, etc, for the insurance company.

So, the tip from that is to CALL the 800 number provided with your insurance policy when you need to use the insurance services you're paying for. That gets you the all-important case number.

- Tony Fisher reported on a large SML sale to a reserve in Northern Alberta involving schools, shuffleboard, hockey games, and popcorn machines. It turns out that all of those things are incentives to motivate attendance which is a significant problem on reserves. When a visiting indigenous community saw some of the toys and the benefits, they desired to acquire some of the same gear.

- Ross Mikkelsen shared that Barbecues Galore hires many immigrant workers to fill out their hard-working staff. And Hard work applies FAR MORE regularly to immigrant workers than the Canadian-born hirees. He sees that same story play out every day.

He raised the issue of catalytic converter thefts, with someone he knows having their converter stolen twice. Once when they went to the movies, and then a second time, with the theft occurring brazenly in the middle of the day on a Sunday

- Steve Price picked up the theme of employee check-ins OFF-SITE. He specifically mentioned having productive and positive conversations with his daughter as an employee away from work. 

- Even in retirement, Steve continues to work with three companies. He discussed the mental health system challenges, which they'd hoped to address with one of the businesses partially. Uptake has been slow, possibly because that new business idea works against the system. That's because the system currently incentivizes repeated visits rather than resolving the issue efficiently and in a timely way. Successive appointments, unfortunately, exact a heavy toll on individuals.

- Rob Beasant reported a sales decrease of over 25% in the real estate market due to supply and demand issues. He criticized the Bank of Canada for not considering the impact of interest rates on inflation. Once they eliminate the effect of interest rates, the inflation rate is closer to the Bank's nominal target of 2%. 

He again affirmed that new home builds take about a year before residents can move in. Builders are very cautious with the number of lots they release for builds because of supply chain issues. They fear releasing more would extend possession timelines due to labor and supply chain constraints.

Rob also pointed out that the various federal and provincial foreign ownership policies negatively affect less affluent, hard-working immigrant families who struggle to find housing. In contrast, wealthy immigrants can afford to buy homes, exacerbating the shortage.