Election Eve Birds, April 11, 2019 Minutes
Don Davis
– Selling their place in Phoenix. They were thinking 355-365. Realtor advised 375. Got 365.
Political climate in the states is extremely divided.
Partly because they’ve been so busy, they used the advance polls to have their say in the April 16th election. Apparently, you need to be careful with your wardrobe. Pat was wearing a slightly orange jacket…Had to take it off at the polls. It’s apparently against the rules/illegal (?) to wear anything that smacks of the colours of the various political parties. Good thing they didn’t ask about blue jeans. That’s a LOT of beluga white Canadian spring skin.
Henry Heuver – explained that’s there’s a herd of deer at the nursery. Once they’re inside the fence they’re REALLY hard to get rid of. Can do a lot of damage. They’re taking a wait and see approach for the moment. That’s despite Andy’s recommendation of using small bits of lead to get rid of them…
Henry has some more land for sale, 172 acres. Was zoned residential last time he checked. If you know any takers, you know where to find him.
Matt Litke – had his birthday weekend last weekend. He and his wife Ashley’s birthdays are 3 days apart, so it was a joint B-day weekend. Read: Ashley’s birthday.
To celebrate, they went to Royale restaurant on 17th Avenue “at the base of Mount Royal” at 730 17 Ave SW. Visit http://royaleyyc.ca/ if you’d like to know more and see their menus for brunch lunch and dinner. French modern cuisine. Part of the Teatro group. Matt’s one-word review: “ Extraordinary “. More than average but not ridiculous $$. Well, not Calgary ridiculous. An example is their Steak & Fries for $33.
Matt Dart – and his company are working on the BMO Centre project on the Stampede Grounds. The Corral is coming down. Hall A is coming down, but not until a new “Hall F” is built so the Stampede doesn’t miss out on convention business. The new BMO Centre will have 3 levels with 40-50 foot ceilings (!) and according to the Stampede CEO, the BMO Centre will go from ” just over 500,000 square feet to one million square feet of gross space,” he added. “That’s about 560,000 square feet of exhibit space.”
A well known architectural firm out of Chicago will be designing the building. The city and Stampede want this building to have “envy status” They want it to be the building that other cities look to for this sort of facility. Now with the combined facilities of the Telus Convention Centre and BMO Centre, the city will be able to host Tier 1 convention events.
As part of the expansion, 17th avenue will tie into the grounds.
Sad consequence….or not…the Cowboys Stampede teenage puking station…sorry, entertainment tent …will be gone.
Gerry Parcells – mourning the corral already. Received a call from the NDP if they could count on his vote, to which he replied…..NO.
Travel note….police all over Victoria…especially with speed traps coming off the ferry.
Sean Baylis – Economic predictions are more about throwing darts at the wall at this moment in the economic cycle. It’s “late” in the cycle, meaning a recession might be likely sooner than later. With that in mind, rebalancing portfolios is worth considering for many investors. The US economy is still fairly robust, but the Canadian economy is a bit shaker than the US.
I’ve linked to Sean’s Global Insight monthly and weekly newsletters (in PDF format) for more detail.
Also, RBC has partnered with David Chilton (Wealthy Barber) for their third event in their Wealth Management series: a discussion on choosing an executor. Some terrific bits of wisdom include considering proximity, financial literacy, when to select an executor, are they in good health, whether they’re willing, etc.
| Chilton will share his life experiences, including his views on estate planning, personal finance and why he refuses to take on the executor role for even his closest friends. |
| June 12, 2019: 5 p.m.Canada Sports Hall of Fame 169 Canada Olympic Rd SW, Calgary |
| Agenda: 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Guest arrival and registration 6 p.m. Keynote speaker David Chilton 7 p.m. Networking reception |
Tony Fisher
– Following up on this great story, Tony told us that his grandson heading off to Spain to play soccer in Barcelona this week. His grandson is bilingual so won’t have any trouble with Spanish. Interesting that his parents are taking advantage of an Air Canada chaperone program. For $100, he’ll have a designated staff member make sure he gets on, gets off (the plane), and safely gets to his final destination.
SML Business rolling along. Among other things right now, they’re building a new store in Edmonton.
JD MacDonald – Business is moving along, but week to week still. Positive noises from clients regarding larger renovation projects. Tip : if you’re turning on your outside taps for spring, double check from tank to tap to make sure that everything is working as it should. Don’t just assume everything is good. There’ll be a few of those jobs between now and mid-May.
Jim Bladon – 10th in line for advance polls. Very slick. In, out and done in no time.
Jim was at the annual meeting of Ag producers and ATB. It’s usually a pretty good story, but not this time. A lot of the problems were caused by mother nature. Most recently though, it’s moving grain that is the real issue. 350,000 bushels of canola still sitting in bins. China and its trade action against Canadian canola are also causing heartburn. Another indicator of how tough things are is that peas are usually dealt with and done in April. Right now, there’s nothing happening until May. Farmers are wondering what banks can do….high stakes and difficult decisions. Not a super rosy picture.
Andy brought up the old J. Paul Getty quote: “If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.”
Last note from Jim was regarding playoff hockey. Flames are hosting away game parties at Olympic Plaza, including libations. I wonder how that’ll go over with the street ministry that seems permanently camped there. Hmmm.
For home games, lot 3 is a parking pit, complete with beer gardens.
Ross Mikkelsen – is on the Greenview Community Association board. They were dealing with the Highland Golf Course question again. Still. The plan right now is that it will be a park.
For business, every year at this time of year Barbecues Galore doubles staff and transactions over three weeks or so. There are headaches and growing pains with that process, but good headaches to have. Business is better this year compared to last year thanks to the better weather.
Brett Bain – told of an Ottawa ransomware situation where a company’s/institution’s computers were locked out and the info was held for ransom. This resulted in a large 6 figure cheque being cut. About a week later, the person who cut the cheque happened to be sitting next to the guy the first cheque was ostensibly cut to. Suddenly a second ransom request was received. The bean counter turned to the person and said, “what’s with the large cheques being cut to you guys the past couple of weeks?” To which the other guy said….”…Um, what cheques? TIP: BE paranoid over emails., Double and triple check addresses when getting any suspicious looking emails.
Also, this note from Brent post meeting was a link regarding whether or not the NDP is *actually* committed to doing everything they can to get pipelines built: https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/vivian-krause-rachel-notley-the-rockefellers-and-albertas-landlocked-oil/wcm/b11b0dd6-6f37-4a85-be94-69ffd83defef
Don Doolan – Voted early as well, but contrary to the hype about heavy advance voting, it was s-l-o-w at the advance polling station he went to.
Don also mentioned a coming amendment to the building code that will address the safety of second-floor residential windows. Something like 420 kids nationwide have been hurt falling out of windows just this past year.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, EMS and other first responders were opposed to restrictor mechanisms because those windows are an important egress port in case of emergency. After a 15-year effort on the part of homebuilders, the change in the code will include restrictors on the windows, limiting opening to 4 inches. Window height will also be dictated to be above 3 feet to help protect small children.
Homebuilders, aware that people often mimic their decorating were VERY careful never to put benches or other elevated furnishings under windows to subconsciously drive home the message.
Bob Wiggins – had happy economic news. Last week, he brought the nearly apocalyptic news of (gasp) an inverted yield curve. It can be typically indicative of the economy heading toward a cliff.
However, this week, the news that according to CIBC economists, there is further albeit modest growth ahead. CIBC measured three factors that lag six months…so a recession is still possible, but the odds are lower than a couple of months ago.
Finally , this:
Andy Lockhart – is working with a guy…OK, he calls himself this guy’s “bitch”…and together they’re building a replica of the Grand Slam bomb that was originally carried aboard the Lancaster. It’s 26 ‘ long, 46 in diameter. It will be housed at the Nanton Bomber Command Museum of Alberta.
From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_(bomb) :
“The Grand Slam was a 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) earthquake bomb used by RAF Bomber Command against strategic targets during the Second World War.
Known officially as the Bomb, Medium Capacity, 22,000 lb [b] , it was a scaled-up version of the Tallboy bomb and…It was also nicknamed “Ten ton Tess”. [5]
It was the most powerful non-atomic aerial bomb used in combat until 2017…”
“…After release from the Avro Lancaster B.Mk 1 (Special) bomber,[2] the Grand Slam would reach near-supersonic speed, approaching 1,049 ft/s (320 m/s), 715 mph (1150 km/h). When it hit, it would penetrate deep underground before detonating. The resulting explosion could cause the formation of a camouflet 9 and shift the ground to undermine a target’s foundation.”
Don Doolan’s grandfather flew Lancasters in the war. Not always a pretty picture. Taking off, they already used the whole runway…and some of them didn’t make it off the ground. Add the weight of that bomb, and let’s just say that “Ten Ton Tess” didn’t do the plane any favours.
Then, there was the problem of landing with an undeployed Grand Slam aboard.
That’s it until Thursday gents.
