Free Air Conditioning: Birds Minutes Feb 7, 2019

Hey gents,

Overdue minutes from Feb 7th beginning with the headline cue, Matt Litke’s recent installation of air conditioning…’cause you know, when it’s -35…

In all seriousness, that prompted a tip from Dan Kenelly about possible medical grants available to install air conditioning for patients with Asthma and possibly other respiratory conditions. After last year’s fire season, and predictions for more of the same, that note is worth passing around to folks you know that this could apply to.

Other notes from Matt: Henry was doing fine – just back from Mexico and taking it easy which partially explained his absence from the meeting. The other contributing factor was was that Joan had slightly injured a leg on the trip, but was doing fine.

Also, despite all the hype, hoopla etc over “online everything”, 96% of advice on sales in banking is still done in person. Matt noted that that in-person business is subsidized by all the online business but the bottom line is that “digital” compliments the real-person, real-world experience.

Gord   Forsyth mentioned a special guest coming to Birds March 14th courtesy of George Roberts . Please attend and bring a guest if you like! Our guest’s name is Geoff Dakin and his talk will be of particular interest to any of us who have suffered from intermittent, chronic or other low back pain. Geoff is the author of “ The Body Mechanic’s Handbook: Why You Have Low Back Pain and How To Eliminate It At Home “. George helped to edit the book and did a wonderful job of helping the author talk to “the rest of us” who don’t know a disc from a disk when it comes to discussing the back.

Gord also mentioned that Jim Bladon was trying to arrange a tour of one of the facilities of one of ATB’s Cannabis clients. Impressive operations.

Dan Kennelly noted that fabrication shops (or “fab shops” if you’re ever at one of his networking events), seem to be ramping up production again, which is encouraging. More encouraging is that it seems Trans-Mountain-pipeline-related.

Tony Fisher noted a new convention centre opening soon on Aero Drive in the NE, which should help the hotels that wound up semi-stranded after the changes to Barlow Trail years ago. He also mentioned the big, beautiful new Y in Seton having to close briefly because of an ammonia leak.

Sean Baylis summed up the markets digesting earnings with a couple of notes:

Ian Campbell passed on a tip learned the hard way. His wife has been running her company with the impression that due to past history and status, she was exempt from paying GST. Turns out, nope. They received a bill that caused Ian and Jo-Ann not to be able to sit for a while, never mind sleep. CRA attempted to get in touch, but their modus operandi is if they don’t hear from you fast enough, they take action like freezing your accounts (after kidnapping your first born). The whole mess is a work in progress but distressing, to say the least.

Dwayne chimed in with the fact that if the income for an entity passes $30k, CRA can assign the GST number automatically and simply calculate their pound ‘o flesh from there. If you’re having trouble sleeping, here’s recommended reading for everyone except Ian and Jo-Ann : the page on the CRA site you can reference that makes it clear as mud.  https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/register-a-gst-hst-account.html#register

George Doherty talked about his grandson being defrauded via a compromised debit card. No one’s sure how it happened, but the potential problem is that the bank treats debit and credit cards differently. They’ll usually cover most fraud on a credit card unless you’ve broken one of the terms of the agreement somehow. Unfortunately for George’s grandson, most cardholders are responsible for fraud committed with their debit card.

Mike Mikkelson commenting on having been at Bass Pro and seeing literally 2 other people in that store. That’s 2 people in “. ..150,000 square feet of outdoor excitement including the area’s largest selection of quality gear for fishing, hunting, camping, boating and marine. ” He shook his head and questioned how that mall is keeping the doors open

Brett Bain brought up the new Stat holiday under consideration for some time in September to honour Indigenous people. How many of these can businesses afford? Especially in light of the new Alberta labour regulations requiring paying employees on stats.

Don Doolan introduced a bit of scepticism into the optimistic airport numbers. Don noted that all their numbers up…yet pretty much every other number in Calgary is down. He was wondering how they’re calculated. No light was shed. Statistic manipulation anyone?

JD MacDonald has been busy since the start of the cold snap. He’s headed for shoulder surgery (the other one), so he needs to find a new hiree. He posted an ad and got 69 resumes in 3 days, many of them from plumbers with commercial experience. Past experience has taught him that the “commercial guys” wind up not being a good fit most times, so he was going to refine the ad. Don Doolan  or another Bird mentioned that Canyon Plumbing and Arpi’s had just let people go. Canyon had let go as many as 60 people.

Brad Pachal had a great tip for anyone using one of those battery powered keypad locks: lithium batteries. They’re superior in the cold. He also mentioned an inexpensive Smart Home possibility: Meross.  You can look them up here. They make smart switches and more that can easily be controlled from an app on your phone.

Andy Lockhart – not much to add today other than “Adios” as they head to Arizona.

Dwayne Vinck had two things, the first a tip that had me scurrying to my accountant to ask if we’d been doing this: report 95% of your income rather than 100% since 5% of is GST collected for the government. I may be oversimplifying, so check with Dwayne or your accountant.

Dwayne’s other comment had to do with all the breweries and micro-breweries that had opened up in the past several years in Alberta. The industry sprouted at least partially thanks to protective (and protectionist) legislation. So many are so good. Here’s hoping they all survive when the legislation changes, as it must.

Bob Wiggins was shocked to discover the Red Bull generation can make a living playing videogames! He speaks the truth. They call it eSports and people who would otherwise be mouldering away in their parents’ basement becoming part of the shag carpet are making 6 figure incomes and creating events with audiences of 100 million fellow basement dwellers. One team, Cloud Nine, was recently valued at $300,000,000. The owner of the New England Patriots recently bought an Overwatch (it’s a game title) franchise for $20,000,000. MasterCard and Visa are angling for sponsorship.

Here’s a quote from a Wired Magazine article where you can read a bit more on this craziness:

Memorable moment from the second round came from Don Doolan asking Tony about the long walkways at the airport that work some of the time ( ed. note: union walkways ). He and Tony marvelled at the beautiful semi-circular escalators and River Rock Casino in Vancouver that WORK. Ours are flat and boring – retrofit over the flooring, and they still can’t keep them running.