We appreciate the emails from concerned readers who have asked, where have we been? Working diligently on Project X. Thank you for your tips. It took the train wreck known as Manitoba Hydro to get us to set things aside and get back into the arena. Manitoba Hydro has applied to the Public Utilities Board for another hike in rates. This year they're asking for a rates to go up 3.95 percent. Something about that number seemed odd. But what? It didn't take long to answer the question with a clipping from a Canadian Press story posted two-and-a-half years ago. "Manitoba Hydro's CEO says customers can expect rate increases of about 3.5 per cent a year for the foreseeable future as the Crown-owned utility builds new generating stations while export prices are soft." ( CP, Sept. 19, 2012 ) So Hydro's minimum rate hike has climbed by almost half a percent a year. And that's after the plan to build Manitoba's biggest generatin
The origin of the Usher of the Black Rod goes back to early fourteenth century England . Today, with no royal duties to perform, the Usher knocks on the doors of the House of Commons with the Black Rod at the start of Parliament to summon the members. The rod is a symbol for the authority of debate in the upper house. We of The Black Rod adopted the symbol to knock some sense and the right questions into the heads of Legislators, pundits, and other opinion makers.