Last month I watched the fantastic BBC eight-part series of Les Misérables on CBC Gem.
The miniseries is not based on the celebrated musical but rather the darker offering of Victor Hugo’s novel on 19th century urban France as it was on the cusp of revolution. Observing the working-class characters’ brutal lives got me thinking about “free time.”
Jeremy Engelstad, 24, is a Fenelon Falls resident who has done several jobs while growing up in the village, including farm work, stacking wood, collecting garbage, and shelf stocking and cart gathering at Sobeys.
Lately, he’s been thinking that a job in construction or waste management is something he might like to try.
When it comes to taking all the steps of adulthood, however, his biggest dream is renting his own apartment – and that’s also his biggest challenge in a village where housing needs easily outstrip supply.
As COVID-19 rages across Canada, now in a second wave, most businesses and workers have been affected in some way. Some people have lost their jobs. Countless others have had their hours cut. And while major grocery store chains, for a time, inched closer to a living wage (calling it a “temporary pay premium”) the extra pay was eventually revoked.
All communities are not made equal. Some are fragile hamlets, hanging on only through the echoes of history. Other communities are sprawling behemoths oozing prosperity, big box stores and middle-class urgency — a place of perfect lawns and hungry bees.
Today, the John Howard Society of Ontario launched a new online tool to help those with a police record better navigate the job-seeking process.
The online tool shows those who have a police record how they can proactively and transparently disclose their record to a potential employer. Nearly one in 17 Canadians report having a criminal record, according to a media release.
Common sense is apparently what my grandmother had and what I lacked, at least as a child. This information was often relayed to me at her rural Apsley home many decades ago, when I would spend time with her almost every summer. If I acted too much the smart aleck she would remind me of how much I still didn’t know.
The Oxford dictionary defines common sense as “the ability to think about things in a practical way and make sensible decisions.”
New year, same result. That, in a nutshell, describes the ongoing challenges many families in the City of Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton County, and Northumberland County face to pay for healthy food.
Being a chauffeur is just one of my important jobs. There’s line cook, personal shopper, super snow-shoveller, not to mention a whole slew of Viking-like tasks and Herculean daily errands that come under the heading of “Welcome to the Mother and Son Show.”
This is life with mom.
I can’t be the only 50-something adult that is helping to look after his mother in small town Ontario. Where are you people?! We should have some kind of support group going! (Is there one? I don’t know as I’m too busy shovelling snow…)
Long-time morning show hosts of BOB FM, Dave Illman and Julie Corlett, have been laid off in yet another example of apparent corporate cost-cutting. The Advocate has learned they were laid off as of today, Nov. 14.
In a written interview with the Advocate, Illman says it “was made very clear to us that there was no problem with our performance. Pure cost cutting. It happens a lot in radio these days.”
At the November 5 public meeting, Kawartha Lakes Council heard from staff, consultants and members of the public about proposed changes to the Development Charges By-Law and related Policy.
The meeting began with a presentation that outlined the Development Charges Background Study prepared by Watson and Associates. The purpose of Development Charges (DCs) is to recover the capital costs associated with residential and non-residential growth within the municipality. DC revenue helps fund growth-related expansion of such services as water and wastewater facilities, roads and other infrastructure.
