Former MPAC Employee Darlene Rich is seeking $340,000 for violent verbal assault – November 9, 2018,
There’s a very well written article on the Toronto Star that I think all Canadians should consider reading
Although the headline of the article will grab your attention because Donald Trumps name is included, what’s shocking to me is what the employee is suing for. It’s important to read that article before reading what I have to say in this post.
The first thing people should understand is that MPAC stands for the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. Below is the Wikipedia definition for MPAC
MPAC, administers property assessments and appeals of assessment in the Province of Ontario MPAC determines the assessed value for all properties across the province of Ontario, Canada. This is provided in the form of an Assessment Roll, which is delivered to municipalities throughout the province on the second Tuesday in December. Municipalities then take the assessment roll and calculate property taxes for each individual property in their jurisdiction. MPAC complains that taxpayers often confuse MPAC’s role as an assessment agency for taxes; MPAC responds that they only provide assessments. Municipalities set the tax rates, and distribute the tax burden based on the assessed values provided by MPAC.
I’ve written about MPAC in the past because in my personal opinion the purpose of MPAC isn’t being used correctly, in my view, MPAC should be used to get rid of rental controls and subsidies for real estate investors. However the reason Ontarians hate MPAC is because their only use is to raise your property tax bill. So of course whenever they come around Ontario homeowners, they’ll deny they made any improvements to their property because improvements equal a higher property tax bill.
Now, on the flipside are entities who rent properties to Ontarians in high demand areas, who often lobby the government for perks because they can’t raise their rents when MPAC raises their property tax bill so because of this relationship with government and the private sector, Toronto as an example has a condo boom not based on demand and, a lack of rental units for families, this, of course, leads to a housing market with inflated prices because a vast majority of condos being build are bachelor, Jr 1, 1 and 2 bedroom condos. Most families in the GTA want 3 and 4 bedroom condos but because these condos aren’t being built and/or when they’re being built they’re so small, the ones that are available are being sold at inflated prices.
Why I bring this up, is why MPAC has to motivate their employees, to begin with. When everybody hates your companies existence, existing employee morale is down. As an example if MPAC were private it would have gone bankrupt years ago, MPAC provides little to any value in Ontario, like I said when an MPAC person shows up on your property, any Ontarian with half a brain knows that they shouldn’t tell the MPAC person anything about improvements they’ve made to their property, because what MPAC will do is raise their cost of living, via their property tax bill.
The equivalent to MPAC is our tiered taxation system, a lot of Canadians refuse to work overtime hours because doing overtime hours equates to them paying more taxes or being put into a higher tax bracket. So what you’ll get is a lot of Canadians turning down over time. MPAC and most government agencies function in this way, they punish citizens for being productive, creative and adding value to the country. So it’s only right that when an employee gets hired by this government agency that they’d assume this government agency has a lot of money.
In case Darlene Rich didn’t know
MPAC is an independent, not-for-profit corporation funded by all Ontario municipalities, accountable to the Province, municipalities and property taxpayers through its 13-member Board of Directors.
Currently, Canada Post is on strike and one of the reasons for their strike revolves around their paycheck, Canada Post is a Crown Corporation, they abandoned being called Royal Mail and called themselves Canada Post as their protections for existing a courier monopoly revolved around serving Canadians and not the United Kingdom. That said because of these protections Canada Post has been price gouging Canadians via their public sector union CUPW. Now, Crown Corporations are allowed to be profit driven but Non-For-Profits are not, which is why when you read Darlene Rich’s lawsuit it’s very interesting.
Canada has a lot of government programs and government protections in place via regulations that are preventing our country from growing economically. It’s hard to see the disasters brewing in Canada when you just look at the numbers, but tax revenues in important manufacturing sectors are coming down and being replaced by service sector jobs. The problem with service sector jobs and a service sector economy is that it’s easier for these service sector jobs to go bankrupt and rebrand themselves. Manufacturing jobs usually take more abuse because the last thing they want to do is leave. But these service sector jobs, these public sector government jobs they’re going to be a huge problem going forward.
This lawsuit by Darlene Rich is an indication that employees are beginning to feel more victimized, which is an indication that these regulations set by the government are being interpreted similarly to the #meetoo movement. As I’ve stated Canada is dissolving into a public sector, service sector economy, so this stuff could very well become more commonplace as the law makes subjective interactions relative to a patriarchal epidemic in the workplace.
I got into several arguments with all my bosses, in fact, I kind of enjoyed yelling back at my bosses, I always did my best at my job so when my bosses yelled at me I yelled right back, sure I was a little shaky and rattled afterward, but it never occurred to me that I should sue my employer for a disagreement. I’ve also been fired, but what I always loved about Ontario is that we had so many options for employment, screw that place is what I told myself, I’ll find work elsewhere, this attitude is of course what fueled me into self-employment.
Why I say this is because we as Canadians have to stop lying to people, lying to kids, lying to women. The government can’t solve all problems, the reason why a robust private sector is so important is that you want employers who will compete for you to work for them.
The mere fact that MPAC is being sued for this is actually comical, no, I should say it used to be comical, now certain segments of the population believe that they should be protected under law when a person says something to them in a tone or a setting they don’t like.
Again he wasn’t physically violent with her, but he made her feel a way that is causing her a lot of stress. Now, if we want to achieve equality in the workplace what I’ll say is men have these types of interactions all the time with other men. The truth is a lot of women have these types of interactions all the time with other women. What this lawsuit is being interpreted from my perspective is that Darlene Rich is upset that a man dared to talk to her in the manner in which he did. She mentions she had mental health issues in the past, well the suicide numbers show that a lot of men have mental health issues also. Being that it’s in men’s nature to be providers we tend not to like using the courts or the government to solve our disputes, many of us become suicidal when we’re faced with the reality that the government keeps raising the cost of living, thus disabling us from starting and/or raising a family.
On the flip side, there are some women that want more protections under the law, more workplace protections, unequal treatment, and more welfare protections. In the real world there are only trade-offs, money can’t make problems go away, money can be inflated and deflated and what’s been happening in Canada is that with all of these government regulations our Canadian dollars are being inflated, lessening our purchasing power while employees are being denied pay increases because the inflation numbers in Canada are being driven by government spending.
I keep trying to remind Canadians that we should be the richest nation on earth, and the truth is we are, the problem we’re having is all of these government-run institutions which cost taxpayers a lot of money. MPAC employees get a paycheck, they don’t work for free and the money they get comes from Ontario taxpayers, this assumption by Canadians that there isn’t a cost to pay for all these government people is amazing to me. What Darlene Rich is actually doing is she’s suing the people of Ontario, but of course she doesn’t even see it like that, she doesn’t even see that when people don’t like their employers they quit.
The reason why fewer people quit these days revolves around a welfare and the benefits of being fired. when you’re fired you’re entitled to more money when you quit you get nothing. So inevitably this creates a whole new type of employee. The private sector, of course, has been dealing with this problem for years, but more and more of this stuff is starting to get into the public sector because well the public sector is so large and they pay a whole lot more money than the private sector. So instead of a Canada Post employee quitting their job and working for UPS or FedEx, they’ll instead strike. If you read what Darlene Rich says, she mentions that she can’t find a job that will pay her the same amount of money as MPAC?
Government Non-For-Profits don’t mean that the company doesn’t make any money it usually means that the over-paid staff makes sure there’s no profit after they’ve been paid by taxpayer dollars. Now, again I highly recommend Canadians reread that Toronto star article because it really gives you a glimpse into the entitlement mentality that a lot of Canadians have. Let me remind Canadians that QUITTING is still an option, that’s the beauty of a free society, you can quit your job, you can be self-employed, you can find a new job. There is nothing sweeter than a government job, they don’t have to worry about meeting payroll, they don’t have to worry about competition, their mere existence is rarely if ever put into question.
In closing why this meetoo movement is causing disruptions is again male and female interactions in the workplace are being interpreted differently if this was a male on male interaction do you really think this suit would be what it is? I doubt it, but hey all power to her. Lastly, MPAC is a not-for-profit funded by all Ontario municipalities, if Darlene Rich sues and wins I’d like to know where MPAC will get the money from to pay her?
Interesting times ahead.