Lee Valley carry’s them, and I’ve seen them at commercial supply shops. I’ve never seen anyone use one, but I guess a VDE one would have some good applications over a measuring tape. I’ve also been using my laser measure a lot more lately, it eliminates a lot of the measurement errors common to measuring tapes.

Just the US copying our homework. Wasn’t a war crime when we did it though.

On a completely different subject, anyone started stocking up on canned ham?

I’d interested to see how much outstanding is actually people gaming the system, vs people that got caught up in a system that was intentionally designed to get money in people m’s hands and figure it out later. In my wife’s case, she qualified for CERB and received it, then the wage subsidy program came out and applied retroactively. She was made retroactively ineligible with no clear way to return the excess and when CRA dod reach out for repayment they made the process much more painful than it should have been.

Then there’s things like the benefits would be front-loaded, so presumably anybody that was laid off and then found employment would have ended up with some amount owing. Somme people that would have been eligible for regular EI got moved to CERB and were then found in-eligible for that. There was also a lot confusion about how it applied to things like seasonal workers or people in positions that may or may not have ended during the time that CERB was available.

Yep. Not sure of it’s still true recently but I know last time I looked up pricing between other carriers the prices in Sask were about $20/month lower than other provinces. Presumably this is due to Sasktel providing real competition and providing real service in rural areas.

Shitty think is they’ve kind of been limited by the Sask Party preventing them from providing services outside Saskatchewan, even if those services were profitable and bringing money into the province.

On the home internet side, Sasktel has always seems to have more consistent service, more upload bandwidth and no bandwidth limits. I even tested out some online backup systems, uploading about 20 TB/month for a few months straight and never heard anything about “excessive” usage. As far as I know they don’t do any kind of traffic monitoring or shaping on their home internet services.

They also have their own MVNO, Lüm Mobile, that can be pretty affordable for most users.

Yep, been a while since worked at a place like that, but there was definitely a crowed that would be there most days. This was mid 2000’s. Partly dried up when smoking indoors was banned, I think that was the last straw for a big part of the culture that was already drying up.

Ya, some small/moderately sized single dwellings would be good. I get that part of the goal is densification and the existing plans support that well, but I think there’s room for more compact single family dwellings designed for smaller lots. Maybe even something that’s designed with the idea of future additions where a person can get a starter home built, and add on as their family grows.

Is that still a thing? I know the greener homes grant is ending and not taking new applications. Presumably something else will be implemented in the not too distant future. I will say that depending on the project the grant is a relatively small benefit. We used it for windows, and it covered something like 25% of the cost, but it also meant we had to pay for everything up front and get the rebate back months later. That’s not affordable for a lot of people. The home loan program helps a lot with that but wasn’t available until after we closed our grant.

Ya, people at the lowest end of data usage, like 1 GB or less per month and that had loaded up on the biggest data package for the lowest rates are paying more on renewal, and aren’t really benefiting from all the extra data they hadn’t used yet. Those with more moderate/high usage though(maybe 5+ GB/month) are likely paying less on the new plans. I know for me the plan is significantly cheaper than my original one and I get a lot more data available. They also rolled the 911 fees and unlimited calling/texting into the base rate so that makes it a bit cheaper than just comparing the base membership rate. Maybe some particularly heavy users are still further ahead on other carriers “unlimited” plans, but I know even when I had an unlimited plan paid by my employer, I rarely used more than 10 GB/month which is still less data than Lüm’s current cheapest plan.

Yep, like anything it’s hard to get the full story through the media and people seem to latch on to parts of the story while ignoring other parts. I got the impression the farmer was being shady, deliberately using communications that the buyer would reasonably interpret as agreement while intending to dispute the validity of the contract when it went poorly for him.

Ya, some people kind of got screwed when they changed their pricing structure recently. It’s probably the most unique option land assuming its model is sustainable long term, it shows how much of your cell bill goes to things like retail spaces and device subsidies. There’s a reasonable argument there for people that can afford a moderate monthly fee rather than paying it all up front, but over a 2 year period it’s cheaper to get Lüm and buy a device outright. Even borrowing at a moderate rate and paying that back over time can be a better deal than standard carrier plans. They tend to have regular new subscriber deals as well as referral codes (xEYOpL) and any relatively modern cell purchased in Canada will be compatible with their network so there’s a good argument for making the switch and setting aside what you would have been paying at another carrier to pay for the next years service and future device replacement.

Too bad Moe says they’re not allowed to provide service to customers outside Sask.

Yep, it’s a shitty system, but most people’s finances are tight enough that they don’t want to give up that 1-3%(plus other perks) just on principle. Good example though of how those with the lowest income won’t qualify for a credit card but still pay the fees baked into store prices while those with the highest incomes qualify for the cards with the best befits.

Isn’t the WealthSimple card a Visa though? Costco only takes Mastercard so you wouldn’t be using it there. Costco card is 3% on Costco gas and restaurants, 2% on other gas and Costco.ca. For me that’s a big part of my spending.

Now if someone doesn’t do Costco then the WealthSimple card is probably a better option than lots of other cards. Particularly if they qualify for not paying the monthly fee.

I’ve got the Costco Mastercard and it looks pretty comparable. Phone/ purchase protection, travel insurance, etc… Costco is 2-3% on some purchases and 1% on everything else, though you can only spend the cash back at Costco. Maybe if I took the time to pick between each I could average an extra 1/2%. More choice is always good though and this helps squeeze other issuers to get more competitive.

I think it’s easier to qualify for the Costco card though than the no fees for the WealthSimple one.