What is up with moving from one Province to another if you are a Canadian?

We recently moved from British Columbia to Alberta. Well, I want to be 'legal' so I went down to the local license plate registry location to get new Alberta license plates for my Infiniti G7xS. This registry place is privately owned and does Government registrations for a fee. So here starts the story….

I walk in prepared. I have my new insurance, my drivers license and the previous registration and insurance. A bit of a line up but not bad. I get to the counter and the gal could not be any more non-excited about her job. Mono tone questions. First thing she says to me is where is my vehicle inspection? I checked with my Infiniti dealer here and was told that any new vehicle with less than 5000 kms on the odometer is exempt from an inspection. "no sir, you need a vehicle inspection" . I am confused as I have no reason to believe the Dealership would give me wron information. After a few minutes of me questioning this response, she checks the computer again and says, no inspection is required but she needs to see the vehicle and check the information. No problem, this gets done and we are on our way…right? WRONG!

She writes out all this information and asks me for the original bill of sale. What do you need that for? "We need to prove you bought this vehicle new" What? You think I bought it used?! Anyway, off I go back home, get the original agreement and head back. Back in the line again and I get a new person. You guessed it, we start the process all over again!! "Where is you vehicle inspection sir? Good Lord girl…do you guys get trained somewhere? All the paperwork is started again, she checks the vehicle again (yes again) and then tells me she needs to send the application to Edmonton to get it 'approved'. Approved? This is a new car and I am Canadian and had valid insurance and registration in BC. What does the Alberta Government need to approve? Am I foreigner who has brought his car in from Europe? Nope. Just a Canadian moving from one Province to another trying to do the right thing.

Well here we are today. I received a message on my cell phone and I was APPROVED! Wow. Now I go intoday for the third time to get the actual plates. I think I will never move again!!

Regards,

Larry J Clark

I made the mistake of posting my resume on one of those big employment search websites. I was smart enough to keep my contact information private so potential employers would have to ask my permission to be contacted.
Well you guessed it. Insurance Companies are now trying to get me to contact them. Get serious. All you want me to do is come to you, bring a list of all my personal contacts and family members, so you can burn through them with your "special insurance and investment" products. Obviously this is not what I would be looking at but now I will give you my son's recent insurance story.
My youngest Josh, and his wife, were recently sold a $100.00 a month life insurance policy. May not sound bad and maybe normal to some of you, but let me explain why this was not a wise investment. They are just married, no children and do not own a home. They have no assets and both have jobs. Josh has a benefit package at work that has a term life insurance element of 100,000 dollars. Starting to get the picture? What do these guys need insurance for? Well, says the agent, it is 'PERMANENT' insurance, not just normal insurance. Permanent? What does that mean. In layman's terms, it is just Universal life with a new name. Universal insurance is whole life insurance. Now you are getting it.
They were told if they buy in now, their insurance cost would be less and stay the same cost throughout the policy term. I could go into allot here but let me give you some brief thoughts and facts:
If they just bought 100 thousand dollars in term insurance, it would cost them maybe $40.00 a month. They could then put the other $60.00 in mutual fund or some other savings instrument.
They don't need insurance at all as they have no assets to protect and no children.
Universal life is self destructing…what I mean by that is the insurance element has a cost per thousand based on age, etc. As each year goes by, the cost of the insurance goes up so more of the 100 dollars a month in premium, will be used for the insurance portion of the whole life policy and less into the "special savings portion". It doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out as you age, nothing will go into savings all will go to insurance. It will also eat up any savings you have received from the years to top up the insurance premium.
If one of them died, they would receive the face value of the policy, 100,000 dollars. Not the savings they had supposedly accumulated. It is used to pay the face value. He was actually funding his own payout!
Oh, did I mention the first 2-3 years of the policy there are no savings at all in there for your 100 a month…they go to the agent for commissions. They call it Admin fee's. Josh would have been better to put the 100 bucks in his mattress for 2-3 years, at least it would be there after that.
I am not blaming the agent as he is younger and was told to sell this stuff. His office also took him to a custom shirt shop so he could get custom fitted monogrammed shirts made. The agent is seeing all this and figures this is what he needs to do.
I am not going to mention who the Company was as this is the same with most Companies. My son saw the 'light' and canceled the policy.
I am not against Insurance Companies. I am against trying to sell people products that hose people. I have term life insurance. Not whole life and will never own. Neither should you.

I will keep ignoring these fine insurance job opportunities.

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

I was thinking of this economy we are in as well the situations in housing, layoffs, downsizing etc., and I was wondering what sector of the workplace would I target if I was unemployed and looking for work. I thought immediately of security. Think about it for a minute…the people who have money and assets will do whatever they can to hang onto them, and when we hit bottom in this recession, you will see good people do desperate things.

This means that existing Home and Business Security Companies will be expanding and looking for more people. As a ex-law enforcement guy, I saw good people do crimes based on passion and desperation. Obviously they do not go out with the intention of stealing or robbing from someone, but opportunity presents it's self and they respond. I also think there will be an increase in 'victimless crimes' like theft, fraud, and break-ins. Hard core criminals are rare compared to opportunists who break into non occupied vehicles, break into homes when no one is home, steal checks and forge signatures, or break into or steal from businesses. This will equate to victims demanding more police and security, and usually will take matters into their own hands and hire private security.

You are already seeing more gated, secure communities in the U.S. and Canada (they need security people at the gates and for patrol), Countries with private armed security for business people and to prevent car jacking, etc. I believe this will only grow with poor economic times.

So what's a guy/gal to do? Maybe research Security in your State and Province and find out how to get licensed. A big step would be to be a entrepreneur and start your own Security firm in anticipation of the increased demand. Hey, maybe even contract yourself and your vehicle for road patrol and who knows where you will go from there.

Just some thoughts in a direction maybe you haven't thought of before. Could be a secure job for the future…get it, 'secure' ?

To your rants and raves for the future,

Larry

Welcome to the first post on the Rants and Raves Blog. The purpose is to vent mostly, and share some credit and 'kudo's' to those who are deserving. Remember that this is my own personal take, not that of any organization or sponsor. I may have sponsor's one day, but they will get the same biased slant as well.

I noticed today, at a Sub Shop who will remain nameless for now, that the staff were anything but excited and when I cashed out my order, the gal at the till rattled off some suggested selling technique about the "combo" deal and did I want it. I graciously declined and left. I was mumbling to myself to the car that if she had smiled, was excited to offer this special "combo" deal, or maybe explained the value of it, I might have changed my mind. This all comes down to the ownership and how they train their people. It also comes down to follow up customer service to see if what they trained them to do was being carried out.

The real point of all this is this: Customer service in Canada is lacking and we can learn allot from our American friends. They are usually very good at it and rely on it for tips, bonuses and extra income. Here, not sure. No motovation I guess. The challenge now for these employee's of the restaurants or retail outlets, is that there will be competition for their jobs in this economy as really good people will be looking for part time jobs to suppliment their income. This will be a winfall for employers in the service industry, as they can exchange under-achieving employee's with more service orientated ones. I am all for this!

Something to consider,

Larry J Clark