Mike Nabuurs's blog

Slowing It Down

 

The one thing we seem to all agree on is that life is too short and we're all living our lives at too fast a pace.  Stopping and smelling the roses has come down to sniffing the air as we whiz by not sure if they're roses we're smelling or not.  This fast paced lifestyle has lead to poor nutrition decision, i.e. fast food way too often, as well as some poor habits we've developed when it comes to driving.  Speed limits are regularly ignored as we try to get where we're going just a little faster because we just don't have the time to waste.  The problem becomes that when everyone regularly travels at ten or twenty kilometers an hour over the speed limit, we as a society start to show a lack of respect for the law.  Quickly ten or twenty over slips to thirty over or forty over or more.  Speed limits have become more like guidelines, a suggested top speed, and not one that we feel we have to take seriously.  That becomes an even bigger problem when a select few in our society really blow the doors off the thing.  There was an interesting story this week out of Hamilton where a 31 year old woman in a Ford Explorer was caught traveling at 130 kilometers an hour in a 50 kilometer an hour zone in the city.  That is 80 kilometers an hour over the posted limit.  Across the country there have been other examples just as bad but this story goes a step further.  This was the second time in a month that this woman was caught going more than 50 kilometers an hour over the limit.  The first time she lost her license for a week and had her car impounded.  After paying the fines and fees, within two weeks she was again traveling at an idiotic rate of speed down a city street.  This is the moment when our laws need to change to embrace this act for what it is, wanton ignorance for the safety of her society.  This isn't a speeding infraction anymore, this is a criminal act.  If this same woman had been caught shooting a missile down a city street people would be outraged and she'd be off to prison for ten years.  Yet, that's precisely what she did.  Her Ford Explorer traveling at 130 kilometers an hour is a 3,000 pound missile.  She can't control it if something suddenly happened.  She fired a missile down a city street and needs to be punished for doing it.  Ultimately there are two things we can do and we will eliminate this problem once and for all.  Right off the top we need to move to limiters that will not allow any vehicle to travel above the highest posted speed limit in the land.  Why have a vehicle that can even go 130 kilometers an hour if there is not a single road in the province where you can drive it that fast.  The second thing we need to do is bring in aggressive, draconian punishments for people caught excessively speeding.  We can't rely on excessive insurance premiums to drive these people off the roads because some people are rich enough that they can afford to keep doing it.  Stripping offenders of their license, their vehicle and even bringing in prison time are not a problem for me.  I will never be caught going that fast, I would never consider it safe for me to go that fast never mind the safety of the residents of the community.  Horrific accidents will continue to be a part of our every day lives until we meet speeders head on with harsh and painful punishments.  Innocent people will continue to lose their lives in collisions with people who are reckless.  You can't discharge a gun within the city limits, so why on Earth are people getting away with unleashing a missile down the street?!?!?! Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

Uniformed Opinion

 

So there I was staring at the fan on the weekend when all of a sudden, some stinky stuff hit it.  Sometimes there are decisions made in some far off boardroom and you just have to give your head a shake and wonder, who in the world thought that was a good idea?  Last week Canada's oldest retailer, the Hudson Bay Company, was reeling when the news got out that the uniforms they were going to dress our Olympic athletes in were mostly made in China.  I guess to someone it made some sense since the games are being held there, maybe the athletes can just pick them up at door in Beijing and save on shipping costs?  The Hudson Bay Company won the right to dress our Olympic athletes in 2005.  They paid a lot of money to be the official clothing supplier and no one told them they had to make the stuff in Canada.  So they had 80% of the 25 piece uniform made in China.  They claimed it was because the eco-friendly materials used in the clothes isn't easily available here, including using bamboo.  Since, for those of you who don't know, bamboo is a very popular Canadian tree.  Oh that's right, it's not.  I guess Canada doesn't have any eco-friendly materials??? So now back to the boardroom.  At what point in the meeting did someone say, "look, we can save millions if we just dress our Canadian athletes, paid for by the Canadian taxpayer in clothes, made in China".  Did anyone in that meeting suggest that the optics of that aren't great?  At a time when Ontario and Quebec are hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs and the Canadian textile industry is reeling because of cheap products made abroad, this would have been the opportune time for someone to invest in Canada. Especially since, it's our money.  It's our money that funds the athletes and if HBC hope to sell some of these Olympic clothing items to us it will be our money they'll pocket.  The Olympics is a wonderful world stage to show off some Canadian products.  Our athletes have to be Canadian to compete at the Olympics for us, shouldn't the clothes they wear also reflect where they're from.  Roots Canada, who actually had the contract before the Hudson Bay Company, used the Olympic stage to make a fortune.  They created uniforms for various Canadian teams that translated into great sales of their products.  Remember the beret that was so popular people were stealing them in the athletes village?  So Canada's oldest company, supplying uniforms to Canada's Olympic team decided to have the clothes made in China.  Should that basic statement not have raised a red flag in that board room meeting.  Or at the very least, a red and white flag with a little red maple leaf on it.  Oh that's right, that flag was probably made in China as well so what does it matter.  Listen, in this age of the global economy, we all buy stuff that's made all over the world.  I get that and I get that money is an issue.  It's an issue for manufacturers and it's an issue for people buying the stuff.  However, when you're entrusted to outfit a country's team that would be the perfect opportunity to highlight that country's top outfitters.  Having our athletes march in front of the world in their clothes would have been their Olympics.  For their part the Hudson Bay Company says that none of the clothes were made by child labor or forced labor and the factories they use pay a decent wage.  Which in China is, like a dollar a day.  The people in the board room who made this idiotic decision, made more money than that just getting out their made in China pens to write on their made in China note pads that we should have the uniforms made in China.  And for that they win the Olympic gold for stupidity. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

Stuck in the Middle With You

 

Last week Statistics Canada released new income information and the lead news story from that 2006 Census report was that the rich in Canada are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is stagnant.  Kind of an icky word to describe most of us but then again it could be worse, we could have been losing ground.  The thing of it is, the middle class is a pretty big group.  It encompasses all kinds of people, so many in fact that over the years people have tried to break that group up into smaller bites.  The lower middle class, the upper middle class and the, well, I guess the middle middle class?  I, like the majority of Canadians, have lived my life somewhere in that vast wasteland known as the middle class.  The problem I had with last week's news reporting was the way so many media outlets made it sound like a bad and unfortunate state.  The funny thing is, most of the people reporting the story, also part of the middle class.  Labels are always a bit funky to work with because everyone's situation is different but, in the end, I'm really happy being part of that group.  Whether my income has been stagnant or not, it hasn't really affected me adversely.  The thing about the rich is, most of them work really hard at being rich.  It takes effort and a desire to want to constantly bring in wealth that I just don't have.  If they want to wine and dine and work the crowd and spend their time trying to figure out how to get even richer, that's their thing.  I have a modest house and live a modest lifestyle and I'm quite happy with the whole thing.  I really don't need a gigantic home with entire wings that no one even uses.  I don't need five and a half baths since I only use one.  The only problem I have with being part of the middle class is the way some people see it as a failure or a negative thing.  Some of us, believe it or not, are not driven by money or the need to have all the toys.  The fact of the matter is, this supposed "stagnant middle class" has more than they know what to do with.  The middle class in Canada has all the food they need, they have nice homes, cars to drive and more gadgets than you can shake a stick at.  This "stagnant" middle class is living a very comfortable life especially when compared to the one class that needs our help.  It's like Canada is an episode of The Brady Bunch.  The majority of us are Jan, stuck in the middle and all everyone talks about is Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.  The rich have this, the rich have that, the rich are getting richer.  Meanwhile no one is talking about poor Cindy.  She has nothing.  She doesn't have enough to eat, she can't find work that pays a decent wage, she lives in crime filled neighborhoods and needs our help.  The poor getting poorer according to the 2006 census is the real story.  That is the headline everyone needs to pay attention to.  Poverty leads to more crime and children who don't have enough to eat and that affects their ability to get a good education and break the cycle.  In a nation as rich and decent as Canada there should be no child that goes to be hungry.  Is the rich getting richer part of the problem?  Maybe it is, maybe they need to stop being so damn greedy and throw a little back to the poor in this country but in the end, no one should be worrying about the middle class.  There's a great line in the song "Lucky Man" by country band Montgomery Gentry.  The line goes "I look around at what everyone has and forget about all I've got".  That to me, sums up the problem with some in the middle class.  Forgetting about how fortunate we are because we're so damn busy looking at what the rich have we don't think enough about the people in our very community that need our help because they have nothing.  I'm proud to be a member of the middle class and I will be happy always being a member of that group.  What makes me ashamed is that we don't do more to force governments to help the poor, join our ranks. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !!

The Watery Eye Guy

 

Recent numbers suggest that 10 million Canadians suffer from seasonal allergies.  Actually, you can add one more to that.  After a fairly long and healthy life free from allergies I have suddenly become sniffly and watery eye guy.  I used to hear stories about people "suffering" from allergies.  I don't think I ever truly understood what "suffering" meant when they would say that but now I do.  I don't know where they came from and I don't know why now, at this point in my life, but, they're here.  I can't tell you what I'm suddenly allergic to.  I am out of the loop on this stuff.  I don't know what season this is.  Is it the fresh grass, is there some specific type of pollen floating around right now?  Is this hayfever?  I have no idea what hayfever even is but I do know I don't have a fever so maybe it's not that.  Hey, maybe I'm allergic to ignorantly high gas prices?? Each morning this week I've woken up with a head full of crap and watery eyes.  As the morning progresses the nose runs and then by lunch time I'm all good to go.  This is why I'm pretty sure it's not a cold.  It's been my experience that colds tend to stay with you through the day.  So I'm left sneezing, blowing and wondering, when will it end.  Is this permanent?  Will I now have allergies every spring or will they also continue right through the summer?  I'm a newbie in the world of allergies and I have no answers.  I suppose that I could seek out fellow sufferers and start peppering them with questions but I would imagine that each person suffers a little differently.  A quick Google search of seasonal allergies and suddenly my world is opened up to things like snow mould, spores, pollens and the like.  There was no reason for me to understand it before and now, I've got to quickly bring myself up to speed.  Apparently I've been able to determine I might be allergic to the sexual activity of trees.  Okay, I didn't see that coming.  In the early spring pollens are the most likely cause for my sniffles.  The question becomes, will I continue to suffer.  Some people who are really unfortunate, can suffer from March to November.  Wow, that hurts.  Actually looking forward to winter for some relief?  I've never looked forward to winter before and I'm not sure I even know how to look forward to winter.  From the tree pollens we'll swing into allergic reactions to grasses in late spring and early summer.  That's followed by ragweed in the late summer.  The weird part is allergies can start at any time in your life.  A lot of kids develop allergies and some out grow them.  However, you can also suddenly develop them well into adulthood.  I guess that's me, well into adulthood.  Although I can't say I've ever described myself that way before.  So now come the ways to tell that you are suffering from an allergy and not a cold.  You're sneezing and coughing but there is no fever or muscle ache.  Well, there is some muscle ache but that might be from the first trip to the driving range.  Another sign, the mucous secretions are clear and runny.  Yep, got that one, especially the runny, really runny.  The final sign that it's allergies, your symptoms last longer than the typical cold which is seven to ten days.  Wow, they're going to last longer than that?  Now that's the definition of suffering.  I actually feel bad that I haven't felt bad for allergy sufferers before.  This newbie feels your pain my friends.  I just wish I knew when it was all going to end.  In the meantime I'd just like everyone to know, I'm not crying, it's allergies and that's a pack of tissue in my pocket and I'm not just happy to see you. Until We (sniffle) Type Again, Take It (sniff, sniff) Ease !!

Change As Good As A Rest

 

This week there have been a number of headlines that can all be summed up under the heading "A Transitioning Society".  High gas prices, high food prices and Ontario on it's way to becoming a have-not province are all symptoms of a society that's changing.  Whether it's for the good or bad, that's another topic. The fact is the global economy is a reality and that is at the heart of the changes.  Oil prices are set for the world according to world demand.  The price of gas goes up at the corner of Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg because China needs more oil for it's booming economy.  Food prices are set by the world according to demand and even shortages based on problems that may be occurring hundreds of thousands of kilometers from us.  A drought in Africa means a loaf of bread costs more at the corner store in Medicine Hat.  Ontario is hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs because new factories have opened in India, Mexico and Bangladesh.  The problem is, all of our complaining falls on deaf ears since our government has lost control of the situation.  The Global Economy is in full effect and the government of Canada can't change it.  They can offer Band-Aid solutions, a few bucks to try and soften the blow but in the end, the changes to our society will come and we can embrace them or fight them kicking and screaming.  We are making the transition from a manufacturing based economy to a service and technological based economy.  Parts of Canada remain prosperous but that is solely based on commodities.  Oil, gas, grains and other commodities selling at record prices have kept parts of the country rolling in the dough.  The problem with that is, if commodity prices hit a wall and start to drop, so does the current engine of our economy.  The Canadian government needs to lead the way in encouraging business that has long term value.  We need to invest in even more research and development of green industry.  We need to consider where the emerging economies of the world are heading and what things they will need in the future so we can be there to deliver them.  Foresight and long term planning are the only solutions to these problems.  Sadly, the interim time period will be painful.  We have nothing to replace high paying manufacturing jobs that are lost.  There is nothing we can do to help people involved in businesses that are huge gas users.  The price of those commodities are going to force us to make changes to the way we do business and in the end to the businesses some of us are involved in.  Trucking products here, there and everywhere will eventually not be economical anymore.  So if your business is based on trucking products all over North America, you may find that over the next decade you're going to have to re-think what it is that you do.  The answers are not simple but is complaining about the problem going to change it?  The answer there is a resounding no.  There's been talk of getting the Canadian government to drop the taxes we pay on gas.  This is another Band-Aid solution.  The fact is the money raised by those taxes is used to pay for all kinds of things in this country.  So if the government stops collecting it at the pump, does that mean they just won't need it anymore?  That money will have to be collected somewhere else because it's paying for all kinds of government services including equalization payments that Ontario will apparently need sooner rather than later.  We're going through a massive re-think on how we live and work.  Our children and our children's children will be living in a different world here in Canada.  The question becomes how fast can we make the transition.  Since that transition time will be painful as people lose jobs, lose their homes and suffer through high commodity prices.  This just means the quicker we can make the transition to a greener, smarter economy based on the future needs of the world and not based on what they needed last week, the more quickly we can get back to the good times that we've been riding for so long. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

Stretching the Dollar

 

The news has been grim lately.  Like rising gas prices weren't enough, now we're being warned about higher grocery costs.  It seems that the rest of the world has been suffering under rising food prices but it hasn't been as noticeable in Canada because at the same time our dollar was increasing in value.  This has meant Canadians were finding themselves with more buying power and we didn't even realize that the cost of so many foods we import had gone up.  However our dollar has now leveled off and the cost of food is still going up.  The reasons for the rising food prices are myriad.  Droughts in a number of places in the world, large populations like China and India developing a much larger middle class which is eating more and the high price of grains and other agricultural products.  Add to that the high price of gas to get the goods to market and prices are rising faster than the dandelions in my pesticide free front yard.  However there are some things we can do to help stem the tide of the grocery store dipping deeper into our pockets.  One of those things is called "price matching".  I'd heard the term but really hadn't thought much of it.  I know Wal-Mart and Zellers do it and other stores may soon have to start taking part.  The idea is simple enough, show them that another store has a product cheaper and they'll match that price.  Now when I've heard that line in the past I just sort of took it to mean, they were charging the lowest price and they knew it so they were kind of proving the point by putting the ball in your court to prove them wrong.  However the other day I experienced price matching in it's most glorious form.  I was in line at the checkout and the fella in front of me had a grocery cart filled to the brim and in his hand were at least 10 different flyers.  I stood there in amazement as he put products on the conveyor belt and as the cashier went to ring each item in he'd tell her the price she should be charging.  When the milk hit the scanner he pointed out to her that another store had milk on sale for a cheaper price.  So she rang in the cheaper price.  The yogurt was up next and he'd found it on sale in a different flyer for a different store and he got that sale price.  On and on it went.  This guy was good, a real price matching pro.  He was smooth and well organized as he matched various flyers with various products and got everything in his cart for some kind of discounted price. Immediately the thought crosses your mind, just how much trouble would that be.  However, I don't think we're talking that much time.  You gather the flyers together when they come in and go through them circling the items you need that week.  Then the beauty of price matching kicks in.  You go to one store that offers it and you get all the sales.  With just a rough calculation in my head and looking back at the flyers after the fact and I think that fella cut his grocery bill for that week by close to $15 or $20 dollars.  Even more if he takes advantage of deals to stock up on items that he knows he'll be needing anyway.  The other thing I liked was that this guy was being proactive in dealing with higher prices.  Instead of just moaning and bitching about it, this guy was fighting back.  Sure it took a bit of time but in the end, his grocery bill hasn't gone up.  Coupons and sale items at grocery stores have been around since the grocery store was invented.  The difference here is getting all the sale items without driving around to a half dozen different stores.  One stop shopping is a huge benefit with the cost of gas the way it is.  I think I'm converted.  It's not that I can't even afford to pay more, it's just that it's being offered so why not take advantage of that.  When I got up to the cashier I asked about price matching and she said lots of people are doing it.  Then I paid full price for the milk I was getting. I should have stopped that guy ahead of me and asked to borrow his flyer and while I was at it I could have thanked him for teaching me a thing or two about stretching my dollar.  Now I've got to go home and fish through my blue box for all those flyers I threw out. I didn't realize it was like throwing out money, which none of us can afford to do these days.  There's no chance any of those flyers feature some place with gasoline on sale is there??? Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

The Kidfluence

 

There are a couple of hot button issues right now for parents who are trying to guide innocent children through trying times.  Today the video game Grand Theft Auto Four is being released.  Already predicted to be the biggest selling video game ever, the Grand Theft series has been immensely popular.  The problem is that Grand Theft Auto is really a game for adults who can understand the context of the violence contained within.  Much the way Bloom County and Doonesbury transformed the Sunday funnies from a place for kids to a place for adults to go for a laugh.  Grand Theft Auto has taken the video game platform, originally something that was the domain of kids, and turned it into something more and more adults enjoy.  That in itself creates a problem because many adults still think of video games as something for kids.  Therefore they don't pay much attention to ratings and they allow kids to play a game where the game player can steal, cheat, lie, maim and kill.  Many have come to say that allowing kids to play violent video games has made kids more violent, however, a new book challenges that theory.  Two Harvard professors have looked at all the data and various studies looking at the effect of violent video games on kids and they've found that, outside of a possible link to an increase in bullying, there's not much else to it.  The book they wrote is called "Grand Theft Childhood" and they claim that there isn't much in the way of hard data to conclude that kids who play violent video games then take the lessons they learned there and bring them into their real life.  It's true that kids who have shot up schools have played these games but digging a little further finds that those kids also had other, more serious problems that likely lead to their violent outbursts.  In the end, whether the games make kids more violent or not, should they still have access to it??  Just because it might not make the kid shoot up their school, that still doesn't excuse the fact that innocent children should not be exposed to such violent themes in their entertainment.  If, for no other reason, than it does desensitize them to some degree toward the suffering of some in our community.  Killing people for fun, even in a virtual world, not really the way any kid should be spending their free time. The other issue for parents of kids that has come about this week are the scantily clad photos of Miley Cyrus.  First there were inappropriate private photos of her that made it onto the internet and then on top of that a new professional photo shoot for Vanity Fair that shows, what appears to be a naked Miley Cyrus, frolicking on a bed with satin sheets.  You don't have to be a prude to ask, is that necessary?  The messages of overt sexuality that our children are constantly exposed to can't be any healthier than playing video games where violence prevails.  The problem is, the marketing machine that is working so feverishly to wrestle the dollars out of the hands of kids, has found that controversy sells.  Miley Cyrus is already making millions but watch that number increase every time she and her marketers can find another way to get her into the headlines.  15 year old girls posing for pictures like they're wannabe porn stars is abhorrent.  In a time when we hear far too many stories about internet predators and pedophiles littering our society, we send a mixed message when we think that selling a 15 year old girls' sexuality is acceptable. Our kids today are being raised on a steady diet of violence and sex.  Each day someone, somewhere is trying to come up with the next way to push the envelope to get his or her client a little more screen time and a few more bucks in their bank account.  Parents can try and shield their kids from this only to find out they went to play at Billy's and his parents let him play Grand Theft Auto Four in a room with pictures of a barely dressed Miley Cyrus hanging on the wall.  It is up to all parents to do a better job of restricting access to such things by children. The old argument that this has always been a problem.  TV networks shooting Elvis from the waist up is a classic argument for how this issue has always been around and in the end Elvis didn't hurt anyone.  The thing is, even if that argument holds some water, the bigger issue now is the age of exposure.  It wasn't ten year olds watching Elvis' thrusting hips in their bedroom but today it is ten year olds trying to mimic Miley Cyrus or playing Grand Theft Auto Four. There's an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child.  I just get depressed when I think about my kids and why they always seem to make friends with the kid who's parent, is the village idiot. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !

The Inconvenience Truth

When most of us get up each morning we are looking forward to a day that goes our way.  Some days you start out and know right away that this is not going to be one of those days.  You hit the alarm one too many times, grab the toothpaste and realize that no matter how hard you squeeze you are not going to get one more blob out of that tube.  This sends you in a frantic search for that new tube that's got to be under this sink somewhere.  Now you're quickly falling behind schedule which leaves you more anxious and any attempt to get caught up is futile.  Rushing to save a little time pouring that last cup of coffee before you leave the house will inevitably leave you with coffee spatter on your shirt.  Finally you resign yourself to the fact that it's just one of those mornings. 

Luckily those mornings are balanced off by the ones that just roll out with unusual grace.  You wake up before you've even hit the snooze button for a third time.  The sun is usually shining and before you know it you're ready to head out the door but stop for a second because, you're actually five minutes ahead of schedule.  You're not sure how it happened but it's a nice surprise.  You jump in the car and hear the traffic report on the radio and they say something to the effect of, "we're not sure why but traffic volumes are much lighter than usual today".  It's just one of those good days. 

Working in the Future

 

This week I came across the top ten careers you may not have heard of but that are on the fast track to becoming more popular and more in demand.  As our economy and society change, propelled by manufacturing jobs going overseas and a new move toward more earth friendly products and services, there's a change in what careers will be big in the next few years.  Some of these, I'd never heard of before.  Some of them are older professions that you may not have realized were about to become more important to our technological based economy. Here are the top ten hot careers.

Good Money After Bad

 

It's a dry and boring topic.  Thanks to an enlightened piece by the CBC's Marketplace some people were tipped off that the mortgage insurance they have with their bank may not end up paying off should you need it.  Now as soon as words like insurance come up a lot of people tune you out and think the whole thing's a rip-off and they lose interest in the conversation.  However, when it comes to the banks selling mortgage insurance, there is a big problem and people need to know if they're not covered.  I have now had personal experience with this and despite not being an expert on it, I think I can put the problem into plain terms that even I can understand.  Anyone who has mortgage insurance with a big bank needs to know and understand this.  If you know someone who has mortgage insurance, you need to direct them to find out more because when a spouse dies and suddenly they find out the mortgage isn't going to be paid off, at that point it's too late for everyone.  The simple facts are this.  Alberta is the only province that has a law in place saying that anyone selling any kind of insurance has to be licensed.  Everywhere else in the country, you are on your own to figure it out.  Anyone at th bank can sell insurance even if they don't understand it.  The details of this are pretty straight forward.  You take out a mortgage with the bank and the bank asks if you want mortgage insurance.  If you or your spouse should die the mortgage will be paid off and your family won't be thrown from the house.  Most people jump at the chance to have this protection and the banks are making a fortune off it.  The first problem is the bank is actually just selling you the chance at insurance.  You are not actually insured until a person dies and then they go to the insurance company to see if they'll cover it.  You may have paid for years only to find out that your claim is being rejected and you aren't covered.  It seems the biggest reason that people aren't covered is, they committed fraud.  When you take out mortgage insurance you fill out a quick little form.  Unlike buying actual life insurance that has a form as thick as War and Peace.  There's a reason for the difference.  Again, they aren't actually qualifying you for insurance at the bank, they're just agreeing to take your money and if you die, then they'll see if you qualify.  Now I can hear the big question, but how did I commit fraud?  Well it was completely innocent on your part.  The question on the form that we signed said simply "in the last 24 months have you been screened or tested for cancer, high blood pressure....." and then it went on to list a bunch of other potential illnesses and defects.  You stop for a moment, think about it and check the "no" box.  The bank says great and you go on your merry way paying them money to insure your mortgage.  Suddenly, out of nowhere you die.  The bank goes to the insurance company and the insurance company looks at your medical records.  Then they find that in that 24 month period you maybe had a pap smear.  A very common test many women have had many times.  It turns out that's considered a "cancer test".  You had checked no and now you've committed fraud.  Sorry, no money for you.  If you've had a blood pressure test, even a routine one as part of a check up, that's considered a test for high blood pressure.  Oops, sorry, you committed fraud, could you please be out of your house by Friday.  Just about the only way you can be absolutely sure that you have not committed fraud is if you had not been to a doctor or a hospital in the 24 months prior to signing up for mortgage insurance.  If you had been to a doctor, than, in more cases than not, you are not covered by the mortgage insurance that you continue to pay for right now and will continue to pay for if you don't do something about it.  You must investigate this.  Your friends must investigate this.  We went as far as to call the insurance arm of the bank we deal with and they brushed it off.  They said, oh ya we heard about that Marketplace report but you're fine as long as you didn't answer any questions on that form fraudulently.  We thought we were in the clear but then we dug just a little deeper and it turns out we weren't covered.  Seven years of paying mortgage insurance and it's all been a waste because I had been to the doctor and he'd used the cuff thing on my arm to take my blood pressure.  I had checked "no" on the little form but I had received a high blood pressure test.  The bank didn't ask me about it, the form didn't clearly state that this was a problem.  However I had committed fraud and if I died the banks' insurance company had every right to deny the claim and my family would be on their own with mortgage payments still in tow.  This is a scam.  The lack of information provided to you by the bank constitutes a fraud as far as I'm concerned but the courts would side with them.  The only way to solve this problem is to force the government to bring in a law similar to Alberta's.  Insurance should only be sold by licensed individuals who understand what they're selling and explain it to you.  Literally billions of dollars are spent every year on mortgage insurance with the banks and millions of Canadians are not covered.  The story of denied claims doesn't get more play only because the great majority of us never have to make a claim, we're the lucky ones.  Just think of losing your partner and then finding out that your mortgage insurance is denied.  That is what you potentially face if you don't act today and make sure that you did not answer that form in a fraudulent manner.  You can get life insurance from a licensed broker to cover your mortgage for around the same amount of money as you now pay the bank and you will be pre-cleared so there is no doubt.  Tell everyone you can.  We have to look out for each other on this one because, surprise, surprise, the bank isn't interested in looking out for us. Until We Type Again, Take It Ease !