Rhino’s Ramblings - Customer Service, Cameras and Holy Crap

By Robert Thomas Opinion/Commentary

It’s been awhile since I’ve written a column wrapping up some local stuff in a nice bow so here goes.

Compassion

I was on the bus on Thursday and there was an elderly rider who was afraid to get off of the bus at the Vanier stop because of the ice.

The Moose Jaw Transit driver took matters into his own hands and offered to drop off the pensioner in a dry spot and closer to her home.

He even went so far as to offer to assist the elderly rider off the bus safely.

So there we were at the corner of MacDonald Street and Fourth Avenue NW about 5 pm on Thursday letting an elderly passenger off closer to her home.

The streets were clear of traffic and one elderly bus passenger made it home with a lot less of a chance of falling, potentially breaking a hip or worse.

The same happened at another stop.

Common sense by just stopping and letting people off of the bus on a non-icy spot and closer to their final destination.

Everyone who got off the bus - the majority were of East Indian descent - said thank you to the bus driver for the ride.

Hmmm maybe common sense and courtesy do way more in retaining and building ridership than City Hall proclamations.

If Mayor Clive Tolley ever wants to start telephoning City employees who are really helping to make their jobs and the City better here might be a place to start.

Crime

Saddened to hear the Moose Jaw Exhibition is going to have to install more security cameras.

At their AGM members were told that the Exhibition is on a waiting list of people and businesses in Moose Jaw wanting security cameras installed.

There is a growing number of petty thefts at the Exhibition recently and you are not going to guess what one of the things people are stealing.

It’s the proverbial new green gold - hay.

With hay prices skyrocketing people are stealing it.

It’s theft and stealing and not just a little bit of grass.

Although the culprits aren’t known there are people with rabbits and other critters out there that see it as no big deal to grab hay.

It’s theft.

The Moose Jaw Exhibition was for many years spared petty theft.

But sadly the Exhibition is no longer a stranger to petty theft as it’s spiking throughout the city.

I’ve had multiple reports where people have caught people red handed stealing from their garages and sheds only to have a Moose Jaw Police Service (MJPS) officer say there is nothing they can do because the person is “homeless.”

Crime and enforcement of it is for many people “offender centric” and as far as victims go services for them are not available.

Personally I can see their (victim’s) side of the issue.

Crashing

There has been a lot of rah rah press out there lately about Square One and their efforts to establish a warmup shelter and women’s housing unit.

The other thing really lost in the mix is in my opinion the activist group Square One has really not annunciated very well publicly what their plans are.

They’ve gone from a group representing a bunch of groups to simply to a group coordinating between relevant groups on the issue it seems.

On another issue they’ve gone from Mayor Tolley telling me they were the coordinators between groups feeding people to now helping out the groups for one meal on the weekend for a project started well before Square One’s conception.

It still helps for sure but the real story is much different than some believe.

I am also personally wondering though the true depth of their support on a major social issue.

So I did a little bit of media enquiring into their funding and found out the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is not part of the Square One effort.

The SHA is aware of Square One but is not funding or participating in the project.

I was referred to the agency which is involved - Social Services - for more information.

It’s a big unknown how much Square One has to do with the SHA and others whose job it is to tackle the addiction and mental health problems many of people on the street have.

One thing for sure is the SHA is not officially involved in the project.

It’s great to see Square One make a large chunk of cash on their most recent fundraiser but at the same time without expanding that support the effort is in my own opinion doomed financially.

The lack of transparency or rather their plan not being annunciated properly is also from my sources not doing them a world of favours.

From my sources the meeting Square One had with the Downtown business community was not the most productive.

There is plenty going on behind the scenes on this one with the ultimate goal to win public support.

In my opinion look for Square One to start ramping up the rah rah with local friendly reporters.

Whether there is going to be advertising or other dollars silently withdrawn in response - as one local merchant told me - is yet to be seen.

There is a lot of hidden intrigue going on behind the scenes on this issue in my opinion.

All I can say is something needs to be done to help rebuild lives but I’m no expert on what, where and how to do it.

These are some of the concerns raised by the business community I’m told.

Contact

I’ve had a couple of people telling me I don’t show up for their events and they are frustrated.

It’s hard to tell people I don’t have time to read about their events in other media to learn second hand about their events.

I really don’t chase events.

If it’s an event where media from everywhere attends I likely won’t be there unless it’s an issue which deserves more questioning.

Not really MJ Independent’s mandate.

If it’s a political event we will let the community know about it. But given where politics has gone in this country to such a personalized political polarization nope we likely won’t be out covering it. For any party.

I actually do have a schedule which I work around heart disease, MS and just living a life.

But I keep plugging away.

If you need to contact us drop us a line at moosejawnews@gmail.com