Trevor Dailey's Weblog

THE FOLLOWING IS PERSONAL OPINION AND IS NOT LEGAL ADVISE

Just recently, it was brought to my attention that the left red tail lamp on my vehicle was not illuminating. It was suggested to me that I fix my vehicle’s left rear red tail lamp before I was issued a ticket. It would seem many people believe that in the Province Of Ontario a traffic ticket can be issued to a driver of a vehicle if the vehicle does not have two operating red tail lamps, or two operating white head lamps, or three operating brake lamps, or four turn signal lamps. It is a mystery to me where these beliefs come from. My viewpoint is they are not correct, if the vehicle is not a commercial vehicle nor a trailer. From the Ontario Highway Traffic Act:

Lamps

Lamps required on all motor vehicles except motorcycles

62. (1) When on a highway at any time from one-half hour before sunset to one-half hour after sunrise and at any other time when, due to insufficient light or unfavourable atmospheric conditions, persons and vehicles on the highway are not clearly discernible at a distance of 150 metres or less, every motor vehicle other than a motorcycle shall carry three lighted lamps in a conspicuous position, one on each side of the front of the vehicle which shall display a white or amber light only, and one on the rear of the vehicle which shall display a red light only.  R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 62 (1).

Breaking the language down into layperson’s words: “highway” is a legal term for any public road, “lamp” is a synonym for “light”, and “amber” in this case means a typically yellowish colour. This means as long as a vehicle is driving on any public road, during the above mentioned conditions, it is only required to have three lights: two white or amber on the front, and one red on the back. What if the brake lamps are not working? From the Ontario Highway Traffic Act:

Signal for stop

(8) The driver or operator of a vehicle upon a highway before stopping or suddenly decreasing the speed of the vehicle, if the operation of any other vehicle may be affected by such stopping or decreasing of speed, shall give a signal plainly visible to the driver or operator of the other vehicle of the intention to stop or decrease speed,

manually

(a) by means of the hand and arm extended downward beyond the left side of the vehicle; or

signalling device

(b) by means of a stop lamp or lamps on the rear of the vehicle which shall emit a red or amber light and which shall be actuated upon application of the service or foot brake and which may or may not be incorporated with one or more rear lamps.  R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 142 (8).

The driver must correctly signal with either lamp or hand signal before stopping or suddenly slowing down if doing so will affect other traffic on the road. Both of these signal types must be visible to the other driver, so a hand signal indicating stopping or slowing down, for example, must be clearly seen by the other driver. Hand signalling in the dark of night is likely not something the other driver will see. What about turn signal lamps? From the Ontario Highway Traffic Act:

Mode of signalling turn

(3) The signal required in subsections (1) and (2) shall be given either by means of the hand and arm in the manner herein specified or by a mechanical or electrical signal device as described in subsection (6).  R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 142 (3).

How to signal manually

(4) When the signal is given by means of the hand and arm, the driver or operator shall indicate his or her intention to turn,

(a) to the left, by extending the hand and arm horizontally and beyond the left side of the vehicle; or

(b) to the right, by extending the hand and arm upward and beyond the left side of the vehicle.  R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 142 (4).

Signal lamps are not required on most vehicles if proper hand signals are used during proper conditions.

What this all comes down to is, other than the required three lamps required on the typical personal vehicle, the other lamps are there for convenience and added safety. Making sure all of the lamps on one’s vehicle are working properly is a good idea, I think, but one cannot be charged with a traffic offence if one does not violate the Highway Traffic Act.

© Trevor Dailey

After I wrote a brief email to a radio/podcast show recently, I received an email reply from the guest on that particular show. There was no explanation as to why my email was forwarded to the guest, or exactly why a reply was sent to me. What seems to have started it was the subject of electric vehicles.

My email was just intended to be a historical note of an electric truck that was used by a company here in London, Ontario, around perhaps the early 1900s. I included a photo of the truck and a brief description. The guest responded to this email, that was not sent to him by me, with details on why electric vehicles have a long way to go in battery technology. I don’t disagree with most of his points, but some I do. Most of his argument appears to be focused on the short range of the electric vehicle. He gives an example of driving to the state Florida from London, Ontario. I do not think this is a good argument against the electric vehicle in general.

As I see it, the electric vehicle, as it is now, is intended to fill the need for a secondary vehicle, or a primary vehicle, one does not need to drive long distances in. As as an example, I rarely drive outside of the city, so I would not be concerned with an electric vehicle I was driving not being able to travel hundreds of kilometres in one day. I likely would not reach the limit of kilometres of a single charge in a day of city driving.

The cost of an electric vehicle, supposed used, would be higher than a used gasoline or used diesel vehicle of comparable size and role, but that cost could supposedly be paid for through savings on things like oil changes, the cost of fuel, and any other maintenance specific to the internal combustion engine vehicle. There is the convenience of being able to plug the electric vehicle in each night at home to be fully charged in the morning. No more driving to the gasoline filling station. Why wouldn’t I want to buy a used electric vehicle?

Winter. Canadian winters, outside of the province of British Columbia, can be long and very cold. This year, snow fell in April. An electric vehicle’s battery charge can be reduced just because of the cold. One cannot operate the cabin heater in an electric vehicle without cutting the range of the vehicle. And does an electric vehicle have the power to get through the snow on a not yet ploughed road? I would suppose getting stuck in snow that most internal combustion engine vehicles would be able to drive through would be an issue with an electric vehicle. The same battery power loss happens in the summer. The summer heat effects the battery in a similar way as the winter cold does. Here in southern Ontario, the summers tend to be hot and humid. This is not a good thing for an electric vehicle.

Plugging in. I currently live in an apartment building where there is no where to recharge an electric vehicle. There is no where to plug in a sometimes needed block heater either. My landlord began charging a fee for tenants who use air conditioning in their units. I would expect a fee for use of a recharging receptacle for my electric vehicle. The cost of hydro* in Ontario keeps climbing, and is already expensive. But what if there were public recharging stations? Still no good. I would not leave my car out on a street all night to recharge. And even if there was a recharging station near where I worked I could plug into, everything from someone unplugging my car to the problem of always charging the battery with more than half a charge, which will lessen the life of the battery, could be issues.

What is all boils down to for me is, I am very happy with my manual transmission, built in South Korea, 2004 Chevrolet Aveo that I bought used in 2009. It is a good city car, I don’t drive out of the city much, and my Aveo does everything an electric vehicle could do; but I think my gasoline powered, internal combustion engine, Aveo does it much better than an electric vehicle can.

If electric vehicles were produced in a capitalistic system, and were not forced by socialist governments telling auto manufactures what to produce and how much to produce, then I think electric vehicles could become a good option for many people. Force is not a good incentive to make something better.  

*In Ontario, Canada, electricity is generally called "hydro".

© Trevor Dailey

Electrifying Bargains: Three Electric Vehicles You Can Own for Less Than $10,000 

Electric Range for the Nissan Leaf & Chevrolet Volt in Cold Weather

 

Six months ago, I received a Juror Questionnaire by random selection. Today, I received a summons for a jury panel, again by random selection. This does not mean I am going to serve on a jury, but I might. I must attend court on a certain date and time as a Jury Panel Member from which random jurors will be selected.  

In the Province of Ontario, since 1925, the government has forced employers to pay their employees a minimum wage. The current minimum wage in Ontario is an already very generous $11.25 per hour, and this will increase to $11.40 per hour on October 1, 2016.  As a Juror, one would be working for the justice system of the Ontario government. Court trials are approximately the same number of hours per day as a regular work day for which one must be paid minimum wage. If selected, jury duty is mandatory. Employers must allow any employee selected for jury duty time off work for this purpose, but an employer is not required to pay the absent employee. But a jury member can at least count on minimum wage during a trial, right? Wrong!

Those persons selected from the jury panel to serve as jurors will receive the following payment:

From day 1 to 10: No fee
From day 11 to 49: $40.00 per day
From day 50 to the last day of trial: $100.00 per day. Trials of this length are rare.

Jurors who live outside the city in which the courthouse is located will be paid a daily travel expense once serving as a juror. Jurors residing in the same city as the courthouse are not paid a travel allowance.

Employers are required by law to allow employees time off for jury duty.
The law does not require employers to pay salary for employees summoned for jury duty, although some employers do. Speak with your employer to determine if they have a policy to pay people absent from work for jury duty.

As a member of a jury panel or as a selected juror there is no allowance for childcare expenses.

If one is selected for the mandatory work of jury duty in the Province Of Ontario, one must temporarily be absent from one's job. One gets paid nothing for up to 10 days, and the equivalent of $5.00 per hour from 11 to 49 days, and in rare case of long trials, the equivalent of $12.50 per hour from day 50 to the end of the trial. If an employeer fails to pay a required minimim wage to the exact cent, the employer can be charged with an offense under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, but if one is selected for jury duty in Ontario, it is acceptable for one to go up to 10 days without any income. And jury duty income after day 10 is taxable income.

© Trevor Dailey

Tea and biscuits go together for me, like some other people. Today I bought a very inexpensive brand of biscuits called Parle - G. Only 300 grams packages were available on the shelf. I bought one package in case I didn’t like them. The package is plastic wrapped, not a boxed. Opening the package, there are four plastic wrapped packages containing 15 biscuits each. The biscuit is approximately the size of a domino. 

The first thing that I notice is a pleasant odour from the still sealed biscuits. They smell good! I open one package. There are certain things I am looking for.

None of the biscuits are broken. This is a good sign. This biscuits were manufactured in Mumbai, India. The product arrived to the store shelf intact.

The biscuits are all the same colour, all identical. This indicates to me proper baking. This is important because one does not want one biscuit that looks or tastes different from the next, that looks or tastes different from the first, and so on.

A design is along the edge, and the brand name on the front. This is something I like. It tells me they take pride in their product, and they stand by it by putting their name on it. This practice is old, so I suspect this company has been around a while. It turns out they have, for 80 years.

The taste is excellent! The biscuit has just the right amount of sweetness to it. It is not a too hard biscuit. After eating one on its own, I dunk another into my tea. The biscuit turns soft very quickly, but holds together long enough without falling apart. To be fair, this biscuit is likely not intended to be dunked into hot tea, unlike the Maria biscuit that is a very good biscuit for dunking into tea.

My conclusion is I will definitely purchase and enjoy this fine biscuit again in the future. In fact, I have had to stop myself from eating the entire package in one sitting. Tea or not, these Parle - G biscuits are a quality and delicious product.

© Trevor Dailey

 

At the corner, there is always some able bodied person sitting on the ground, leaning up against the wall, asking for “spare change”.

“Spare some change, sir?”

I am unemployed. I ignore him. He says it again. I still ignore him.

“Sir!, Sir!, Sir!” he repeats, his tone getting angry because I am ignoring him. I wanted to explode. I wanted to turn on him and demand:

“Do I know you?! Do I know you?! Then why are you talking to me?! Don’t talk to me!”

However, that would have just escalated it into a bad situation. I ignore him, and I walk on. I look back to see some young male ’security’ guard walk into the store, right past the panhandler, too busy talking to the girl he is with to notice the guy sitting right by the door. Maybe it's not the security guy’s job to do anything. More likely she has nice boobs.

On my way back, two guys run into the street and stop traffic. One is pushing a bicycle. They are arguing, and the guy with the bike is accused of stealing it from the other guy. The bike gets thrown down into the street. This is right by a community social services organization. Other 'clients' are watching this with amusement. I shake my head and I continue on. A minute later, a police officer drives by, and her car stops in traffic ahead of me. I thought about telling her about the altercation, but I don’t bother. She has more important things to deal with.

That’s just a sample of downtown London, Ontario. The only reason it matters to me is because of the truck loads of tax money the City dumps into downtown to “revitalize” downtown, or whatever other meaningless word City Hall uses, year after year after year with this insane obsession with downtown. More tax money gets poured into downtown, more stupid projects, more stupid master plans, and more businesses leave the core. No businesses means no jobs.  If I have said it once, I have said it one hundred times; the solution is to get City Hall, and all of its crony organizations out of downtown. They are the problem, not the solution. 

© Trevor Dailey   

It has been few years since I was in St. Thomas, Ontario. The morning was very foggy, and the drive to St Thomas from London, Ontario, was not one I found entirely safe. Especially with some cars, and even a large truck, going faster than the speed limit, some without their lights on, headlong into the thick fog. Instead of returning immediately to London in the fog after completing what I needed to do in St. Thomas, I decided to wait out the weather at the Elgin County Railway Museum. This was a return to a place I had not been for a while.

The museum was closed, so I walked around the grounds, looking at the old rail cars, the old rail tracks, the old buildings, and kicking myself because I had decided to leave my Nikon D3200 camera at home at the last minute. It is always better to have a camera and not use it than to not have a camera when one wants to be taking photos. However, it was raining on and off, so perhaps it was better that I had left my camera at home. Still, I feel that I missed out on some great photos. I did bring along my radio scanner receivers.

St. Thomas was once known as a major railway city. No less than 25 railways came through this small city, and most of those railway companies made their headquarters there. Today, there is little left of this history. Most of the track and buildings are gone, and what remains is not anywhere near what it once was. While sitting in my car, I had my scanners going for a while. I was very disappointed in the lack of activity. I logged only 3 new frequencies. Only one transmission from a railway was heard, quiet and static covered, but readable. The railway is not completely gone from St Thomas. Some of it has been restored by incredible effort and determination of Port Stanley Terminal Rail Inc. that has brought one of the oldest railway lines in Ontario back to a profitable life as a tourist railway.

Like most museums, the Elgin County Railway Museum is a not for profit orgainization, and it gets money from taxpayers to pay for its operations. Even if one does not want to give money to the museum, the government takes the money and gives it to the museum anyway. This is something I do not agree with. I have paid admission to the Elgin County Railway Museum becasue I wanted to. I enjoyed the museaum enough to want to return to the museaum, spend more of my money there, and tell people I know about the museum to encourage them to vist too. The museum does not need to have the government to take my money from me by force, but it does. As far as I know, Port Stanley Terminal Rail Inc. is not funded by taxpayers. This is the right way. Museums need to stop forcing people to pay them through taxation, and start finding ways to get people to pay their money voluntarily. The museums need to operate as for profit orgainizations. To make the best museums possible.

© Trevor Dailey

 

South Street Hospital, in London, Ontario, a massive 115 year old structure, was demolished in 2014 after the hospital was decommissioned by the Province of Ontario, and ownership of the Real Property was transferred to the City of London. The City billed the taxpayers for the cost of demolition, and promised a vague grand new development for the former hospital site. Two years later, the site is still a massive empty lot. Wind the clock back to 2006.

In a document, City Of London Inventory Of Heritage Resources 2006, the City of London listed the South Street Hospital site, located at 391 South Street, as a “Priority I” heritage structure.

Priority I buildings are London's most important heritage structures and all merit designation under Part lV of the Ontario Heritage Act They are worthy of protection through whatever incentives may be provided in terms of zoning, bonusing [sic] or financial advantage and may be designated without the owner's consent. This group includes not only landmark buildings and buildings in pristine condition, but also lesser well-known structures with major architectural and/or historical significance and important structures that have been obscured by alterations which are reversible.

If the South Street Hospital had been in private ownership, there is little doubt a demolition permit for redevelopment of the Real Property would not have been granted by the City of London because of the "Priority 1" heritage listing. The private owner would have had to go over mountains of City Hall red tape in order to redevelop their property. I suppose preserving heritage buildings in London only applies to private property owners, and the City of London can do whatever it wants with its own property, "Priority I" listing by the City of London or not.

© Trevor Dailey

Someone sent me a link to: Basic Income:  A  Deeper Look - An Oxford-style Debate, and asked me if I was interested in attending this free event. It took me a few minutes to decide I was not interested. It is not that I am not interested in the topic, I am strongly opposed to “basic income”, it is that after reading through the information on the site, it became my opinion that this debate is a sham.

As one looks at the participants of the debate, one can see from the bios, and from some investigation, that they all appear to be on the same side of the political party system, and that is on the socialist left-wing. What it seems to be to me is four socialists debating "basic income", which is another name for wealth distribution, meaning taking from the productive and giving to those who did not earn it, that the socialist left-wing supports. I am not convinced either of the two "against"  debaters have much credibility in arguing against the wealth distribution scheme of “basic income”.

Debate is very important, but only when it is real debate, and not when it looks like a deception designed by certain groups to promote a certain political agenda.

© Trevor Dailey

Penn & Teller: Wealth Distribution [Video]

A while ago I heard a conversation on my scanner receiver between two amateur radio (HAM) operators regarding the subject of getting young people interested in amateur radio. Not surprisingly, today most young people have no interest in amateur radio, or radio at all. Why should they? They are glued to their mobile devices. How does one get young people to even look at a radio receiver?

If I were to take on the task of getting young people interested in radio I might do it this way. Each boy and girl would be given a radio receiver, or each small group would have a radio receiver. They would start with a common AM/FM radio receiver. I would ask them to tune their radios to the FM stations and write down all the radio stations they hear as they scan though the FM band. I would ask them to listen for the name of the station and where the station is broadcasting from. The information collected would be simple. The name of the station, the call sign, frequency, and station location. Example:

Name: The Music Machine Radio
Call Sign: ABCD
Frequency: 123.0
Location: Capital City

What they likely will find is most of the FM stations they hear are being broadcast from their city or close by. I would then ask them to repeat the experiment on the AM band. On the AM band they likely will discover broadcasts from other cities.  In the third part I would ask them to listen to the SW (shortwave) band and do the same thing that was done with the AM and FM bands. This time they likely will hear broadcasts from other countries. We would plot all the radio cities on a map to show where they are and calculate how far away the broadcasts are coming from.

My point of all this is to find if radio interests them on the basic commercial broadcast level. If it did, we could move to learning more about radio with things like maybe building their own aerials or radio receivers. They could learn more about radio and how radio is everywhere including their mobile phones and WiFi connections to the Internet. All this might lead to an interest in amateur radio.

© Trevor Dailey

The only thing worse than having a job, is looking for one. That is a line from a Kids in the Hall comedy sketch. I think there is some truth to that line. When one looks for a job, one must convince the employer that one is the best person for the job without ever having done the job before. That’s similar to being asked if one likes someone one has not met. Like it or not, there is a game that is played when looking for a job. And I have played the game a long time, and I have learned a few things.

Some companies don’t do their own hiring. These companies contract out the hiring to another company. There are a few problems with this, one being that there is no magical way to hire someone, and no perfect employee really exists. But these companies still believe this. When a company contracts out the hiring, that gives me the impression the company doesn’t really care about its employees. Leave the hiring to someone else. These contracted companies that do the hiring, for the most part, are just selling some voodoo to the gullible employer to make money. I am talking about personality “assessment tests” that are so common these days. These pseudo personality tests are about as valuable as any online entertainment test that tells one what type of comic book character one is most like. At least that is a similar opinion of a psychologist with a Ph.D I asked. Answer some multiple choice questions, and the employer thinks it will know if you should be hired or not. It is kind of like magic. Or one will find out what one should dress as for the next Forest City ComiCon event. That is a good thing.

When I am asked to do these junk science tests as part of the employment process I am not being honest in my answers. I am reading the questions and I am giving the answers I think the test wants to hear. I am not entirely stupid. I know why the test is being given, and I have a good idea of the answers I should give.

What is the difference between “somewhat agree” and “somewhat disagree” anyway? I haven’t been able to figure that out yet.

A problem I have run into many times is my not being able to understand all the questions. Some questions have such poor grammar they don’t make sense. Other times the questions are so far from reality it is hard to give any reasonable answer. Maybe this is part of the testing. I don’t know.

What it all adds up to is this: I need a job, and if an employer wants to give me these stupid tests then I am going to do my best to “pass” them by feeding what I think are the “right” answers. I am eventually going to pick the lock. And this is only a good thing for the contract companies that get paid to do the hiring with their magical voodoo testing con.  

©  Trevor Dailey 

ISM

I HEREBY TURN OVER TO THE GOVERNMENT EVERYTHING I HAVE, INCLUDING MY FREEDOM, AND THE FREEDOM OF MY CHILDREN, AND THE FREEDOM OF MY CHILDREN'S CHILDREN, IN RETURN FOR WHICH SAID GOVERNMENT PROMISES TO TAKE CARE OF ME FOREVER.

SIGNED:

Make Mine Freedom -1948  (Public domain. Quote modified slightly)

Only one of these words is not like all the others.

Altruism

CAPITALISUM

Collectivism

Communism

Environmentalism

Fascism

Marxism

Socialism

Statism

© Trevor Dailey

In North Korea
dictator Kim Jong Il said he could control the weather.

In Ontario
Premier Kathleen Wynne says she can control the climate.

© Trevor Dailey

 

 

 

Early spring here in London, Ontario, Canada looks like early winter instead.

The ruling (not governing) Liberal government is going to legislate (force) a broad “carbon tax” for almost everything in Ontario to stop “global warming”. The Progressive Conservative party, the (in name only) official opposition, supports a "carbon tax" to stop "global warming"

(c) Trevor Dailey

Carbon Copies: Ontario Liberal and Progressive Conservative Parties on Climate Fighting and Taxes

Just Right - March 31, 2016

Just Right - Guest - David Plumb 

 

Snow Squall Watch
    
London - Parkhill - Eastern Middlesex County

Issued at 04:49 Saturday 02 April 2016

Snow squalls are likely to develop tonight and then weaken later Sunday morning. Strong northwest winds are expected to develop tonight in the wake of an Alberta Clipper crossing Southern Ontario. Flurries and localized snow squalls should develop late this evening or overnight. Local amounts of 15 centimetres are possible tonight with additional amounts Sunday morning before they weaken. Blowing snow may also be significant as winds gust up to 70 km/h, creating near zero visibilities in blowing and falling snow. Travel may be hazardous due to sudden changes in the weather. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve. Snow squall watches are issued when conditions are favourable for the formation of bands of snow that could produce intense accumulating snow or near zero visibilities. Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.

Snow Squall Watch
    
London - Parkhill - Eastern Middlesex County

Issued at 15:19 Saturday 02 April 2016

Snow squalls are likely to develop later this evening and then weaken late Sunday morning. Strong northwest winds are expected to develop this evening in the wake of an Alberta Clipper crossing Southern Ontario. Flurries and local snow squalls should develop late this evening and continue overnight. Local amounts of 15 centimetres are possible tonight with additional amounts of 5 cm Sunday morning before the snow squalls weaken. Blowing snow may also be significant as winds gust up to 70 km/h, creating near zero visibilities in blowing and falling snow. Travel may be hazardous due to sudden changes in the weather. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve. Snow squall watches are issued when conditions are favourable for the formation of bands of snow that could produce intense accumulating snow or near zero visibilities. Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.

Snow Squall Watch
    
London - Parkhill - Eastern Middlesex County

Issued at 03:16 Sunday 03 April 2016

Flurries and local snow squalls have developed and are expected to weaken by midday. Local amounts of 5 to 10 centimetres are possible before the snow squalls weaken. Blowing snow may be significant as winds gust to 70 km/h, creating near zero visibilities in blowing and falling snow. Travel may be hazardous due to sudden changes in the weather. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve. Snow squall watches are issued when conditions are favourable for the formation of bands of snow that could produce intense accumulating snow or near zero visibilities. Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.

London - Parkhill - Eastern Middlesex County

Issued at 04:53 Sunday 10 April 2016

Yet another April snowfall on tap. The latest battle between spring and a very stubborn winter is setting up for today and tonight across Southern Ontario. A large Alberta Clipper approaching the Great Lakes from the northwest will spread a large area of snow into the region, with the snow expected to arrive in Southwestern Ontario this morning or early afternoon. Snow will reach the Muskoka to Golden Horseshoe areas later this afternoon then spread into remaining regions this evening. Snowfall amounts will range from near 2 cm over areas near Lakes Erie and Ontario, to 4 to 8 centimetres further north. Up to 10 centimetres of snow is possible in a few locales tonight especially in areas around Georgian Bay and the Dundalk Highlands to the Haliburton Highlands. As a warm front associated with the clipper moves in, the snow will change over to rain by late afternoon in the Windsor area. The changeover to rain will then work its way northeastward with the warm front tonight across remaining regions of Southern Ontario. There may be a brief period of ice pellets or freezing rain during the transition from snow to rain. Most areas should receive a total of 5 to 15 mm of rain before the rain ends on Monday. Driving conditions are expected to deteriorate after the snow arrives. Untreated roads may become snow covered and slippery. Motorists should be prepared for winter driving conditions and adjust travel plans accordingly. Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.