I just came back from using the pay phone to call CRHC and got through right away just as a beer truck was moving in and hauling in carts of stock for the bar and people passing in and out behind me. So here are some of the basic questions I asked. 1-“Is housing assistance for where you currently live or is it someplace else? We don’t want to move.” The operator was very helpful and laid out CRHC 4 basic options. Ours is about the Direct Rent Subsidy program. So in our case it’s where we live up to $500/month which is given to us as a cheque in the mail. It takes a couple of weeks before we get our first cheque. Of course their going to need proof of income from our employer and that sort of thing. 2-What about pets? Since we’re applying for the Direct rent assistance program pets are not an issue. 3-What are considered assets? They don’t look at RRSP’s or pension money just the month by month cash you have on hand. So Anne’s pension fund is ok and Jim Shannon Torrents.

4-How much income does one need to qualify? $33,500/year. We’re about $1000/month less then that. We need to gross $2,792/month to not qualify and even with Anne’s bsm we’re barely pulling in $2000/month and that goes around June of ’08. So we’ll be making about $1600/month between the both of us once the bsm goes. 5-Do you have to work part time of full time? That doesn’t matter as long as you have a source of income. 6-How long does the process typically take? About 2-3 weeks. So I asked the operator to send me the application form and I gave mu complete mailing information. Hopefully we should receive the form in the next couple of weeks or by the end of the month at best. With all the above in mind we qualify and I should see no reason why we wouldn’t. And to think I was going to go all the way downtown to use their phones at the lmic building and take the train in and back. Anne suggested I take the #182 bus up past the manning turn off and walk to the bank to use the banks courtesy phone. Id be just off the phone by now but it would have been nice to get out because it’s nice out there in the sunshine. I would have looked for HH comics as well. Instead something told me to just go to BD’s and use their pay phone in the lobby. I’m glad I did.

So, at the moment I’m enjoying my first coffee. Lately critics of the Alberta oil and gas industry have been saying that Alberta was being short changed oil revenues to the tune of possibly billions of dollars over the years. So an Alberta review panel put together their investigation and it came forth that the oil industry should pay more oil revenues to the Alberta Government. I heard something about 30%. My feelings on this are mixed. I think the oil industry should pay back a bit more in oil revenues. I think 10% would be enough. Any more and oil companies would lose incentive to invest here and that’s not good news for our economy. On the other hand I think things should be left alone. Oil sitting at as of yesterday $81.92/barrel US and that is amazing. I’ve never seen it this high before. Also, I’ve never seen it so high this late in the season. Usually the price of oil/barrel or pob drops this time of year. It peaks out around Labor Day. So if I had any say for our Premier, I’d say leave it the way it is. No need to be greedy and risk losing our economy on the inside. We’re not Norway. What might work there may not work here. Premier Ed Stalmach will have a decision around the end of this month.

Anyway, I’m off today and because we’re so broke this month we need every penny. So this means that I won’t be going to the lodge meeting tonight as I gave Anne my last $10 for milk/pop and cat food. I’ve got 35 cents to make a 5:30pm phone call to Neil. I wanted to go tonight but I’ll be at the Regular October meeting instead. I think I only missed 3 months. I like my lodge and I enjoy going out for the evening. I’m sure they appreciate having me there. So tomorrow I’ll get my cheque and if I get anything for me on it then I’ll get a new short sleeve dress shirt and a clip on tie from Walmart.

The other thing that concerns me is the work we’re doing at Xl. I’m pulling $500/1000 every night in most cases but I don’t like the hours. I’d love to have my evenings off so I can go to more lodge nights. I’d ;like to go to lodge at least once/week if I could. I think what I’m going to do is once we get a handle on this rent see about getting employment at 73. If they can hire me and I can work from 1-5, then that would be awesome and have weekends and evenings off. This way I can sleep in a little bit go to work come back in the afternoon and relax get ready a bite to eat and go into lodge once/week. With rental subsidy I wouldn’t care what I get paid/hour.

Anyway that’s all for now

e. Jim