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Shrimps: the best faux fur around
New York Fashion Week was dripping with real fur. But the fightback starts here, with Shrimps - purveyor of glossy, lustrous, stripy, colourful faux fur coats with Julie Christie collars
BY Lisa Armstrong | 14 February 2014
Natalie Massenet in a navy faux fur Shrimps coat at New York Fashion Week last week
One of the most dispiriting sights in New York this past week was the amount of real fur dripping from the fashion set. Ostentatious minks and sables used to be the cliché of grande dame fashion editors. Miranda Priestly, the Devil in Prada was forever flouncing around in chinchilla.
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The reality was slightly different however. The Brits never wore it, even those editing Vogue or Bazaar . Younger women steered clear… but now, not so much. It has been a long time since those David Bailey posters said: "It takes 40 dumb animals to make one fur coat but one to wear it."
For some fashion-crazed younger women it seems the taboos about fur have melted away. If they ever existed, it was their mothers who were bothered by them. The connotations fur had for my generation - granny glamour, long-faded Rank starlets, moth-eaten bag women riffling through bins - have been replaced by images of Kate Moss in pearl minks and the psychedelic furs on Prada's spring/summer 2014 catwalk and Altuzarra's autumn/winter 2014 one.
READ: Cashmere clothes containing rat fur exposed by Italian police
Being objective for a moment and setting aside the inconvenient detail about where this stuff actually comes from, you can see the appeal. The designs are erm, eye-catching to say the least - an instant passport to style immortality among the blogger set. This isn't about warmth, especially. The fashionable way to wear fur is with very little else - bare legs, mini skirts and strappy shoes. Marc Jacobs wore his Prada fur in the Caribbean. We can take it that he didn't resort to it to stave off an Arctic blast.
As for the coming few weeks of shows, brace yourselves. Fur will be all over the shop. London Fashion Week was once a fur-free zone. Don't bet on it next week: Hockley and Saga have been busy sponsoring some of our star designers.
Hannah Weiland, the 24-year-old founder of Shrimps
But maybe the fightback starts here, because even before LFW began today, a horde of fashion journalists and buyers have been navigating the cobbles of Carnaby street to visit Hannah Weiland in her (father's) office to inspect her 100 per cent fake fur.
A year ago, 24-year-old Weiland, an alumnus of Bristol University, was on a post-grad course at the London College of Fashion. Then she discovered a source of Chinese fake fur that looked different from any other fake fur she'd seen: 80 per cent modacrylic, 11 per cent polyester and only nine per cent nylon, it was glossy, lustrous, thick, warm - and real-looking. This is interesting as, for some time, the big international fashion houses have been painstakingly patchworking, appliquéing and dying their real fur to look fake. Here we may just have a meeting in the middle.
Laura Bailey certainly thought so. She was an early adopter, along with Weiland's 90-year-old grandma, of the stripy, colourful coats with patterned linings and Julie-Christie-in-her-sixties-moment collars. Weiland christened her label Shrimps, which is her nickname (she's not huge). Avenue 32 placed an order, so did Opening Ceremony - two prime, cool endorsements. Helena Bonham Carter wore one. Then Natalie Massenet, founder of Net-a-Porter and head of the British Fashion Council, bagged one, and ordered an exclusive navy-and-cream colourway for Net-a-Porter. These will go on the site next month. Weiland was well and truly in business.
Anna Wintour in real fur by Prada; Laura Bailey in faux fur by Shrimps. Photo: REX
Summer collections? She's already thought of that. "I've sourced a fake pony skin," she says. "But the funny thing is Net-a-porter is ordering the fake fur coats for spring. They think women will want to wear them most of the year."
The collection she's previewing during London Fashion Week features new, zingy combinations, more stripes (inspired by her Pembridge prep school uniform), some scarves and a Grayson Perry clutch. She's desperate for the latter to wear one of her coats. "I'll make one in any size,'' she promises. In the meantime, she'll just have to put up with a bunch of fashion editors scrabbling to place orders.
MASTER THE 'AWKWARD SKIRT' WITH VB
It was encouraging to hear Victoria Beckham confess backstage after her show on Sunday that she'd spent most of the previous week in jeans and (flat) velvet slippers. It was too cold in New York for fashion statements that involve a lot of naked skin and uncomfortable shoes.
VB scrubbed up for her catwalk bow, however - in bare legs, black V-neck sweater and a black skirt at that awkward length. This was also encouraging. VB is 5ft 3in, tops. I'd always assumed you needed to be four inches taller to carry off That Awkward Length. Mind you, she was wearing her beloved heels.
I think we have to accept that this is a skirt you cannot wear with flats unless you're a model. It works with a high wedge though.
To wear a similar skirt with a long jacket, make it a wrap, kimono-inspired one. Otherwise, keep to cropped styles or a crisp masculine shirt (blue this season; roll up the sleeves), or jumpers for a nonchalant touch. The most flattering mid-calf-length skirts sit high - level with the navel - which creates a flatter front.
You want to create the illusion of as much leg length as possible. New Yorkers - and VB - were wearing them slit to way yonder. That's probably best left to the thrill-seekers. This is a style that actually looks better with tights. That in itself makes it a novelty worth investigating.
TEMPTED BY TORY'S TROUSER MANIFESTO
While I was in New York, I nipped in to see Tory Burch before her show. Although her label has gone from one small store in Nolita to more than $800 million annually in retail sales in just 10 years, Burch is very much involved in the nitty-gritty.
While her team, including shoe designer and stylist Tabitha Simmons (who also works with Dolce e Gabbana) tucked into their takeaways, Burch talked me through her collection, which, judging from the reviews on style.com, was a high spot of the week.
She was especially proud of the chain prints, based on the suits of armour her father collected. Since one of her biggest sellers is the Reva ballet shoe, named after her mother, she must be hoping for a similarly lucrative hit.
What struck me most were Burch's trousers. They've gone wide - although not cartoonishly so. More than that, she'd cropped them at about the same length as Victoria Beckham's skirts, and styled them similarly - with heels, hip-length bomber jackets and tunic tops, some of them jewelled. For those of us who find skirts too much of an effort in deepest winter, this could be the cool alternative.
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San Miguel starts work on MRT-7
MANILA, Philippines – San Miguel Corp. (SMC) broke ground yesterday for the P69.3-billion Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT-7) project, marking the start of the construction of the 23-kilo-meter elevated railway from North Avenue in Quezon City to San Jose del Monte in Bulacan.
The project is being implemented by newly-formed SMC Mass Rail Transit 7 Inc., under SMC's infrastructure subsidiary San Miguel Holdings Inc., with contractor Hyundai ROTEM and EEI Consortium.
MRT-7 will consist of 14 stations namely: Quezon North Avenue Joint Station; Quezon Memorial Circle; University Avenue; Tandang Sora; Don Antonio; Batasan; Manggahan; Dona Carmen; Regalado; Mindanao Avenue; Quirino; Sacred Heart; Tala; and San Jose del Monte.
The upcoming train line will connect with Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) which runs from North Avenue station in Quezon City until Taft station in Pasay City, with the provision to link to Light Transit Line 1 (LRT-1) covering Roosevelt station in Quezon City until Baclaran station in Pasay City.
From an initial daily capacity of 350,000 passengers, SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang said during the groundbreaking, the company is aiming to eventually bring up MRT-7's capacity to cater to over 800,000 passengers per day.
During peak hours, MRT-7 will be able to accommodate 28,000 passengers per hour, per direction, and can be scaled up to serve 38,000 passengers.
Apart from the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the railway, SMC will also be building a 23-km road from the Balagtas Interchange of North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) until the Intermodal Transport Terminal in San Jose Del Monte, under its 35-year concession agreement with the government.
SMC will likewise put up a depot in San Jose del Monte to house a control center, administrative offices, warehouse and facilities for train cars.
"We expect to complete MRT-7 in three to four years," Ang said.
Ang said SMC expects the MRT-7 to contribute about five percent of SMC's revenues, when the railway starts operations.
Once the MRT-7 is completed, he said commuters' travel time would be reduced to 30 minutes from two hours at present.
DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya said the new railway would provide relief to commuters who ply the heavily congested Commonwealth Avenue area for work and school on a daily basis.
"The new railway system will not only significantly lessen travel time along this corridor, but also help decongest traffic in Caloocan and NLEx," he said.
The project is also expected to provide other benefits.
"For wage-earners, it means having more choices when it comes to place of work. It gives our citizens greater access to education and healthcare. For senior citizens and people with disabilities, an efficient public transport system allows them to travel more freely," Ang said.
At present, Metro Manila is served by three rail lines such as LRT 1, LRT-2 which covers Santolan station in Pasig City until Recto station in Manila, and MRT-3.
Source: Louella Desiderio (The Philippine Star)
Philippines' Land-Valuation Office
Nearly half of all land parcels in the Philippines remain untitled due to lack of documentation and the slow process in land titling, according to the World Bank.
In its recently released East Asia and the Pacific Update, the World Bank said about 11 million, out of the total of 24 million parcels of land in the country, are untitled.
As a result, the World Bank said millions of parcels of lands that remain untitled prevent and/or discourage investments in property development and undermine the government's ability to collect taxes.
"The high percentage of parcels [of land] lacking documentation is brought about by slow progress in the titling program and delays in the passage of a law authorizing streamlined titling of residential lands, and the absence of a complete cadastral map, which keeps track of the total lots during subdivision and consolidation," the World Bank said.
Apart from untitled land parcels, the World Bank said the country's land information is also not current due to high transfer costs.
High transfer costs, the bank said, discourage lot owners from registering transactions. This problem is compounded by incomplete cadastral surveys and outdated tax maps.
There are also problems, the World Bank added, on overlapping institutional mandates, complex regulations and weak coordination among multiple agencies.
Some of the agencies that have land jurisdictions are the Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the many cities and municipalities nationwide, among others.
"Outdated and inaccurate land records have the effect of reducing overall investor confidence in the registry and in the country's property rights system," the World Bank said.
In order to address these concerns, the World Bank urged the national government to employ land-use planning and zoning, which will be of particular use in urban areas.
Urban areas are constantly challenged with pollution, congestion, the need to create even more housing, commerce and industrial spaces to support the influx of migrants and establishment of businesses in cities.
Apart from these, local governments are unable to maximize the real-property taxes that they collect. If maximized, real-property taxes can help boost local government revenues.
To address this, the World Bank urged the creation of a National Valuation Authority to improve the efficiency and equity of real- property taxation.
"This would help increase transparency, ensure that properties better reflect market prices, and depoliticize the valuation process. Actual collection of the property tax can remain with local government units," the World Bank said.
Business Mirror
by Cai Ordinario
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/world-bank-to-philippines-create-land-valuation-office/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Eric Stoner's latest episode of Every Play Tells a Story looks at an Influence Play involving Derrick Henry as football's version Floyd Mayweather.
You're matched up against an extremely aggressive fighter. He's not a reckless one, either.
He has a plan. He's been taught well. He's calculated. Most of all, he loves punching.
What are your options? You can go blow-for-blow with him. It might work if you're bigger, stronger, faster, and more technically skilled. Your night could also end with fewer teeth than you started with. You can Micky Ward it – sacrifice yourself early in the hopes he punches himself out.
Or you can use his aggression against him. Don't just avoid. Convince him to throw the punches you want him to throw.


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> Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services
> Report
Chapter 19: Liability Management
No fiscal projection is a static plan. For any government, revenue and expense estimates are generally based on economic assumptions, policy decisions and direction, and the best available information at a given point in time. There is a lot of uncertainty that surrounds the estimates in the plan. Once released, it becomes subject to a number of risks that could emerge and impact the previously outlined fiscal objectives.
Any information or events that were unanticipated during the planning process present a risk to the fiscal projection. Risks can come from uncertainty in financial markets, project failures, legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural causes and disasters, or events of an uncertain or unpredictable nature. For Ontario, as a sub-national jurisdiction, the risk of a policy change by the federal government continually exists.
These risks can have a positive or negative impact on the province's actual fiscal results. Generally, positive impacts are easier for governments to manage. For example, in cases where economic performance turns out better than expected, the government has additional flexibility to manage existing priorities and meet its fiscal objectives. However, if the economy were to fall short of what was expected, then the province would feel the negative impact through lower government revenue, higher expense and, in Ontario's current fiscal situation, larger deficits and increasing debt.
To help ensure that fiscal objectives are met, the Fiscal Transparency and Accountability Act requires Ontario's fiscal plan to include a reserve to protect against unexpected and adverse changes in the revenue and expense outlook. In the 2011 Budget, the government included a reserve of $0.7 billion in 2011–12 and $1.0 billion in each following year through to 2017–18. However, the reserve in its current state does not provide enough flexibility for variances that may emerge over this time, especially compounding errors resulting from forecasted growth rates.
Recommendation 19-1: General risks can and should be handled through the contingency reserve, which should be set higher than in recent budgets and should grow over time to address the possibility of growth rate biases in the revenue projection. Modest internal risks should be addressed through an operating reserve. The contingency reserve should be increased to cover a 0.2 percentage point annual overestimate of revenue growth.
The contingency reserve should be set at an adequate amount to protect against forecast errors; it should grow over time to cover not only an error in level estimates but also to address the possibility of any growth-rate bias. Our recommendation is that the contingency reserve be increased to cover a 0.2 percentage point annual overestimate of revenue growth. Our longer-term projection is implicitly based on a projection of annual productivity growth of 1.2 per cent (i.e., increase in Ontario real output per hour worked). As discussed in Chapter 1, The Need for Strong Fiscal Action, we believe this is an appropriate assumption. However, we are well aware that the figure is considerably stronger than the actual productivity growth rate recorded over the past decade. Therefore, it must be considered to be at risk. It could easily be somewhat weaker, say 1.0 per cent. That would roughly translate into a 0.2 percentage point weaker growth rate in revenues over the entire projection period. This is precisely the sort of risk we envision when we recommend the contingency reserve be set to cover a 0.2 percentage point risk to revenue growth in the first year of this exercise (2010–11) and that it rise by 0.2 percentage points annually to 1.4 per cent in the target year. This requires the contingency reserve to be $1.9 billion in 2017–18, compared to $1.0 billion in the 2011 Budget.
Regardless of how prudent and rigorous the government is in its annual planning of revenue and expense, there are always risks that the government cannot account for. Many of these risks are unknown to the government at the time of budgeting. In previous years, these risks have resulted in major one-time costs, such as the government's response to SARS and H1N1, or its support for the auto sector. Other risks are known at the time of budgeting, but the scope, extent or amount of the liability are unknown. A recent example of this type of risk is the additional forest firefighting resources the province has required. While the government anticipated a cost for this risk, the amount and severity were unknown. Finally, the province should plan for risks with an unknown probability of occurrence and cost. It is the unknown element of all these risks that makes them hard to plan for.
In the past, Ontario has used the operating and capital contingency funds — or the reserve in extreme cases — to mitigate risks in-year that would otherwise have had a negative impact on its financial results. While this strategy has been effective, in a period of severe fiscal and economic challenges, wholly absorbing the cost of these risks without a mitigation plan will prove increasingly difficult if the government is committed to returning to balanced budgets.
Recommendation 19-2: Specific risks should be addressed through an explicit strategy. Care should be taken in budget-setting processes to diligently identify any known risks of significant fiscal magnitude, and a strategy developed to mitigate those risks.
To increase the probability of securing the 2017–18 target, risks and liabilities should be identified as early as possible in the planning process. Ministries must be vigilant in anticipating what could go wrong with all projects. Strategies will need to be developed to identify and reduce specific risks to the fiscal plan, such as federal government action and pension liabilities. The following section identifies liability risks that require the province to develop management plans for moving forward. This is intended to be an illustrative list of risks that should be currently known and subject to mitigation strategies. There are, no doubt, many more current risks, and more will undoubtedly surface as we move through the projection period. As such, the liability management strategy must be very fluid.
Upcoming Liability Risks
Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund
Ontario's Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund (PBGF) was created in 1980 and was intended to assist pensioners and plan members when occupational pension plans are wound up with insufficient funds to cover promised benefits, and the employer is unable to make the required payments. The PBGF is administered by the Superintendent of Financial Services and generally covers single-employer defined benefit pension plans in the private and broader public sectors. Ontario is the only jurisdiction in Canada to provide such coverage.
In 2009, the government retained an independent actuarial firm to conduct the first actuarial study of the PBGF, including revenues and claims, to inform the development of long-term policy. The study, released in 2010, concluded that the PBGF was not sustainable in its current form and noted that overall assessments would have to increase by as much as 1,000 per cent if coverage were increased to $2,500 a month as had been previously recommended by the Arthurs Commission.1
On several occasions over the last 30 years, there has not been enough cash in the Fund to cover large anticipated PBGF claims. In those instances, several loans were made from the Consolidated Revenue Fund to cover claims. The only loan amount still outstanding is $242 million of a $330 million loan made in 2004 to cover a significant claim. In 2010, the government made a $500 million grant to the PBGF to initiate the PBGF reform process and stabilize the Fund in the near term. In May 2011, $384 million was paid out of the Fund in partial settlement of another significant claim.
Ontario is the only sub-national jurisdiction in the world with a pension benefits guarantee fund. With fewer than 1,600 covered plans, and PBGF exposure concentrated in certain industries, risk is not spread according to insurance principles. To fully insulate the PBGF from catastrophic claims and update coverage levels, significantly higher assessments and larger reserves would be required.
Recommendation 19-3: We recommend that the province either terminate the Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund or explore the possibility of transferring it to a private insurer. The Fund is no longer sustainable in its current form as it presents a large fiscal risk for the province in the event of another economic downturn.
Liability from Pension Funds in the Broader Public Sector
Ontario Public Service (OPS) and broader public-sector (BPS) pension plans include some of the largest plans in the country — both in terms of the value of assets and number of members. The province provides funding to these plans through both direct and indirect mechanisms.
The topic of pensions is multi-faceted and technical, with varying governance structures and risk-sharing arrangements, as well as distinct funding and accounting considerations. Many aspects of the plans could be reviewed. Yet the Commission's mandate suggests our focus be on the fiscal dimensions and hence our approach has been rather narrow. We examine the public cost of the plans, the risks they represent to the Province's fiscal plan and strategies to manage these risks.
Given the government's significant exposure to liabilities associated with some of these plans, we believe that steps should be taken to improve transparency and strategic planning with respect to pension expense in an effort to better manage this risk.
Recommendation 19-4: The Ontario government should conduct and publish its own liability management assessment of the public-sector pension plans and develop plans to contain any fiscal risks identified.
Description of BPSPension Plans
There are currently five plans consolidated in the province's financial statements: Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP); OPSEU Pension Plan (OPSEUPP); Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (TPP); Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP); and Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology (CAAT) Pension Plan.
The PSPP is solely sponsored by the province, and the remaining four plans are Jointly Sponsored Pension Plans (JSPPs). In the case of solely sponsored plans, the employer is wholly responsible for funding any shortfall. In contrast, JSPPs require that both employer sponsors and employees share responsibility for making up any shortfall by negotiating some combination of contribution increases and prospective benefit reductions. These obligations are set out in the Pension Benefits Act, its Regulations and individual plan documents.
TABLE 19.1 Public-Sector Pension Plans Reflected in the Province's Financial Statements
Assets ($ Billions)
Contribution Rates (%)
Factors*
17.4 41,000 9.5 9.5 Factor 90 or
Age 60 + 20 Years
OPSEUPP
13.3 47,000 10.0 10.0 Factor 90 or
107.5 175,000 12.0 12.0 Factor 85 or
HOOPP
35.7 170,000 9.2 10.67 Age 60 or
CAAT
5.5 19,000 12.9 12.9 Factor 85 or
Notes: Teachers' Pension Plan contribution rate is scheduled to increase from 12.0 per cent in 2011 to 13.1 per cent over three years, with full implementation in 2014. The CAAT contribution rate is scheduled to increase to 13.7 per cent by 2014. "Years" indicates Years of Service. Public safety workers (e.g., fire, police, paramedics) have a normal retirement age of 60 and can generally retire earlier.
Ultimate Question
One of the biggest questions from a liability management perspective is who is ultimately responsible should a plan or plans get into serious financial difficulty. The answer is different for different types of pension plans. Most of the major public-sector plans are jointly sponsored, which means employer sponsors and members share this responsibility.
The government, and hence the taxpayer, bears significant risk as joint sponsor of the TPP and the OPSEUPP, and sole sponsor of the PSPP. This is a serious potential liability. For the other major public-sector plans, HOOPP and CAAT, employers share legal liability for funding shortfalls with members.
Because of the significance of this risk, it is critical to ensure greater public clarity and address fiscal and liability issues associated with these plans.
Recommendation 19-5: Clarify who bears the ultimate financial responsibility for funding deficits of the public-sector pension plans as the Commission encountered considerable confusion on this issue.
Health of the Plans
There are two types of actuarial valuations that public-sector plan sponsors are required to prepare: a funding valuation and an accounting valuation. Each valuation employs different methods and assumptions.
The funding valuation is prepared in accordance with the Pension Benefits Act and actuarial standards, and is intended to secure the benefits provided by the pension plan. The funding valuation also determines the contributions necessary to fund the benefits being earned. The funding valuation is used to determine whether a pension plan is actuarially sound.
However, the contributions determined by funding valuations do not represent the province's pension expense for budgetary purposes. Pension expense is based on actuarial valuations that are prepared on an accounting basis. These valuations are prepared in accordance with recommendations of the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB), and are based mainly on the present value of benefits earned by plan members, not the cash contributions.
Three of Ontario's largest public-sector pension plans currently have funding shortfalls. These include the three pension plans that are directly sponsored or co-sponsored by the province (i.e., PSPP, OPSEUPP and TPP). These shortfalls are largely the result of investment losses during the financial crisis in 2008 as well as the low level of long-term interest rates.
The following summarizes the current funded status of the three plans that are directly sponsored or co-sponsored by the province:
The TPP is a jointly sponsored, defined benefit pension plan, with assets of about $107.5 billion as at Jan. 1, 2011. The TPP's preliminary Jan. 1, 2011, funding valuation revealed an unfunded liability of $17.2 billion. A balanced Jan. 1, 2011 valuation was filed with the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) in June 2011, which (1) reduced benefit indexation for future service to 60 per cent of the annual changes in the consumer price index; and (2) increased the contribution rate for both the province and plan members by 1.1 percentage points for the next 15 years.
The PSPP is a defined benefit pension plan solely sponsored by the province. It had assets of about $17.4 billion as at Dec. 31, 2010. The PSPP's Dec. 31, 2010, funding valuation had a $1.19 billion unfunded liability, which the province is eliminating over 15 years.
The OPSEUPP is a jointly sponsored defined benefit pension plan with assets of about $13.3 billion as at Dec. 31, 2010. The plan had an unfunded liability of about $586 million in the Dec. 31, 2010, funding valuation. Retirement of the OPSEUPP shortfall is being shared equally between the government and the plan members. Their respective Rate Stabilization Funds, composed of reserves that were set aside during years of surpluses and are now being drawn down to finance shortfalls, are sufficient to cover this deficiency.
Both HOOPP and CAAT are not directly sponsored by the province, but are consolidated in the province's financial statements. HOOPP, which had assets of about $35.7 billion, was fully funded as at the last valuation date of Dec. 31, 2010, while CAAT had assets of about $5.5 billion and a small surplus.
Many of these plans responded to the shortfalls created by the financial crisis by increasing employer and employee contribution rates. For example, in the case of the TPP, teachers and the province each contributed 8.9 per cent above the Year's Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE) in 2006. That rate has increased since then to 12.4 per cent in 2012 and will rise to 13.1 per cent in 2014. The CAAT surplus is largely attributable to the fact that the contribution rate for employers and plan members is set to increase from 12.9 per cent in 2012 to 13.7 per cent by 2014.
Three plans (HOOPP, CAAT and TPP) have taken steps to reduce or eliminate the level of guaranteed inflation protection on a prospective basis. This action has mitigated the pressure for further contribution rate increases.
Rates of Return
In accordance with PSAB rules, the province values the liabilities of the pension plans consolidated in its financial statements using long-term nominal rates of return varying from 6.25 to 6.75 per cent. This reflects public-sector portfolios, which include equity investments.
Some argue that the actuarial positions should also be valued using more conservative (lower) rates of return based on a portfolio of fixed income securities, as is the case in private-sector accounting standards. This is neither the current accounting convention under the PSAB rules, nor consistent with expected long-term rates of return on a diversified investment portfolio, including both equities and bonds.
Nevertheless, it would be useful for the government to conduct a sensitivity analysis of the health of these pension plans. This test could be as simple as assuming a static change in the long-term rate of return, or could rely on a probability distribution of expected investment returns. This type of analysis is consistent with current Canadian Institute of Actuaries' standards of practice for individual pension plans.
In the case of more conservative estimates, the Commission believes this analysis could reveal significant funding deficiencies across public-sector plans. While this result would not suggest any immediate action needed to be taken, it would support the development of a liability management plan to address the volatility of equity investments.
Recommendation 19-6: In the proposed liability management assessment report, the government should make public the current and prospective financial health of public-sector pension plans.
Recommendation 19-7: In the liability management assessment report, the government should test the fiscal health of the plans against the possibility of rates of return being higher or lower than assumed. This could be done using a higher or lower discount rate, or could rely on a probability distribution.
Impact of the Plans on the Fiscal Framework
Prior to 1993–94, the government accounted for its pension expenditures on a cash basis, and the amount contributed to the plans that it sponsored represented the pension expense. However, the province has changed its method of accounting for pension expense, as recommended by PSAB. Under these rules, cash contributions do not represent the province's pension expense for financial statement purposes.
Ontario's pension expense is now calculated using accounting valuations, which measure the present value of pension benefits earned in a given year, per the PSAB rules. These rules require economic assumptions to be management's best estimates, including the expected rate of return on the investments of the pension fund. These accounting valuations are used to determine the pension expense figures underlying the fiscal plan. The pension expense is adjusted based on interest income or expense, as well as amortized actuarial gains and losses.
While pension expense is expected to moderate over the long term (50 years), the recent rise is largely due to past investment experience. Most pension plans recognize investment gains and losses gradually over five years and these recognized amounts are amortized over the expected average remaining service life of plan members. As a result, expense in any given year reflects the gains and losses from a decade ago or more.
Current pension expense includes the effects of some of the large investment gains from the late 1990s and losses from recent market losses. These gains had the effect of reducing pension expense during the early to mid-2000s. As the large gains are phased out, pension expense has risen, exacerbated by the amortization of more recent market losses.
<3SO border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
TABLE 19.1 Historical and Projected Pension Expense by Plan
($ Millions)
PSPP and
227 295 663 70 1,255
321 50 853 94 1,318
536 255 956 153 1,900
759 526 1,023 177 2,485
858 1,385 1,227 230 3,700
1,051 1,472 1,456 232 4,211
3SO>
As noted elsewhere in this report, growth in total program expense must be held to 0.8 per cent if the province wishes to balance its budget by 2017–18. Total pension expense, including HOOPP and CAAT,2 grew at an average rate of more than 13 per cent from 2005–06 to 2010–11. As demonstrated above, pension expense is expected to continue to grow at a rate well in excess of 0.8 per cent through 2017–18. Should these high rates of growth persist, total 2005–06 pension expense will have more than tripled by 2017–18.
Currently, pension expense is about two per cent of total program spending growth and is responsible for much of the total increase in program spending under the 0.8 per cent growth cap. Total program spending can rise $6.3 billion from 2010–11 to 2017–18. This program pension expense will, under the Preferred Scenario, take up $1.8 billion or almost 30 per cent of the total increase. It will go from 2.1 per cent of total program spending in 2010–11 to 3.6 per cent in 2017–18 in our Preferred Scenario.
Plan-specific costs are spread across various schedules and explanatory notes, and the total pension expense is not identified in any single place in the province's financial statements. The Commission is only aware of the province publishing pension expense figures once in recent history — the 2009 Ontario Budget. In the Commission's framework, pension expense attributed to PSPP, OPSEUPP and TPP is embedded in the residual spending category (i.e., excluding health, primary and secondary education, post-secondary education and social programs). Pension expense attributed to HOOPP and CAAT is found in health and post-secondary expenditures respectively.
Although the volatility in the investment returns plays a large role in determining the expense in the out-years, an adjustment to prospective benefits would be recognized in the year the change is made. This would have the effect of lowering the future expense as soon as the plan is amended.
As noted earlier, contribution rates have been trending upward in public-sector plans in recent years and these rates are now high relative to past experience and to those in the private sector. About half of private-sector plans require contributions from plan members and, where contributions by plan members are made, those contributions tend to be lower than those found in public-sector plans. This makes it difficult to make comparisons between benefit levels in the two sectors.
Given the high levels of employee contributions to these plans, plan members may well be unwilling to agree to further increases. For example, CAAT and TPP members now pay more than 12 per cent in employee contributions. Higher contribution rates mean lower disposable income for plan members, particularly for those at the outset of their careers.
The government should shift its focus from contribution rate increases to changes in future benefit levels when faced with future shortfalls. Measures should be taken to reduce prospective benefits to limit the need for further contribution rate increases.
As noted above, many public-sector employees are members of JSPPs, which require that both sponsors agree to any prospective benefit changes. Employer plan sponsors, including the government, colleges and hospitals, should work with employee sponsors to develop solutions that limit contribution increases. The government may need to consider legislative options should the parties be unable to reach agreements to address these issues.
Recommendation 19-8: The government's objective, when faced with pension funding deficits, should be to reduce prospective benefits rather than increase the contribution rate beyond current levels. This would help to close the funding gap and reduce the accrual of pension benefits on a prospective basis, mitigating the impact on the fiscal plan. The government may need to consider legislative options, should negotiations with plan sponsors be unsuccessful.
Even if the government's share of contributions for future service were limited, this would not in itself reduce the rate of growth of pension expense for financial statement purposes. There are two ways this goal could be achieved:
Reduce the benefits earned by plan members in the future; and/or
Increase the share that plan members pay towards financing new deficits.
If employees are willing to maintain current benefit levels through an increased employee share of total contributions, this would require legislative changes to the Ontario Pension Benefits Act and the federal Income Tax Act, if employees would be contributing more than 50 per cent.
In the absence of a larger share of total contributions paid by employees, the government could undertake negotiations to reduce benefits on a prospective basis, such as changes to indexation or early retirement provisions (e.g., by increasing the early retirement factors noted in Table 19.1). These types of actions would reduce future benefit accruals and thus growth in pension expense.
Recommendation 19-9: The government should accelerate work on the design of public-sector benefits and make containing the growth in the cost of benefits part of the broader public-sector compensation negotiation strategy.
BPSEfficiencies
Most hospitals, colleges, municipalities and school boards operate as separate employers but participate in a single pension plan. In comparison, much of the rest of the BPS, including the university sector (as discussed in Chapter 7, Post-Secondary Education) and the energy sector, has a very fragmented pension arrangement, with more pension plans than institutions. These plans vary widely in size and the benefits they provide, as well as the contributions made by employers and plan members.
This fragmented arrangement suggests that, due to their size, some institutions may not be realizing the economies of scale that would result if this function were more centralized. The consolidation of administrative processes and practices, including the pooling of assets for investment purposes, may generate savings. With a consolidated approach, the administrative functions for plan administration and investment management would be carried out by another body, and each employer/sponsor would remain the legal administrator of its plan(s), retain its fiduciary responsibilities and determine plan benefits.
Recommendation 19-10: The province should examine opportunities to achieve savings and better investment returns through the consolidation of the administrative functions and investment pooling of pension plans across the broader public sector.
Pensions are deferred compensation, and are too often viewed separately from wages and other, more immediate benefits. In Chapter 15, Labour Relations and Compensation, we discuss the need to broaden the perspective on public-sector compensation to make it more inclusive. Pension benefits and their cost must be part of that equation. To accomplish this, the cost of public-sector pensions to taxpayers must be more transparent.
As noted above, currently the only way to compile a full picture of public-sector pension expense is by pulling together different entries and notes in the government's financial statements. Making these expenses more transparent will assist the government in developing a comprehensive compensation strategy. It will also assist in making comparisons across sectors, including the private sector.
Recommendation 19-11: The province must make the government's cost of the public-sector pension plans — both in concept and in magnitude — much clearer in the Public Accounts and other financial statements, including the Budget.
Under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), the province has the "right to compensation" for loss or damages incurred as a direct result of a hazardous spill, and for all reasonable costs and expenses incurred for a cleanup. However, as discussed in Chapter 13, Environment and Natural Resources, difficulties can arise in situations when the owner of a contaminated site becomes insolvent, no longer exists, or lacks sufficient funds to pay for the cleanup. While the province can take legal action to ensure the polluter pays for the environmental cleanup, most often the province is left with the responsibility of the cleanup and the associated costs.
Recommendation 19-12: To better protect the province against the costs of environmental cleanup, adjust the current legislative framework so that more focus is placed on the polluter-pays principle.
Other options include the introduction of a program like Superfund, currently in place in the United States, that has federal authority to clean up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.
Risks to Ontario Posed by the Federal Government
In some areas of responsibility, the federal and provincial governments work together to help provide services to Ontarians, but as a sub-national jurisdiction Ontario is always subject to the risk of a policy change by the federal government. Such policy changes can cause disruptions to both provincial fiscal planning and public services; therefore, allowances must be taken to account for unplanned changes.
Negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement with the European Union (EU) are underway and the outcome of these negotiations could have significant impact on the cost of prescription drugs in Ontario. The potential harmonization of patent rules with the EU could cost Ontario dearly since generic drugs would be kept off the market for a longer time. If all three of the EU pharmaceutical intellectual property proposals are adopted, estimates suggest it could cost Ontarians up to $1.2 billion annually ($551 million for the Ontario government and $672 million for the private sector),3 which would more than wipe out the savings achieved through the government's recent drug reforms. The province should work with the federal government to ensure that a Canada–European Union Free Trade Agreement (CETA) does not undermine Ontario's interest in expanding the use of generic drugs.
Ontario and the federal government share a common personal income tax base to help simplify the process of filing returns. This common tax base could lead to significant costs to Ontario moving forward, since Ontario generally parallels any federal government tax changes to maintain similarity. As an example, the federal government has proposed changes related to the expansion of income-splitting and doubling the current annual limit on contributions to Tax-Free Savings Accounts. These two proposals alone could result in $1.3 billion less in revenue annually for Ontario.
Discussed in greater detail in the federal-provincial relations portion of Chapter 20, Intergovernmental Relations, changes in the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) beginning in 2017–18 stand to cost Ontario about $239 million per annum based on current forecasts, but could reach about $421 million if GDP growth falls to the three per cent floor. These reductions will grow over time. By 2023–24, Ontario's CHT payment could be $2.3 billion to $3.8 billion lower than under the current formula. As discussed in Chapter 5, Health, over the long run, health costs tend to increase more rapidly than nominal GDP. By tying the federal transfer for health to GDP growth, it is almost inevitable that, over time, the federal government's contribution to total health spending will continuously decline.
In Canada, responsibility for the Criminal Code rests with the federal government while responsibility for implementation lies mainly with the provinces. As addressed in Chapter 14, Justice Sector, and Chapter 20, Intergovernmental Relations, recent crime legislation will place further demands on the provincial court and corrections systems, only adding to the fiscal burden of the provinces as the federal government has not yet recognized or addressed the additional cost. The provincial government has projected Ontario's inmate count to increase by 1,265 to 1,530 inmates in 2015–16 as a result of Bill C-10. The lowest cost estimate of the impact of the federal crime bill is ongoing annual increases in operating budgets of $22 million to $26 million per year at maturity. In the worst-case scenario, the province would be required to procure a new 1,000-bed facility to offset the resulting impact. The estimated capital cost of a new facility is $900 million, with ongoing operating costs of $60 million per year.
Recommendation 19-13: Work with the federal government to mitigate risks to the Ontario fiscal framework from federal policy changes. Known risks at the time include the Canada–European Union Free Trade Agreement (CETA) being negotiated, proposed changes to personal income taxes and the federal omnibus crime bill (Bill C-10).
Social and affordable housing4 is provided by Ontario's municipalities. However, Ontario is responsible for setting rules and standards, flowing federal dollars to municipalities, and directly funding various housing and related support programs. Much of Ontario's social housing was constructed over 30 years ago, resulting in a need to invest in repair and rehabilitation work. At the same time, Ontario's population continues to grow and to age, which requires specialized affordable housing. In July 2011, the province signed a three-year bilateral agreement with the federal government for investment in affordable housing. The agreement will provide $480.6 million, cost-shared 50/50 between the federal and provincial governments, to fund the creation or repair of about 6,000 affordable housing units. There is currently no federal funding commitment beyond the end of the current agreement. The absence of an agreement with the federal government for affordable housing would impact both capital programs (repair and construction) as well as operating programs (rental supplements).
Recommendation 19-14: Ontario should negotiate with the federal government to commit to a housing framework for Canada that includes adequate, stable, long-term federal funding and encourages its housing partners and stakeholders, including municipal governments, to work with the federal government to secure this commitment.
Risks to Ontario Posed by the Municipal Sector
Similar to the shared responsibility of service delivery between the federal and provincial governments, the province works with the municipal sector to provide services to Ontarians. As discussed throughout this report, there are instances in which all three levels of government are responsible for public service delivery. While the province and its municipalities should continue to develop their partnerships in the funding and implementation of service delivery, in some cases the province may ultimately be considered liable in the event of a default by an Ontario municipality.
Municipal Infrastructure
About 40 per cent of public infrastructure in Ontario is owned by the province's 444 municipalities. Assets include roads and bridges, water and wastewater infrastructure, transit systems, affordable/social housing, solid waste facilities, public buildings, Conservation Authority infrastructure, and land. Since the 1950s, municipalities' share of public infrastructure has grown significantly.
Municipalities are responsible for maintaining their infrastructure — a responsibility clearly defined through policies that govern municipalities. The province also has an ongoing obligation to help ensure the safety and sustainability of municipal infrastructure. The province accomplishes this through a variety of policy instruments (e.g., standards and inspections) as well as funding programs that support municipal infrastructure priorities. Despite these efforts, there are continual calls on senior governments to ensure adequate investment in municipal infrastructure.
In recent years, there have been numerous efforts to quantify the need for investment in municipal infrastructure and develop provincial policies and funding programs in response. While policies have rightly focused on specific issues (such as drinking water safety), there is a need for a more comprehensive plan that points the province, municipalities and the federal government in the same direction as efforts are made to address the ongoing challenge of underinvestment in the sector. While probably part of the solution, this challenge cannot be resolved through funding alone. More fundamental reforms are needed for the sector to be on a sustainable footing.
Asset management planning for municipal infrastructure should be comprehensive and achieved through a one-window requirement of the province. Poorly maintained infrastructure delivers a lower quality of service, costs more to repair and replace, and can increase risks to health and safety from potential failures. Asset management provides the information needed to make strategic decisions about investing in the maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement of assets. This tool helps optimize service delivery, minimize risk and provide services more efficiently. While many municipalities are practising asset management, there are no set standards for how this should be done. Some municipalities have detailed asset management plans while others do not. In Chapter 12, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Electricity, we recommend that more emphasis be placed on achieving greater value from existing assets in asset management plan reporting requirements than is currently proposed in the Long-Term Infrastructure Plan (LTIP).
As a starting point, an effective plan would include a set of principles to guide future investments and policies. Examples of principles include:
Recognition that safe and sustainable municipal infrastructure is a shared priority for all orders of government;
Municipalities are the stewards of their own infrastructure;
Comprehensive asset management plans should guide investment decisions;
Health and safety issues are top priorities; and
Small communities face unique challenges that require tailored solutions.
For this work to be meaningful, a range of tough issues needs to be tabled, debated and resolved through new or amended policies and programs. Examples include exploring:
If municipalities are using the range of revenue, financing and organizational tools available to them effectively;
How a one-window approach to asset management (where one plan satisfies a range of provincial requirements) could be implemented;
If the way the province has been funding municipal infrastructure is yielding the best possible outcomes;
If "stable and predictable" funding (as the municipal sector calls for) is a good solution or if it will perpetuate the problem;
What role the private sector should play in all aspects of municipal infrastructure (with "no role" not being a viable approach);
How grants can be used as an incentive to achieve financial sustainability; and
If small/economically disadvantaged communities should receive entitlement funding for infrastructure.
This is an opportune time to take stock of the current approach to municipal infrastructure, make any needed policy improvements, and develop a plan that will be in the phases of implementation when the time comes for new rounds of infrastructure funding programs. Even if the process takes a few years, it will help ensure that whatever funding and policies are developed along the way address the most pressing priorities — priorities identified through robust asset management plans. It will also allow the province to negotiate more strongly with the federal government on municipal infrastructure priorities and ensure the most critical needs are being addressed.
Pan/Parapan American (Pan Am) Games
In the summer of 2015, Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe region will host the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games. The budget for hosting the Games is about $1.4 billion, and the province is providing $500 million.
The province guarantees to cover any deficit for the Games and as such is responsible for any cost overruns beyond the approved $1.4 billion budget. As the deficit guarantor, the province has a major interest in ensuring that appropriate measures are in place to minimize risk to the business plan and ensure the budget remains within the approved financial envelope. Provincial consent/approval is required if any major areas of Pan Am expense (i.e., venue operations, transportation, communication services) increase by five per cent or $5 million. As well as ensuring that checks and balances are in place to spot potential increased expenditures, the province must also be vigilant in holding the parties involved to account for any overrun in expenditures.
Recommendation 19-15: Work with the municipal sector to mitigate risks to the Ontario fiscal framework by ensuring that commitments are adhered to. Known risks at this time include potential overruns in municipal infrastructure and the Pan Am Games.
Unknown Risks
It is naive to believe the seven years from 2010–11 to 2017–18 will unfold exactly as projected by the government or the Commission, especially in light of the widespread uncertainties that currently persist over the world economy and its financial system. As the province proceeds along its course towards returning to fiscal balance, many of the risks already discussed could certainly emerge. For the province to continue to meet its fiscal targets, sufficient contingencies will need to be allocated. In an era where political, environmental, economic and technological factors are constantly changing, the fiscal plan must also be prepared for the unexpected and must provide contingencies and mitigation plans for any unknown risks as well.
Consistent with this approach, an adequate contingency reserve should be included to protect against forecast errors. The level of the contingency reserve should grow over time as the budget projection is pushed further out into the future, to provide the government with a degree of latitude for handling general risks that emerge.
Additionally, given the tight constraints that will be imposed on ministry operating budgets, a centrally held operating reserve should continue to be maintained that can be accessed only through a process involving Cabinet and Treasury Board. The operating reserve will be used to address cases where health and safety might be compromised or services to the most vulnerable are jeopardized. The operating and contingency reserves will be used to address unknown risks that materialize.
For risks known in advance, the province should form an explicit strategy to address these risks in advance. Care should be taken in the budget-setting processes to diligently identify any known risks of significant fiscal magnitude, and a strategy developed to mitigate those risks moving forward to increase the probability of securing the fiscal targets outlined by the government.
Taxpayer Protection Act
In this report, we set out a plan based largely on spending restraint to return the province to fiscal balance in 2017–18. The policy framework recommended should permit the province to remain in balance beyond that time. However, we have noted a number of risks to the economic and fiscal environment that could throw a fiscal plan off track. The province would want as much flexibility as possible to be able to respond. That response might be specific to the particular risk that manifests, or it could require further adjustments to spending and revenues. There are no substantial constraints on the government's ability to manage expenditures. However, we believe most will agree that it would be exceedingly difficult to drive program spending growth below the 0.8 per cent annual increases we have laid out here. Hence, unforeseen events may require a strengthening of revenues. The Taxpayer Protection Act (TPA) significantly fetters the government's capacity to make decisions regarding revenues due to its restricting conditions on increasing tax rates or introducing a new tax. This is not to suggest that tax increases should be taken lightly. With or without the TPA, it is unlikely any government would pursue that option lightly, given pressure from taxpayers. Further, implementation of the principles of transparency, efficiency and equity we discuss in this report would sharpen the tests the public would put to governments wishing to raise taxes in the future. In brief, it should be possible to maintain both spending and taxes as tools to address fiscal pressures without causing the public to lose confidence that taxes will not be raised for unjustifiable reasons.
Recommendation 19-16: Modify or eliminate the Taxpayer Protection Act so that both spending and taxes can be used as required to address threats to fiscal sustainability.
1. This estimate did not take into account the $500 million grant made in 2010.
2. While included in Table 19.2 for the sake of completeness, pension expenses related to HOOPP and CAAT are contained in the health and post-secondary sector expenses, respectively. As such, they do not constitute part of the residual expenditure.
3. Paul Grootendorst and Aidan Hollis, "The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement: An Economic Impact Assessment of Proposed Pharmaceutical Intellectual Property Provisions," 2001, Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association.
4. Social housing is also known as "assisted housing," meaning housing where tenants either pay lower end of market rent or rent-geared-to-income (RGI) and receive government assistance. Affordable housing generally refers to rental stock for low-income families who are not receiving subsidies but pay lower than market rent.
- Last Modified: Wednesday, February 15, 2012


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FYI: If Kansas beats Oklahoma tonight, Bill Self will be the only coach in CBB history to win 10 straight major conference championships.
There are many reasons to love Kansas fans, but one of the best became apparent when I attended a charity event coach Bill Self had arranged for his foundation at which several college basketball voices were gathered to discuss the state of the game.
Along with Self, the speakers were Fran Fraschilla and Jay Bilas of ESPN and Blair Kerkhoff of the Kansas City Star. And, yeah, me too. Somewhere in the course of the evening — I apologize if you've heard me tell this story before — I had the occasion to ask the 500 fans in attendance if the Jayhawks' streak of consecutive conference championships had great meaning to them.
I'm sure more than 500 hands were raised, because some in the audience lifted both.
…What Kansas is doing is not a streak. It is a dynasty. The roster has turned over how many times in that period? Not many of the star players remained four full seasons. Sherron Collins, the most underrated player in KU history, he did. But Cole Aldrich, the Morris twins, Mario Chalmers and Brandon Rush — they all left early. Xavier Henry stayed one year. It might be that way for a player or two on this season's team.
It is so easily forgotten now, as we enjoy the talents of freshmen Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid and appreciate the quiet consistency of power forward Perry Ellis, that KU lost all five starters from last year's Sweet 16 team, which entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed but fell to eventual national runner-up Michigan.
How good is Self? This is his 13th year as a high-major coach, starting in 2000-01 at Illinois. In the previous 12 years — since the NCAA selection committee shafted his last, brilliant Tulsa team with a No. 7 seed — he never has coached a team that earned an NCAA seed lower than No. 4. There have been five No. 1s, a No. 2, two No. 3s and four No. 4s. That's ridiculous.
We expect performances such as this from Self and Kansas, though because it's what they deliver, every year. That does not mean it is not extraordinary.
After Saturday's win over Kansas State, Oklahoma still wasn't in a mood to concede anything.
The Sooners weren't ready to concede they were in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, after a win clinched a .500-or-better record in conference play.
OU also wasn't ready to concede the Big 12 title, though that hill is a pretty steep climb.
Sophomore guard Buddy Hield smiled wide when Monday night's game against Kansas was brought up following the win over Kansas State.
Kansas University junior point guard Naadir Tharpe remembers the excitement and enthusiasm, the utter frenzy in Allen Fieldhouse the last time the Jayhawks wrapped up at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season basketball championship at home.
"It happened my freshman year when we beat Missouri. That was the game that clinched it," Tharpe said of an 87-86 overtime win over the Tigers on Feb. 25, 2012 — a game that gave KU a piece of its eighth-straight league title with two games left on the schedule.
"It's my third year here. To be able to clinch at home, that would be good for the fans, good for Kansas, good for the players and most importantly, coach," he added of Bill Self, who has directed KU to nine straight league titles heading into today's home game against Oklahoma.
KU (21-6, 12-2) enters the 8 p.m. Big Monday battle three games up on Oklahoma (20-7, 9-5), Texas and Iowa State with four to play. So a win tonight would assure at least a share of a 10th-straight crown with three games to spare.
"It feels good," Tharpe said. "It's my third year, and in my third year being able to be the head guy and get 10 straight, you know ... it's big time," he said.
It was late last summer, and Naadir Tharpe had a problem. So he did what any Kansas player does when something goes awry.
He took out his cell phone, took a deep breath and dialed his coach.
Bill Self was on a summer golfing trip in Scotland when the call came through, and an anxious Tharpe tried to explain what had happened. He had gone to Chicago to visit teammate Jamari Traylor, and they had played in a pro-am summer game. They had done well — perhaps too well — and their names appeared in a local paper in Chicago.
For Traylor, a native of Chicago, it was fine. But for Tharpe, a native of Worcester, Mass., it was an NCAA violation — one of those esoteric rules that limits where players can play in the offseason.
As Self listened to the story, he remained calm.
But moments later, it was clear. This was something that even Bill Self couldn't fix. Tharpe would have to miss at least one regular-season game, and Self suddenly turned on his starting point guard.
…Self needed Tharpe to be a second voice on the floor, to lead with personality and charisma, to be just like all those other Kansas point guards during the Jayhawks' historic conference title streak. For the next year, Self and Tharpe would need to grow closer than ever before.
But for a moment last summer, Self felt more like a dissatisfied dad.
…Bill Self has coached many point guards. A future NBA star from Texas. A high school scoring machine from the Bronx. A 5-foot-11 dynamo from the streets of Chicago. But if there's an original template for a Bill Self point guard — a Floor General 1.0 — Self may have stumbled upon it in a Tulsa sandwich shop in the summer of 1993.
Self, then 30, was a first-year coach at a moribund Oral Roberts program. Earl McClellan was a freshman from Providence, R.I., who had come to college to pursue a life in the church. McClellan had zero interest from Division I schools, but he still believed he could offer something to a college program. So when he saw the new Oral Roberts basketball coach stroll into a Subway for a late-night meal, it felt like fate.
McClellan was the young player that wouldn't stop calling Self, "Sir", and Self was the young coach who needed all the help he could get. Self invited McClellan to walk on, and by the end of the season, he was starting. Three years later, McClellan had helped Oral Roberts to the NIT, jump-starting Self's coaching rise.
…McClellan created something of a rough template for a Self point guard: The intangible qualities can be as important as quickness or skills. If Self found the right blend of charisma and toughness, he could win with anyone — even a point guard he found in a Subway.
From Deron Williams at Illinois, to Russell Robinson, Sherron Collins and Tyshawn Taylor at Kansas, Self became less concerned with the numbers. Instead, he found a soft spot for the kids who wanted to battle.
…This is life as Bill Self's point guard. All season long, Tharpe says, Self will ride you. He will poke and challenge ... and he will praise. Self admits he's toughest on his point guards, but he's also the most flexible. His guards get offensive freedom. They get the keys to a blue-blood program. And over time, they gain the most valuable tool of all: Self's trust.
By now, a handful of the notions advanced in November and December about the 2013-14 Kansas Jayhawks look hilariously quaint. No, this isn't the season Kansas will finally relinquish its stranglehold on the Big 12 regular-season title; the Jayhawks are 12-2 with a three-game lead on Iowa State, Oklahoma and Texas with just four games left to play. Yes, Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid are really, really good. No, the Kansas offense isn't too stagnant to be relied upon.
All these and more were driven home in Kansas' 85-54 annihilation of Texas on Saturday. But it's the last one -- about KU's offense -- that is especially worth dispelling in advance of Monday night's visit from Oklahoma (9 p.m. ET, ESPN), because against some odds, it is the Jayhawks' offense that will define their season.
…Since Big 12 play began, the Jayhawks have averaged 1.19 points per possession -- more than Wichita State has scored against the Missouri Valley. Only Duke and Creighton, the two best offensive teams in the country, have been better in conference play; Louisville is close. All three have a larger selection of stats-inflating bottom-feeders in their leagues. Save for TCU, Kansas has had no such luxury.
…For anyone who watched Kansas during this historic nine-year run of Big 12 supremacy, the makeup of the 2013-14 team has been a little jarring. Here we have a brilliant Jayhawks offense that doesn't shoot the ball all that well from outside, turns it over a bit too much, and is still brilliant all the same playing out in front of a defense that is uncharacteristically not amazing. It's a different formula, one Self has invented on the fly. But it's working, and pushing Kansas ever closer to a remarkable 10th straight Big 12 title, all the same.
With a three-game lead in Big 12 play with four games left to play, Kansas (21-6 SU, 15-12 ATS) is in range of its 10th consecutive conference title. A victory against Oklahoma (20-7 SU, 15-10 ATS) on Monday night at Allen Fieldhouse will give the Jayhawks no worse than a tie for the Big 12 crown.
In the first meeting between these teams, Kansas knocked off Oklahoma 90-83 in Norman on January 8. The Jayhawks were 6-point favorites in that spot, and the game flew OVER the 153-point total.
When these teams met back in January, the Jayhawks shot 54.7 percent (29-of-53), hitting 8-of-16 three-pointers. Kansas cleaned up on the glass, outrebounding the Sooners 36-22.
Oklahoma's start will be key. Kansas has the ability to blitz teams early. Oklahoma knows firsthand, having surrendered 50 first-half points to Kansas in the first meeting. In Saturday's 85-54 win vs. Texas, Kansas sprinted out to a 46-18 halftime lead.
Jayhawks freshman guard Andrew Wiggins (team-high 16.4 ppg) is in strong form as he enters the homestretch of what could very well be his lone Big 12 season, considering his robust NBA Draft stock. Wiggins has shot 20-of-34 (58.8 percent) in the last three games. Freshman center Joel Embiid (11.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg) has also thrived recently; he blocked six shots against Texas.
Trends to note: The Sooners have covered in each of their last two games. … The Jayhawks are 15-11-1 to the OVER this season, while the Sooners are 14-10 to the OVER. … Kansas is 10-6 ATS at home this season and 13-10 ATS as a favorite. … Oklahoma is 9-3 ATS on the road and as an underdog this season.
The Linemakers' lean: Oklahoma plays at the 10th fastest pace in the nation, and are 12th in terms of number of possessions. The Sooners are 14-10 to the OVER this season. Kansas shoots 50 percent from the field, and OVER has hit in eight of its ten home games with a posted total. Overall, they are 15-11-1 to the OVER. The Jayhawks were happy to run with Oklahoma in the season's first meeting in Norman, so we don't see any reason why they'll want to slow it down tonight. OVER is the play.
On Saturday night, after his team won a basketball game by 31 points, after he scored 13 points and gathered in seven rebounds and blocked six shots, Joel Embiid hoisted a little girl into the air and posed for a photograph. He was working the rope line of autograph seekers, men and women and children alike, and he was wearing a hat bearing the logo of the Brooklyn Nets. He is a stunning physical specimen for a 19-year-old; he's a legit seven feet tall, and even the way he runs, legs churning, arms flailing, almost feels like a newsreel throwback to the era of Chamberlain and Russell.
Just looking at him, it's hard not to think about the vast theoretical possibilities of Joel Embiid's professional future. It's hard not to compare him to Chamberlain or Russell or Olajuwon or Duncan -- even his Wikipedia entry does it. Which may or may not be a problem in itself, since Joel Embiid is still a college basketball player.
…In another era, in another system, it seems pretty clear that both Wiggins and Embiid might benefit from one more year in college, that it might afford them a chance to establish their own identities outside of the professional templates already being placed on them. But that's not how the system works at the moment, and unless the NBA players association bends, that might not be how the system ever works. The very idea of the one-and-done rule is universally reviled among college coaches and administrators, and no one can do much of anything about it. And so you either adapt, or you die, and this is why even Duke's best player, Jabari Parker, is a likely one-and-done; this is why every elite program in the country has now come to recognize this fact and has recruited within the system.
…And perhaps you could argue that it's always been that way at Kansas -- that the pressure to win now has never waned -- but during the Texas game, I kept glancing at the wall of Allen Fieldhouse above me to the left, a row of retired numbers. The last one on the end was Mario Chalmers, who played three years before leaving. In fact, no one on that wall played fewer than three years at Kansas. And it made me wonder: If Embiid and Wiggins win a national championship and then leave for the NBA, do they get their numbers retired, too? How will one-and-dones ultimately fit into the lore of a place like Kansas, a team that plays on James Naismith Court on Naismith Drive, a school that plies itself on tradition more thoroughly than any other program in the country?
"Our young kids have done a good job of staying in the moment," Self said on Saturday night, but you can feel that moment passing quickly, and you can feel that moment being swept up by the allure of professionalism. And maybe college basketball can survive within this shadow, but I'm not sure if it will ever feel quite the same.
Happy Birthday to my dude @evan_manning5 !! Nothing better than shooting for "10 straight" on your birthday.
Downstairs on Saturday afternoon in the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center, I was with Lions assistant basketball coaches and former Kansas teammates Jeff Boschee and Nick Bradford and former Jayhawks coach Ted Owens when members of Bradford's family joined us.
Owens, who turns 85 this July, came to Joplin with his friends Mr. and Mrs. Chris Lincoln. Chris, sports director at KTUL-TV in Tulsa, was a Missouri Tigers broadcaster when he worked in Columbia in the 1970s, and he never dreamed 40 years ago that he would one day be a friend and chauffeur for a Kansas coach.
The purpose of the trip to Missouri Southern was two-fold: Ted sold and signed copies of his autobiography released late last year, "At the Hang-Up," and he wanted to congratulate Robert Corn on his 25-year career with the Lions.
LJW: Now This is a devoted Jayhawk fan!
There were comebacks. There were technicals. There were dazzling individual efforts. And there were enough jaw-dropping highlights to fill an entire "SportsCenter" segment.
But more than anything, as the Trail Blazers dispatched the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-97 Sunday night before 19,458 at the Moda Center, there was one incredible and indelible performance by Thomas Robinson.
The power forward who can't seem to keep his powerful body on the court, had a career night against the Timberwolves, using a mix of hustle and muscle to record 14 points, a career-high 18 rebounds, two blocks and two assists.
He was also important. For much of the first half, the Blazers looked lethargic and listless as Kevin Love (31 points, 10 rebounds) punished them all over the floor and the Timberwolves — who led by as many as 18 points — made minced meat of their shaky defense.
But just before the halftime buzzer, Robinson made a few hustle plays — chasing offensive rebounds, leading the charge on defense — and the Blazers fed off the energy, using a quick 8-0 burst to take some mojo into the locker room. From then on, it was a different game, as the Blazers — starting with that run — outscored the Timberwolves 56-26, a streak that lasted all the way until the 5:56 mark of the fourth quarter.
…A little over three minutes into the quarter, Minnesota guard Corey Brewer leaked out on a fast break and looked ahead at nothing but a mammoth dunk. But as he charged toward the rim, Robinson came out of nowhere, elevated and emphatically rejected the one-handed dunk attempt with his right hand. The ball bounced out to Victor Claver on the perimeter and he started a fast break the other way, pushing the ball ahead to Wesley Matthews. As Matthews approached the three-point line, he tossed a lob toward the rim and Will Barton leaped and finished the highlight with a tomahawk dunk.
The Moda Center went ballistic, the Blazers' bench went bananas — Robin Lopez was running in place with quick little steps like a cartoon character — and Portland led 92-84 with 8:39 left.
…Robinson became the only player in the NBA this season to record at least 18 rebounds and seven offensive rebounds off the bench, and he's the first Blazers player to corral at least 18 rebounds as a reserve since Joel Przybilla did so in 2008. It was his first double-double in Portland and fourth of his career.
It's becoming more and more clear that the Big 12 will put at least one team into the tournament with a losing conference record. In particular, we're talking about Baylor (6-8, coming off a genuinely huge win at West Virginia) and Oklahoma State (5-9, but welcoming back Marcus Smart from a three-game, three-loss suspension).
The arithmetic is simple, really. With only 10 teams, anything above five bids is likely to produce an NCAA team in the bottom half of the Big 12 standings. This flies in the face of my longstanding belief that teams should be at least .500 in league play to qualify for at-large consideration (conference tournament games included). But it will be hard to argue against either the Bears -- with nonconference wins over Colorado, Dayton and Kentucky -- or the, ahem, "smarter" Cowboys (wins over Louisiana Tech, Memphis and Colorado) as tourney participants.
What such league woes effectively do is eliminate a bubble team's margin for error. Including the conference tournament, Baylor in all likelihood needs at least three more wins (in a minimum of five games) and Oklahoma State as many as four victories in the same window to have the odds in their favor on Selection Sunday.
Texas Tech hopes to have 10,000 students in attendance on Tuesday when the Red Raiders take on Kansas State at 6 p.m. in United Spirit Arena.
The students, after setting attendance records during football season, have already set one during basketball when more than 4,000 showed up to support Tech against Kansas a week ago.
Texas Tech athletics, in conjunction with University officials, look to offer an incentive for students to fill up the arena as they will have over 30 chances to win cash and prizes during the game.
Students have a chance for big money — $10,000 or $10,000 towards a new vehicle courtesy of Reagor-Dykes Automotive.
However, the $10,000 won't just be given away.
Four half-court shots each are in place for both the cash and money toward a new vehicle.
A trip for two to Tech's game against Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse is up for grabs, as well as two sets of four tickets each to Red Raider football games against Baylor and TCU.
Five sets of four tickets will be given away to see the Texas Rangers on May 20, and five $100 United gift cards will be available as well.
Also, the dorm with the most students will receive a shopping spree for Under Armour gear using Tech garage sale items.
There comes a time in every season, whether it's at the end or the beginning of the end, when the reality is impossible to ignore and the inevitable is too much to overcome. It sounds like that moment may have come Saturday afternoon for West Virginia.
If the actions during an 88-75 loss to Baylor didn't illustrate the predicament the Mountaineers find themselves in late in a season that's suddenly heading in a very different direction than it was two weeks ago, than the words left no secret about what's happening inside the Coliseum.
After a week off, WVU was soundly outplayed inside, gave up another alarmingly high shooting percentage and lost for the third time in four games - and the losses are by 14, 17 and 13 points. Afterward, Bob Huggins didn't talk to his team about NCAA Tournament possibilities. He instead questioned their "commitment to excellence."
…"We had a week. They all have iPads. They all have all the breakdowns and the breakdowns for the people they're going to guard. I'm not sure what they did. Maybe they played Spider on their iPads, but they sure as hell didn't watch tape."
WMC also highlighted a study of female sports journalists — still a rare breed, despite the fact that more women than ever are sports fans. Sure, Meredith Vieira got the chance to host the Olympics in primetime last week, but she was the first woman ever to do so and it was only because regular host Bob Costas had double pinkeye and first-choice replacement Matt Lauer was too tired.
And, it should be noted, the few female sports reporters we do have get to deal with Bleacher Report's regular slideshows of the "50 Hottest Female Sports Broadcasters from Around the World" "20 Sexiest Sports Reporters of 2012," "20 Sexiest Local Sports Broadcasters" or "40 Hottest College Football Reporters." (Two of those lists were written by a woman, so there's one female sports journalist byline, I guess.) Not to mention harassment from fans, the athletes they cover and even their own colleagues. Sports journalism is a uniquely difficult beat for the few women that are lucky enough to get the job.
It's not just the journalists who tend to be white men; their sources are, too. According to Media Matters, non-MSNBC Sunday morning shows were more likely to feature a white man than a white woman or minority of either gender combined. (MSNBC, led by the Melissa Harris-Perry Show, was much more inclusive.) Another study showed that male sources in New York Times front-page stories outnumbered female sources 3.4 to 1 in January and February 2013.
JaQuan Lyle visits KU today!
A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson confirmed Sunday that Curie is being investigated for possibly using ineligible players in the city championship game Friday.
According to Curie coach Mike Oliver, CPS was aware of the possible infraction before the title game began, but allowed the Condors to play. Curie beat Young in four overtimes.
Oliver and his team arrived several hours late to Chicago State. They were waiting at Curie, unable to board the bus. Phillip Perry, Curie's principal, told Oliver that the team had to wait because CPS Law Department had asked for Curie's roster. Perry said someone called the CPS claiming Curie had ineligible players.
At 6:50, before Curie even arrived at Chicago State, Young coach Tyrone Slaughter was told to have his team take the court.
Oliver said Young principal Joyce Kenner approached him after the game and told him Young had nothing to do with the investigation.
The Illinois High School Association will have to determine if Curie is eligible for the state playoffs, which begin next Monday. According to a statement, they are awaiting the results of the CPS investigation.


Discussion in 'Archived Threads 2001-2004' started by Bill Adlhoch, May 9, 2002.
When I upgrade to a progressive scan dvd player, one of the minor considerations i have is that the unit be able to decode HDCD. My receiver (Yamaha RX-V3000 doesnt have this capibility).
Currently, I can dicern a difference between the analogue and digital outputs from my current player (regular old H/K DVD 5). Would any gains of 20-bit HDCD over 16-bit regular CD's be washed away because of the inherent inferiority of the analogue output compared to the digital?
I know I will be getting a MUCH nicer unit than the one I currently have, so maybe their analogue outs won't suffer in the same way my current unit does.
I am assuming that since my PLAYER is doing the HDCD decoding, I will have to use the analogue 2 channel output to my receiver rather than my digital connection.
this is correct. if you use the digital output, you will not get HDCD decoding unless your rcvr has HDCD decoding.
you need to realize tho, your rcvr needs to have analog pass thru to really take advantage of the analog input, otherwise the signal will be put thru additional AD then DA conversions.
i don't believe that the analog output of an HDCD player, or any player with decent DACs, is "inferior" to the digital output. the Pacific Microsonics DACs are pretty good.
Bill, I believe you are correct regarding the lack of HDCD capability with the Yamaha and Panasonic changers. However, the Denon DVM-4800 DVD-Audio changer does HDCD, though it is $1200.
yep, keith you are correct, but if i can get a player that has everything except HDCD and it costs 350, i would have a hard time justifying paying 800 dollars more JUST for HDCD decoding.
Bill, I agree that HDCD hardly is worth $800 extra, however, the $1200 Denon DVM-4800 should be a noticeably better audio component in all modes than a $350 DVD-Audio player. Just something to consider.
The Denon 2800 DVD Player has both pure progressive scan and HDCD Decoding and these are fantastic video/audio players and you can pick one up for around $450. They sold for $799 when they first came out.
I know I know, I am being demanding, but id rather wait 6 months and get it right than to get what I want partially and regret it later.
If your receiver or pre/pro has HDCD decoding, is it necessary to have a DVD or CD player with HDCD decoding, or will anything with a digital output do?
Fanastic audio players? Maybe good bang-for-the-buck, but certainly not fantastic in the absolute sense.


text:
Historic listed Llanelli chapel could become apartments
It is believed that the plans could 'encourage a new generation' to the area
Plans have been submitted to convert Calfaria Baptist Chapel into nine apartments (Image: Google Maps)
An historic chapel in Llanelli could be transformed into nine new apartments.
Plans to convert the Grade II listed Calfaria Baptist Chapel, in Ann Street, into nine apartments have been lodged with Carmarthenshire Council.
It is believed that the chapel was established in the town during the 1880s but has been left in a derelict state in recent years.
If given the go-ahead, the building's external appearance will generally remain unaltered and some original features will be reused.
The hauntingly beautiful abandoned mansions of Wales
A planning statement by agents SGW Planning explains: "The proposals seek to change the use of the chapel to nine self-contained apartments with a communal stair area utilising the existing two front entrance doors.
"The existing series of spaces will principally remain as they are, with the access entrance lobby retained as an entrance lobby and circulation area and the main body of the chapel being subdivided to form the proposed apartment units.
"It is intended to retain the first floor gallery area in tact together with the ground floor iron columns and integrate these features into the respective floor layouts.
"The ground floor pews would be removed and reused within the timber elements of the conversion (such as doors, skirtings, architraves etc)."
It also states that the pulpit and organ area inside the chap shows signs of significant fire, vandalism and water damage.
The statement goes on to say that the proposed work is hoped to "improve its long-term preservation".
It goes on to say: "Generally, the external appearance of the chapel will remain unaltered to its current visual appearance and scale, with all work generally carried out within the building envelope.
"The aim of the proposed work is to develop the property to improve its long-term preservation and use.
"The overall approach aims to improve the contribution the property makes in its own right and to its setting without degrading its significance, visual appearance or heritage."
Neglected Grade II building in Kidwelly set to be transformed into new bar and restaurant
Tyisha ward councillor Andre McPherson believes that the apartments could 'encourage a new generation' to the area.
Mr McPherson said: "I am in full support, through conversion of this building to apartments it will encourage a new generation to the Tyisha area.
"I do hope that the developer makes sure they rent or sell in line with the ethos of the sensitive letting policy, that of encouraging working families or individuals who are looking to add to the community be being considerate residents."
Carmarthenshire Council


What is a Heritage Fair?
A Heritage Fair is a nation-wide, educational initiative that encourages the exploration of Canadian heritage in a dynamic, hands-on learning environment. Fairs bring together schools, communities and more than 200,000 students, gr. 4-10, across Canada each year.
From music to cutting-edge media, Canadian youth use the medium of their choice to tell stories about Canadian heroes, contributions, sacrifices and tragedies. Stories are then presented at public exhibitions in more than 80 communities across the country.
Heritage Fairs have been held in our province for over 20 years, and today 14 communities proudly host over 4,000 participating students and 700 volunteers each spring! Some of these students are then selected to attend the annual Provincial Heritage Fair, a five-day long history camp hosted in different parts of the province in July each year.
Classroom and School Fairs are exciting and open to all grades and education levels in Canada.
These one or two day showcase events bring together students in approx. 14 communities across BC.
Each summer, this exciting history summer camp celebrates the stories of selected students and alumni.
Are you excited to start your Heritage Fair Project, but not sure exactly where to start, or even what the creation of a Fair project involves? Student resources provides a step-by-step guideline to help you plan your project, as well as some useful tips, advice and access to invaluable resources to assist your Heritage Fair Project.
Participation in a Heritage Fair can help teachers meet their teaching goals, satisfy BC's curriculum requirements, and give youth the confidence to become active citizens who shape the future of our country. Find resources to assist with the preparation of Heritage Fair projects, and great tips and links to help students learn more about Canada's rich history.
The current contact list of Regional Fair Coordinators and important coordinator resources can be found in Coordinator Resources.
A good overview of Heritage Fair Project guidelines, requirements, creative components and some excellent tips and reminders to assist with the creation of a project.
KEEP CANADIAN HISTORY ALIVE. SUPPORT BC HERITAGE FAIRS.
All BC Heritage Fairs Society programs are made possible through the generosity and commitment of people like you through membership, donations, and coporate sponsorship.
Open to individuals and institutions. All members shall receive a newsletter four times a year and other benefits.
Tax-deductible contributions can be made to the BC Heritage Fairs Society using a major credit card on Chimp.
Please contact us to inquire about corporate donations and the sponsorship opportunities available.
The two Young Citizens students chosen to represent BC in Ottawa, Angela Zhou and Esmé Gandham, are featured on the Vancouver School Board website.
10 (+1) Reasons Why Heritage Fairs are Good for You!
History and Heritage: What's the difference?
The history blog for June is Every Place has a Story, a title that could be part of an elevator pitch for Heritage Fairs. However, it is the blog of Vancouver writer Eve Lazarus who has a passion for unconventional history.
Students will arrive in Victoria July 5 to enjoy an exciting Provincial Fair. Thanks to organizers Mary Campone and Kevin McKeown students will experience some of Victoria's most important and engaging historic sites.
The BC Heritage Fairs Society is very happy to announce that Kevin Dale McKeown will be the new provincial coordinator.
From the Prairies to Portrait on the $10 bill here are a few thoughtful projects from 2017 BC Regional Fairs.
Active History is a rich source to learn about the work of historians and connections between the past and current events.
This is an update on the Historical Thinking Summer Institute in Ottawa at the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Museum of History, July 17-22, 2017.
Our Historic Places videos are examples of place-based learning that can respond to the challenges of history education.
The BC Heritage Fairs Society (BCHFS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the history education of Canada's young people. For over 20 years, the Society has hosted Heritage Fairs in communities across the province, drawing some 4000 students and a vast network of volunteers and supporters together to recognize the importance of history and celebrate student learning.