The last week’s been pretty social: two days of work meetings downtown which included a Blue Jays win over the Atlanta Braves, coffee from three good spots: the Spadina Neo, the University Fahrenheit, and the Union Pilot, and drinks at The Chase to close it all off.
Friday was a holiday. We basically just binged Squid Game, which we somehow avoided when it came out.
Saturday our friend Upasana made us a delicious dinner, and we had such a lovely time chatting we barely noticed it was midnight. We left feeling fat and happy, as they say.
Sunday night we were the hosts, as Ricky and Olivia came over for dinner. We provided salad and a cheese board; they brought delicious Filipino comfort food. We poured a bunch of fun wine, and served ice cream.
I spent last weekend in Nova Scotia, at the family farm, to celebrate my mom’s 75th birthday. Brother #1 & progeny drove down for the day as well. We had a big Chinese feast and chocolate cake and then we surprised mom with her birthday present (to come in a few months).
Saturday I re-lived my youth and went to a pancake breakfast down the road at the local fire hall / community centre. That day, and Sunday, I was able to help a tiny bit with the very end of maple season. [UPDATE: I have been informed that the season in fact continued all week. I’d swear it was wrapping up last Sunday, but what do I know? I’m a city boy now.]
I worked in Moncton Monday and Tuesday, dosing my co-workers with maple sugar, then flew home early Wednesday morning. It was a few days of all-out sprint for us both, but we had enough in the tank to eat a delicious meal last night at Ricky + Olivia:
Cocktails
White Negroni (Dillon’s gin, Elora elderflower liqueur, gentian)
Mr. Christie’s Old Fashioned (Brown butter washed rye, Dillon’s chocolate liqueur, sea salt, vanilla, orange bitters, chocolate chip cookie)
Last January I visited Winnipeg and Saskatoon for work, in the middle of a severe cold snap. It was my first time participating in what’s become an annual work trip; this year I was on the roster for visits to Edmonton and Calgary. Luckily the weather worked in our favour this time: in spite of some bouts of snowy weather, it was above freezing pretty much the whole time.
It was my first time in Edmonton. In between all the work stuff I had some bites at the bar at the JW Marriott and coffee at Coffee Bureau, Obj3cts, and ACE. There was also a fairly random lunch at a place called Continental Treat Fine Bistro (one of our party is gluten-free and we somehow ended up a completely gluten-free Eastern European diner) and a team event at Ashford House Pub. There was trivia. My team won.
The next day we drove down to Red Deer (hitting terrible weather, and very nearly going off the road multiple times) and then on to Calgary. Only one coffee stop this time: a Monogram location.
With business concluded, we all left early the next morning. I flew Porter both ways, and my experience was great. Definitely becoming my preferred method of flying west.
This past week was a Moncton work week. It got off to a rocky start, first because the flight was delayed by an hour, then because we got diverted. We were flying over Montreal when I noticed we turned west, which…wrong direction, obviously. Then the pilot came on and said something was wrong with the plane, so we were diverting to Ottawa. I mean, sure man, do what ya gotta do and get us on the ground, no arguments. Montreal would have been preferable, but whatever. So I spent six hours in the Ottawa airport; luckily there’s a Vino Volo and an Aspire lounge, which made it easy to keep up on work and take meetings.
I landed in Moncton late that night, and saw just how much snow had fallen in the previous 24 hours. There were drifts everywhere, and hot on the snow’s heels had been the frigid cold snap that blanketed eastern North America. It was -32 with the wind chill on Tuesday morning when I walked to the office; on Wednesday it was -34. Thursday night it warmed up just enough for another snowstorm. Suffice it to say, I did not go any further afield for food than the restaurant in my hotel.
Just back from a week out east. A few days at the farm (where I got to meet brother #2’s newest dog, Yuki…timid chap), then back to Moncton for the work week. A company party, a few team meals. Three different seasons, seemingly: snowbanks –> rainy & warm –> freezing cold. Only one new restaurant excursion, a newish south Indian place called Darbar which satisfied my chicken 65 and parotta cravings.
I spent most of this week on the road. I was in Ottawa for ~24 hours for a conference, but I also squeezed in coffee at Little Victories on Elgin and a quick dinner at Riviera: my grilled octopus w/ green olive pesto, potato & guanciale was good (but a little oily) while the smoked duck breast & heart w/ cherries, yellow beans & pistachio was fantastic. Monday night I flew to Moncton, with a quick stop at the Ottawa airport Vino Volo.
The weather in Moncton the rest of the week was garbage so I didn’t get much of anywhere, but I did attend a Beaujolais Nouveau charity fundraiser!
Just got back from a work week in Moncton. While there I hit some repeat spots (including dinner with my parents, which is always great) but also tried a few new ones:
Laundromat Espresso Bar, which was fine. Kind of liked the idea of it as a bar (they also have live music sometimes) but I was there in the middle of the day, so…beer next time.
Notre Dame de Parkton, a lunch-only sandwich place famous for its high-quality bacon. I didn’t get bacon this time, but did get a smoked meat sandwich which, while small, was one of the best I’ve ever eaten. The meat melted in my mouth. The bread was soft as a cloud. Classic yellow mustard. Pickle, cole slaw, and plain chips on the side. Perfectly executed lunch. Will repeat.
Banh Mi Bready, a (you guessed it) banh mi place near my office which an employee recommended. I got the grilled pork at their suggestion, and it was solid. Good option for next time. Glad to see it was hopping too — good for them.
The new Main Street location of Red Satay. I’ve been to the St. George location a bunch.
Picked up a couple of excellent wines at that primo ANBL too:
Earlier this week I visited Prince Edward Island for the first time in (*checks with his mother*) about 45 years. I don’t know why that is — we lived an hour away, but never went. I guess it was just more of the same thing we grew up with in NS, except with a ferry ride (or, after 1997, an expensive bridge toll) thrown in.
To be more specific, I really only spent time in Charlottetown, for a couple of days of work. We did manage to sneak in a tasty meal and cocktails at Slaymaker & Nichols, excellent coffee from Receiver, a lobster roll from Salt & Sol, and a cruise around the harbour. We were lucky; the weather was 98% beautiful (no sign of the after-affects of a recent hurricane off the coast), the water was calm, and we even spotted a few seals. It felt good to be back on salt water.
After the harbour cruise, we all made an obligatory visit to Cows. A thoughtful co-worker even bought us all t-shirts from Cows; a few days later, the security personnel at the Moncton airport would be big fans of my Scoop Dogg shirt.
Yes, Moncton. After the meetings in Charlottetown ended I hitched a ride with a colleague back across the bridge (my first time traversing it, obviously) to Moncton where I worked for a few days. Not much of note in that short visit, except that I finally visited CoPain, an artisanal bakery. I’ll be back, on the strength of that croissant alone.
I’ve been meaning to talk about this article for months, because it infuriates me. I spent a total of 22 years working in the banking industry: 14 at a big six bank, and 8 more at a smaller challenger bank (which railed against the kind of stuff described below). Based on what I saw working at that big bank, nothing in this article surprises me.
Marketplace has spoken confidentially to current and former bank employees from all the big banks: TD, RBC, BMO, Scotiabank and CIBC. CBC is concealing their identities because they fear professional repercussions. All expressed similar concerns about enormous sales pressure they say leads to potentially costly or otherwise dangerous financial products being pushed on customers.
“I had to mislead customers into getting products that they didn’t need, to reach my sales target,” said a recent BMO employee.
“It’s not a customer service … environment,” a former Scotiabank employee said. “We’re there to sell — and make money for the bank.”
While I never worked in a branch, it was common knowledge that this happened. Branch staff had monthly sales quotas. I personally witnessed — as a customer long after I left that bank, mind you, not as an employee — staff in a different big six bank offering products to a customer that they obviously did not need, not because they wanted to, but because the system prompted them to and they knew they’d be in trouble if they didn’t ask.
They will push credit products and other revenue-generating products in order to meet sales quotas, vs. giving advice which would benefit the customer. From the same article:
In a second test, Marketplace sent a colleague wearing hidden cameras to meet with financial advisors at the big five banks.
She posed as a customer with a $50,000 inheritance coming soon and wanted financial advice. If asked, she said she also had a $350,000 mortgage and $17,000 in credit card debt.
None of the advisors asked about existing debt, instead recommending that our tester invest the full $50,000 in products like GICs and mutual funds, which help bank employees hit their sales targets.
When our tester raised the credit card debt herself, only BMO and CIBC clearly recommended that she use part of the supposed inheritance to pay it off in full.
Anyone with a basic knowledge of budgeting and money management would tell you to pay down high-interest debt before investing. But they get away with this predatory bullshit because customers assume that bank branch employees have a fiduciary duty to help them. THEY 👏 DO 👏 NOT 👏.
In one recording, a manager tells Jeraline that in order to make more sales, she should remember that she does not work in customer service.
“We are investment advisors,” he says. “You have to have a bit of aggression.”
Unlike registered financial advisers, financial advisors (spelled with an “o”) at banks have no fiduciary requirement to their customers.
I say this to everyone who tells me about their investments at their bank. 9 times out of 10 it’s some mediocre bank-owned mutual fund which was recommended not because it’s the best option for the customer, but because it makes the bank the most money. Look at this list of the largest mutual funds in Canada, or this table from Morningstar.ca showing the most popular funds on their site last year.
7 of those 10 funds are from big banks, despite their largely mediocre performance. In fact, by the time you subtract the MER, 4 of those 7 big bank mutual funds earned less last year than my everyday bank account. The only reason these funds grew so big is because bank staff recommend them regardless of their performance or suitability to the customer.
Most people are surprised when I tell them the bank employee who sold them a high-fee mutual fund owes them no fiduciary duty. They shouldn’t be. Those banks are designed to maximize their own profits at the expense of their customers, in spite of their spokespeople’s protestations or what their multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns tell you. I didn’t see that — or didn’t want to see it — until I stopped working at one…and I have a Commerce degree and an MBA, plus decades of hands-on experience. My heart breaks for the people who get taken advantage of day in and day out by a predatory oligopoly.
Just back from another trip out east. Couple days in Moncton (no new places visited) and a couple days on the farm with my dad while my mom, sister-in-law, and brother #2 were overseas. Flew back Thursday (and fell kind of ill on the flight, which wasn’t great, but it’s also not the first time I’ve experienced that…I’m starting to think it’s the white wine they serve) and spent Friday working & recovering.
Right before I left for Moncton we had binged The Jinx. Lindsay had seen it; I somehow had not (though I knew what happened in the final episode). Still, learning the whole story was…pretty shocking. So of course when I got back we starting catching up on the new season, and suddenly I’m back to impatiently waiting for Sunday night TV.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 