Cedric Liem

Ever since Trump said that he wants to take over Canada, I’ve become so much more aware of politics.

At the municipal level, you can find out what your city councillors are having meetings on and how they vote on issues pertaining to the city.

City of Toronto Meetings and Minutes

Today, I looked up the city councillors for Toronto and here is the link to see what they are voting on.

https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/council/council-committee-meetings/

One example of using this link is seeing how council members vote to increase their own salary.

The Toronto City Council meeting where councillors approved a 24% pay raise occurred on March 26-27, 2025. This link below provides the agenda item history (CC28.6) and confirms the adoption of the salary increase to $170,588.60, effective January 1, 2025.

https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.CC28.6

Provincial Meetings

The Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s website is a comprehensive resource for information about Ontario’s provincial parliament, its operations, and its members.

https://www.ola.org/

Federal Meetings and Minutes

For anyone curious about how Canada’s federal government operates, the House of Commons website is a goldmine of information. As the official hub for Canada’s elected chamber, this user-friendly site offers insight into parliamentary activities, from debates to committee work, while shedding light on the roles of Members of Parliament (MPs) and the democratic process.

https://www.ourcommons.ca/

Electronics

I’m always buying new electronics and throwing away old ones and I want to maintain and share a list of places that recycle electronics and dispose of them safely as opposed to throwing these away in the garbage.

Place	Batteries	Phones	Monitors	Computers	Electronics	Pickup Service
MEC	X
Ikea	X
Staples*	X	X	X	X	X
BestBuy*	X	X	X
Diabetes Canada*	X	X			X	X
Goodwill Canada		X	X	X	X
Cerebral Palsy Canada		X		X		X

BestBuy

• Batteries (alkaline, lithium ion, rechargeable, and cell phone batteries under 5 pounds)
• Cellular Devices and Pagers
• Computer Peripherals
• Cords and Cables
• Countertop Microwave Ovens
• Desktop Computers
• Desktop & Portable Scanners
• Desktop Printers/ Multi-Function Printers
• Display Devices – TVs, Monitors
• External Storage Drives and Modems
• GPS and Portable Car Electronics
• Home Audio/Video Systems
• IT and Telecom Equipment
• Medical and Monitoring Equipment
• Musical Instruments
• Non-Cellular Telephones and Answering Machines
• Personal/Portable Audio Systems
• Portable Computers
• Small/Large Battery Powered Toys
• Vehicle Audio/Video Systems
• Video Gaming Systems and Accessories

Diabetes Canada

They only accept electronics if you schedule a pickup.

Check out their Declutter website.

Staples

***Recycling services are not available at all locations. Please contact your local store here to confirm what recycling services are available***

Links of Interest

EPRA Ontario

reBoot Canada – Accept computer equipment, but, they may charge you for certain things such as monitors.

More Resources

Here are places you can recycle and donate other items.

• Habitat for Humanity – household building materials
• Hakim Optical – glasses
• Salvation Army – clothing, housewares
• Tiny Toy Co – toys
• Kidney Car Foundation – cars
• Toronto Public Library – https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/support-us/donate-books.jsp

Did you know that you don’t need Microsoft Office to read and write documents in Microsoft Office? There are three major office productivity software that are free Microsoft Office alternatives you can use if you don’t feel like buying the program and paying for upgrades every couple of years:

1. LibreOffice
2. OpenOffice
3. FreeOffice

I originally used StarOffice which turned into OpenOffice, but, in the last few years, I switched over to using LibreOffice.

LibreOffice Components

Writer – alternative to Word
Calc – alternative to Excel
Impress – alternative to Powerpoint
Draw – alternative to Paint
Base – alternative to Access
Math – equation and formula editor
Charts – create and embed charts

OpenOffice also has the same tools as above, except Charts. But, it doesn’t mean you can’t produce charts in OpenOffice.

The functionality of LibreOffice rivals Microsoft Office, It may be hard to believe since it’s free, but, really it does. In the 25+ years of owning and using computers, I haven’t once installed or bought Microsoft Office. LibreOffice Calc can read and write to Excel. Writer can read and write to Word and Impress can read and write to Powerpoint. These are probably the 3 most used office applications and LibreOffice is completely compatible.

The only issues you’ll come across is probably if you are reading any Microsoft file that is using a macro. Otherwise, I’ve never had any major issues reading Word or Excel. Minor issues in Word might be formatting issues. So, what you saw in Word, for example some tabs or spacing may be off. And you’ll have to re-align it in Writer. But, this happens in Word even if you use Windows and if you use a file from one computer to another that uses a different printer. The formatting may also be off.

There are no fees whatsoever. If you like it, keep using it. If you don’t, just uninstall it. You may find, you’ll never go back to Microsoft Office. I have never used Microsoft Office at home.