Past and future of Powell River
When we were a town, we had 2,700 employees at the paper mill and sawmill. They both ran 24 hours a day except for holidays. We had sawmills, salmon, herring and five dairies.
Today we are a city of retired citizens with 400 employees in the paper mill, no sawmills, no salmon, herring or dairies.
Today our citizens have problems. My taxes have increased an average of nine per cent a year over seven years. In 2011, 151 citizens deferred their taxes. The flat tax adds a heavier financial burden on the poor and it is supported by Stan Westby, the City of Powell River’s chief administrative officer, and David Douglas, the city’s director of financial services. They reduced it five per cent last year [“Flat tax inches down,” February 9]. What a joke.
Over the past year the city spent about $35 million in capital projects. What is the problem at city hall?
We could use Gordon Crawford in city hall to put out the lifeboats while our ship is sinking.
Jack Dice
Butedale Street
More on smart meters
My thanks to Darreld Beauchamp on his Viewpoint article “Smart meters and you” on November 2.
I am one resident in the city who has placed a “do not install smart meter” sign. So far it has worked. However, I have received a phone call from a BC Hydro representative who has told me that it will be installed by the end of December, and that I really don’t have a choice. Well, I will tough it out until then anyway.
In the meantime, I wonder if the other homeowners’ rates will go up right away or will the rates stay the same until we are all smart-metered? The apparent cost of purchasing and installing these smarties is about $1 billion. This, of course, is where we come in. We have to pay for something that we don’t want in the first place.
Well, as Beauchamp asked: “What will we choose to do about smart meters?” We can choose to have a recall. We did it on the HST and we can do it again.
Somehow we must figure out a way of preventing BC Hydro and the installers from destroying the analog meters they are removing, or we will be paying for new ones to replace the old ones that have worked reliably for many years.
At the time of writing, 23 cities and municipalities in BC have called for moratoriums on smart meters. If you own a computer, use your search engine and enter “smart meters and BC.” You will find lots of information on the hazards and privacy issues involved.
Check out www.stopsmartmetersbc.ca and get ready to sign on for a recall. If we don’t, we will help usher in an Orwellian world of Big Brother.
Norm Hutton
Duncan Street
Co-treatment vote
It has come to my attention that Dave Formosa considers the 10-1 rejection of the co-treatment proposal for the City of Powell River’s sewage by the joint local-technical advisory committee attributable mainly to the public’s presence at the meeting of May 30 [“Committee votes for public consolidation,” June 1].
In the first place, when I consider the membership of that committee, I can think of none who would be influenced by a large public presence to change their vote. We all had different, and sometimes opposing views of the city’s approach to the sewage problem, but at the time of the vote, on a choice between public or semi-private system based on the information at hand, I have absolutely no doubt that everyone who voted “no” meant just that, as did the lone Catalyst Paper Corporation employee who voted for the proposal. I should further point out that there were at least four votes registered by telephone, in other words in absentia, blissfully unaware of the public audience.
Not all of us sail according to a favourable wind, Mr. Formosa, but then we’re not politicians.
Reg Gillies
Evans Avenue
Smart meter question
Do the smart meter electronics [“Smart meters and you,” November 2] get their power from the front side (the pole) or from the back side (your wallet)?
Bill Ireland
Myrtle Point
