Field of dreams
We’ve got money to burn or do we [“City requires more cash flow,” August 20]?
Apparently the city has a money shortfall and at the same time an extensive inventory of underutilized facilities (review just completed). But the city apparently has half a million dollars ($550,000) to spend on yet more facilities?
What is more shocking, is that on Wednesday, August 6, via email, I asked a member of council and staff for the expected usage of this new facility—the type that one would expect in a justification report.
The member of council replied that he is not aware of the expected usage and referred me to staff, who also was not aware but looking into it.
If I hear one more “if you build it, they will come” comment, I will scream. As I recall there was no ferry in the movie Field of Dreams. We cannot continue to build (increase facilities) our way out of our negative growth period.
Please, would someone with a financial background and common sense, please, run for council.
Paul McMahon
Invermere Court
Another Einstein quote proven
BC Ferry Corporation fulfills Einstein’s quote [“Ferries group makes progress,” April 9]. The North Island Princess sails from Texada for Powell River at 11:25 am, a 35-minute crossing.
The ferry to Comox is supposed to leave Powell River at noon.
There is only one dock.
Since the new dock was built this schedule has been in effect.
For six months the Texada ferry slows to a crawl and drifts around the Salish Sea (bounces around the Salish sea in bad weather), anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour, depending how far behind schedule the Comox ferry is. This causes the Texada ferry to be late daily.
Einstein said “Repeating the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result was insanity”.
The ferry crew and the ferry shore crew have no input to scheduling so please take your frustration to BC Ferry Corporation. A sympathetic smile to the crews is more appropriate.
How would you like to work for an administration that confirms Einstein’s quote?
Clark Banks
Westview Avenue
Hills are no problem
Recent letters from people against the Willingdon site give me the impression that they know little about disability and accessibility [“Library economics,” August 20, “Hill headaches,” September 3]. They carry on like wheelchair users currently never leave the “flatlands of Joyce.” The very concept of wheelchair users (like myself) going up a hill seems to strike one writer as funny.
Are Veronica Bourassa and Bill Ireland aware we need to go up and down hills to access Willingdon Beach Trail, the sea walk, Blackberry Street Festival, Sea Fair, Cranberry Seniors’ Centre, Max Cameron Theatre, the Patricia Theatre, the museums, inclusion Powell River, Model Community Project, not to mention the ocean in general, Mowat Bay, Inland Lake and BC Ferries? Are they aware people in Wildwood, Cranberry, Townsite, Lund, Saltery Bay, and lower Westview have to go up and down hills to access Town Centre Mall and Powell River Recreation Complex? Are they aware that all of Powell River’s buses are wheelchair accessible?
I also find it interesting (and somewhat humorous) that Bourassa thinks there is “safe bicycling” around the Crossroads Village Shopping Centre—she should try it sometime. You take your life in your hands cycling that stretch of Joyce.
But humour aside, hills are part of our existence here and I personally am not interested in being confined to the “flatlands of Joyce.” We live in a unique, beautiful, oceanside location so why wouldn’t we want to build a new library/public space/community hub that takes advantage of this beauty? If all I cared about were flatlands, I’d be living in Saskatchewan.
Kaia Sherritt
Abbotsford Street
Headlong mindlessness
A recent move to increase speed limits against the advice of public safety authorities underlines the juvenile mentality of our provincial government. They are children, and they are indulging the childish wishes of those who live in a mental state of impatient anticipation as opposed to mindfulness [“Transportation minister hears concerns,” August 13].
Similarly, the rush to improvident exploitation of natural resources indulges people and companies obsessed with immediate maximum profit as opposed to long-term stewardship of one of the richest and most beautiful places on Earth. If we had more mature thinkers in Victoria they would contrive to get guaranteed ultra low price long-term natural gas contracts for all companies and people in BC in exchange for the rights to export. This would attract every form of investment to BC and create an economic powerhouse for our descendants instead of the banana republic we are heading for. If our resources aren’t at least that attractive they can stay in the ground; our grandkids would thank us. To talk about having to import skilled labour to BC so that multinationals can speedily rip us off is just plain ridiculous, especially coming from a government that can’t manage our public school system.
Ted Crossley
Hammond Street
Sights too far away
I am annoyed enough to write this letter and submit it to your newspaper. I am sympathetic with the sufferings on both innocent civilian sides of the war in the Gaza strip, and expect people in BC are too. However, the following excerpt from The Canadian Press, July 29, 2014 touched a raw nerve in me.
In an article by Tamsyn Burgmann, “B.C. can be ‘counted as a friend’ of Israel, says Premier Christy Clark,” the premier writes that the current conflict in Israel and Gaza is of concern to anyone who believes in democracy and human rights. Too bad, as premier, she does not have the same concern for the rights of BC coastal communities suffering deadly assaults from BC Ferries who slash/kill sailings and increase fares for less and less service [“Ferries return to new schedule,” May 14].
Perhaps she should focus on home base and her own BC citizens, with their loss of BC tourism dollars and their suffering as a result of her ignoring their pleas for help.
Does anyone else agree? Please let me know.
Gayle McCaul
Mariners Way
Refreshing proposal
On September 4, the Library Board’s architects presented their proposal to City of Powell River Council for renovating the former Brick building near McDonalds and the former Liquidation World building near Lordco Parts Ltd., for the new Powell River Public Library.
Not surprisingly, they came up with approximately $8 million to purchase and renovate the [former] Brick, building and $10 million to purchase and renovate Liquidation World. These costs are as ludicrous as costs for placing the library at Willingdon and the Powell River Recreation Complex.
What was really refreshing, was that the group representing Crossroads Village Shopping Centre, the mall that houses the former Brick, did their own presentation [“Private sector proposal provides less costly library option,” September 10]. Their bid came in at $4.9 million to purchase and renovate that space for a new library. They noted that the tenants upstairs would bring in $150,000 per year in revenue to the city. The offer by the Crossroads Village team, who are all locals who live in and care about our town, is half the cost of what Miller Hull proposed.
For those of you who don’t know, in the recent past, the library board has refused offers to build a library in other locations. The provincial government offered an incentive to put the library at the new Westview Elementary School location, they refused. They were offered to put the library at Town Centre Mall, they refused. They were offered to have one built near Tim Hortons, they refused.
One has to wonder if the Library Board actually wants a larger library, or if they just want the ocean view.
All of the Miller Hull proposals will have the town in debt for years and years to come, at a time when our population continues to decline and we have essential, major infrastructure projects that need to get done.
Council has to step up and show leadership by choosing a reasonable, affordable alternative for a new library while taking some of the burden off taxpayers.
Elaine Teichgraber
View Road
Who is responsible?
I was recently listening to a spokesperson from Port Metro Vancouver applauding the approval of the coal terminal and explaining all of the procedures put in place for environmental safeguards. However, I was alarmed to hear that, when asked who would be monitoring the barges once they left the terminal, he replied that it was beyond their jurisdiction [“Coal decision ignores concerns,” September 10].
I am a 37-year resident of Gillies Bay and live within three kilometres of the proposed Lafarge Canada Inc. terminal. I decided to ask Dr. Paul Martiquet, medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, some questions:
1. Who will be monitoring the barges once they leave Vancouver and unload coal on Texada Island?
2. Who will be monitoring the coal dust that settles onto the adjacent community water supply, my organic garden or the land on which I raise my poultry?
3. Will someone be checking on the coal dust settling onto the shellfish the community harvests or the quality of air as idling bulk carriers release carcinogenic diesel fumes into the air we breathe?
4. Will there be studies to determine what will happen to the marine ecosystem when ships release their foreign ballasts?
5. Where will all the fresh water come from to constantly wash the barges? Will it be from Paxton Lake which sustains unique, endangered and world-renowned stickleback fish (listed on the federal Species at Risk Act)? Are they in danger from coal dust?
I ask again: Who is responsible for safeguarding the health and environment of Texada Islanders and coastal communities?
We deserve a comprehensive health and environmental assessment. It is imperative that this takes place before the barges are allowed to endanger us all.
Mary Lock
Gillies Bay Road, Texada Island
