Municipal, The Issues

Mutually eclusive: Common Sense & Abbotsford City Council

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As frustrating as it was, it was no surprise to read that the taxpayers of Abbotsford are on the hook for an additional and unknown amount of money (?$million$?) for further construction at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre.

After all, the worth of council promises on costs were made clear as Plan A costs spiralled higher and higher, well beyond the promised “fixed” costs. Then there is the fact that the statement most appropriate for council’s behaviour on Plan A and financial matters is “They did not even have enough common sense to …”

As in: “They did not even have enough common sense to hustle up provincial and federal funds before funding the entire project themselves” or “They did not even have enough common sense to realize that 400 parking spots were totally inadequate for a 6,500 seat complex”.

So it is no surprise that, even though council is on record from their very first statements that the Arena would be home to a hockey team, they did not even have enough common sense to ensure that the dressing rooms were up to the standards required by any possible league an arena tenant could play in.

No, if you used common sense and ensured the dressing rooms were up to any potential league standards, you would not able to be jack hammering apart the Sports and Entertainment complex within a month of opening.

And why would anyone expect Mayor George Ferguson, council or city staff to have any idea of what this destruction/construction will cost? After all nobody ever accused them of having enough common sense to have an idea what things will cost before they start spending taxpayer’s money.

Homeless, Thanks

Healing Garden.

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The opening ceremonies for the Healing Garden behind the Salvation Army Centre of Hope were held Saturday June 13, 2009. It was an opportunity for local politicians to speak and for thanks to be expressed to those who had donated funds or materials to this project.

While the homeless truly appreciate these donations, we know that without Dave Darbey this area would still be patchy grass and weeds. It was Dave who, looking at patchy grass and weeds, saw what could be. It was Dave Darbey and Judy Williams who lavished the hours and sweat equity into the garden.

Others may have come alongside from time to time to contribute labour, but it was Dave and Judy who were the common denominators as the ponds and cascading water flows were dug with pick and shovel under the blazing sun last summer; as the piles of soil and rock disappeared wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow out of the store parking lot, around the building and into the garden area; as throughout the cold and wet of winter the garden continued to take shape; as places for greenhouse and seating were dug out of the hillsides during the rain and cold of the winter; as that greenhouse produced plants this spring; as over time pant materials were planted; as the Healing Garden was brought to life.

While the homeless may have questioned the sanity (or lack thereof) of Dave and Judy, there was never any question about the labour and love they poured into the Healing Garden to bring it to bloom.

It is because of this labour of love that the Healing Garden is a place of healing. Sitting there listening to the sound of water as it tumbles musically over the stones into the pond one can feel the stress wash away; seeking/finding peace, perhaps even serenity, as the love and good will lavished on creating the Healing Garden touch wounded/battered Spirits.

The official opening does not mean that, as in other public gardens, the Healing Garden is completed. Rather, it merely marks a point in the life of the Garden. Dave Darbey’s vision is not of a static, finished garden but of a garden that, like Life, flows and changes with the seasons and the passage of time.

It is this continual progression and growth, the additional investment of sweat equity and care, which will continue to make this space a Healing Garden.

It is in the example of Dave Darbey and Judy Williams that the possibility of making Abbotsford a Healing Community, a transcendent place to heal, recover and live lies revealed.

Issues, Municipal

Why not in Abbotsford also?

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“Why is there affordable housing being built in Chilliwack and Mission but not in Abbotsford?” was the question posed to me by someone who had recently moved from working on a mental health team in Chilliwack to a mental health team in Abbotsford.

The answer to the question is simple and straightforward – Abbotsford City Council.

While Abbotsford City Council has been paying lip service to the lamentable lack of affordable housing, hiring social planners and forming advisory committees – City Councils in Chilliwack and Mission have been supporting and standing behind supportive affordable housing projects in their cities.

As a result Abbotsford has ended up with growing homelessness and affordable housing problem building into a crisis; Chilliwack and Mission meanwhile have been plugging away at actions that result in affordable housing projects getting built in their cities.

‘No money!’ cries city council. ‘Here is $11 million for construction and $650,000 per year for staffing and support services, heck double that and make it two projects’ says the province.

No poverty excuse? No problem equivocate – look for a more suitable location for the Emerson project.

After the recent exercise of spinelessness by Abbotsford City Council on abandoning the densification called for by their own Official City Plan, what do you think the odds are they will find the backbone to vote for the rezoning needed for the Clearbrook Road to be built?

No doubt a suitable location for these provincially funded housing projects will be found. Unfortunately, based on recent history, the locations will most likely be in Chilliwack or Mission.

It is looking more and more as if the best chance to see affordable housing in Abbotsford will be after the 2010 Olympics when citizens can stand along Highway 1 and watch as some of the units that had housed athletes at the winter games past through Abbotsford on their way to Chilliwack. Where, once reassembled, they will add to Chilliwack’s growing stock of affordable housing.

Increasing numbers of people, fallout from the economic meltdown, are falling through our inadequate social safety net, landing on the streets and accelerating the increase in the numbers of people without housing and homeless.

Abbotsford city council has, with its careless disregard for the consequences of its failure to act and provide leadership, allowed this problem to continue to grow to the point of crises.

Council must stop making excuses, find some backbone, provide leadership and actually take an action (action as in something other than words or paper shuffling) that results in actual shovels in the ground on affordable housing projects.