Category Archives: Municipal

Municipal

Recreation not about encouraging Exercise?

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I always thought that the purpose of the recreation department was to encourage, not discourage, people to exercise. Apparently I was mistaken about this with respect to the Abbotsford recreation department.

I am speaking of the new schedule for ARC that begins July 1st and runs until Centennial Pool opens or the Whalers competition season ends – whichever comes first. In keeping with the operating behaviour of the City of Abbotsford the decision about this schedule was made behind closed doors and without consultation with or consideration of patrons.

I accept that some inconvenience must result from the need to accommodate the Whalers due to the failure of Centennial Pool to be opened in time for the Whalers to begin training for competition. I made the necessary, though personally inconvenient, changes to my exercise (swimming) schedule to get my needed exercise in around the Whalers schedule.

This was possible because for May and June the Whalers finished by 9PM leaving the 1 hour adult swim available to those displaced swimmers and water-cisesrs. However in the proposed new (indefinite) schedule this time has been reduce to a ½ hour – inadequate time for a proper exercise regimen.

I think it only reasonable that the proposed schedule be amended to ensure at least one hour as the minimum time for an exercise workout. If it is not possible to reschedule the Whalers so that they continue to finish by 9PM, then the pool should be kept open until 10:30PM until the Whalers are able to move to Centennial Pool.

Should it be suggested that this extra expense is to onerous I suggest that the money should come from the salaries of those in City management who, lacking the common sense to hire someone who had experience in pool construction, are responsible for the need to accommodate the Whalers.

Not only would this be an equitable sharing of the pain the Whalers and patrons of ARC have had to endure for no justifiable reason, but it would hopefully serve to encourage common sense and good business practices as future behaviour from senior management.

Federal, Homeless, Municipal, Provincial

A letter to the residents of the Clearbrook neighbourhood of Abbotsford BC:

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While I cannot say I share exactly your frustration over recovery houses, homelessness and crime problems, I can say I too am intensely frustrated over recovery houses, homelessness and the crime fallout from the way people and politicians continue to fail to exercise basic common sense in responding to the situation.

I concur that we need a recovery house policy, not to appease citizens but to protect the addict(s) in recovery who are seeking safe and supportive housing to continue their journey of recovery. Having witnessed the damage and pain that results for those who have the misfortune to end up in one of the houses that has nothing to do with recovery, I whole heartedly agree that we as a community owe it to those seeking recovery to ensure that is what they will find at a recovery house in our City.

What I find so frustrating is the continued failure of people and politicians to exercise common sense by asking some basic and obvious questions, then proceeding to address the issues raised by these questions. So here are some questions for the residents of Clearbrook to think about – and to demand the City answer.

Where are the displaced residents from houses that close going to go? Why would those who find themselves “released to homelessness” do anything other than join the ranks of the homeless who currently call the Clearbrook area home? There are no services, resources or housing to draw them away from the Clearbrook area, an area they are familiar with.

Have you considered the effect that dumping between 100 and 200 newly made homeless onto the streets of Clearbrook will have on the area? If you think you have problems with crime, homeless and addicts in the area now, what do you think is going to be the result of tossing large numbers of additional people onto the streets?

Are you prepared for the newly made homeless to take up residence in sheds, yards, parks, doorways, under trees and bushes, on the sidewalks etc? These people are homeless why would you expect them to just disappear? Where else do the homeless have to go?

Why is it that when these points were raised with the City over a year ago, when they first began to work on recovery house regulations, they have failed to address the most basic and pressing question of what/where are you going to do with those released to homelessness?

What kind of neighbour, what kind of citizen are you? Are you about solving these problems or are you about chasing them to some other part of the City, into someone else’s backyard as the homeless were harassed out of the downtown and into Clearbrook?

What is the point of the City chasing the homeless, the poor from residential neighbourhood to residential neighbourhood when they have no other place to go but around in circles, from spot to spot within the City? Would it not be common sense to provide leadership, support and political will to provide viable alternatives for housing, support and recovery?

Do you want to continue to act thoughtlessly or to act with purpose in pursuing long term, solution focused policies? Do you want these problems and issues to continue endlessly into the future, worsening year by year, or do you want to achieve the goal of the issues and ending these problems?

Think about it, then demands the city, provincial and federal governments begin to act with thoughtful common sense…

Municipal

Tax refugee??

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As his neighbours can tell you Mark Taylor has sold his home in Abbotsford and purchased a larger new home in Langley.

While I cannot say that Langley’s lower taxes are what have drawn Mr. Taylor there, it is certainly ironic that after playing a leading part in inflicting a heavy tax burden on the taxpayers of Abbotsford Mr. Taylor is himself fleeing to the lower taxes of Langley.

Perhaps it is merely that Mr. Taylor is seeking a community where he will have no problem finding a public pool to cool off in should our weather ever heat up to summer temperatures. Langley and many other smaller communities, have more indoor and outdoor pool facilities than Abbotsford. They probably also have enough common sense to hire people who have experience building pools and know what they are doing, thus avoiding extended shutdowns as is happening with Centennial Pool.

Possibly it is the many other sports and recreation facilities and programs that the citizens of Langley enjoy that the citizens of Abbotsford lack that motivate Mr Taylor’s relocation. If so perhaps Mr. Taylor should be raising the matter or these recreational inadequacies with …… himself as Abbotsford’s parks, recreation and culture head honcho.

Undeniably his move does suggest that a white elephant of an arena is not a deciding factor, even someone responsible for foisting it upon Abbotsford, in making Abbotsford is a “must live” community. Just as clearly Langley’s lack of said white elephant is no deterrent to people moving there.

Apparently Abbotsford is fine place to take an exorbitant salary from, just not somewhere you want to live. A comment on Mr. Taylor’s opinion of the outcomes of the actions he and the rest of Abbotsford City Hall have wreaked upon our poor (much poorer) City?