Category Archives: Provincial

Federal, Municipal, Provincial

Flummoxed.

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There is a property in Abbotsford that has two underground oil tanks buried on it, probably left from the time in the 1940 – 50s when it was a gas station. The property is so contaminated that not only do you smell the oil, you taste in your throat.

It sits on the corner of Sumas Way and 4th Avenue just north of the Canada/USA Huntington border crossing. To improve traffic flow across the border major road construction was done involving 4th Avenue.

As a result of this work, every time it rains, this corner property is flooded 5 – 15 cm deep in rain water runoff. The rainwater is contaminated when it runs onto the property, leaving an oily sheen on everything it touches.

Unfortunately for the environment and the neighbours most of these contaminated flood waters do not remain on the property in question but runoff onto the neighbouring properties and into the ditches spreading contaminated water over a wide area.

Governments at the municipal, provincial and federal levels have all been informed of this problem. The result? Nothing. Nada. Zip. No government or government agency at any level seems interested in taking action to remedy this spreading environmental pollution.

Since governments had failed to respond, much less act, a number of well known environmental non-profits were contacted, informed of what was occurring and asked for help/advice. The result? Nothing.

I was not totally shocked when governments at all levels tried to avoid the cost of dealing with this contamination, leaving it to some other level of government to take appropriate action – and get stuck with the bill. But these from organizations that are about protection the environment?

I suppose there is just not enough potential for publicity and/or fundraising in this small environmental contamination. But still one would think …

The property sits there ignored while every time it rains the surrounding environment becomes more contaminated and the contamination spreads further and further.

I am fresh out of ideas on how to get this contamination dealt with; it just leaves me totally flummoxed.

Homeless, Provincial

The Official BC Liberal government excuse?

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The Official BC Liberal government excuse?

Listening to Claude Richmond respond to the recent think tank report on Income Assistance I was left wondering whether the BC Liberal government had adopted an official excuse for all matters pertaining to social policy.

“This does not take into consideration changes made …” Claude Richmond or Rich Coleman or Gordon Campbell or any other Liberal answering question about the latest negative evaluation of BC government social policy all spout the same deficient excuse.

Of course none of the numerous reports critical of government social policy took into consideration whether Gordon Campbell danced nude under the full moon in his back yard. A consideration that has just as much validity regarding dismissing or ignoring the reviews and reports critical of social policies as does the official “changes made” excuse.

The beauty of this Official Liberal Government Excuse is that it can be used anytime and anywhere, since there is always a time lag between the last information gathered for a report and the delivery of the report.

Thus it is that the BC Liberals can continue to bury their head in the sand on matters that their ideology wishes to ignore. Of course the fact the BC Liberals ignore social issues does not change the worsening reality faced by the most vulnerable in our society in dealing with homelessness, mental illness, addiction and poverty.

Mr. Richmond dismissed the report about the inadequacies of current Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance because the government had raised the monthly allowances by $50 + $50. Not only totally ignoring everything else the report had to say, but also ignoring the reality that even with the extra $100 a month it is not possible to survive in the lower mainland on $610 per month.

Not wanting to talk about the fact that, as the report pointed out, expecting people faced with the challenges of survival on $610 a month to conduct a job search and find employment is ludicrous; or any of the pressing issues raised in the numerous negative evaluations of the BC Liberal record of failure to deal with or address the serious social issues facing BC today, the government just labels them “out of date”.

Viewing the Liberal government’s policies from the streets one thing is clear: when Rich Coleman speaks of “not knowing what is happening on the ground” he is describing the Liberal government, not the authors of the reports that the Liberal government ignores.

Rather than continuing to use the same (lame) official excuse the Liberals should just admit they lack any understanding of what the reality on the ground is; admit they lack any knowledge of what is happening on the streets; acknowledge their lack of ideas, vision or leadership with which to address the growing poverty and social challenges faced by the province of BC.

This approach would at least have the novelty of truth.

Federal, Homeless, Provincial

Callousness, irrationality or amorality?

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I was pondering the fact both the provincial and federal governments are pursuing policies that de-house people, forcing them into homelessness; and the fact that both levels of governments continue to choose not to engage in policies to re-house people. Leaving me to mull over why both levels of governments seemingly aspire to increase the numbers of homeless, as opposed to decrease the number of homeless on the streets.

The only rational explanation would appear to be that these are anti-terrorism driven policy choices. Drive enough Canadian citizens into life on the streets; make it difficult, if not impossible, to get back onto their feet and into housing; force them to live under bridges, in, around and under other pieces of infrastructure; you have in place a solid first line of defence against any terrorists targeting our nations infrastructure. While perhaps effective, this entails a callous disregard for, and devaluing of, the people being (ab)used.

Alternatively, we are dealing with government behaviour, thus there is a high probability that these are simply your average run of the mill, day-to-day irrational government behaviours.

Of course, given their ideology, there is the distinct possibility that the BC Liberal Party and the Canadian Conservative Party just lack the ethical and spiritual values that would make the levels of homelessness and poverty unacceptable; values that would necessitate pursuing policies to reduce homelessness and poverty.

Mr. Campbell, Mr. Harper: is it cold -blooded anti-terrorism, irrational behaviour or a lack of ethical and spiritual values?