Category Archives: The Issues

Municipal

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These photographs were taken at 5PM on Tuesday October 26, 2010.

Can you find the “Traffic Pattern Change”?

Yes the road markings, the lines, painted onto the road to direct traffic flow are now gone rather than merely faded into obscurity. Given that road markings/lines that are hard to see in the day and invisible at night or in rain are the norm rather than the exception on roads in the City of Abbotsford the fact that the road markings are now gone does not constitute a “Traffic Pattern Change”. Driving on roads made dangerous by the poor quality or missing road markings/lines is certainly not a NEW condition in Abbotsford.

Of course this is the same intersection that had signs warning drivers to expect delays while the work of repaving this short section was being done.

Although I suppose that one could argue that technically a detour results in a delay in getting where you are going – especially when it is a total surprise sprung on drivers only when they reached the top of the hill on Blueridge (at Ridgeview) forcing them to turn around and seek other routes to their destinations.

If the goal was to cause problems, have people arrive late at their destination and to annoy as many drivers as possible – Abbotsford City Hall was very successful.

While a traffic pattern change will likely appear, it is this careless inattention to detail – be it road signage, planning, budgeting or the consequences of council’s actions on taxpayers – that has city council giving away future revenue to bring in revenue today; working to grow Abbotsford, thus increasing demand for water, at the same time the city rations water use to have water for the Fire Department to fight fires with and has the city burdened with debt at a time it needs to invest $200+ million in the water delivery system.

Emily Dickinson was quite correct when she said “If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves. You can gain more control over your life by paying closer attention to the little things.”

The little things like asking your local MP for funding for Plan A instead of complaining that the city got no federal funding or ensuring an adequate water supply before increasing demand – or the need for severe rationing.

Federal, Issues, Media, Municipal, Provincial

Action speaks louder than words

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For years I have watched as businesses, organizations and other assemblages in Abbotsford, some of which one would have expected more character or compassionate behaviour from, have erected fences and gates on doorways, stairways, walkways, overhangs or other locations were the homeless had sought shelter from the relentless rain of our rainforest/rain-coast weather.

I have listened as governments, politicians, businessmen, unions, churches and people have all spoken about the need to do something about homelessness and poverty – or more accurately the need for SOMEONE ELSE to do something; pointing fingers and declaring it was not their responsibility.

Listened as people and assemblages evoked ‘undeserving’ and other such rationalizations as excuses for turning away from the need for action; ignoring the truth that action or inaction is not about the people in need but about us – our character, the essences of our souls/spirituality, the very nature of the society we have chosen to build.

Watched Abbotsford politicians scramble to say the right words, utter the proper catch phrases and language, while failing to provide leadership on housing – all the while managing NOT to have any affordable rental housing built or even break ground while the communities around Abbotsford have been building affordable rental housing.

Heard ad nauseum from Abbotsford’s politicians that they have no money to invest in housing that poor and homeless citizens can afford to rent; yet these same politicians have $millions$ to spend to buy a professional hockey team for a local hotelier and other wealthy (and housed) citizens.

Watched the gnashing and gnarring of teeth as people, politicians et al wring their hands and denounce society as defective, deficient. As thought the ills of society have no connection to or do not result from the choices made, actions taken (and untaken) of people. Our society did not, does not, spring from a void or the choices and actions of some mysterious group of ‘others’.

Society is the consequence of the additive effect of the choices and actions we all make and or take. Leaving one pondering whether people will ever understand that our society will not improve until we as individuals begin to ‘Let it begin with me’.

Pondering whether poverty and homelessness and other social ills will continue to grow and worsen as people, politicians, businesses, organizations, other assemblages seek to blame others and avoid taking personal responsibility for their choices and actions and the consequences of those and actions – and inactions.

Still, today …

B is one of the homeless living on the streets of Abbotsford. He had been taking shelter under the overhang at a warehouse that had remained empty since it was completed, but which had recently been leased.

As part of managing the move into this new location P had become aware that B was living sheltered by the building and had spoken with B about his situation, the realities of B’s life.

There were no demands that B leave the shelter provided him by the building; no fences or gates to deny B access to the shelter provided by the building; no calls to city hall demanding the city, the police, remove B.

Instead P provided a home for B. Looking at it most people would see a garden shed; unless they looked through B’s eyes or the eyes of those who are or have been homeless. There is drainage, a solid floor, a roof and walls proof against wind, rain and snow that will keep bedding, clothing, other belongings as well as a body dry.

There was no declaration that it was not his responsibility; no screaming about the need for SOMEONE ELSE to do something; no pointing of fingers to assign blame; no wringing of hands about the need for a ‘solution’. P simply took action and provided shelter for B.

Homelessness, addiction, mental illness are people problems and as such they are complex and troublesome issues without fast, easy solutions; looking for a miracle, arguing about who is responsible – someone else – and waiting for someone else to do something allow these problems to grow.

There are numerous best practices that we know work to address various aspects of these social issues; we know that we can, over time, reduce the numbers of homeless, addicts and mentally ill on our streets.

If we commit to addressing these issues, commit to doing what it takes for however long it takes, we can deal with these issues.

The key is, as P did, not to dither but to act.

Media

You call that News? Reporting?

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CBC News Vancouver was at the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre as part of being “on the road to visit communities around Metro Vancouver and in the Fraser Valley”. The promotions touted that they would be examining the stories of import to the citizens of the community they were visiting that day.

Did CBC News Vancouver address issues of local import or was their claim of addressing issues of local import simply more media hype?

I can only knowledgably address whether CBC News Vancouver addressed stories of import to the citizens of Abbotsford during their visit to the AE&SC.

During a record setting wet spring Abbotsford was the only lower mainland community to impose water rationing (or in politician speak: watering restrictions) beginning April 1st with the imposition of tighter rationing July 1st.

Given: Abbotsford city council is offering tax holidays to promote growth, even though the water delivery system is inadequate to meet current needs even under favourable (record wet spring) conditions; that council has stated they no intention of bringing needed upgrades to the water delivery system on line before 2018; the large capital cost involved in upgrading the water delivery system and the financial bind/disaster that city council has placed the City of Abbotsford in; the importance of water to the liveability of modern cities.

The issue of the water supply for the City of Abbotsford is of prime, if not the primary, interest to the citizens of Abbotsford. Did this item of considerable consequential importance receive even a mention on the CBC News Vancouver when they visited the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre?

No.

Given: Abbotsford city council has raised fees for sports fields, rinks and other sporting venues such that more and more children cannot afford the fees to participate in organized sports in Abbotsford; the fees for the cities exercise facilities are higher than the fees for private facilities; the city pleads poverty in addressing any of the growing social issues plaguing Abbotsford; that Abbotsford city council acknowledges that the act governing municipalities is designed to prevent the type of agreement entered into between the Abbotsford Heat and the City of Abbotsford but proudly claims to have legally circumvented this prohibition.

Did CBC News Vancouver ask mayor Peary about the fact Abbotsford City Council is purchasing, or at least contributing millions of dollars to the purchase, of a professional hockey team for a few wealthy, and obviously well connected, Abbotsford business people?

Did CBC News Vancouver ask Mayor Peary how or why a mayor would be proud of circumventing the intent of the act legislating municipal governance?

No and No.

Given: even the most cursory research on usage of the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre would reveal that the facility is seldom used; that the usage by other that the Abbotsford Heat is decreasing, tending to zero; that the AE&SC has become, for all intents and purposes a private facility for the Abbotsford Heat.

Did CBC News Vancouver do even minimal due diligence before professing the AE&SC ‘well-used’?

No.

No, No and No, No. Is CBC News Vancouver guilty of false advertising for the claim that they would be examining the stories of import to the citizens of Abbotsford when they broadcast from the AE&SC?

Is No, No and No, No merely further evidence that broadcast television has for years misused the term ‘news’ instead of the more accurate and reflective of reality: ‘stories that will sell the most advertising, maximizing the contribution of the stories department to the bottom line’?

Or does No, No and No, No attest that the over-the-air broadcast stories (aka ‘news’), in its focus on pursuit of profit over useful or needed information delivery, made itself as redundant1 as the over-the-air Canadian broadcast television currently is?

I would answer Yes, Yes, Yes. But Readers must consider the information and decide for themselves.

1Footnote: The over-the-air Canadian broadcast television is a Sunset Industry as it evolved to rebroadcast foreign, primarily US, television programming to Canadians in an era when there were no alternative ways to cost effectively deliver this programming. Cable, internet, phone lines and satellites can now deliver programming, more programming, more efficiently than over-the-air broadcast television. This is why maintaining the over-the-air Canadian broadcast television as it is currently constituted requires a permanent tax subsidy imposed on Canadians by the CRTC. Without this permanent subsidy the industry will be forced to contract and re-invent itself in alignment with the market for over-the-air broadcast television services in Canada.