Category Archives: The Issues

Caveat emptor, Municipal

Abbotsford City Council’s Addiction

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Derek and Katie Lambird and their neighbours are not alone in having run afoul of the bylaw Nazis and facing costly fines.

Over the past week and more citizens have been telling me that “… something needs to be done about …” or that “…someone needs to write and warn citizens about …” either the unprecedented enthusiasm of bylaw enforcement levying fines or the inventive new ways Abbotsford police have been finding to ambush and issue tickets to drivers in the city.

This state of affairs should come as no surprise to residents. I certainly was not surprised to find a ticket on my windshield when the two hour free parking by Community Services became exactly two hours of free parking instead of the previous 2 hours plus 5 – 10 minutes.

I was annoyed and disgusted, but I definitely was not surprised thinking “…their spending addiction is way out of hand if they NEED the money this badly ….”

When you have a city council that is addicted to evermore spending; a city council that has no understanding of the concepts of fiscal discipline, sound fiscal policy and planning, due diligence, duty of care or fiscal responsibility; it should come as no surprise to any citizen that such a city council will find itself in desperate need of funds to feed their spending addiction.

Faced with a city council that comes up with a Fudget as opposed to a budget, which sought to impose a parking fee at Mill Lake and dreams of imposing a gas tax – is anyone surprised at their decision to exploit the untapped potential of bylaw and traffic fines to bleed funds out of taxpayer’s pockets and into city coffers?

While Derek and Katie Lambird and other citizens should indeed dispute these tickets, it is far more important that the Lambirds and all Abbotsford citizens email, phone or communicate in any manner possible to the Mayor and all city councillors that this behaviour, this extortion, is unacceptable and that Council must get its financial house in order and learn to live within its means.

Until such time as city council learns to budget not Fudget: Caveat Civitas – let citizens beware.

Addiction, Caveat emptor, Consider, Issues

Bacons and the drug war.

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Listening to the news coverage of the arrest and murder charges against a Bacon brother I was left shaking my head.

What had me shaking my head was the implication and statements in the report that this was somehow a major success in the drug war in the lower mainland – it wasn’t.

It was a success the legal system and the family of the innocent people killed in that Surrey condo. An extremely expensive “success” that requires millions of dollars more to carry through and attain convictions.

Leaving one to ponder just how many more of these multi-millions of dollars “successes” we can afford and how are we going to pay for them?

But in terms of the drug war in the lower mainland the only real effect it will have is to change some of the players. Reality: even if the police went out and arrested and jailed everyone in the illegal drug business in the lower mainland right now, in a matter of hours people would be stepping in to take advantage of the lucrative employment opportunities in the drug business, in days the business would be flourishing again with a new cast of characters and be back to “fully staffed” in short order thereafter.

The drug trade sings its siren song of impossible promises of pleasure in the same manner as politicians and governments make impossible promises and when reality turns out to be something quite different it is the victims of the promises who suffer the consequences. When circumstances intervene to remove players through arrests or election losses the players are simply replaced by others.

As is the case in government we will have no effect on changing behaviours in the drug business until such time as citizens accept the reality of these businesses and choose to change our behaviours in order to bring about changes that will produce the positive outcomes we want – good government and taking the billion dollar profits and violence out of the drug trade.

Until such time we as citizens are willing to change our behaviours, rather than continuing to make the same choices and employ the same behaviours hoping that this time things will turn out differently (which is insane), we are going to keep on getting the same pointless and unacceptable results.

The difference at this point in history, as opposed to our past, is that Canada can no longer afford this type of behaviour. Economic, environmental and social systems no longer have any slack or fat in the systems. Every dollar wasted in programs and policies that do not achieve positive outcomes inflicts damage, pain, suffering and negative consequences on a wide range of Canadians and Canadian society.

Government or the illegal drug business: Canada cannot any longer afford to merely change the cast of characters. We have to think, think, and think. Then make the difficult choices that, while we may wish we did not have to make them, reflect the real world we live in and will affect positive results and a bright future for all Canadians – not just the privileged few.

We have squandered our easy choices on ineffective behaviour and as a result have left ourselves having to make hard choices if we want to remain Canadians and a Canada that makes us proud to declare “I AM Canadian.”

Municipal

Moe Gill’s Conflict of Interest

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Despite Mayor Peary’s comments and Councillor Moe Gill’s decision on the issue of conflict of interest, I will not be setting my personal ethics at the minimally acceptable level allowed by law.

I was raised with and to have high standards govern the manner in which I conduct my life. It was never about setting my standards by what you can get away with.

As a point of information to Mayor Peary and Councillor Gill I also have an expectation that people making decisions on my behalf, such as politicians, will practice those same high ethical standards. Not slipshod, lowest common denominator minimal ethical standards and behaviours.

I concede that to date my expectation concerning ethical standards and behaviours has proven unrealistic as evidenced by the behaviours of politicians at all levels of government – municipal, provincial and federal.

With specific reference to Moe Gill’s voting on the gravel pit application I would judge, with apologies to Mayor Peary and Councillor Gill that the ethic’s bar was set below minimally acceptable ethical behaviour.

A quick web search reveals that “personal interest includes an interest arising from family, marriage or common-law relationships.”

Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia’s list of types of conflicts of interest includes “Family interests, in which a spouse, child, or other close relative….” Of particular interest on this website is an example of conflict of interest that cites a brother to brother relationship.

I fail to see how one could claim that the fact a decision will have a direct and substantial effect on a member (in this case members) of one’s family will not influence one’s thinking. Voting other than to benefit one’s family member would have serious family relationship and conflict consequences.

Thus one is predisposed to vote for an outcome favourable to family and is therefore in a conflict of interest.

As an aside – when wants to approve something one can always find “acceptable” reasons or reasoning to justify the decision you want to make.

Moe Gill has a clear conflict of interest here and when the matter comes before council again he MUST recuse himself on grounds of personal involvement.