……city council practice what it preach?

The editorial on Abbotsford Today that began with “Last night we were roundly criticized by a City Councillor for not doing our bit to support the Abbotsford Heat hockey team” came to mind today as an irate citizen approached me (having had no success approaching the mayor or councillors) to speak about Heat attendance.

What he had to say brought the above article to mind and had me thinking that, before council starts chastising others they might want to look at their own behaviour.

But then blaming anyone or anything they can is a trademark behaviour of Abbotsford’s City Council. Well, more accurately the trademark behaviour is not accepting responsibility for the consequences of their (council’s) decisions and/or actions and always having an excuse or someone or something whose ‘fault it is.’

It is possible that council would accept responsibility for a positive outcome but we are most unlikely to ever find out given that the probability of this council making a decision based on sound, responsible decision making and fiscal management……approaches zero.

When this citizen spoke to me I did suggest that he could go as a ‘delegation’ which would give him the opportunity to address council at a council meeting – although many citizens who have ideas or comments are not comfortable standing up in public and addressing council at a council meeting.

Admittedly he is not a wealthy individual seeking to have council subsidize his purchase of a profession sports team nor did he contribute to the election campaign of local politicians nor is he likely to contribute to any politicians campaign in our fast approaching municipal election.

Still, since it was obvious he had given thought to the matter and that he had a valid point that council should consider I said that if he was agreeable I would like to write and share his point and comments with his fellow citizens.

He is a big Heat fan and as such would like the attendance to be much higher so that the Heat remain in Abbotsford.

He is also (as are many) a smoker and as a smoker he finds being “confined to the building for 3 hours” more than simply uncomfortable. Heat fans who are smokers are condemned to making a choice between watching the entire hockey game or giving into the need to smoke and watching the game only to the point they need to leave the building (and the game) to smoke.

The gentleman had checked and both the Vancouver Canucks and the Chilliwack Bruins have designated smoking areas so that fans who are smokers are not forced to choose between watching the entire game and their need to feed their tobacco addiction.

Being a fan he attended the sold out game between the Heat and the Manitoba Moose (the Canucks farm team).

6000 extra bums in the seats. An opportunity to impress the people those 6000 bums belong to and to sell those people on returning to watch more games. Thereby reducing the subsidy Abbotsford’s taxpayers shell out for the privilege of having the Heat play in Abbotsford.

And what do these potential future customers find, besides the well known built in parking problems? The smokers have the unpleasant surprise that they cannot take a smoke break between periods and then return to the game to watch the next period.

Smokers must choose between suffering through the entire hockey game without a cigarette or giving in to the need to smoke and leaving the game. Council has mandated that if you leave the building to smoke, you cannot return.

Leaving aside the fact that such a policy encourages smokers to find somewhere inside the building to sneak off to in order to be able to have a smoke and return to watch the game, can you think of any policy council could choose that would discourage smokers more from attending Heat games?

Not according to the Heat fan who spoke of all the smokers who had the unpleasant surprise of discovering council’s no smoking disincentive to attending Heat games at the sold out Manitoba Moose visit.

There is nothing that can be done about the huge parking disincentive council chose to burden the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Complex with. But something can be done about the major disincentive to attendance of councils no smoking policy.

Perhaps if council were to spend less time blaming others, they would have time to remove their own disincentives to Heat attendance.