To the editor;
I am writing to ask if someone can explain Mayor Humphreys’ article in the August 6 issue of the Star/Journal? I am confused, and quite frankly I find that most of the article makes little or no sense to me whatsoever.
Can the mayor explain and clarify some of what he writes about.?
The first of many things that I find confusing is what does he mean when he states (referring to needing a long term strategic Local Economic Development Plan) that “we will need discipline to remain focused not only on the delivery of the plan, but also in creating the process used to make changes to the plan”.
I am wondering who needs discipline? Is he referring to himself needing it; or does he mean the citizens of Barriere needing discipline? If so, why do we need discipline “to remain focused” on not only the delivery of the plan but also in creating the process used to make changes to the plan?
Who is delivering the plan in the first place? And why do we need to make changes to it when it hasn’t been delivered yet?
Next, I would like to know what Mayor Humphreys means when he writes “we need to clearly identify and define what won’t be done, as well as what will”. Why would we need to spend time on clearly identifying and defining what won’t be done?
Will we be having meetings about what we don’t need? This sounds quite redundant to me.
The mayor also refers to and quotes The World Bank, providing us with their concept of local economic development projects. I would like to know where he sourced this information; did he ‘Google’ (LED)? Wikipedia, maybe? And more importantly, I want to know the relevance of any of this to Barriere.
The mayor wants us to “step back and really decide what we all want for where we live”, because according to Mayor Humphreys, “it’s not just about getting more jobs, having more people move here, or making steady improvements to our infrastructure”. No, apparently and according to our esteemed mayor, it’s about “defining what we have”.
Really? How does the mayor know this? How does he know what “we” want for where we live? Or is his meaning that this is what he wants? And if so, please say so, and stop using the word “we”, because I for one do not want to be included in this “we”.
I do not believe that “we” need to waste any time on defining what “we” have, but I would definitely want to see and hear from the mayor that “he” is working towards getting jobs for Barriere, that “he” is helping our community to grow and prosper, and that “he” is working towards making steady improvements to our infrastructure.
When I read his article, I was not sure whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of it all, and I shake my head now as I wonder what the next two years are going to look like for us.
We can only hope that our council and staff at the District office will quietly continue with their commitment to move our community forward, providing us with amenities, infrastructure and job development.
I also hope that we can continue to have a sense of community pride, and I hope we can continue with the vision our previous mayor and council had of developing Barriere into a prosperous and beautiful, small community.
Hopefully, the rest of us will continue on this path, while Mayor Humphreys spends his time trying to figure out how to step back and how to define what won’t be done.
Sincerely,
Judy May
Barriere, B.C.
