I haven’t written a grumpy column for ages but I’m grumpy today.
City council is first on my grump list. As an older person who has trouble walking, big messes of snow between the sidewalk and the street do me in. As I write this (Monday) I believe crews are cleaning up, but what took so long?
I’ve been told the snow plows can damage the curbs if they get too close, but surely after all these years road crews could find a way around that.
Keeping taxes at zero is a laudable plan but I bet more than a few taxpayers would pay a few dollars more to have better snow removal.
The snow piles can’t be good for downtown businesses either.
My second grump is with the CRD for refusing to help fund the relocation of the 153 Mile Store unless it’s located in the 150 Mile area.
The directors can’t have thought this through.
The store can’t just be plunked anywhere, it has to be in the safest spot possible to protect it from thieves and vandals. The store’s contents have both heritage and monetary value.
The facility will need access to staff, because if isn’t open to the public, what’s the point of having it? Is the CRD offering to carry all the costs of establishing the store as a heritage site at the 150?
The CRD’s fringe area directors and city councillors often get testy about who pays for what, but sometimes it gets a bit silly. I hope (again) they will forgo the turf wars and try to be good neighbours for the benefit of all their constituents, many of whom think heritage belongs to us all.
My grump with the provincial government is why is it raising the cost of ICBC, Hydro, and Medical Services Premiums. Do we get better services from the increases or is it a camouflaged tax grab? And why is B.C. the only province to charge a “head-tax” for health care coverage?
It’s too soon to grump about the new federal government.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.
