Editor:
Re: Tourism report gives White Rock high marks, March 21.
No one should be too surprised that the party contracted by the City of White Rock to manage White Rock tourism gave its bosses – the City of White Rock – a big pat on the back.
That is what contractors and consultants do for their clients if they want to keep employed.
What surprises me is that Mayor Wayne Baldwin and Couns. Grant Meyer and Lynne Sinclair profess an interest in what out-of-town tourists say, when they have taken such extreme measures to ensure there is no public dialogue, engagement or feedback from residents on key community matters.
This is the same group who as one of their first orders of business early in their term eliminated question period for the public. This is the same group who concocted all of the so-called White Rock “corporate strategies” at closed meetings that council dubbed as “orientation” and strategic planning “workshops.”
None of the millions of public dollars worth of “waterfront attractions” that Baldwin boasts about sought public consultation, surveys or feedback, so why would Baldwin seem so relieved now to hear their contractor thinks council is doing such a great job with all this?
What I find more compelling with all the talk about how great this expenditure of public money is going to be for the restaurants, is how council turns a blind eye to the expressed prohibitions found in Section 25 of the Community Charter forbidding a council from providing assistance to business.
So, when is the ferris wheel coming to the beach?
Dennis Lypka, Surrey
