Dear Editor,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the businesses and people who supported the Legion and our local veterans with their donations to the Poppy Campaign. You may not be aware that all of the funds raised during the Poppy Campaign stay right in our community and are used to assist our local veterans and their families.
Thank you to all the volunteers who signed up for Poppy Tagging, as well as our piper, Colin Norris; Shawn Molner at Thompson Valley Funeral Home for printing our programs; the Sea Cadets for assisting with the laying of the wreaths; and my team: Burt Mazerall, Penny and Bernie Sonmor, Don Keswick, Colin Norris, Shirley Gibbons, and Loraine Shwaluk. Without your support we would not have been able to have a successful campaign.
The weather on Remembrance Day was great, and the day started off with a hot breakfast at the Legion, followed by the parade and a ceremony at the cenotaph, where a large crowd gathered. After that the Legion Ladies’ Auxiliary served hot chocolate and doughnuts, and lunch was provided at the Legion, with Tracie Model providing entertainment for the afternoon.
Thank you.
Jan Mazerall
Poppy Chair
Ashcroft, B.C.
Dear Editor,
Thanks for the recent Opinion comment by Barbara Roden called “Time to ease off millennials” (The Journal, Nov. 21 2019).
I couldn’t agree more. We Boomers are the greedy rogues whose excesses have sent humanity down the path to the current environmental climate emergency state we are all in.
OK Boomer, get out of the way so that the next, smarter, and more balanced generation can make the changes needed quickly. If you can’t get out of the way then get on the train of change and help push it as fast as you can with your shoulder to the wheel and your face of shame staring down to the Earth that is the only home humanity has ever had and that you chose to ignore.
Me: Born in 1958, I wish I could say my generation was Great. It ain’t.
Tom Tinsley
Sayward, B.C.
Dear Editor,
I am writing to inform you about the devastating effects of insufficient government action on a major issue in my riding, and across B.C. The forestry industry is in the fight of its life, and it is not winning the battle. Only strong government action can save it now.
The loss of over 10,000 jobs in the forestry industry is devastating to workers and their families. The ability of forestry workers to help provide for their families is being seriously impeded by a lack of government action. A $69 million fund is simply insufficient. More resources are needed to tackle this complex issue.
Handouts are not what is needed to fix the forestry industry. A healthy forestry industry with sustainable economic growth and employment, made possible by direct government action, is what is needed.
The NDP government has the opportunity to make these changes and provide secure tenure for local mills, and to lower stumpage fees to make logging affordable once again. Currently, five major licensees are controlling the forestry industry. There are at least 12 smaller local mills which also need fibre, including Aspen Planers, which has mills in Merritt, Savona, and Lillooet. This can be changed.
A significant source of this $69 million dollars in funding comes from the suspension of the Rural Dividend Grant, an essential grant for rural communities that wish to diversify their economies. Suspending this grant to provide funding for a different issue disproportionately affecting rural B.C. is the wrong decision. The Rural Dividend Grant is an essential resource to rural communities which rely on it to fund major projects which often go on to benefit the entire region or province.
To quote Premier John Horgan while on the campaign trail at the closed Tolko mill site in Merritt in 2017, “There’s a range of tools available to the provincial government. We can make sure we step in when a community is in distress and have someone there to ensure that we’re looking at: what are the cost and consequences for the mill? Is it a fibre question? Can we get more fibre to the mill? I don’t believe any of those discussions took place.”
I don’t believe those discussions are taking place within government currently. There are indeed a range of tools available to the provincial government. I urge the NDP government to take immediate action to save the forestry industry, get our workers back to work, reinstate the Rural Dividend Grant, and support rural B.C.
MLA Jackie Tegart
Fraser-Nicola
Ashcroft, B.C.
Dear Editor,
This letter is hard for me to write.
Several years ago my husband and I hung, with permission, some of his art—oils on canvas—in the rooms at the Ashcroft medical clinic. Then, one year, the art club took one down and put up one of theirs. We tried unsuccessfully to retrieve Fred’s art, but no one knew where it was. Next year the art club did the Art Walk through the building, and again took down Fred’s work and put up theirs. They said it was for the summer only. Fred’s paintings were not hung where they had been, and again, one was missing, and never found.
This last year they were all taken down except for two in the office, and were replaced. Two were picked up, but seven are still missing. Who has them? No one knows. We were in [the clinic] last week, and no one knows anything.
I ask what is anyone doing, or gaining, by removing Fred’s art? There is no knowledge of where anyone put them.
Anyone with knowledge of the paintings’ whereabouts can call (778) 471-8634.
Fred and Virginia Seher
Kamloops, B.C.
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