Perspective: At this point, I am not sure if this will be a one, two, or three point perspective — we shall see. I can understand why Vernon City Council took upwards of a reported five hours to consider whether or not to condone the theft of shopping carts in Vernon. Admittedly, it is as slippery a slope as Suicide Hill on a snowy winter’s day.
The ramifications are horrendous. If theft or possession of stolen carts is encouraged then a line must be drawn. We don’t want Council to encourage theft targeted at small corporations which might be on the edge of bankruptcy, just large corporations that can afford it. Additionally, we don’t want poor people to be targeted for theft as that may/will cause unnecessary hardship, just wealthy people.
So that this doesn’t become an unfair free-for-all, Council would likely have to establish an affordability register. However, the agency to administer this register should have an independent overseer to prevent unfair collusion in the setting of the ‘theft permissible’ levels of income or profit. Also, these levels should be subject to cost-of-living adjustments over time – a reasonable time period needing to be set.
Are these the considerations that took Council so long to resolve?
Yours perplexed,
Vern Polotikis
