Farm-Uppance

This letter was submitted to the blog--and also to Councillor Kiss' blog--following submission as a Letter to the Editor of the Morning Star.

And not published by them after more than a week.

"Councillors

City of Vernon

3400 – 30^th Street

Vernon  BC  V1T 5E6

 

The Morning Star (April 5, 2015) newspaper reports that conditions of an agreement between GVAC and the Township of Spallumcheen were arbitrarily bypassed so that treated water is now supplied to a private business.

Mr. Mund is quoted as saying, “We’re here to help our businesses grow.”  This is too much to impose on a City of Vernon taxpayer coping with hugely exorbitant water rates!  The 80,000 apples should have been planted in an area where untreated water is available.  Was the orchardist advised in advance that water would be made available despite the existing agreement and a staff recommendation against providing additional water?

In the same newspaper, a letter to the editor expresses concern for local cattle producers facing hardship.  Should we be subsidizing cattle producers, too?  How long would the list be of local businesses wanting financial help? 

Mr. Mund seems to have forgotten he also wears a Mayor’s hat.  Who’s looking after my interests?

It seems to me that decisions about our water are being made with little or no regard for the people who pay for it.  As you are aware, using treated water for other than domestic purposes is most controversial, but if this is a short term solution for the orchardist, at the very least he should be paying the same rates as I do for the same treated water.

Is the City of Vernon taking any action so that I am not subsidizing the cost of water for the orchard?"

M.Alger

Yup...farms.

They're either a business...or they're not.

Either way their water is subsidized.

Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become

 the modern form of despotism.  Mary McCarthy