Patronizing, Pompous and Condescending MLA

He has some nerve to state that funds may not be available.
As though Eric Foster's bosses in Victoria haven't pissed away enough!

We residents are presumably to show some semblance of restraint and not expect our failed water referendum's projects to be funded by Victoria?

How about failed water referenda in both Kamloops and Revelstoke?
They subsequently each received a water treatment plant, compliments of Victoria, thank you very much when residents said "no".

You think we've forgotten all the folks lined up at the public trough?  Huge salaries for even deputy ministers and government executives, and BC Hydro, ICBC and their administrations, to name but a few.  Top executives at BC Investment Management Corp got a 310 per cent wage increase, the B.C. Ferries CEO makes more than top three Washington State ferries executives...on and on it goes.

The Morning Star reported MLA Foster as saying: "A vote 'yes' or 'no' doesn't make a difference about getting the government involved...that's not what would drive it.  Funding is allocated on the merit of an application and if there is funding available."

Drive it?
How dare you even mention the word "merit".
Didn't Interior Health convince their government brothers that "the safety of residents' drinking water" is considered meritous?

Your attitude, Eric Foster, is patronizing, pompous and condescending.
And we don't like it.
Remember that some of us still recall a different Eric Foster 30 years ago...one who knew how to spell the word humility, the first bag you shed when you became MLA.

Instead of your frequent polishing of the door handles at the regional district, try spending an equal amount of time talking to residents--in coffee shops, in malls, at gas stations.  You will quickly learn what you need to learn.
Certainly more than you're learning from bureaucrats with the focus on collaborative efforts.
It's just more bureaucratic schmaltz.
Because you're listening to the wrong people, Eric Foster.

We North Okanagan residents will not be bullied by you or anyone else.   

Fiscal mismanagement in Victoria now fills volumes of media reports--indeed tomes--most notably since Christy Clark's rise to the helm of the B.C. Liberal party. 

What's most upsetting about having typed that last sentence is that I'm a B.C. Liberal.
Okay, former Socred.
Yup.
Since 2011 and 2012, though, I'm more inclined to hold my nose when considering the Liberals' management of this formerly fine province.

Step back from your preconceived notions, Eric Foster, learned from bureaucrats within the confines of the regional district boardroom.
That's far too safe because you end up hearing only what you want to hear.

Go talk to people...taxpayers and you'll get an eye-opener.
The problem started with one premise:  Former GVW Manager Al Cotsworth's admission on why Duteau Water Treatment Plant needed to be built:  "We need to be able to change sources (from Duteau to Kal Lake, and vice versa) during emergencies such as water main breaks or serious contamination".

Throw out that premise.
Start again.

Consider, yes consider, what Gyula Kiss has been saying all along, quoted in the newspaper today:  "...a solution where the Duteau source would provide untreated raw water to the agricultural community and create a supply of treated water to the 20 per cent of domestic customers currently supplied by the irrigation line."

Because 80 per cent of Duteau's chlorinated water is used for irrigation!

Coldstream Councillor Kiss is hoping his "scientific solution--without the crazy political interference"--will be the cream that rises to the top of the slurry.
And it should but it hasn't yet.
But this Master Water Plan will NOT be accepted by residents.

So the powers-that-be had better reconsider Kiss' idea.

We residents are all thinking the same thing:  Could not someone--anyone--have recommended that that 20 per cent of Duteau's customers, who need domestic water, have received a one-time government donation/grant of state of the art water treatment for their home.  Not unlike the government program that donated farmers water meters two years ago...when the rest of us had to pay for meters.

All others, latecomers (new owners from real estate sales, home renovators, etc.) to the chiefly Lavington/East Coldstream area, would be advised that the grant period had ended and that they were solely responsible for domestic water quality.

That would've been a hell of a lot cheaper than what GVW is proposing with the $70 million water plan.
Probably $50 million cheaper...

What'll it take to have common sense prevail? 
First, Eric Foster should get out and talk to the people who pay the bills, who pay his wages (and fund his pension).

"It may take more than civil disobedience and not paying Q1 water bills," offers Kia "to show our contempt for the way we residents are bullied by bureaucrats and politicians."

Yes it might.
But firstly remember that Interior Health works for us, the taxpayers.
Not the other way around.
Same with politicians, of all stripes...and pomposity.

 

BC Ferries CEO Mike Corrigan made more than the top three Washington State Ferries executives combined." - See more at: http://northerninsights.blogspot.ca/2014/09/managers-justify-generous-treatment-of.html#sthash.93jrFwDq.dpuf

BC Ferries CEO Mike Corrigan made more than the top three Washington State Ferries executives combined." - See more at: http://northerninsights.blogspot.ca/2014/09/managers-justify-generous-treatment-of.html#sthash.93jrFwDq.dpuf