Plum Comments

On page A4 of the Morning Star on August 2, 2015, the Regional District's Manager of Parks and Recreation is quoted as saying:

  "the soft opening of the new track at Greater Vernon Athletics Park 

was delayed because of recent rain."

The plum?

 "I wonder if Greater Vernon Water and the Okanagan Basin Water Board are aware that it rained?  Somebody is being overpaid!"

...especially since all the recent hoopla about Duteau Creek's water levels being "very close", according to GVW, to implementing Stage 2 water restrictions.

Another plum?

Kelowna's implementation of water restrictions, described by a Kelowna water official as being:

 "purely political".

Add to that our provincial government's recent request--parroted by the Okanagan Basin Water Board--that residents of B.C. (yup, all of us!):

"reduce water consumption by 30 per cent."

Victoria's politicos are asking all British Columbians to reduce water consumption by one-third because the Lower Mainland is drier than a popcorn fart this year.

No matter that Vernon's rainfall in August--despite being considered semi-arid--typically exceeds Victoria's!  (28mm versus 26mm).  No matter that system after system has, for two months, inundated the northern half of B.C. from the Coast to the Peace.  No matter that climate change--while creating warmer temperatures in summer (and el Nino's predicted strongest in 50-year effect this winter)--frequently also creates locally heavy downpours that include flooding.

Locally heavy rain, embedded in these systems, head to the Aberdeen Plateau, where even heavier rainfall occurs.

Another plum?

Today's Morning Star states in another story that the provincial government has "initiated a new program to promote B.C.'s tourism..."

What's this new program?
Increased taxes.
Huh?

Seems the skewed eyes of bureaucracy feel that increasing the hotel room tax from two to three percent might help tourism.
Does anyone really believe that?

  "Come on, Mabel, let's return to that nice creekside hotel in Vernon...

their tax is up by one per cent!"

 

Back to water restrictions and the increasing calls by all levels of government to reduce, reduce, reduce.

Thank goodness Ottawa gets tons of rain ... otherwise the Prime Minister might have, as his last official plum prior to dropping the writ to commence the election campaign, asked Canadians to reduce water consumption by 50 per cent.

"An entire orchard of plums...some are fruit cakes," offers Kia.