Residents see through Bureaucratic Shams

And there are lots of 'em.
Shams, not residents.

Take the Armstrong bottle depot owner's government-contrived problem:
Multi-Material BC (whom this blog unaffectionately refers to as Mini-Material BC) (see "Exactly, Jennifer" blog entry dated 4/25/14) is a multinational company whose greedy strong arm is affecting Woody Kim's business.  Seems Mr. Kim received a letter giving him notice of only two weeks that his depot was to be bypassed as a subcontractor from being paid for deposit-bearing containers.

"It's unfortunate that he's too small now

to be in this big game now that the government

created mega recycling for refundables,"  P. Britton

So what, you say?
Because no-one cares that he will no longer be able to offer eight part-time and full-time jobs to local teenagers, let alone the scholarships he offered to the high school.

No-one cares?
Nope.
You'd think Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo would've known what the impacts on a small business would have been.
Nope.
The B.C. Government forced MM on the province, helped along when regional districts all over B.C. got a million bucks "encouragement" (otherwise known as a bribe) to convert to the MM system.  Even Armstrong council is stunned at how this has affected Kim's small business.  "It's unfortunate that he's too small now to be in this big game now that the government created mega recycling for refundables," states council Paul Britton.

Yeah, Kim is too small now, but that wasn't his doing!
How typical that government (both local and regional and provincial) now washes their hands and wonders what happens to yet another small business.
GOVERNMENT happened!  That's what!

Bye-bye, one more local business.
My heart goes out to Woody Kim.


The Water Sham (akin to a Neverending Story)
Mike Parent wrote a letter to editor "I agree with Kathleen Cameron's letter of Dec.11...As a business owner in Vernon who uses a great deal of water in a laundromat, we cannot afford another water increase.
What will end up happening is laundromats, car washes, hotels, motels, any other business that uses large quantities of water will end up closing their doors.

"...where do you think our summer tourist will stay,

here or in Kelowna which pays one-third less

for its water than we do in Vernon."  M.Parent

The trickle-down effect is that when all of these business(sic) have closed their doors, where do you think our summer tourist will stay, here or in Kelowna which pays one-third less for its water than we do in Vernon.
Our local and provincial politicians need to step up to the plate and deliver a solution to this out of control issue.
As Kathleen Cameron said, we need to speak up.
Everyone should be writing and calling Greater Vernon Water and those who are making these decisions about our community and our future."

Our local politicians, Mr. Parent?
But it's our local politicians who created the Water Sham by believing bureaucrats' plans.
A letter to Greater Vernon Water?
They don't give a damn what a resident thinks.
They're bureaucrats and don't answer to residents.
They aren't the least bit responsive to residents.
It's only when local politicians poke them with a burning ember that they even consider why the public may be upset.
And the only reason local politicians would do that is if their political careers were on the line!
Look at how GVAC's elected officials waffled on the water referendum...just to get votes obviously.

Bye-bye one more local business.
My heart goes out to Mike Parent, who still believes a letter to a bureaucrat will solve things.


The Downtown Commercial Vacancies Sham (...recently so nicely glossed over by Vernon's Economic Development Officer, Kevin Poole).
Linda McGrew's letter to the editor began with "What would anyone expect this winter other than another snow job by the City of Vernon..."

"Between rising property rates and

subsidized, mismanaged water,

 when can property taxpayers expect some form of relief

 from a council that can actually manage our money prudently?"  L.McGrew

She lists commercial vacancies and chides the city for creating a database of available lease space, asking why they would waste our time and money doing that when "MLS listings and commercial agents already have this adequately covered."
Exactly!
She adds: "Between rising property rates and subsidized, mismanaged water, when can property taxpayers expect some form of relief from a council that can actually manage our money prudently?"

Bye-bye one more resident...but maybe not Linda McGrew.
My heart goes out to Linda as she knows she's powerless.

"Bureaucrats these days equate to a disease," intones Kia.

And the contagion spreads.