Take the time to stop and look
DEAR EDITOR:
As I make my way around Penticton, be it by car, walking or bicycle, I would like to share my observations.
First, the 鈥渢raffic calming鈥 idea seems to have forgotten that by taking away the turn lanes, adding bollards to prevent truck traffic, and rerouting bus stops we have contributed greatly to greenhouse gases as it now takes two or three cycles of a traffic light to get through the intersection.
I have some alternative ideas to put forward that may actually reduce greenhouse gases and help save our planet 鈥 because vehicles are going to be around for many years to come.
1. Put back and add more left- and right-turn lanes. Make all busier corners a pedestrian scramble corner to make it safer for pedestrians and improve traffic flow at the same time.
2. Make our bus service free to all and make it more often.
3. Pay for this bus service by adding two cents to the price of fuel and immediately start a tax on electric vehicles that will also pay for the bus system.
4. Make all drive-through lanes only usable if you have a handicap sticker.
We may get a little exercise by parking, shutting our vehicle off, walking inside and demanding better service inside instead of the drive-through window.
5. Always remember that we have a large population of elderly folks that may not be able to utilize our growing bike lane system.
We need to start thinking outside the box on lots of these areas. Maybe our city could be a leader on some of these planet-saving efforts.
We have a great number of intelligent people working in our municipal system that could probably come up with more great ideas.
Before any changes are made they should be vetted by the people most affected 鈥 i.e. talk to delivery drivers, tow truck operators, bus drivers, fire department, police department, bus riders and more.
Doug Maxwell
Penticton
These people are everywhere
DEAR EDITOR:
The reported assault on the Penticton Legion鈥檚 Jim DeMarce, 82, by four people who accosted him on the street was not an isolated incident.
These people are everywhere especially in front of our drug treatment location on Winnipeg Street, the drug treatment location near Main Street and Industrial Avenue, the area around Nanaimo Square, the Penticton Library area, all around McDonald鈥檚 area on south Main Street plus many other locations throughout our city.
Our bylaw officers seem only to be able to move them away from areas they congregate and then it happens again.
These people have serious mental problems and must get 24/7 health care in facilities that are designed to keep them in.
Society feeds them, we give them clean drugs daily and then we send them back on the streets.
This is not working at all.
Our local politicians must get many of these mentally ill individuals off our street. The current provincial and municipal costs to deal with this problem is staggering.
Let鈥檚 try a new approach Let鈥檚 call it tough love. What鈥檚 happening now is not working.
Bruce Manery
Penticton
Deal to sell TMX pipeline cheap doesn鈥檛 smell right
DEAR EDITOR:
I was fairly confident Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would find a way to give the Trans Mountain Pipeline to aboriginal groups.
He was kind of crafty, rather that just saying 鈥渉ere take it,鈥 the federal government (tax-payers) will guarantee a $1 billion loan.
For those that want a piece of the action, the government intends to provide risk-free access to capital. It is reported Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland sent a letter outlining the proposal to various aboriginal groups.
As first obtained and reported on by Bloomberg, the letter reportedly lays out the plan to sell a stake in the Trans Mountain oil pipeline to eligible communities through a special purpose vehicle.
It also reportedly lays out the financial support the federal government will be giving the groups so 鈥渢hey don鈥檛 have to risk any of their own money to participate.鈥
It is hard to get factual information but one report I found states the sale for 30% would be for less than $1.5 billion. The cost to complete the expansion was $34 billion plus the $4.5billion Trudeau paid TMX for the pipeline.
Sign me up all day long. If they make money, they don鈥檛 pay tax, it they lose money, tax-payers pick up the tab. A sweet deal but not surprising.
This is not reconciliation, it is corruption and racism at it鈥檚 finest.
Gord Marshall
Kelowna