Readers Write.

7 Sept 2007

I have e-mailed the Morning Star a letter to the editor complaining about their biased coverage of the sports complex issue, on 29 Aug 2007, you may read the letter on Gyula Kiss’s website, the ‘ColdstreamerNews Blog’. I am glad to report that they have since remedied their reportage on this matter.

In my view this whole controversy could have been avoided if more attention had been paid by Coldstream voters to the agendas of the two mayoral candidates in the last municipal election. As it was, Mayor Corner was narrowly elected by a margin of 8 votes, which he believed, gave him a mandate to proceed with the “community plan” to continue ‘suburbanizing’ Coldstream Municipality. To wit, we have had several new residential subdivisions been built, a new city hall, a sewer to Coldstream Meadows, a new fire hall, Park facilities and parking lots, a new water purification plant, etc, and now a proposed Sports Mega Complex. One wonders why Mayor Postill and Corner didn’t start first with a new Community hall to bring residents of Coldstream together?

Many residents have chosen to reside in Coldstream because it was relatively rural and undeveloped, shall we say a “green community” now they find themselves besieged by suburban and urban developments which are transforming the community into something they never envisaged and they have now become anxious about the impending Sports Complex proposed for the heart of their community. Perhaps it is already impossible to stop because the municipality has embarked on so many capital projects that it needs to increase its tax base by promoting further residential and business developments to pay for these projects?

It’s clear to me that this a business driven development agenda, advantageous to large landholders and the construction industry in which the majority of residents have no direct interest. We are simply helpless bystanders as events unfold around us. I would have hoped that our municipal governments would have opted to preserve a “Green” community, to create an ecologically friendly, bio-social environment that is sustainable over in the long term; this requires the preservation of agricultural land and of natural habitat for other life forms. Instead we are confronted with the spectra of an ever-increasing ecological footprint, as urban development devours the Coldstream Valley ever eastwards. The Sports Complex proposal is a watershed event, we must draw the line now to stop this proposal and preserve our community from further degradation.

If this is indeed the popular will then we must be careful to whom we entrust our local government to, those counsellors that vote for this proposal, vote for development as usual and should not be re-elected in future!

Finally, I believe there is a hidden agenda behind this proposal, which is simply the sale of the agricultural land in question. I believe the Coldstream Ranch Cattle operation is in essence a land speculation hoping to capitalize on the continued and further development of Coldstream Municipality. After all, Coldstream has been built on previously owned ranch lands, why shouldn’t the current owners cash in their lands. This can only happen if a credible agency such as Coldstream counsel or the GVSC applies to the Agricultural land Reserve to have the land freed to serve the greater public good. I have no doubt that under the current Liberal government the land would be released for development if it were applied for. Therefore it is imperative that we let this issue go no further. We should further rethink the future of those Councillors who vote for this proposal.

Peter Peto 492 Terrace Drive, Coldstream