Photo gallery -- Views from East Kal tower. Courtesy: Debbie Gibson.

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Joke for the day - Girlfriends for ever!

A group of 15 year-old girlfriends discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Dairy Queen next to the Ocean View restaurant because they only had $6.00 between them and Jimmy Johnson, that cute boy in Social Studies, lives on that street and they might see him, and they can ride their bikes there.

10 years later, the group of 25 year-old girlfriends discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the beer was cheap, they had free snacks, the band was good, there was no cover, and there were lots of cute guys.

10 years later, at 35 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the cosmos were good, it was right near the gym, and if they go late enough, there wouldn't be too many whiny little kids.

10 years later, at 45 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the martinis were big, and the waiters there had tight pants and nice buns.

10 years later, at 55 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally it was agreed they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the food there was reasonable, the wine list was good, they had windows that open in case of a hot flash, and fish is good for your cholesterol.

10 years later, at 65 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally it was agreed that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because lighting was good and they have an early bird special.

10 years later, at 75 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally it was agreed that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because food was not too spicy, the restaurant was handicapped accessible, and they even had an elevator!

10 years later, at 85 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally it was agreed that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because they had never been there before.

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Volunteers needed!

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Reminder -- Council Meeting tonight at Lavington

Anyone with questions about the Duteau Creek treatment plant or other water related issues should come to tonight's Council meeting at the Lavington Fire Hall starting at 6:00 PM. Staff members from Greater Vernon Water will be updating the progress of the new treatment plant and the expected opening.

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NORD Meeting -- September 15, 2010:

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Council Meeting, September 13, 2010

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Campbell is Canada's least popular premier: poll -- By: Andrew Weichel, ctvbc.ca

Gordon Campbell tells reporters he will not resign as B.C. premier. Sept. 8, 2010. (CTV)

Date: Saturday Sep. 11, 2010

A new poll suggests B.C. Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell's approval rating has hit an all-time low, making him Canada's least popular premier.

A whopping 83 per cent of respondents told Angus Reid Public Opinion they don't trust the premier, with only 12 per cent saying they approve of the job he's doing.

"It's one of the lowest ratings we've ever seen," Angus Reid vice-president Mario Canseco said. "What's interesting is that back in early 2009, out of nine provincial premiers Campbell was number four."

"Now he's the lowest in the country by far."

Only Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and Quebec Premier Jean Charest come close, Canseco said, with approval ratings of 17 and 18 per cent respectively.

More than 70 per cent of those polled said their opinion of Campbell has worsened over the last three months, giving a major boost to the opposition NDP.

The poll found that 48 per cent of British Columbians would vote for the NDP if an election was held tomorrow, and leader Carole James' approval more than doubled Campbell's at 30 per cent.

Despite the alarming poll results, Canseco said the BC Liberal Party could be salvaged by new leadership. "The frustration is really directed towards Campbell and [Finance Minister Colin] Hansen," he said. "The future of the Liberals may depend on finding somebody who hasn't been tainted by the HST."

Several Liberal supporters have already called for Campbell's resignation over the tax, including Steve Forseth, former executive secretary of the Cariboo-Chilcotin riding.

"The provincial government's strategy vis-a-vis the HST and the future of Gordon Campbell is woefully inadequate and needs to change before voters stop listening to us as B.C. Liberals," he wrote on his blog.

Forseth quit his job on Friday, the day after calling on Campbell to step down.

The poll, conducted online from Sept. 8th to 9th, surveyed 805 randomly selected adults from across British Columbia.

The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 per cent.

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Selected Articles - Morning Star News

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Selected Articles - Morning Star News

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Duteau Creek water supply report - Latest report on Duteau reservoir (September 7, 2010)

Synopsis: Reservoir levels are above average for the date. Agricultural water supply will be turned off starting on September 15th and staff are confident that we will start the next season at a good starting point.

The treatment plant at Duteau Creek is presently being tested and results seem to be encouraging. There will be some initial concerns regarding pipeline deposits, such as manganese and iron oxide, which will be dissolved by the soft water and may be undesirable contaminants until they are flushed out. Staff is expecting operating certificate approval by Interior Health in the near future. I will update you as I hear more news.

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Water issues - Urgent Notice!

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Readers write -Response to the "A Word Is it time?"

Excerpt from: Municipal amalgamations in Atlantic Canada and beyond: Why amalgamate?

A talk to the Annual Meeting of the BC Municipal Finance Authority

by Brian Lee Crowley, President, Atlantic Institute for Market Studies

local government is not merely a device for supplying municipal services, but also for finding out what services people want and how much they are prepared to pay for them. The smaller the government unit, the better they are at discovering this, because the empirical evidence is very strong that local government is closest to the people.

Amalgamation tends to undermine this relationship and therefore can only really be justified if there are pretty remarkable efficiencies to compensate for dilution of responsiveness and democratic accountability.

But, second, they would have discovered that the evidence is quite strong that creating single-tier local government monopolies doesn’t reduce costs — it increases them. It levels costs up to the highest common denominator in the pre-existing units, and seems to result in higher trends of cost growth over This is especially true where amalgamation has eliminated competition between pre-existing municipalities both in terms of attracting residents and industry and in terms of tax and service levels. It seems that the most dynamic force helping to keep costs down is not a highly centralised and bureaucratic monopoly provider of public services, but a decentralisation of authority and decisionmaking within several municipalities within an urban area where residents cannot vote themselves benefits at the expense of other taxpayers in other parts of the city. This ensures that people only demand services that they’re prepared to pay for, and municipalities have powerful incentives to keep costs low and satisfaction high, or risk the erosion of their tax base as people and businesses vote with their feet.

Third, they would have discovered that it is a fairly small part of public services where there are significant returns to scale — in other words where the bigger you are, the cheaper it is to produce a unit of a given service. The evidence says pretty unambiguously that the lowest observable level of per unit costs for most services are compatible with very small municipal units (on the order of 5,000-10,000 residents). Moreover, there are significant diseconomies of scale beyond relatively small population numbers — on the order of 250,000 residents. And, finally, that the supposed savings from smaller councils and elimination of several city halls and other trappings of multiple local governments, is so paltry as to be not even worth mentioning.

But of course, given the culture of executive personalism that I mentioned, they didn’t consult the literature. Had they done so, they, like California under Ronald Reagan, would likely quickly have abandoned their amalgamation policy.

Crowley's 2009 Red Deer Alberta talk, note: "spend-thrift city centres"

http://www.auma.ca/live/digitalAssets/33/33585_BrianCrowley_09PS.pdf

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Selected Articles - Morning Star News

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A Word Is it time? -- Betty Selin 9/7/2010 105.7 SUNFM

"The silliness needs to end somewhere. That's the comment from Vernon Mayor Wayne Lippert when we asked him recently if amalgamation would solve the infighting in the North Okanagan Regional District... Vernon's Mayor says he brings up the issue of amalgamation with Ministers and the Premier every chance he gets. Lippert says more and more residents and businesses are asking for a merger of area communities. He says in recent talks with the Premier on amalgamation, Gordon Cambpell told him one of the challenges is that too many people are afraid of change. Lippert says governance issues have come up recently over transit, water and fire dispatch."(Vernon Blog)

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Another Wayne, another Wayne's WORD. Where have I heard those words before? You guessed it: another Wayne used to bring it up at regular intervals when his political agenda differed from that of other local politicians.

My comments are as follows:

Gordon Campbell also told all of us that the HST was not on the radar prior to the last election.

Each elected local government has a duty to look after their electors interest. Should they not do so they would be guilty of dereliction of duty.

With respect to Fire dispatch it was the City which pulled out from the service.

With respect to water it was the City which wished to partially pull out of the water agreement.

As far as I understand, the transit service has not been settled yet.

Perhaps SUN FM should occasionally consult with the other local governments as well for their side of the stories. But then again, that would be fair and who wants fairness in reporting?

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Selected Articles -- Morning Star News

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Photo Gallery -- Débutantes of 2010. Courtesy: Debbie Gibson.

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More on the HST

All about the HST

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Coldstream Creek restoration project - Volunteers needed.

The Coldstream Creek Restoration Project

The Society for the Protection of Kalamaka Lake (SPrKL), the District of Coldstream and EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd. invite you to participate in a project to restore portions of Coldstream Creek.

RIPARIAN REVEGETATION WORKSHOP

When: September 18, 2010 Saturday, 10:00 am

Where: Coldstream Municipal Hall

What: Provide information to anyone living along creeks in Coldstream about how to plant and care for native riparian plants and explain the BC Ministry of Environment Notification Process.

COLDSTREAM CREEK PLANTING VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY

When: September 18, after the workshop

Where: Sections of Coldstream Creek from McClounie Rd. to Kirkland Dr.

What: Riparian plantings purchased from Swan Lake Nursery

INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING? Contact Trina Koch at 250.862.3026 or tkoch@eba.ca.

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HST revelations discredit B.C. Liberals - Hansen vs. the truth.

The Daily News: Thursday, September 2, 2010

We don't yet know who, but someone has lied to us.

It's time for the provincial Liberal government to provide answers about when they started negotiations with Ottawa regarding the Harmonized Sales Tax.

Yesterday, it was revealed provincial bureaucrats had been discussing the HST with their federal counterparts prior to the May 12, 2009, election.

Senior B.C. government officials began discussing the HST with Ottawa almost two months before the provincial election and far earlier than the B.C. Liberals have previously acknowledged, newly released documents show.

The documents, obtained under a Freedom of Information request released Wednesday, outline e-mail correspondence between provincial and federal bureaucrats concerning the HST between March and May 2009.

The documents fly in the face of numerous claims by Premier Gordon Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen that the HST was not on the B.C. Liberal's radar screen prior to the election.

Parksville-Qualicum MLA Ron Cantelon, who was in the provincial cabinet before the election, also insisted that talk of merging the provincial sales tax with the federal Goods and Services Tax was non-existent at the time.

In June, during an interview with the editorial board of the Nanaimo Daily News, Cantelon said the government's mishandling of the HST's introduction "verifies the fact that we didn't plan on this."

If the premier, finance minister and other members of cabinet didn't know these negotiations were going on, then we have to ask just who is in charge of the government: the MLAs or the appointed bureaucrats that seemingly can hijack policy in B.C?

Hansen is on the record as saying that the first time the B.C. government formally expressed interest to Ottawa about the HST was on May 25, 2009, when he ran into federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty at a finance ministers' meeting in Meech Lake, Que. He told the legislature in November that there had been no discussion at any level between finance staff and the federal government.

The e-mails clearly show that merging the GST with the B.C. PST was under active discussion among Hansen's staff prior to the election, and that talks began between staff in Ottawa and Victoria on March 26, 2009, the day the Ontario government announced its provincial budget and HST deal.

Liberal MLAs knew, or were blatantly incompetent and should have known, that B.C bureaucrats were cooking up a deal behind MLAs' backs.

We remain skeptical because it's inconceivable that bean-counting B.C. bureaucrats would enter into HST discussions with Ottawa without the knowledge of their political masters? If the politicians didn't know this was taking place, they sure as heck should have known.

To give Cantelon the benefit of the doubt, he was obviously out of the loop of the machinations taking place to bring in the HST.

How rigorously -- if at all -- he grilled Hansen, a fellow member of cabinet, about the HST will never be known due to the concept of cabinet confidentiality.

Perhaps the Parksville-Qualicum MLA had been duped like the rest of us.

It defies credulity but remains possible.

Even so, what does that say about our representative at the B.C. legislature?

Not only do these recent revelations discredit the B.C. Liberals, they further fuel Bill Vander Zalm and opponents to the HST.

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Duteau Creek water supply report - Latest report on Duteau reservoir (August 30, 2010)

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Selected Articles - Morning Star News

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