The Local Weekly The heart and soul of our communities with news and information about the Sunshine Coast
Letters to the Editor and submissions are welcome on any topic of local or general interest. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and do not reflect opinions of The Local publication. Letters are preferred by e-mail, however type-written or legibly handwritten are acceptable. Generally letters should not exceed more than 300 words. Letters will be edited in the interests of style, clarity, legality, brevity and taste, as necessary. The Local reserves the right to refuse publication of any submission. All letters must be signed and include place of residence and telephone number; names may be withheld from publication for valid reason by approval of the editor.
E-mail letters to editor@thelocalweekly.ca or Mail to Box 494 Sechelt BC V0N 3A0.
Deadline for letters and submissions is Monday at 10 AM.
To the Editor,
I dropped by the anti-George encampment in Lower Gibsons again last Sunday to see if they had corrected any of the misleading information they have been peddling to the public. No significant corrections were made on their displays.
I pointed out more examples of misinformation to them. For the sake of brevity I will describe just one of them.
They state “The developer claims the annual propertry tax provided to the town by the George would be $1,033,570”.
In their “The Facts” section, they state – “FALSE: The developers own economist’s numbers show the Town of Gibsons would get only $315,602.”.
The developer has stated that it is projected that The George would be contributing around a $1,000,000 dollars in property taxes but I could find nowhere that it was stated (by the developer) that the total amount would be provided to the town. The actual figures break down to $306,000 provided to the town in the form of municipal taxes with the rest of the taxes going to various other government agencies (The provincial school tax alone is projected at $290,000). I provided verifable documentation to them about this and asked them what they were going to do about it. Their response was “Probably nothing, most people believe what we have stated is true so why would we change it”. Unbelievable.
One thing I would like to clear up is that, contrary to what they are putting out there, I have no connection to the George. I have not even met the Developer. I, like most Gibsons residents, believe in the project and believe it will be good for our Town. I also believe that this anti-George group should be publicly challenged and held accountable for any of their blatantly incorrect propaganda.
Simon Broomhall,
Lower Gibsons
To the Editor,
Re: Anti-George Petition Debunked
Simply put, is there anyone left out there who still buys into what the anti-George mob have to say?
On a scale of one to ten their credibility, though never high, is now zero.
Simon Broomhall
Lower Gibsons
To the Editor
While I appreciate Marsha Andrews comments on cigarette butts and other litter (The Local Sept.17), the problem is not entirely the smokers fault. There exists to few places for them to be properly disposed of.
Case in point, you mentioned transit. There existed a garbage can at the Wilson Creek stop that sat full since before the last election (strictly a time reference), until sometime late spring early summer, when it wasn’t emptied, it was taken away!
Having traveled Montreal and eastward this past summer, I was quite impressed with the number of outdoor receptacles and ashtrays that existed outside restaurants, businesses, malls and other public spaces.
Smokers, being creatures of habit, would use an ashtray.
As for the non smoking litterers, that’s a whole different story.
John Power
Dear Editor
The recent outrage from our community against Vancouver Coastal Health’s autocratic announcement that Shorncliffe and Totem residential care homes would be closed and replaced with a for-profit facility turns out to just be an ongoing reflection of VCH’s lack of transparency and corporate rather than community accountability. Our neighbours in Powell River have recently experienced the reality of VCH’s poor management concerning how they source their food for their residential facilities. Local PR writer and columnist Murray Dobbin recently penned a scathing criticism of VCH’s food contractor Sodexo, a French multinational that supplies meals for VCH. “Food shortages, meals of poor quality, meals not served on time and small portion sizes are commonplace.” “Joy and Richard Hibberd … said the food is barely edible at times… ‘We haven’t been getting fresh fruit. We see a third of a banana maybe once in three weeks.'” “Fruit juice is actually watered down flavour crystals.” The most shocking revelation is the lack of accountability that VCH signed off in their contract with Sodexo. “The contract “[s]tipulates that VCHA and Sodexo would agree on ‘standardized and uniform responses to questions from the media’. Further to this agreement is a confidentiality agreement that does not allow for the public to know where the food comes from and what it costs. Say what? How could we have arrived at a place where corporate confidentiality trumps public accountability? At the recent Sechelt Town Hall meeting we learned that consultation, accountability and transparency were empty phrases from the VCH’s handbook of set PR phrases for the unwashed to accept without question. The details of the Trellis contact are unavailable to the public. It is an understatement that VCH’s relationship with it’s private partnerships lacks the level of transparency that engenders trust and confidence in our health services. Disgraceful.
Neil Bryson
Halfmoon Bay
I do not understand this :/
Sorry? Understand what, exactly?