All posts by James W. Breckenridge

Issues, Municipal, Poverty, Snafu

Preying on the Poor and Homeless

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Reprehensible, despicable, abominable, anathema?

Anathema, best begins to reflect the contempt I hold those who prey upon the poor in; a behaviour that is unfortunately neither unusual nor that rare in Abbotsford.

I spent time on July 31 paying rent and other bills which left me broke but secure for another month. I could do this because the monies due me were in fact deposited in my bank account.

I spent time on August 1 explaining to a gentleman what the rules were and what he needed to do to get a bed in the shelter that evening. He found himself in need of a bed at the emergency shelter because monies due him had not been paid. Sadly he was not the only person finding themselves in a bad situation because this “employer” had not paid people the wages they were due.

One of the other people who were on this job had been at the shelter when this “employment opportunity” came his way. Had been at the shelter because, with the long hours they were working, he had not returned to the shelter in order not to lose this “job” and the opportunity it represented to earn enough money to be able to afford an apartment and to start to get his feet back under him.

In doing the demolition on what had been the Grand Theatre in the Clearbrook Town Square Mall on South Fraser Way in Abbotsford they had been labouring hard 14+ hours a day to be done by the deadline.

These were not the only two victims who had the rug pulled out from under them once the job was finished. The friend I was sitting beside on August 1 had been telling me about others who had also been left owed a thousand plus dollars of wages for this job. After the gentleman had left my friend gave me a ‘what are you going to do about this’ look – a look he is very good at.

The people hired to do the hard labour during the demolition were homeless or poor in need of the money for rent so as not to join the growing ranks of homeless on Abbotsford’s streets or to get off the streets into housing.

They are each owed $1,000+ apiece and have been told there is no money to pay them what is owed, that they may get 25% of what they earned. Often in these circumstances they get nothing. Or only get the small “advances” given by the “kind, understanding” boss to keep them coming back and working hard.

To quote Samuel Butler: Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
This kind of behaviour is why temporary labour agencies have long lines of workers at their doors – better to get minimum wage and actually be paid than to “earn” double the minimum wage but never see a cent.

The poor and homeless are seen as powerless victims who, lacking power, are helpless to do anything about collecting the monies owed them. Prey to be exploited to line someone’s pockets.

In this instance, even if they thought about filing a lien, could they fill out the paperwork and then file their class action suit in small claims court?

Except … for a certain ‘what are you going to do about this’ look. I told my friend to pass along the fact that we can, should, will file a lien to get their money. That I can and will help them fill out the paperwork and file their lien to get the monies they earned through hard work if necessary.

If city council feels the need to pull business licenses or deny the ability to do business in Abbotsford they should apply this principle to those who prey on the poor and powerless, not just to those who annoy the powerful. They should be telling those who seek wealth by preying on the poor that this is not an acceptable business practice in Abbotsford.

Consider, Municipal, Snafu

Procrastination …

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… is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill

Is it just me or does it strike others that a headline screaming ‘WATER DANGEROUSLY LOW’ and proclaiming that a ‘sprinkling ban (is) coming’ in this the summer of 2009 is at odds with the statement ‘Abbotsford is anticipated to have enough water until 2018’.

Given Abbotsford City Staff and Council’s record on “anticipated” over the past years I certainly don’t want to be gambling on Abbotsford having enough water until 2018. More importantly why are we gambling on having enough water until 2018 rather than being prudent and investing in the future of Abbotsford’s water supply now?

‘Because the 12 reservoirs serving Abbotsford refill overnight (from Norrish Creek and from the 17 wells), the city only needs to worry about its peak daily water consumption.’ Council might want to follow the example of other municipalities in the lower mainland and spare some thought to what happens to the refilling of reservoirs if the flow of Norrish Creek diminishes, given the low snow pack and the effect this has had on the levels of lakes and streams in the lower mainland.

Look around your neighbourhood and you will see those new steel signs detailing the watering restrictions. The appearance of the signs for the first time this year suggests the City was aware of possible water supply problems this summer.

Council and staff have been well aware for years of the need to invest in the city’s water infrastructure to meet the city’s growing demand for water. What was the City’s response?

To ‘buy time before it has to tap into a new water supply’; how many millions of taxpayer dollars are we misapplying to ‘buying time’ rather than investing in building the infrastructure we need to meet Abbotsford’s water needs?

It is not just the millions spent on stopgap measures such as the Bevan wells; Mill Lake is a jewel in the center of Abbotsford – what is pumping water out of the ground under Mill Lake doing to this jewel’s future?

What businesses are going to want to locate to a City with a ‘dangerously low’ and/or inadequate water supply? What responsible developer is going to want to build housing in a City that has not secured a source of water to meet growing needs? What smart homebuyer will buy a home that may or may not have running water?

The need to invest several hundred million dollars in a new water supply has not come out of the blue.

The need to make a major investment in water supply infrastructure was part of the Plan A debate. For opponents of Plan A, given that the City needed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a new water supply, the financially responsible course of action was to invest in the City’s future by building a new water supply before spending on ego projects.

Instead Council chose to rush precipitously ahead with Plan A and to seek to ‘buy time’ on a new water supply; even though a new water supply was/is vital to Abbotsford’s future liveability.

Millions in cost overruns that devoured reserves, $85 million in debt, soaring taxes … all at a time when Council knew they needed to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a new water supply.

Yes, City Council’s feckless behaviour has left the City in a poor financial position to undertake the needed large investment in a new water supply; yes, City Council’s fudget as opposed to a budget for this fiscal year has further eroded Abbotsford’s financial health; and yes, the need to invest in additional waste treatment capacity complicates matters.

Abbotsford will just have to ‘deal with it.’ Burying you head in the stand and/or trying to avoid making this investment in a timely matter, sooner rather than as late as ‘anticipated’ possible, is an irresponsible gamble.

Does Council intend to wait until Abbotsford, as happened to Tofino, finds itself trucking in water from its responsible neighbouring municipalities before it acts?

Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. Napoleon Hill

Hmmm, Poverty, Thanks

Cavalier’s Saga rolls on

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The Saga continues ……

Recapping: four trips to the insurance brokers to get the paperwork done; multiple jumpstarts to get it home; battery won’t hold charge; reconditioned battery not properly conditioned, strain burns out alternator leaving me stranded on Lakeview Terrace with a car that is not going anywhere under its own power without an alternator and a battery that will destroy any new (to the car) alternator; trade the VW I lived in while homeless for a used alternator and its installation, loaned a battery to get home, hooked up re-conditioned battery to trickle charger to charge and condition it, left 5 days because I was to nervous/wary/scared to drive car before that …

… and on the fifth day started the engine and drove to sign over ownership of the VW. Before stepping into the Insurance Brokers the battery was tested and proved to be fully charged, staying cool when charging and the alternator/battery was charging fine.

Driving away … the engine started overheating. The following day it overheated on the way to lunch. Discussing this state of affairs with my things mechanical advisory board over lunch I was advised to purchase and install a new thermostat. Returning home and switching to the dependable Duster, I drove to get the new thermostat for the Cavalier.

The next day I drove down to meet with the person who offered to install the thermostat if I bought and brought a thermostat to lunch Saturday. Unfortunately they were unable to be there to change the thermostat. Fortune did provide someone who could install the thermostat – after they finished work. Patience … Patience … Patience … and the old thermostat comes out in two pieces to be replaced with a shiny new thermostat.

With the new thermostat installed I drive away filled with trepidation, Which proved unfounded as the engine heated up properly and remained cool.

With the engine running at the proper temperature and my attention no longer focused so singularly on the engine temperature my senses were open to notice that there was hesitancy in the engine and its response, like a runner short of energy or oxygen.

Consulting with my advisors I secured new sparkplugs but when we went to install them it developed that my sparkplug tool lacked the depth of reach to change the Cavaliers sparkplugs. Once I had followed the advice on where to obtain appropriate tools to do the job, at an good (affordable to me price), we pulled the first plug. When that plug, and a subsequent sparkplug checked just to be sure, proved in very good shape I was off to return the plugs and secure air and fuel filters.

When we went to install the air filter it proved to be the wrong size. A return trip to Lordco revealed that the computer showed that air filter as the correct air filter for the Cavalier. Stymied, the person helping me was forced to resort to desperate measures – the actual paper catalogue. The printed catalogue showed the same air filter as in the computer … and a second air filter that proved to be the correct size. Books are such useful and entertaining friends to have around – you should take a book out for a read today.

The new air filter was installed, replacing the completely black old filter.

Then it was on to the fuel filter which is located under the car between the fuel tank and the rear axle. Fortunately I had looked up the location on the internet; unfortunately it was where it was.

With the location and design it is impossible not to have a volume of gasoline spill out when changing the filter. Indeed the gentleman who shimmied under the car to change the filter had to take a fresh air break before finishing the installation.

When we drained the remaining fuel out of the old filter the gas was dirty; suggesting that it might be a good idea at some future point to drop the gas tank and drain/clean it.

Driving away, the engine was running better. So much better that it blew the (rusted?) baffles in the muffler; leaving a muffler that looks fine to an exterior inspection but that, when shaken, rattles to reveal its lack of interior soundness.

Primal Scream; hang and slowly shake head. Take a very deep breath hold it and slowly release it – repeat as needed to reach a state of calmness.

I found myself reluctant to replace the muffler, wondering once the muffler was fixed what next? Hey – it’s not paranoia if the Universe is really out to get you.

However one of the things they do not warn you about when they encourage you to seek mental health recovery and wellness is that it severely compromises your ability to procrastinate. I use to be able to procrastinate with the best of procrastinators. But now healthy ways of thinking do not permit me to procrastinate until something simple turns into a crisis of mountainous proportions.

Being reluctant to discover what would (will) happen after the muffler was repaired I decided to take care of a small repair that should have no consequences. So I headed off to the auto wreckers to find a replacement licence plate holder since the one on the Cavalier was broken, leaving the front plate held by a single screw and flapping in the wind.

Better to take care of the matter before I paid the procrastination price on this by getting a ticket and fine for driving without a front licence plate.

It developed that the Universe was not about to let me procrastinate on the muffler front. At the wreckers I ran into a friend who, having heard me drive in, said he could get me a new muffler cheap. He made a phone call and I was off and procured a new muffler for $40. How could I say no to a new muffler at that price? I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid.

With the new muffler in the trunk I headed off to the library. All the way to the library the muffler was whispering to me – ‘I’m here in the trunk all shiny and new, anxious to be installed and muffle ….’ It kept up its whispering campaign while I was in the library; reaching the point I was forced, for the sake of my sanity and peace-and-quiet in my head, to e-mail a friend with a floor jack asking whether he would be able to install the muffler.

Shortly after I arrived home I received an e-mail suggesting a time the next morning which I accepted with alacrity.

I arrived at his place the next morning, backed in, blocked the front tire; he jacked up the rear end, set up the support brace and proceeded to remove the old muffler. Using his van I made a quick trip to get two new clamps to attach the muffler and Voila! it was done.

A piece of advice: you want to make sure that among your friends who know their way around cars that at least one of them has a set of tools (air/impact wrenches, SawAll, hand held grinder, sockets and wrenches up the wazoo, etc…) that is the envy of every guy.

After a cold pop and conversation on what is going on with homelessness around Abbotsford it was time to fire up the Cavalier. After which I drove quietly home.

As I finish typing this the Cavalier sits in front while I sit here hoping that repairing the muffler does not cause some other domino to fall; that the Universe is through testing or playing with me vis-à-vis the Cavalier and that this is the end of the Saga of Repairs and Headaches.

Afterword: People tend to give me strange looks when I say that I do not regret my journey through mental illness. But while this journey may have replaced the richness of my bank account with poverty, it has also replaced my poverty of friends with a richness of friends and people in my life who will lend me a helping hand when a ‘Never look a gift horse in the mouth’ gift horse turns out to be a bit of a Trojan horse

Post Script: To those who so generosity lent a hand a sincere Thank You.

Homeless, Issues, Municipal

My Integrity, Emerson Housing and Mayor Peary’s Statements

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Writing a response (see below) to Mayor Peary’s recent statements concerning the status of the $33,750,000 (capital plus operational funding) the province had put on the table to develop affordable housing on Emerson left me feeling unsettled.

As a practitioner of good mental hygiene this unsettled feeling meant I needed to take some quiet/meditation time to gain understanding of what it was about my response that was unsettling my inner balance, my inner peace.

I determined that taking the convenient, safe, easy way out on the status of the Emerson project, by appearing to accept the Mayor’s statements about the project as if I had no doubts as to their accuracy, my response lacked integrity.

No wonder I felt unsettled – when you feel very deeply about something, it’s not possible to sacrifice your integrity about that. Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather.

Being an advocate for affordable housing means I have been following the fate of the Emerson project and its status.

A variety of sources have told and continue to tell me that the Emerson project was/is dead despite Council’s claims otherwise; that the actions of Abbotsford’s City Council had resulted in the loss of the $33,750,000 funding for this project. One such source was BC Housing itself which stated that BC Housing had only one project in Abbotsford – the housing project on Clearbrook.

I have no doubt that Mayor and Council will insist that this is not the case, that they have not ‘blown off’ the province and its $33,750,000. Even by Council’s standards, walking away from $33,750,000 is intolerably wasteful and costly behaviour.

Making Council’s desire to avoid responsibility for the multi-million dollar cost of their actions and the Mayor’s recent statements at least understandable, even if unacceptable.

How many times have taxpayers been told that Council cannot provide any solid information, for a variety of reasons, when Council wants to avoid providing facts and figures in response to inquiries from taxpayers?

One can state/imply that $millions$ will need to be taken out of capital reserves to purchase the property and hope that taxpayers scream against this so it can be claimed the $33,750,000 project was rejected by taxpayers, that Council was only listening to taxpayers in losing these millions.

As a point of fact: have not all the cost overruns of Plan A reduced the capital reserves to Zero?

Or one could state one had chosen a location “further away from residential areas and would not generate “a public backlash.”” and when such a site, as must any site meeting such conditions, fails to meet the location criteria set out by BC Housing as part of the original agreement between the City and BC Housing for funding the two affordable housing projects – well then it is BC Housing’s fault.

I expect that my words on the status/fate of the Emerson affordable housing project to be … displeasing.

It was the potential for conflict to arise from the difference between the Mayor’s recent statements on this matter and information I have received on this matter, which tempted me to respond to the Mayor’s statements taking the easy path by ignoring the differences.

A betrayal of those in need of affordable housing – and an advocate; a betrayal of my own integrity; little wonder my actions unsettled me internally.

You are in integrity when the life you are living on the outside matches who you are on the inside. Alan Cohen

Sigh, as Admiral David Farragut is purported to have said: “Damn the Torpedoes! Full Speed Ahead.”

Reading Mayor Peary’s comments concerning the province’s second offer of $11 million plus $650,000 per year for support services for affordable housing brought to mind George Orwell’s 1984 and ‘Newspeak’.

“The snag … is that the city would have to buy the land.” That is not the snag. The snag to addressing the overwhelming, even desperate need in Abbotsford for affordable housing was and is that City Council has demonstrated neither the desire nor the will to address this pressing issue.

Indeed, the City’s behaviour on this issue supports the observation of a homeless friend that City Council must be happy with the social and criminal problems that arise from a lack of affordable housing since they have failed to act in a manner to effectively address the need for affordable housing.

It is Council’s lack of will that has Abbotsford facing purchasing land or blowing off the $11 million and $650,000 a year for 35 years of support services.

“The Emerson proposal collapsed … amid strong public opposition.” The Emerson proposal collapsed because Council lacks the desire and the Will to begin dealing with affordable housing issues. It was this lack of desire and Will that had Council fold when faced with fear mongering and screaming NIMBYism.

Since nobody knew or knows who was proposing to develop the Emerson site and what they proposed for the Emerson site there was no rational reason for the opposition. In turning tail and running council behaved as irrationally as the panicky public.

Personally I would be very interested in knowing who and what proposal was chosen for the Emerson site by BC Housing in conjunction with the City? Exactly what housing was lost as a result of Council’s lack of intestinal fortitude?

It is exactly this kind of lack of planning and acting for the future that led to “… the city owns very little vacant land suitable … the result of a decision made by [previous] council … in which the city sold much of its acreage to private developers in order to collect tax dollars.”

Rather than paying for its spending as it should have through tax revenue Council unwisely chose to sell assets to enable its addiction to spending beyond its income.

Note: selling off land assets is not collecting tax dollars.

I suppose nobody should be surprised that Abbotsford is mired in debt, financial woes and social problems when Mayor and Council think along the lines of “… that would likely make more sense than turning down $11 million.”

As if turning down $11 million made any sense. Especially in light of the fact that it is Council’s lack of Will and rational behaviour that makes it necessary to purchase land at all.

Note: it was/is not just $11 million but $11 million plus $22, 750,000 ($650,000 for 35 years) for a total of $33,750,000.

Municipal, Snafu

Mayor’s, Council’s Actions raise dobts about their Words

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“Welcome to the club” crossed my mind while reading “Mayor George Peary responded quite curtly to my e-mail that this fee will generate $125,000 and “if you have any suggestions for additional revenue sources for the city or recommended cuts in city services for 2010, we would like to hear from you.”” in a letter to the editor.

The letter writer joins a growing list of citizens dissed by Mayor Peary and City Council for daring to suggest that Abbotsford’s Council live within its means.

Further, while I have no doubt Mayor Peary would love to hear suggestions for additional revenue sources that would permit City Council to continue its financially irresponsible spending ways; I do doubt, based on council’s actions in searching for new ways to divert taxpayer’s money into City pockets rather than the prudent fiscal behaviour of reducing spending, Mayor Peary or Council having any real desire to hear suggestions on spending cuts.

City Council did not cut one single dollar from the budget for this current year. Any ‘phantom cuts’ they claim to have made were only reductions of proposed spending increases. Any suggestions made during the budget process that Council cut spending in order to begin living within their means, were either ignored or, as in the case of the Abbotsford Ratepayers Association, publically scorned.

Focusing only on feeding Councils insatiable appetite for spending leads to a mindset where, when questioned on imposing user fees on sports fields, Mayor Peary focused on “… this fee will generate $125,000” rather than the truly important consideration – the devastating effect these extra fees will have on many young sports players ability to afford to participate.

Especially in these economically tight times when so many are forced to count how every penny is spent – except it seems, Abbotsford City Council.

A significant portion, if not all, of the money that the fees will raise could have been saved by the simple action of not spending the tens of thousand of dollars the city is spending to replace what was a perfectly good sign in front of the Abbotsford Recreation Centre, with an electronic sign. The old sign would have served fine until such time as the city’s financial house was in order.

But then, why should Council be expected to behave responsibly when the sign was shiny and bright and new and required spending taxpayer’s money?

Behaviour that holds little hope of this Council getting Abbotsford’s financial house in order; behaviour that leaves informed taxpayers shuddering at the thought of how wasteful and costly to the taxpayers Council’s spending will become if they ever get their greedy hands on a gasoline tax as a revenue source.