Category Archives: Municipal

Homeless, Municipal, Provincial

Stop wasting $$$…

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… and there will be more than enough $$$!!

While writing the article concerning the fact that the City of Abbotsford currently wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs associated with the homeless to accomplish nothing, rather than spend money in a manner that would benefit both the city and the homeless, a thought occurred to me. Should the city try to get the provincial government to fund programs that are actually designed to address homelessness in a positive and effective manner, the province would undoubtedly cry “No money.” This seems a favorite response, unless the money is directed into the pockets of the well off, big corporations or the politicians pockets.

  • To help those who are in need of help – “No money.”
  • To fund programs to address the many different facets and aspects of homelessness and poverty? “No money.”
  • To deal with the reality of homelessness – “No money.”
  • To have the system actually render aid and help to those who need the help to get back on their feet – even if it means accepting that some freeloaders will get to freeload, but that those trying to find work and get back on their economic feet will get a helping hand? “No money.”
  • To serve the ideology of the government and embarrass the opposition? Millions, hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars to waste.

As has been all over the news recently, a company is proposing a service between Vancouver and the Island. Where did the ferries for this proposed service come from? Why these are the same ferries that the provincial Liberal government rushed to sell at sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub- sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-basement sale prices to make sure they could blame the NDP (who are themselves not without blame in the ferry fiasco). The ferries the government claimed ere no good, although it appears all that is needed to get use out of the ferries is so competence. Say, are we not currently spending hundreds of millions more providing jobs and benefits in a foreign country to purchase 3 ferries? Plus, just how much did the current government waste on P3’s? Evidently enough that the new Abbotsford hospital is a profitable investment for trading among foreign banks (Foreign? Again?).

How would I propose that we fund changes to the current system? Changes based on what is needed to address the varied needs of the diverse homeless people. Fund experimental programs to see what works, what does not and which are the most effective approaches. To actually begin to address homelessness rather than use it as a distraction or bogey man for the voters.

Funding is not a problem – if we can just get the provincial government to stop wasting all those hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

Homeless, Municipal

Are they waiting for a corpsesicle?

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You may have noticed it is more than a little nippy outside these days. And while the bright moon and stars are a very pretty sight, that clearness of the air means the temperature plummets overnight. Factor in the wind chill and you have conditions threatening to life and limb. The one question on the lips of the homeless these days is “are they going to open extra space for shelter at night”? Rumours run rampant through the homeless community, but at the time this is written there are only the (inadequate) beds at the Salvation Army. With bright sunny days perhaps those with shelter do not realize just how dangerous these clear, freezing nights are to those unwillingly consigned to residing on the mean streets of Abbotsford. I have heard of one of the local churches that has regular contact with the homeless community whose attempts to open their (church) doors to these cold people is tied up in red tape thrown up by the city. If the politicians are hoping that the cold will drive the homeless out of town, where they do they expect the homeless to go? That person snoring sitting there in the Library may well have spent the night walking around to keep warm enough to see the dawn and need to get enough sleep in order that they can have the energy to spend this evening moving about so that they can survive to tomorrows dawn.

One can only hope that it does not require someone to freeze to death to get a warm(er) shelter open.

Consider, Municipal

Crime Wave coming to your neighbourhood!

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-courtesy of the downtown Business Association and
your City Government

One of Newton’s Laws of Motion is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. With objects or bodies in motion or at rest this lets you calculate what reaction you will get from your actions. With people it is not so nice and neat when it comes to the reaction you will get from your actions. But, should you choose to use your brain for more than a spacer to keep your ears apart, knowing you are dealing with people permits you to anticipate the kind of effects you will get from your actions. Assuming you care about what effects you will get from your actions. If you are concerned only about yourself, you need only consider the effect the actions will have for you and not about the effect they will have on your fellow citizens and business people.

This point was brought strongly to mind at the Global Harvest pancake breakfast for the homeless and hungry on Saturday January 21, 2006. Usually it is packed but on that day the crowd was sparse. The continuing efforts of the downtown business people and the city to drive the homeless elsewhere is beginning to have an effect – dispersing the homeless to other parts of the city. Looking around the emptiness of the breakfast I could see these actions were having an effect. It is now to far for some homeless to travel to make it to the breakfast – especially given our poor weather of late.

So what? The charities are set up to feed the homeless and hungry centered around the downtown area. When you disperse the people and close down places like Street Hope you are creating hungry people. These hungry people are going to need – food. In dispersing them or closing down/driving away the charities that feed the hungry you are in fact denying them access to their regular food sources. Can you honestly say that YOU would just sit there and starve? Neither will they. They will steal the food or they will steal items they can sell for cash to buy food. Resulting in a crime wave spread throughout the city. If those responsible for these policies of denying food to the hungry/homeless claim any crime wave was as an unexpected consequence of the efforts to clean up downtown – all I can say is that being brain dead is required not to be able to see the kinds of problems creating all those hungry/desperate people would have.

So, if at some future point you find yourself standing and surveying the direct effect these policies had on you through the theft of you property (TV, computer, jewelry etc.) remember to thank your city government and the Downtown Business Association. Make your thanks appropriate: voting in competent, intelligent representatives and boycotting downtown businesses.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
Aristotle