6 | THE ALDERGROVE STAR | THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 2014
www.aldergrovestar.com
OPINION
P U B L I S H E D A N D P R I N T E D B Y B L A C K P R E S S L T D . A T 2 7 1 1 8 F R A S E R H I G H W A Y, A L D E R G R O V E , B C V 4 W 3 P 6
ALDERGROVE
STAR
IRICE: Ingrid Rice’s View
LETTERS
Westies thank Pedre Co.
Founded in 1957
Owned by Black Press B.C.
Editor: The Royal Westminster Regiment would like to extend its extreme gratitude to Pedre Contractors out of Aldergrove and to its employees for the donation of time, experience and materials towards the installation of a World War 2 relic at the Queens Armory in New Westminster. Foreman Robert Bertolini, together with Ian Lalley, Jordan Noble and Mitch Bartel, stepped up on their own accord during a work week in mid-May to offer thousands of dollars of expertise, equipment and materials so that the Royal Westminster Regiment could install a World War 2 troop carrier in time for the Melfa anniversary; an anniversary in which the regiment hosts and celebrates the accomplishments and veterans of the Regiment in World War 2. Without their generous aid there is no doubt the project would not have been completed in time. From Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Vernon and all the rest of the Westies we extend our extreme gratitude to these fine men and Pedre Contractors. PAO, Devin Klassen, The Royal Westminster Regiment
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Bumpy road ahead here Dwayne Weidendorf
B.C.’s Kurt Langmann Editor
Janice Reid
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views Tom Fletcher
VICTORIA – “Liberal” is becoming one of the most ill-defined words in Canadian politics. Here in B.C., a Liberal is a Conservative, or at least a fiscal conservative, bent on balancing budgets and battling big unions to force them to recognize today’s world of low growth and low inflation. In Ottawa, a Liberal is currently whatever Justin Trudeau wakes up and decides. One day he’s a libertarian who wants to legalize marijuana, and the next he’s in touch with his inner Taliban, issuing a moral edict on abortion. In Ontario, Premier Kathleen Wynne saved her gut-shot Liberal government by limping to the left of the NDP, promising to spend lots more borrowed money and build lots of transit. This is in a have-not province with an operating deficit that is currently running north of $12 billion. For comparison purposes, B.C.’s deficit swelled briefly beyond $3 billion in the wake of the Great Recession of 2009, and the books stayed in the red until last year as the B.C. Liberals unwound the Harmonized Sales Tax and repaid a $1.6 billion HST transfer allowance to Ottawa. You think B.C.’s energy policy is a disaster? Check out Ontario, where the cops are still investigating the $1
Ontario election lessons for B.C.
billion cancellation of plans to construct two natural gasfired power plants before the 2011 election. The gas plants were to stabilize erratic output from wind and solar power, a European-style climate change gesture that involved Ontario ratepayers giving a huge subsidy to Korean tech giant Samsung. The Ontario Liberals clung to power in part by promising a provincial pension scheme on the same scale as the Canada Pension Plan. B.C. has a similar pension program in the works, to be offered to the two thirds of small business and selfemployed people who don’t have a group plan with their employer. Ours would, of course, be voluntary. Not so in Ontario, where large and small businesses will be required to cough up half of the required pension payments. The Ontario model is dumb on several levels. It is to be imposed just as the baby boom retirement wave breaks across Canada’s most populous province, increasing risk that the pension pool may run dry. And it sticks small business with a new payroll tax in a province that has lost much of its traditional manufacturing base and needs to innovate. Here’s the funny part, if you don’t live in Ontario. Wynne tabled her spending-
spree, deficit-be-damned budget in an effort to convince the NDP to keep propping up the Liberal minority government and avoid an election. Instead, she won a majority and now has to implement her pie-in-the-sky promises. Ontario is bracing for a downgrade in its credit rating based on the election result, and is about to go into provincewide bargaining with public service unions who want their share from the Liberal money tree. Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak ran on a plan that sounded similar to the one presented by Christy Clark in 2013: hold the line on spending, balance the budget, reduce the size of government, stimulate job creation. Hudak was rejected for a second time, and resigned the leadership on election night. B.C. voters now have three years to see how the Ontario version of Liberal government plays out, compared to the B.C. Liberal version. For us, much depends on resource development, including forest products, natural gas and other trade with Asia. If all goes well here, B.C. can continue to send transfer payments to the fantasyland of Ontario. Tom Fletcher is legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Twitter: @tomfletcherbc Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca
Editor: The roads in Aldergrove are about to get bumpier. The mayor and Council have decided to spend our tax dollars on speed bumps on 29th Avenue, despite the fact they have no mandate to install speed bumps and no support from the public to do this. These speed bumps will push more traffic onto the side streets as people try to avoid the congestion created by these “traffic calming measures.” Most of the residential roads have no sidewalks, thus risking the pedestrians on those streets. It is not to late to to prevent 29th Avenue from becoming a bumpy drive like 32nd and 28th Avenues; call or write the Mayor and Council and let them know that you don’t want speed bumps as part of their “traffic calming measures.’ We can also remind them that in November we as residents of Aldergrove will be taking some “Council calming measures,” at the ballot box. Jim Kirk, Aldergrove
Two sides to school strike Editor: I hear a lot of teacher bashing around my workplace and at sports fields at night. I was not aware that there are so many experts on the teaching profession, education system, and the collective bargaining process. These experts typically opine that teaching kids is easy, and on top of it the job comes with two months off in the summer. It is funny how these experts are often the ones that rail against the concept of year round schooling whenever it comes up because it would cut into their summer vacations. It is difficult to get unbiased information regarding this perpetual conflict in B.C. For the most part, the media lacks the intellectual rigour to cover the matter beyond the usual storyline of parents scrambling to find child care while teachers are out. The government lacks any credibility as it relishes and encourages conflict with the BCTF because it scores big political points and the endgame is solely about acquiring and retaining power. This is an especially slick and crass government that purports to care about education and fiscal prudence. One cannot look to the BCTF for an unbiased perspective either. It is tightly controlled by a fringe of radicals that do not properly represent or reflect the interests of its membership. The union is more concerned with fighting various left wing causes around the world and with pushing back against the government with its own ideological fervor than it is in representing B.C. teachers. This is a union that continues to heap praise on Cuba because of its health and education systems, but it utterly ignores the fact that it is a communist dictatorship that represses its citizenry and denies it the most basic and fundamental human rights. To really comprehend what is going on inside of B.C. schools parents should talk with their kid’s teacher or friends or family that may be in this profession. This dialogue should occur at another time than the annual parent teacher meeting or when lobbying for an additional two percent on their kid?s science project or exam. Teachers do have the best interests of students at heart, and in mind. Teachers play a role as important as any in society, and they deserve to be fairly treated. I am not a teacher, but I support them. Tim Opper, Langley