SOAP looking for ‘Fiddler’ help
The South Okanagan Amateur Players are looking for a volunteer musical director and a volunteer choreographer to assist in the production of the musical, “Fiddler on the Roof” for production in November 2014.
Auditions for cast would be held in late spring, with rehearsals beginning in early summer.
Anyone interested in taking on this exciting challenge can send an email to [email protected] or check out our new webpage at www.soplayers.ca.
Patrick Turner, president, SOAP
Pensioner parents hard hit
(The following letter is addressed to the BC Utilities Commission.)
I just received my latest power bill from Fortis. My previous bill was $331.64. My new bill is $842.78. I have done nothing to change my power consumption habits.
My furnace is electrical which means it was probably working a bit harder, but I have never had a bill that expensive in previous years. How is it possible it more than doubled the power consumption as this winter wasn’t especially cold? I work retail and it’s not even full time. It’s nearly a month’s wages to pay that bill. I live near my elderly parents to help them out and own my house.
My parents’ power bill doubled as well. They can hardly afford theirs too as they are pensioners. We can’t afford to replace the electric heating in our homes. This new two-tier system is penalizing low income people instead of helping, and the rate hikes are obscene.
Jason Demetrick, Oliver
Ecologist agrees with Evans
I agree with Mr. Evans’ comment (History shapes this fair land) that fire has indeed shaped our grasslands and dry forests.
We have long-term data from the Okanagan-Similkameen showing that historically, fires occurred roughly every five to 35 years.
We also know that when all fires are suppressed, as they have been for many years now, forest fuels can build up to the point that they produce dangerous, uncontrollable wildfires, such as the Kelowna wildfire of 2003.
As an ecologist, I have come to recognize Parks Canada as a nationwide leader in fire management. In their Rocky Mountain parks they have implemented many carefully planned and successful controlled burns, and they have also stepped in to actively suppress lightning-caused wildfires that threatened public safety or property. Parks Canada’s work also involves mechanical thinning of understory trees as a single treatment, other times in combination with controlled burns.
I also agree that cattle play a role in keeping low elevation grasslands healthy, but fire can actually play a much more important role by keeping the forest/grassland interface open, enhancing the bunchgrasses and preventing tree crowding.
Don Gayton, Summerland
Pension crisis is looming
Canadians are facing a full blown pensions crisis.
Less than 40 per cent of all employees are covered by a workplace pension plan and millions of Canadians simply can’t save enough on their own to retire.
Fortunately, there is a solution at hand in the form of an improved Canada Pension Plan. The labour movement has been pushing since 2009 for a modest, phased-in proposal that would double future benefits under the CPP on a fully-funded basis.
The basic pension floor of today’s young workers would rise from the current level of $12,150 a year to a far more liveable $24,400. The labour movement isn’t doing this for its members; we’re advocating for these improvements for everyone because it is the right thing to do.
Finance ministers have been talking since 2010 about improving the CPP, but every time they get close to an agreement, the federal government throws sand in the gears.
The provinces must insist Ottawa immediately table legislation enabling CPP improvements. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives must listen to the people for a change – 75 per cent of Canadians support expanding the CPP.
The need is urgent, the time for talk has passed and the time for action has arrived.
Brent Voss, president, Okanagan Boundary Labour Council
