OSOYOOS TIMES-September 2, 2009
The saying “Give us bread, not circuses” may come off as a cliché.
But right now it’s hard to think of a better or more resounding message to send to the provincial government.
Grants and funding urgently needed by important provincial organizations and services are being clawed back by the government as it responds to the current recession.
These organizations and services, unless the lack of cash coming their way kills them off, will be here long after February, 2010.
It’s difficult to swallow the news that the Osoyoos Desert Centre, a facility so vital to the ecological, educational and cultural fabric of Osoyoos and the South Okanagan, won’t receive much-needed provincial cash for its 2010 season.
That news came on the same day the government announced that Osoyoos would be receiving $22,000 for a party.
An event that will last for one day.
Days after a throne speech where the government said it would be reviewing health authorities, boards of education and Crown corporations, the province boasts about how it is handing out nearly $3 million in grants for Olympics-related celebrations.
The decision to hold the Olympics here was made long before these economic troubles and it’s pointless to suggest the games shouldn’t go on.
But to be told we all need to tighten our belts while cash is flowing for an event that will be two weeks long is a shot in the gut.
It should be the games that experience funding claw-backs, not the organizations and services that will still be here after the Olympic flame has been extinguished in British Columbia.
