Editor:
I can’t believe what I just read.
The Osoyoos town council plans to hire Ipsos Reid to conduct a phone survey of 300 residents to survey the public on various topics and, for this, they are willing to pay $7,400 plus GST?
Could they not have printed a questionnaire, included it in the Osoyoos Times or our property tax envelope and offered an incentive for submitting it to the town?
Even if they offered a $1,000 prize they would have been way ahead of the game.
Marilyn Young,
Osoyoos

OSOYOOS TIMES-May 5, 2010

SENSE OF HOPE FOR STRAWBERRY CREEK

Editor:
I just want to say how gratifying it was to work alongside so many people to “free the earth” from all the garbage and piles of illegally dumped items at Strawberry Creek on Earth Day.
The response from everyone when asked to help was immediate and dynamic, right from the high school youth and staff  to the employees at the town office, D.O., RDOS and province, private businesses and  the folks who just turned up with their trucks, tools and determination.
It’s because of this great response that I think there is a true chance of us continuing to work together to find a longer -term solution to what has become a chronic problem in our community.
I would love to ask that anyone with ideas in regards to what ‘WE’ as a community can do to provide affordable, basic camping facilities for transients during the summer months or what you see as being solutions to the prolific illegal dumping in our community  to forward them to my email address [email protected].
It is my hope to gather together local wisdom from  across the spectrum, all nationalities, youth to seniors in order to try and move from a ‘Blame’ place towards  a solution focused model, which could easily build and enhance our community, improving our relationship with nature and with each other.
Please send any solution-focused ideas to [email protected].
Isla Petreny-Mackenzie,
Garbage Guzzler,
Osoyoos

OSOYOOS TIMES-May 5, 2010

HST GOES AGAINST DEMOCRACY

Editor:
Well, we can already see the commencement of the HST.
It has already been levied on some purchases and the government is going ahead with its plans to implement it regardless of the feelings and wishes of the electorate.
It is about time that all politicians in this country, both provincial and federal alike, looked up the definition of the word “democracy” and decided to govern this country according to that principle.
I realize that taxes are an unavoidable consequence of the society that we live in in this country, but I also believe that the electorate, the average citizen and voter should have a say in how much taxes are levied on them and how they are spent.
I do not believe that is the case now.
There seems to be no accountability in government as far as expenditures go. Millions and millions of our tax dollars are being squandered and wasted and even misappropriated by the federal and provincial governments today, yet even if any criminal activity is uncovered, we hear little if anything is ever done about it.
As far as Mr. Vander Zalm’s fight against the HST goes, I doubt that he will have any difficulty at all in raising the needed signatures in his battle against this unfair and arbitrary tax.
Whether this government will do anything as far as repealing it remains to be seen.
Just another massive tax grab by a government that doesn’t know the meaning of the words “democracy” or “truthfulness.”
Are there any politicians out there who do know the meaning of those words, and better yet, live by those principles?
Robert J. Dunn,
Osoyoos

OSOYOOS TIMES-May 5, 2010