Yes, attendance at a public meeting to discuss the future of District 69 schools was dismal.
It was not because of the lack attendees, but because it shows that the public knows with certainty that the B.C. Liberal government will not listen to or respond to the voters.
If 300 or 3,000 concerned citizens had shown up offering solutions and demanding that their government resolve the financial crisis that the government was a principal in creating, MLA Michelle Stilwell would have parroted the party line and said no help from government. As all politicians demonstrate, they are not in place to represent the voters who give them office, but the party machine that looks after a narrow minority of friends.
Instead of spending a few million on speed radar for highways to maximize road safety, the Liberal government spends billions on highway improvements to promote the needs of developers. Death and destruction never decreases but taxes that should pay for the needs of our children end up in the pockets of the friends who supply the infrastructure and services.
The greatest resource possessed by B.C. is the children and youth who will be tomorrow’s problem solvers. Rather than cutting funding to children, this may be the time when all governments use the denial of free ferry passes to seniors as a pivotal point from which the question of giving freebies to seniors without a means test that justifies financial need comes to an end. Children and youth must come before seniors and if one side must lose financial support of services it should never be the next generation.
This will not happen because the old vote. I am old and I am a pensioner. Gladly will I see my services diminish if the savings go to the next generation’s needs.
William Charles Waterhouse
Qualicum Beach