I write this in response to previous comments on Councillor Candace Batycki’s ambition to supersede provincial authority by rewarding what she describes as sustainable wood producers, for those that even bothered to read the original article in the Nelson Star, and especially for those that can see the imminent fiscal train wreck within our community.
Nelson has become a community primarily made up of political dilatants, claiming to want more public participation in the decision making process at City Hall while at the same time not bothering to examine the full magnitude of what our elected leaders are promulgating. Add to this the shrugged shoulders with empty palms lifting skyward in a “je ne sais pas” expression as the standard response to any queries regarding the goings on within the walls of our government buildings and it is easy to see how such blind ideologies motivate the single minded candidates to seek power. Who really cares anyway? Right!
How sustainable is Nelson as a community? There is a great number of verbiage commonly used to describe Nelson to outsiders attempting to grasp the life and flavour of this city, but sustainable is surely by far the furthest from the truth. Nelson’s existence is anything but sustainable; in fact the ever growing debt, and upward spiraling tax burden feeding an over stuffed budget is dragging this city toward a fiscal brick wall that will require decisions to be made, not out of providing the best services to its citizenry, but rather attempting to keep the basic minimal services in place while struggling with suffocating debts.
Councillor Batycki obviously likes the powerful political correctness in the word sustainable. It appears she wants to use her seat in City Hall purely as a platform to inject the city taxpayers into mucking about in sustainable resource policies which are strictly in the realm of provincial authority, and she seems to have the other councillors blessings. In fact, while many Nelson businesses struggle with the harsh reality of soaring costs and declining profits, our civic leaders muse on the proposals like this, much the same as Nero fiddling while Roam burned. It is hard to imagine that these people care about the impacts on sustainability created by the financial stress being placed on people with marginal incomes trying to keep abreast of rising city taxes, rocketing food costs, and dwindling employment opportunities.
How can Nelson’s civic leaders talk about sustainable living while their actions serve to drain the lifeblood of the very people they are supposed to serve? What kind of sustainable government shows such little compassion and so much contempt for its citizens, the working poor, and the disadvantaged while they pursue ideological political goals.
It’s time to wake up. How much longer can this travesty of democracy we use to choose municipal governments continue before the voters and the bystanders realize the system has serious flaws and needs our direct supervision. Until we do there will be very little sustainable about this community.
Dave Cherry
Nelson