Category Archives: Opinion

Red Tape Turning Away BC Docs

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Rachel MacDonald (left) at the UVic Human Anatomy lab

By: Drew Thompson

Around the world, more than 500 talented young British Columbians, including Rachel MacDonald of Nelson, are studying at fully accredited medical schools in places such as Britain, Ireland and Australia. But unless bureaucratic hurdles are removed, they will not have the chance to come home and become part of British Columbia’s health care system.

Each year, 80 to 100 young British Columbians graduate from excellent medical schools outside North America, with dreams of returning home to BC to become doctors and serve their communities. Unfortunately, in the past five years, very few of them have returned to train here due to Provincial government policies that discriminate against them.

And despite having a health care system that faces a critical shortage of doctors, long surgery wait times, emergency room closures and compromised patient care, the government is standing by those policies and choosing instead to not accept these trained BC doctors who have saved the government of BC millions of dollars by paying for their own education. They should be welcomed with open arms.

Each year, many students apply to enter the University of British Columbia’s medical school, the school which trains doctors on behalf of the Province of BC. With just under 300 spots available, many BC students choose to attend medical school abroad, in countries like Britain, Ireland and Australia.

Once they graduate, to become doctors, medical school graduates must complete two to six years of post-graduate training in teaching facilities across the province, also administered by UBC. The Ministry of Health reserves nearly 300 of these apprentice positions, known as residencies, for Canadians and Americans who graduated from North American medical schools.

Students from BC who graduated from foreign medical schools can only compete for a residency here by first winning a spot in UBC’s International Medical Graduates program, a program tailored mainly for immigrants. And once successfully completed, this route provides access to only 26 spots. In addition, exams to qualify for these positions are only offered long after the regular residency positions have been given out.

While this program is an important one for immigrant doctors coming to BC, it fails BC graduates from foreign schools and forces them to choose between waiting an extra year, in hopes of maybe landing a restricted residency here, or working immediately in another jurisdiction. The reality is, we know of no British Columbian graduates from abroad who have been accepted and graduated from this program.

Despite annual throne speech promises to address the problem, nothing has been done. Instead, the Province is continuing to actively recruit foreign-born doctors who graduated from the very same schools our students from BC attended, as well as doctors from countries that face their own physician shortages.

According to Dr. Drew Thompson, a cardiac surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital and President of the Society for Canadian Students Studying Medicine Abroad, the simple and virtually cost-free solution is to offer qualifying exams more often or earlier, increase residency positions, or let British Columbians who studied abroad compete for UBC training residencies at the same time as graduates from North American schools.

“These young British Columbians want to come home and practice medicine in BC,” says Thompson. “All they’re asking for is to compete on a level playing field for residency positions. With hundreds of BC physicians set to retire in the next few years, the discriminatory policies that treat BC graduates from foreign medical schools as second class citizens must stop now.”

The good news is that, while their home province is turning them away, other provinces, US states and countries around the world are eagerly recruiting them.

At the latest Union of BC Municipalities convention, mayors from across BC said they were prepared to commit financial support to help fund the cost of residencies so British Columbians could come back home to train and work in their communities.

When British Columbians consider the state of their financially unsustainable health care system, Dr. Thompson says the question they should ask their MLAs, the Minister of Health, the Premier and the University of British Columbia, is not “Why don’t we have enough doctors?” but “Why won’t you let our children come home to become doctors in the communities that need them?”

The Society for Canadians Studying Medicine Abroad (SOCSMA) is a group of parents, families and supporters of BC students studying medicine abroad.

Drew Thompson is the President of The Society for Canadians Studying Medicine Abroad (SOCSMA)

Opinion: Why I’ve left journalism

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I think journalism is in trouble. So much trouble that I’m leaving, rather than go down with what I see as a sinking ship. There is a way for the community to have a vibrant media however, and I’ll tell you what I see as the solution.

I hope that doesn’t come across as bitter, but the fact is I’ve stopped being a journalist because there’s no money in it.

Frankly, working as a reporter outside of a major urban centre is no way to make a living. You can’t raise a family on a reporter’s salary. Speaking from personal experience, I left the Express newspaper when it became clear I had reached the financial ceiling. If I wanted to grow, it would have to be elsewhere. I had hoped Inthekoots was the answer but – for the moment – it isn’t.

This problem extends to the major chains as well, I believe. I worked for a Black Press newspaper in the Central Interior. (Black Press is the same chain that runs most newspapers in the Kootenays, including the Nelson Star.) The only way I could get a raise was to move to a larger centre. The small town I started in (Fort St. James) could only support a certain salary so I moved to Prince George for more pay. I worked in that community for a little over a year, a record for that town. I remember arriving there and people asking how long I’ll stay.

I see something similar here in Nelson. Since the Nelson Star started in 2008 (shifting from the old Kootenay Western Star) they’ve gone through several reporters. Youthful enthusiasm is important in journalism, but I think the community loses out when reporters leave after a year or two.

Why settled journalists matter

Let me give an example that I think highlights the importance of having journalists with some roots in the community.

When the Occupy Nelson camp was coming down I attended with my camera. There were city workers and police all around as they dealt with the occupiers and their camp. I walked past one young man carrying a camera but didn’t give him a second glance. My focus was on the scene unfolding in front of me.

As I got closer, one of the police officers, a woman I’ve talked with many times over my five years here, approached me, asking me to step back. I respectfully declined and kept filming. She was concerned with ensuring the situation didn’t escalate and I was concerned with recording events, doing the essentials of journalism: recording what happens for those who can’t be there.

The police officer went to Police Chief Wayne Holland, who was also on scene, and I saw them discuss whether I should be moved back.

The decision was I was OK where I was and you can read the results of my story here and watch the video here. They knew who I was, knew my character and felt I wouldn’t be a hazard in that volatile, emotionally charged situation.

It was only after the camp came down that I realized the young man I passed earlier was a new reporter for the Nelson Star. He had undoubtedly been asked to stand back and had complied. The police didn’t know him and he didn’t know them, so that was probably a wise choice.

After the camp was trucked away the police officer came up to me and we laughed about our exchange earlier. We both agreed the situation was awkward but we both understood where the other was coming from. It was clear there was no disrespect intended from either the police officer or myself.

That relationship is one that can only grow from being in a community over a longer period. By the time these new reporters have cultivated those relationships, they’re looking to move on to a new job and a higher salary.

I had hoped I could provide that kind of service to Nelson, but it’s become obvious the salary isn’t to be found online, at least not yet. So it’s time for me to move on. I’ll stay involved with Inthekoots to a limited degree, but mostly as a voluntary effort.

It’s disappointing. I gave it all I had and I think I accomplished a fair bit. Here’s a list of some of the stories I broke before any other news outlet:

I also introduced a new way of covering council, reporting live on their meetings, bringing a new insight to the way decisions are made in city hall. I attended every council meeting when they created the 2011 budget.

So what’s the solution?

I still believe in the vision and potential of Inthekoots to bring the community together.

What’s needed is greater involvement from the community members. Instead of waiting for a journalist to tell your story, tell it yourself. Inthekoots makes it possible for everyone to become their own reporter. Once you learn the basics of using the system, you’ll know how to broadcast your message to the Kootenay community and the world beyond.

The model is changing. Businesses are starting to learn they need to engage their audience beyond old fashioned ads in a newspaper. They have to tell their story and they have to engage with their customers in meaningful ways, something that’s only possible online. As their focus shifts to the electronic world, I believe the advertising revenue is going to dry up as well. Without the money, the budget for journalism will shrink even further and our community will be served less by our newspapers.

The answer is to use the internet, use Inthekoots, to tell your own stories.

Chris Shepherd

Chris Shepherd is still the managing editor for the Inthekoots Network.

Some thoughts on herons and osprey

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As Nelson’s Cultural Development Commission waits to see the public response to three options they’ve selected for the Heron’s Landing sculpture, there’s been some debate about the appropriateness of the sculpture (read about that here).

Claus Schunke commented:

All 3 locations are very close to a bird sculpture on a post we already have in the first bay closest to the mall – Denis Kleine’s realistic osprey in a nest on top of a wooden post: this in the osprey’s natural environment.
While the osprey is iconic here – the heron is not!

Photo of a heron

Photo courtesy of Alistair Fraser.

This prompted a response from local wildlife photographer and blogger Alistair Fraser, who looked into the issue of just what makes a bird iconic for the region.

My suspicion is that the osprey became a regional icon largely as a consequence of our summertime enjoyment of beaches and boating when it is the more visible of the two birds. For the rest of the year when the heron frequents the lakeshore, people do not.

Source: Exploring Kootenay Lake

Read more of Fraser’s thoughts and see some beautiful photos he’s taken of the birds at his blog, Exploring Kootenay Lake.

Finally, there are 12 more days to vote online for your favourite location for the Heron’s Landing sculpture.

OPINION: Don’t ignore surgery at our hospital

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Amid the string of good press and announcements, the issue of surgery in Kootenay Lake Hospital has been ignored, says one Inthekoots blogger.

Photo source: Jonathan Michael Peel, Flickr, Creative Commons.

Glyn Humphries, who regularly follows health issues in the area, writes that coverage in CBC’s show White Coat, Black Art can give people a good feeling about the community’s health care, but it ignores the lack of surgery services at Kootenay Lake Hospital.

Conveniently, each Good News Bears’ focus ignores One Elephant: residential and emergency surgery. Recognized universally as best practice in medicine, surgeons both lead and assist medical teams- being a vital component in emergency care for a community of Nelson’s size.

We have a double standard of care. On the one hand, when applied to diagnostics, maternal or eye care, access is considered important. On the other hand, the essential service of general and emergency surgery, the immediacy for these services is omitted.

Truly, these bears are whistling past the graveyard.

Source: Glyn’s take

Read more of this opinion piece at Glyn’s take. To listen to the White Coat, Black Art show or read it, visit the program’s website.

A fine line: Finding community and humanity in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side

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The first trip to the corner of Main and Hastings, the heart of the Downtown East Side. colinpaynephoto.com

Born in a Mennonite community at some undetermined point in the first half of the 20th Century, Ernie’s family was ostracized in the community because his mother was Jewish. He worked most of his life as a logger and also did a lengthy stint at sea, traveling the globe as a crew member on a ship. Ernie tells me of his time in Australia, romances he has had and the tough, dangerous life of a logger on the British Columbia Coast. Clearly he has led an interesting life.

Now, reeking of alcohol and dressed from head to toe in shabby clothes, he is clearly incredulous to still be alive while so many people he grew up with – people he remembers as prominent members of his community – are dead. Why are they all dead and I’m still here, he asks repeatedly? Why did God pick me?

Ernie is now a resident of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, known widely as Canada’s poorest neighbourhood. He’s taking advantage of the free food and coffee the students from Mount Sentinel Secondary School’s Quest For Community students are serving up in Oppenheimer Park – a gathering place and cultural centre for many residents of the Downtown Eastside (DTES). My wife Ruby is one of the teachers who runs the program, so I decided to take the opportunity to join the group as a chaperone. This presented a great opportunity to document the trip in photos, but also to go to the DTES and experience the lives people living there are leading, the hardships they endure and the strong community they have formed.

Group shot after playing soccer with the Homeless Soccer League at Oppenheimer Park. colinpaynephoto.com

Amongst many other activities, we played games and chatted with people at The Living Room, a drop-in centre for people with mental illnesses – most of whom also deal with addictions and poverty, served the aforementioned soup and hung out at Oppenheimer Park, took the Carnegie Community Centre’s gentrification tour of the DTES and visited the Vancouver Community Court – the first of its kind in Canada.

While seeing all the organizations at work to help DTES residents was great, the most powerful aspect of this trip for me on a personal level was meeting the people and hearing their stories, most of which were at the very least interesting and more often than not heart breaking and tragic. Drug addiction, homelessness and poverty invariably puts up barriers for anyone not used to these issues, but getting to know people dealing with them is a great way to break through those barriers; to develop compassion and see that we are indeed all just people on the bus. The line between the lives we, the ‘middle class’ live and the lives of the people living on the DTES is pretty fine. Much like Ernie , it makes me question why I have been given this relatively privileged life in such a beautiful place and wonder exactly how fragile it is.

 

Wendy Pederson of the Carnegie Centre talks to the group about the gradual gentrification of the Downtown Eastside. As land for development becomes more scarce in the rest of the downtown, developers are moving into the Eastside and displacing the low-income and homeless people who reside there. www.colinpaynephoto.com

Powerful experience for youth

But what I experienced on this trip is less important that what the students came home with.  I know from being there that it was a powerful experience for many, if not all of the students on the trip. My photos from the trip focus on the students (see gallery below for more photos) and their interactions with people they met and below I have included a series of journal quotes and reflections from the students that illustrate their feelings in words of their own.

“Scenes of violence and sexuality flash before your eyes in a continuous stream akin to a strobe light, skin swathed in satin and lace, gore carved into the very same canvas, and a waist so emaciated her ribs are bared as blatantly as the bars or the cage she sits in, confined and contorted.”

Allysa Weber

“After seeing how messed up these people’s situations were and how they made the best of it, it made me think about how selfish I was. I still find myself lying awake at night questioning my problems.”

Alex DeSousa

“Seeing the woman injecting herself and the woman talking to the birds and trees made me want to help more than I ever thought possible.”

 Carmen Berger

“It is amazing how easily it is to be affected by these illnesses, even if it is through someone else.”

 Kiya Gill

“I felt sad looking upon a note taped to an abandoned storefront. It said, ‘Could ­­­____________ please call this number. Love Mum and Dad. I had met the man the note spoke of and knew well enough that he would never call the number.”

Rosa McGreel

“Never judge a book by its cover.”

 Kylie Thielker

“’I’m scared too, but we’ll mak(e) it.’ ‘All that was, will always have been, somehow never again.’”

 Veronika Zwick (Quotes she came across while in Vancouver)

“You could die any day, so live out loud.”

 Jasmine Burrows

“Even though most people probably wouldn’t describe his appearance as ‘welcoming,’ he greeted me with a wide, toothless grin that eased the butterflies in my stomach.”

Savannah Nielsen

“It got really intense and people started to cry. And it wasn’t really resolved.”

Eddie Podovelnikoff

A new way to track council’s actions

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Nelson's city hall. Photo by Chris Shepherd.

How did this year’s councillors vote on the issue of public transit? Who voted in favour of development going ahead? Who voted against it?

Right now, we can’t answer those questions. Minutes from council meetings will show whether a motion passed or failed and will also reflect if a councillor voted against a motion if they request it, but there’s no comprehensive list of a councillor’s voting record.

That’s about to change. Starting this year, after the municipal election, the Nelson Post will track how each councillor votes on a list of matters, capturing whether they support or oppose a particular issue.

The final look hasn’t been determined yet, but what you will see is the member of council, the issue, and how often they’ve voted for it or against it.

I wish I could take credit for this great idea, but it came from Nelson Post reader Jerry Arsenault, who sent me an email a few weeks back, asking about my attendance to council meetings.

Arsenault wanted to know because he wants to build a tool that would show how councillors vote on matters in a straight-forward, easy-to-understand way. As a website designer, he’s got the know-how to create the tool. As a journalist, I’ve the iron constitution to sit through council meetings.

I’m excited about this new feature for the Nelson Post. When Arsenault and I sat down to talk about this idea, tentatively called the Council Scorecard, we agreed there’s a need to keep track of how councillors vote on issues and make it easy for people to see the results.

We want the Council Scorecard to be as free from bias as possible. The intent behind it is to simply collect a council member’s votes on a matter into one, easy to read graphic that will shift as the votes are recorded at the council meetings.

What appeals to me about the scorecard is it will also strip away all the rhetoric and speeches a member of council may make on a matter. What counts is action. What counts is how they voted.

Initially, I had some concerns about removing the context of the speeches, but you can still see what a councillor says on a particular matter in the live blog of the council meetings or a traditional newspaper report. What both those forms suffer from is the fact actions, especially those by individual councillors, can be hidden amongst all the words.

Our intent isn’t to be for or against any particular agenda. We just want to present the voting record in a straight forward manner.

During this fall’s municipal election I’ll collect a definitive statement from each candidate about their stance on the selected issues. We’ll be able to compare that statement with their voting record over their term in office

Where the Council Scorecard will truly become powerful is when it comes to the next election. After three years of recording how a member of council decides on the issues, Nelson’s voters can compare what the politician said they’d do with what they actually did. Then voters can make informed decisions should those councillors decide to run again.

Help me do my job

Arsenault is in the process of building the scorecard and I’m tasked with coming up with the final list of issues to track. We brainstormed some ideas (see below), but I’m going to take the easy way out and ask for you to help do my job.

What issues do you want to see covered in the scorecard?

Please comment below, on our Facebook page, or by emailing news@inthekoots.net.

Depending on the response, I may present a list of options and ask you to vote on what you want to see tracked. This is a great opportunity to help craft how Nelson’s council will be monitored in their next term of office. Don’t miss out.

Possible issues to track

Keep in mind the below list is rough and some may not make sense. I suspect I’ll end up presenting candidates with a question on an issue that can only be answered yes or no, to make recording simple. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on that.

• Approve affordable housing
• Reduce carbon emissions
• Support food sustainability/productivity (chickens, bees, etc)
• Build more roads
• Discourage vehicle use (fewer parking spaces, increased parking meter rates)
• Lower taxes
• Increase public transit availability
• Increase water utility costs
• Increase water sewer
• Increase Nelson Hydro rates
• Increase funding to the Nelson Police Department
• Support the arts
• Support sports
• Support development
• Increase library funding
• Greater cooperation with the RDCK

Chris Shepherd

Chris Shepherd is editor of the Nelson Post and managing editor of the Inthekoots Network.

Does banning chickens make sense?

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Dear editor,

Nr 1: The domestic dog: a wolf descendant whose bite is responsible for about 1000 hospitalizations per day (mostly facial injuries of kids), and 34 deaths in 2010 in the USA alone. Known for producing loud noise at all hours of the day, often roaming freely and leaving unsightly and smelly poop everywhere. Perfectly legal in Nelson.

Nr 2: the domestic cat: killer of between 100 million and half a billion birds per year and a known carrier of toxoplasmosis, which poses a serious risk to pregnant women and their babies. Generally roam freely, have a tendency to engage in loud nocturnal fights and poop everywhere. Perfectly legal in Nelson.

Photo source: Jim Mead, Flickr, Creative Commons.

Nr 3: The domestic chicken: Lives in a confined space, produces minor sound and smell and up to 300 healthy eggs per year. Eats insects, slugs, weeds and kitchen scraps. Poops only at home and its scat is appreciated by gardeners as high quality fertilizer. Illegal in Nelson.

Nelson-Creston Greens are not at all opposed to allowing dogs and cats in Nelson. On the contrary, pets can greatly enrich people’s lives and the vast majority never bite anybody and never poop on sports fields, playgrounds and other people’s lawns. However, the urban chicken issue will return to Nelson City Council this fall, and we believe it would only be fair to set the bar for safety and annoyance at the same height for all animals and their owners. We also hope that councillors in making their decision will not only consider the risks, but also the social, educational and food security benefits of allowing backyard chickens in Nelson.

Sjeng Derkx,

for the Nelson-Creston Green Party

The last calendar you’ll ever need to update

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I’m happy to announce we’ve got a slick new calendar system on the Nelson Post and Inthekoots, a calendar system that is going to save you time, no joke.

The All-in-One Calendar system was built specifically for Inthekoots by our parent company, The Seed Studio, to serve the Kootenays and make it even easier to share events and find out what’s happening in your community.

Here’s what it’s going to do for you:

  • Handle recurring events
  • Filter events by type of event
  • Share easily with other popular calendar systems.

That last item, easy sharing, is the strength of our new calendar system. You don’t have to post one event in multiple calendars any more. Say you have an arts event that people in Nelson and the Slocan Valley might want to know about. Under the old system, you would have had to go to Arts in the Kootenays, the Nelson Post and the Slocan Valley Current and entered your event’s information yourself.

Now you can post your event to just one, say Arts in the Kootenays, and that event will go on that site’s calendar as well as the Post’s and the Current’s. You don’t have to do anything extra.

To make things easier, if you already use a system like Google Calendar, you can send a link to that to an Inthekoots editor and they can subscribe to your Google Calendar and your events will automatically appear on Inthekoots. You won’t have to manage two calendar systems. Update the events in your Google Calendar and the changes will update on Inthekoots without any effort from you.

When I explained this to one of our future users her reaction was: “This is going to save us so much time.” That’s why we created this calendar, to save you time and make it easier for everyone to find out just what’s going on today.

To use the calendar system you need:

  1. An Inthekoots user account and;
  2. Permission to add events.

Both these features are necessary to keep spammers from flooding the calendar with a bunch of garbage and keep a valuable resource for you. To get permission to add events please first create your Inthekoots user account and then email myself at chris@inthekoots.net and ask to be allowed to add events.

I’ve put together some videos to introduce you to the system. The one below gives you a tour of the new system, the other walks you through posting to the calendar. You can see both videos on the Inthekoots Calendar resource page but I’ve included the introduction below for your viewing pleasure.

Chris Shepherd

Chris Shepherd is the managing editor of the Inthekoots Network. He can be reached at chris@inthekoots.net.

 

Was it a conflict of interest? Is it a big deal?

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Earlier this month council skirted around the issue of whether one of their own was in a conflict of interests regarding a matter before them. They didn’t directly address the question and while there was no money involved in their decision, the potential problem is how council and staff handled the question of a conflict of interest.

The matter revolved around a non-profit’s request to have the city waive building permit fees on a low-income housing project the want to expand. During deliberations on the request, it came out Councillor Bob Adams is on the Nelson and District Housing Society’s board.

I’ve been hesitant to write about this, putting it off as one urgent task or another cropped up, happy for the excuse to not address a tricky situation.

I think part of the reason is the waters are murky. What better way to get in over your head than by jumping where you can’t see the bottom?

Under some circumstances this could be considered a conflict of interest, something the province’s Community Charter has clear guidelines about. Specifically, those guidelines say the councillor should excuse themselves from the meeting until the matter is resolved

What muddies the waters is the Community Charter leaves room for interpretation around issues of bias and the fact Adams was fighting for a worthwhile cause: affordable housing.

I live blogged the meeting and you can read the whole thing here but I’ll paste the relevant excerpt below.

As background, councillors were debating whether to waive building permit fees for an affordable housing project the non-profit organization Nelson and District Housing Society wants to move forward on. In a letter to the city, the society’s president, David Horner, wrote the city’s fees “are excessive and present a significant barrier to affordable housing providers.”

Councillors took turns addressing the issue and then Adams took the floor, asking Dave Wahn, city planner some questions:

Adams asks if a single-family house decides to put in a unit, do they have to pay these fees? Not at this moment, says Wahn. Then why would the society have to pay the fee? he asks. I don’t understand why it’s not the same for everybody, he says. “Why are you hitting the Nelson and District Housing Society?”

Wahn says he isn’t “hitting” the society but following the policy as it stands right now.

Adams says as soon as these units go online they’ll pay user fees. Why can’t the city waive these units?

Adams says the society isn’t adding any cost to the city, why charge these fees. Adams is using the word “we” as he talks about the society.

Stacey asks if he’s on the board of the society. Yes, Adams says. That may create a conflict of interest, says [Coun. Margaret] Stacey.

“What do you want me to do? Leave?” asks Adams. He appears frustrated with the process.

[Coun. Kim] Charlesworth feels his being on the board doesn’t really create a conflict of interest because he doesn’t benefit financially.

[Coun. Donna] Macdonald says there is still an issue of bias.

Source: Nelson Post

Councillors then seemed content to move onto some other questions on the request from the housing society.

Council eventually denied the Nelson and District Housing Society’s request, opting to look into their policy on waiving fees for affordable housing projects.

As they spoke, I did some research and found the province’s Community Charter on Ethical Conduct.

The excerpt below uses the word “pecuniary” which isn’t all that common and means: relating to, or consisting of money.

Section 100 (disclosure of conflict) of the Community Charter requires a council member to declare a conflict of interest if he or she has a direct or indirect pecuniary interest in a matter under consideration. A member must also declare a conflict if he or she has some other, non-pecuniary type of interest that places the person in a conflict position (e.g., bias). This could include any benefit obtained by relations, close friends, or associates of a member who is in conflict. Examples may include a rezoning application by a relative or close personal friend or a business license decision involving a competitor business to one operated by a close friend. The facts of each situation will be unique and will need to be considered when determining if a member is in a non-pecuniary conflict of interest situation.

It’s vital to repeat that the Nelson and District Housing Society is a non-profit organization. They don’t stand to benefit financially from council’s decision and neither would Adams.

However, as Macdonald mentioned during the council meeting, there is the issue of bias possible with Adams a member of the society’s board.

Council didn’t seem prepared to address the issue. To be fair, they were missing Mayor John Dooley and Kevin Cormack, the city manager, two people best suited to make a judgement on this matter. Unfortunately, to move on without fully addressing this issue looks sloppy.

It was obvious to me Adams had nothing but the best intentions. He was arguing for affordable housing after all.

This is why I’m hesitant to write about this. It’s not like a councillor was trying to get some project approved that would benefit them financially. Also, Adams didn’t get his way. He wanted council to waive the fees, but they didn’t, preferring to wait until city staff develop some polices on waiving fees for affordable housing projects.

According to the Community Charter, a councillor in a conflict of interest is supposed to declare that conflict as soon as the relevant issue comes up in a meeting. They’re then supposed to excuse themselves from the council chambers until the matter is addressed.

None of that happened at last Monday’s meeting which is what concerns me. This could be considered the thin edge of the wedge. What of other groups that have members of council as members? What about groups that have similar requests but no councillor to advocate for them? This is just the case regarding affordable housing: In May, Pastor Jim Reimer asked the city to waive fees and council opted to wait. See the live blog of that decision here. It’s item 6e) on the agenda.

What do you think? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

Chris Shepherd

Chris Shepherd is the managing editor of the Inthekoots Network. He can be reached at news@inthekoots.net.

OPINION: ‘HST better than the old system’

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Dear editor:

The Liberals have made the HST an interesting topic of study for political scientists around the world; not in a positive way mind you, but as a fine example of how NOT to implement a tax shift. What started as a lie in an election has now evolved into Christy Clark’s attempt to buy your vote by reducing the HST rate by two per cent and haphazardly tossing in one time payments, much of it to recipients who don’t need it. The revenue shortfall this creates will either lead to new taxes, cuts to public services and/or more government debt.

The NDP is also an interesting topic for study. It started when the socialist party ran their anti environmental ‘axe the tax’ election campaign opposing the carbon tax, and now they continue the theme in their anti HST campaign. We need it it all, says the NDP, the world’s best medical care, social safety net and pensions, the best paid unionized workforce and the smallest classrooms, but apparently, we shouldn’t have to pay taxes for it. Sounds great, but if you look close enough, you can see some NDP noses grow longer.

Beyond the hot air of party rhetoric, the HST has its good and bad sides. On the positive side it simplifies our taxes, and the independent panel predicted that it will create almost 25,000 BC jobs by shifting taxation from production to consumption. Instead of taking the Liberals’ indiscriminate approach, Greens would have targeted waste, pollution, junk food and carbon emissions with higher taxes and then have used that revenue to create green jobs in alternative energy production, wellness initiatives and energy savings. What a lost opportunity.

Most of us, including NDP MLA Micelle Mungall, who makes over $100,000 per year, will pay more tax under the HST, but the lowest income earners, thanks to generous tax rebates, will actually be better of. Mungall still claims that the HST isn’t ‘fair’, which reminds me of my friend Pete who used to tell his kids that ‘fair is where pigs get ribbons’.

The Green Party sees no ‘right’ option in the HST referendum, but like Green leader Jane Sterk, I voted to keep the HST. On balance that choice seems better than a return to the bad old PST and GST.

Sjeng Derkx,

Nelson-Creston Greens