A Poverty of Ideas

According to reports published today, British Columbia's child poverty rate has remained the highest in Canada for six years in a row.

Six years in a row.

The provincial Liberals not only refuse to take meaningful action to help people out of poverty, they actually are claiming that our current child poverty rates represent a success!

Remember, we're talking about child poverty, so the old "go out and get a job" nonsense won't cut it. And an awful lot of these children are in families where one or both parents are already working full time, or where one or both parents have been thrown out of work by this recession.

Finger pointing at parents and children won't solve this problem.

Surely the government has a moral obligation to help these children and their families out of poverty.

Council Conflict of interests

Oh woe are we with the latest revelations that Bill Bell has brought forward in today's North Shore News. He claims that Mayor Mussatto should be stepping aside on the topic of Coach Houses when it comes to voting on the topic. Its a matter of conflict of Interest.

"According to legal advice given to municipalities, if it is an issue that impacts the general population or a broad section of it, there is no conflict. Tax increases and broad changes to the OCP like the current question relating to coach houses, would fall into this category -- although it might be considered a conflict if a council member had submitted a coach house proposal to the municipality."

- Bill Bell

The problem as I see it is Bill Bell has far too many fond memories to fall back on when writing from his Mexican habitat, he's to the point that he is starting to lose track of the realities that are happening in our midst. Just how many Mayors have ridden their bikes along the whole July 1 parade route, handing out water bottles to hot parade watchers and coincidentally Bill Bell didn't take notice of that solitary effort in the Press when he had the chance to.

Question is how do you rate your Mayor's effort.

NV-Seymour NDP constituency association requests changes to leader election rules

While reading the Georgia Straight today I noticed this snippet in an article about the NDP's upcoming convention:

Meanwhile, the North Vancouver–Seymour constituency association has submitted a resolution calling on the executive and provincial council to develop and ratify, no later than December 1, 2010, “appropriate regulations for the election of the Provincial leader”.

So far, two constituency associations (Parksville-Qualicum and Powell River–Sunshine Coast) have directly called for a leadership convention, but Opposition House Leader Mike Farnworth says "that's just not going to happen."

Comments?

School Board soliciting input on budget priorities

I noticed in Vancouver Sun education columnist Janet Steffenhagen's blog that the North Vancouver Board of Education has been having a series of public meetings to gather input on how to balance upcoming budgets.

There has already been one meeting, but apparently it was poorly attended by parents. One parent, Jennifer McKenzie, wrote to Janet that

First, the meeting was not advertised by the NVSD directly to parents. Secondly and perhaps related to the first concern, the majority of individuals in attendance were NVSD administration and staff. Finally, the data presented did not reflect all data available and relevant to the discussion.

Ms McKenzie also had other concerns that are described in Janet's post.

The Board of Education, perhaps in response, has scheduled two more meetings. One on November 18 at 7pm at Sutherland Secondary, and the second on December 1 at 7pm at the Leo Marshall Centre.

More details, including summaries of the feedback received to date, are provided in the District's press release.

Health Authority to present $831m building plan for LGH

The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority will be presenting their long-range development plan for Lions Gate Hospital to North Vancouver City Council on Monday night.



The plan, summarized in an overview presentation, has in the next two years:

1) A mental health and ambulance building with a budget of $47m
2) A new 347-bed inpatient and surgery building for $315m

In 2024, the plan is to build a 64+-bed technical care and imaging building for $470m, and demolish the current acute care tower, which was built in 1961.

First Snow North Shore Mountains: Olympic Predictions

We woke up Friday morning to fresh snow on the local mountains. Grouse Mountain opened for skiing on the 13th of November for the first time in recent memory. Is this a good omen from the snow gods with respect to what we can expect in terms of snow during the Olympic run in February? Or is El Niño still coming as the scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted in July?

Sustainability -- What!

I have sent the following email to the DNV Council. It might seem unimportant to you, however I find this lack of concern for our taxpayers' dollars very important.

Hi folks,

I am writing today about the fact that the two (motion-activated) doors to the Lynn Valley Library (one on Lynn Valley Road and the other onto the plaza) are always open. Isn't the DNV policy to become sustainable? Why are we District taxpayers paying to heat the outdoors in the winter and cool it in the summer? I have spoken to many staff at the library and they agree with me but they say that there is nothing they can do because the "Juice Guy" says it is too hot or too cold.

I respectfully request that these doors be closed.