“They” thrive Now, to make us happy in the Distant Future ... - Alcyonenews

Main menu:

Miscellany

February 11, 2022

“They” thrive Now, to make us happy in the Distant Future ...

It happened in the 1960s. The Chief Engineer of a large BC corporation was in the morning “car-crawl” at the North approach to Lions Gate Bridge. West Vancouver’s Marine Drive and Taylor Way traffic were merging before meeting and merging with the North Vancouver traffic, all to be funnelled over the Bridge to Vancouver.

The Engineer got distracted for a moment and a woman took his turn to merge. He got out of his car, went to hers, banged the hood fiercely with his fists and hurled unflattering epithets at the frightened woman. Surrounding drivers eager to resume crawling began honking, sending the raged Engineer back to his vehicle. But by then he was no longer the same man who had left that car a few minutes previously.

He was a gentle man and I am certain he felt strong remorse for the way he treated that lady. That aside, the “change” I refer to was caused by the event revealing to him the man he had become and he was appalled at what he saw. Instantaneously he resolved to recover, to become again the person he was before becoming the person who could do what he had just done. Upon arriving at his Office he penned his resignation from the corporation, handed it in and took the day off. His wife was elated by the “change”. They listed their house for a quick sale and soon thereafter settled in the Okanagan where they lived happily thereafter.

To ameliorate the situation I depicted above, the government built the “Second Narrows bridge”. This became the “Ironworkers Memorial Bridge” to commemorate the18 men who lost their lives building it.

The additional bridge did what was expected from it, making access to the North Shore easier than it had been. But it wasn’t to be for long. Evidently there were many people wanting to live on the North Shore but were held back by the Bridge situation. When crossing became easier they rushed North until Bridge crossing became again a deterrent as decisive as that, that the second bridge was built to eradicate.

Isaac Newton explained the phenomenon quite adequately. A kinetic state of a system is stable, is in equilibrium, for as long as neither of the opposing forces is altered. In the instance of the bridges, reduction of the resistance to crossing the Burrard inlet fostered a wave of migration to the North Shore. Similar is the situation with migration to Salt Spring and the other islands now “governed” by the Trust.

There is a housing crisis almost everywhere in Canada. Were the Trust to create “affordable” housing in SSI, people would rush in to consume whatever was made available. This would add new dimensions to the need for affordable housing and help politicians win elections by promising ever more “affordable housing”. Kind of a vicious circle, keeping the political sector going round’ an’ round.

This raises a multitude of questions. One is the effect it would have on the mandate of the Trust. The Trust was made and imposed ostensibly to protect us against the spread of Magic Lake Estates. This professed objective of the Trust boils down to “preventing” people migrating to the Islands. The Trust has often paid lip service to that by comparing the “growth” of the Trust area being less than the growth in similar areas outside the Trust. They point to retarded growth in the Trust area with pride, expecting appreciation for achieving that. Many people deem the growth-lag being the result, at least partially, of the Trust making itself into something to be avoided, something that repels people considering moving to the islands, which is a perception hard to dispute.

Then what if the people who will grab the Trust-generated affordable Housing are retirees and people earning their living working from home for distant corporations? Wouldn’t they exacerbate the need for services the shortage of which we experience now? Is the Trust going to subsidize business to build employee quarters ? If not, how is the Trust planning to face this eventuality?

Let’s stop the Trust spreading this stuff , for it pollutes the mind ...

************************************************

Bits and Bites

History-in-the raw

Premier John Horgan and his Minister of Citizens [dis]Services Lisa Beare are the nominees for the year’s highly non-coveted “Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy”.

The award purpose is explicit in its title, but the nomination needs justification, lest someone miss the event. FIPA (Freedom of Information and Privacy Association) made the nomination to duly dis-honour the nominees for “introducing a fee with the express intent of deterring the public from requesting [governance] information”.

It is sad the politicians would not opt to “deter” FOI requests by ceasing-and-desisting practising “Government Secrecy”.