Along with others in our fair city, I am happy crime is down.
I’m not about to leave my door unlocked when I‘m out, and I’ll keep the club on my vehicle’s steering wheel when it’s parked overnight in the driveway, but still, it’s great to be making headway.
It didn’t happen overnight.
If memory serves me correctly, Mayor Rick Gibson was the first to get the “let’s-stop-crime” ball rolling.
Among other things he formed a crime committee, and councilors Paul French and Surinderpal Rathor did a lot of the groundwork.
Mayor Scott Nelson kept the ball rolling and programs like the “prolific offender” came in under Coun. Ed Mead’s watch.
Heaven forbid that I want to take anything away from the current council, but many municipal projects and programs are started by one council and continued by the next one, or even the one after that.
Councils often blame their predecessors for things that went wrong, so how about sharing the credit when they go well?
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There are other local issues worthy of comment (e.g. fire hall, snow removal) but there is one huge issue that will affect us all but isn’t getting much attention.
That is the provincial government’s proposed new Water Sustainability Act.
BC’s Water Act was badly out of date, but instead of protecting the environment, or even the public interest, the new act will privatize water in a way that seems to give water rights to the big corporations in a way that could be irreversible.
The Williams Lakers who went ballistic a few years ago when the City planned to turn our water system over to a private company aren’t likely to be overjoyed with the new act, which will be passed in February unless the public can persuade the B.C. government to have a second look at it.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.