Editor:
With 92 per cent of the public against our city being the “Republic of Life,” I urge city council to return to our Western Heritage which has stood us well for many years.
Keep in mind that same theme was created by many young taxpayers over the past many years.
We were proud of it and still are.
People in other areas of the province thought being the “Republic” was a joke and said “you’re not serious.”
Of the many people I have contacted, some interesting comments arise, such as “our western theme reminds people of wide open spaces and clean air, blue skies, a great place to bring up our children.
Good schools, our university, winter and summer recreation in abundance, a good hospital, affordable housing, a great place to work and play, and our world famous Williams Lake Stampede brings a lot of tourists to town.”
A good example of a Western Heritage city that has done well is Calgary.
Our city has grown from the strength of our resource industries: logging, saw mills, mining and ranching with several thousand cattle sold per year.
These base industry jobs provide a three-to-one ratio to other jobs for the community.
As I sat in that meeting at city hall with 100 people, I had the feeling the firm presenting the program ”Republic” was from another world, suggesting it had looked at the strengths and the weakness of our city.
They emphasized that our weakness was being considered a “sawmill town” when it’s known that forestry, lumber and the mills have been a major part of our economic growth.
There is at least one firm in Williams Lake who could do a professional job of putting together a DVD which could contain local photographs, data on all our industry, affordable housing and business opportunities.
This would describe in detail what makes Williams Lake an outstanding place to live.
Businesses would be attracted by a shopping population of 50,000.
These DVDs could be duplicated at a reasonable cost, sold at the tourist centre, or mailed to firms that would be interested in expanding to Williams Lake, a city, with all the amenities displayed in the DVD.
I hope council will reconsider and return to our Western Heritage or at least put it to referendum so that the majority of the public feel that they are involved.
Jim Fraser
Williams Lake