Dear editor,
Comox Valley Common Sense suggests that the role of municipal government is to focus on the key areas of sewage, water, garbage, police and fire protection.
To respond to anything else in the community, they say, is a waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
May I suggest that their platform lacks common sense?
Certainly, in a time like this, municipal governments need to be very careful in their spending. However, as my English granny used to say, it never makes sense to be “penny wise and pound foolish.”
This group is opposed to the provision of a homeless shelter on Cliffe Avenue — a project which, by the way, came about through the regional district, not the City of Courtenay as some candidates have stated. Simple common sense would suggest that, in hard economic times, more of our citizens are going to find themselves homeless.
When two homeless shelters opened last year in the West End of Vancouver, the City of Vancouver reported that the number of people sleeping outside dropped from 267 to 12, and there was a significant decrease in incidences of aggressive panhandling. Isn’t that simple common sense?
Does this group really believe that ignoring the very visible plight of ever-increasing numbers of homeless citizens will make us a better community and increase our tax base?
Personally, I will be voting for Ronna-Rae Leonard and Doug Hillian for council and Greg Phelps for mayor; three hard-working incumbents with a proven track record of fiscal responsibility coupled with an understanding of the complexity of the issues that face our community.
I will also be voting for Mark Middleton, who was originally opposed to the shelter, but had the common sense to go on a tour of other shelters on Vancouver Island, where he learned that the fear-mongering of the Comox Valley Common Sense crowd was not rooted in reality. He looked, listened and changed his mind as a result of encountering new information — a great example of a politician with common sense.
Comox Valley Common Sense? Nonsense!
Anne Davis,
Courtenay