Disagrees with
Columnist Binda
Dear Editor:
Regarding Carson Bindasa国际传媒 opinion piece on the Knowledge Network. He called it a state broadcaster. Why must we put up with these Conservative opinions and threats?
Mr Binda, have you ever watched Knowledge Network? This is high quality programming for all ages. Do you have a problem with educating the public about all areas of sa国际传媒, our country, as well as around the world? I have learned many things about our province, historical and current watching this network. Everything these days seems to be politicized.
I am sorry for Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan for losing their version of Knowledge Network. They are missing a lot of interesting stories and true histories about their own provinces. I do not learn about sa国际传媒 watching Netflix or Disney +.
Please let us keep something that is worthwhile and worth every penny.
Anne Henschel
Dedicated donor to the Knowledge Network
Penticton
Knowledge Network high-quality TV
Dear Editor:
Regarding the featured opinion from Carson Binda (sa国际传媒 shouldn鈥檛 have a state broadcaster, Dec. 21) I thought I鈥檇 point out a couple of things:
Binda is outraged that the Knowledge Network costs $6.6 million per year. I鈥檓 no expert, but that seems like a reasonable cost for a public service, which is what the network is. Just as with schools, the demand for 鈥減rofit鈥 is a death knell for services.
Binda states that the cost would equal the tax bill for 1,245 families making $100,000 per year. What about the families making $1 million, Mr. Binda? Does that change the narrative?
Binda decries the 鈥渇ailure鈥 of the network to meet goals. First, who set the goals, and why? Second, in 2024, when people have abandoned traditional television broadcasts in droves, the numbers achieved by the network are actually quite impressive.
Finally, Binda describes the networksa国际传媒 programming as 鈥渂izarre, out of touch.鈥 Well, we all have preferences, and the network is not mandated to please everyone. Its mandate is in its name: knowledge. The millions of sa国际传媒 residents who have enjoyed the Networksa国际传媒 programming are smarter, more in touch with the wider world. That is the objective.
Just as with governments, the profit motive should not be a factor in the networksa国际传媒 decisions. It is a public service. As Canadians we should be supporting this service, just as we value public education and public health. Leave it alone!
Peter Giaschi
Penticton
Fast food, drugs should be next
Dear Editor:
Good news!
The major tobacco companies 鈥 MacDonald Corp, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, Imperial Tobacco 鈥 have made a global settlement of $32.5 billion for the damage their products have done to human lungs.
If we can get that kind of money from the tobacco companies, imagine the amount of money we could get from McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut, Dunkin鈥 Donuts and the other fast-food joints for the obesity and related weight-gaining problems they have caused over the years.
And letsa国际传媒 not even get started on all the injury pharmaceutical companies have done to our bodies.
Then there are those nasty petroleum companies who have compromised our climate and smogged up our towns and cities.
With all that money coming in, Canadians could be debt and tax-free forever!
Frank Martens
Summerland
Time to support
our performing arts
Dear Editor:
I attended the Dec. 9 meeting at the sa国际传媒 City Council Chambers regarding plans for a new
Theatre/Performing Arts Centre, possibly to be built in the center of sa国际传媒sa国际传媒 Arts district corridor. This corridor, from the Japanese Garden and Museum, north to the Community Theatre and Library, proceeds to the Rotary Center for the Arts, the Art Gallery and the heritage Laurel Building.
Instead of hearing a forward-thinking discussion about replacing the KCT, a 60-year old relic, and the construction of a new theatre, I heard ideas about a patchwork of 鈥渋mprovements鈥 to the aging sa国际传媒 Theatre. These would include additional renovations to the current theatre lobby, added bathrooms, and upgraded food and beverage service.
I feel that the time to create a stunning, modern theatre for the performing arts is now. This should happen before a towering structure is built on the former neighboring RCMP land, visually swamping and aesthetically outdating the Theatre building.
This is a time-honored spot and at this location a new theatre would stand out as the crown of the existing Arts District.
Edmund House
sa国际传媒
Christmas that almost wasn鈥檛
Dear Editor:
It was mid-December, and I had one of my perennial colds. We were going to miss the annual Christmas trip to our home town, Niagara Falls.
At this time we lived in Kingston, Ontario. But, home to us was Niagara Falls, and dad took us back there often. The visit at Christmas, however, was really special. We two kids still believed in Santa Clause. We knew Santa would find us at whichever grandparents鈥 home we visited.
My brother and I fantasized about getting stuck in the snow on the way to the Falls. No, we didn鈥檛 get stuck in the snow, we got stuck in Kingston as I fought a case off bronchitis.
Our parents decided not to chance the ten-hour trip to 鈥淭he Falls鈥. Earlier dad had sent our gifts on to 鈥淭he Falls鈥. Now, there were no gifts in Kingston, and no way to get them back.
We were really disappointed and we looked it; we moped around the house and sighed big sighs.
Our folks tried to cheer us up, but the thought of no Christmas tree, no Santa and no plum pudding just wouldn鈥檛 stop dancing around in our heads.
Mom, suggested we buy a Christmas tree and make our own decorations. What a great idea. They bundled us up and we went for a Christmas tree. Know what we found?... scrawny trees, branches going every which way, nothing worth buying. Dad, not a carpenter by nature and the least handy man I knew, said he鈥檇 build a tree. Build a tree? We didn鈥檛 believe it. We bought one, such as it was; today itsa国际传媒 called 鈥渁 Charlie Brown tree鈥, but Charlie Brown hadn鈥檛 been born yet.
It did have some needles, but the branches pointed to all parts of the compass, but dad did built us a tree. He cut limbs from here, drilled holes in there鈥tuffed cut limbs into the holes. It was still a Charlie Brown tree, but it was our Charlie Brown tree.
While dad built, mom got out the coloured construction paper. We cut strips of paper, an inch wide and eight inches long and curled them into rings. After threading an end through the previous link, we glued the ends, then repeated the process until we had a long chain. Next, mom made popcorn, and we strung it into chains鈥 done by mid-Christmas Eve.
The Christmas that almost wasn鈥檛, became the one to remember.
Bill Peckham
sa国际传媒
Questions on
recent budget
Dear Editor:
Re: sa国际传媒 sets 2025 municipal tax hike at 4.34 per cent (Courier, Dec. 5)
鈥淚f I find happiness in my own back yard, will it increase my property taxes?鈥 (gocomics.com/glasbergen-cartoons/2015/04/22)
-- Randy Glasbergen cartoon (April 22, 2015)
On Dec. 5, members of sa国际传媒 city council approved the 2025 preliminary budget with a 4.34 per cent tax increase, which is double the inflation rate.
The budget vote was 702 in favour, with only sa国际传媒 councillors Ron Cannan and Gordon Lovegrove opposed.
The video of the meeting can be viewed here: (video.isilive.ca/play/kelowna/encoder_Budget%20Deliberations_2024-12-05-12-01.mp4)
Some of the comments made after councilsa国际传媒 seven hours of deliberations:
Coun. Rick Webber: 鈥淚 think that the city is in for a period of intense development and growth to keep up with the population, and I think we鈥檙e doing everything that the city, most residents want us to do...鈥
Did Webber actually ask any residents before the Dec. 5 vote?
Coun. Luke Stack: 鈥淚鈥檓 really proud of the staff and for the city, together, all of us, coming up with a number that I think is very supportable in the general public.鈥
How is this supportable when sa国际传媒 has the highest housing costs, and people can鈥檛 find a place to live that they can afford? Stack is in his fifth term. Has he been on council too long?
Coun. Maxine DeHart: 鈥淚 also am very proud of this budget.鈥
Based on what? That the staff actually prepared a budget? Isn鈥檛 that their job?
Coun. Mohini Singh: 鈥淭his is a peoplesa国际传媒 budget. Theresa国际传媒 something in this for everybody, something that鈥檒l improve their lives, and impact their lives.鈥
Yes, these increases in taxes do impact peoplesa国际传媒 lives. After all, the councillors (other than Ron Cannan) raised their own wages by 35% and sa国际传媒 is spending $1M on a 鈥淲elcome鈥 to sa国际传媒 sign that has turned into a monument. Someone has to pay for this!
Coun. Ron Cannan: 鈥淔or a lot of people this year, reality has been a tough year, challenging for individuals, families and many businesses, especially in the tourism sector.... And I think an increasing number of working poor in our community ... find it difficult with the rising costs of living.... So as people line up at the Food Bank, folks, I believe that we as elected officials need to be cognizant. We can鈥檛 raise property taxes that are double the cost of living.鈥
Now here is a councillor with some common sense. Why does Cannan understand the impact on the public?
Coun. Loyal Wooldridge: 鈥淵ou know, I agree with Coun. Cannan that life is hard right now for people, and what I know is that in those times, itsa国际传媒 public services that people lean into most. Itsa国际传媒 what they need most. Itsa国际传媒 parks that they can access for free. Itsa国际传媒 recreation centres that are subsidized, and people get excited about increasing services.鈥
Of course people don鈥檛 want recreation centres services to be cut back, but how does this justify the 4.34 per cent tax increase?
The city has approved borrowing of over $240 M to build a new recreation centre and those costs haven鈥檛 been included yet in our taxes. Doesn鈥檛 Wooldridge know that sa国际传媒 has an annual surplus of $137M and an accumulated surplus of $2.3 B, so why would the city cut back on services?
Coun. Gordon Lovegrove: 鈥淚f we鈥檙e actually serious about tree canopy, how is it that we could not fund something from council priorities to get this tree canopy going? Seventy-eight percent of it is on private property. That is-- we鈥檙e in a climate crisis.... Theresa国际传媒 things like getting folks on a community U-Pass to get more folks on transit... What happened to that?.... And wheresa国际传媒 the cost-benefit ratio on a two-lane road?鈥
Coun. Charlie Hodge: 鈥淚 will be supporting it (the budget)... I think we鈥檝e made a major error by not supporting the tree canopy fund... and not just adding a little bit of money that was asked for, for this, I think is a mistake. And if you read through the comments about it, so much of what we鈥檝e done needs to have that funding, and we鈥檝e turned it down, and I don鈥檛 understand why.鈥
Hodge supported the budget, even though he thinks important projects haven鈥檛 been funded, and he doesn鈥檛 understand why. Why then did he support it?
Mayor Tom Dyas: 鈥淭his is a positive, very positive budget moving forward.鈥
So Dyas stated it is a very positive budget moving forward, even though he promised fiscal responsibility. In 2022, when Dyas announced his candidacy for sa国际传媒 mayor (tomdyas.com/news/mayoral-announcement) he said a 29 per cent increase in property taxes over eight years is too much.
If Dyas thinks taxes are too much, why does he keep supporting these tax increases when the city has a huge surplus?
By their comments, seven of the nine members of council must be living on Earth 2. In my opinion, they are completely out of touch with the general public.
In a Sept. 9, 2022 interview, Coun. Hodge said: 鈥淚鈥檝e been called lone wolf all my career... I represent the general public.鈥
Not anymore.
That mantle has now passed to Ron Cannan, who would easily be elected sa国际传媒sa国际传媒 next mayor in the Oct. 2026 municipal election, should he choose to run for the office.
My surmise: If the next sa国际传媒 municipal election were held this Saturday, most of the present council members would not be re-elected.
Five main reasons:
1. The sky-high salary increases that council members voted for themselves. Only Ron Cannan refused this bonus pay.
2. Increasing traffic congestion/gridlock.
3. Continuous megatower approvals for the downtown core. At least three more megatower projects are expected to come before council in the coming months.
4. No stop work order was ever given for the UBCO tower project when cracks were first observed at a nearby building (1405 St. Paul) on the weekend of Nov. 25, 2023.
5. sa国际传媒 city council approved the preliminary 2025 budget, with a 4.34 per cent tax increase.
David Buckna
sa国际传媒
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We invite our readers of letters to the editor to submit a positive, holiday letter of 400 words or less for Saturday.
sa国际传媒: letters@ok.bc.ca
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