Editor:
Re: “SCREDO strategic plan for economic development released,” Dec. 2.
Keep an eye on this one. These kinds of initiatives generally produce no clearly identifiable results other than the obvious transfer of public money to selected private pockets. They tend to be what politicians come up with to make it look like they are doing something – which begs the question: Haven’t they got enough to spend public money on, in relation to their core responsibilities? Province-wide forays like this have produced some notable failures, as they did here. The last time we tried this on, all we wound up with for our money was a detritus of ropes and floats anchored in Trail Bay in front of the then SCRD offices, left over from a hopelessly inept venture into fish-farming.
This is a de facto new function being set in place while bypassing the pubic approval required for such under the regulations applying to regional governments. First attempt was to slide it in under the banner of Regional Planning. This is an even more blatant sidestepping of process. If it lacks integrity on that level, why should we hope for it to have any otherwise? Maybe they’ve changed that regulation since I served on the SCRD board – but I doubt it. If it was changed, and it’s a vital protection of the public interest, why didn’t we hear about it?
I file this one under LGTBFTB – Local Governments Too Big For Their Britches.
John Marian, Halfmoon Bay
