Contradictions

During this term, while we talked the talk about saving the planet several odd combination decisions have been made.

We received a $700Ks grant and a decision had to be made about how to heat Church Street School. We considered the alternative of a heat pump which takes warmth from the ground.

We turned it down and voted in favour of fossil fuel.

For historical authenticity, fourteen foot high ceilings in the building had been opened up and single-glazed diamond glass windows installed. No-one in their right mind ,responsible for paying energy bills out of their own pocket, in this day and age, installs single- glaze diamond windows where warmth is a consideration.

Heat, as we know, rises. Hydro keeps it circulating in those cavernous hundred year old rooms. Even when it was built, students shivered in class in outdoor clothing with single glazed windows and heat seeping out at the ceiling from wood furnaces in the basement.

In the first budget of this term, we included funds to hire an environmental engineer. I asked what such an expert would do.

Councillors Morris and Gaertner and Susan Walmer were on that Environmental Advisory Committee.There were to be seven. Eleven applied. The interest was so encouraging,we appointed all of them. We soon had twenty -one. Think of the paper that had to be circulated, the space occupied , the hours of talk and employee hours in attendance.

Public Works Director Wayne Jackson was required to attend as "resource person". A recording secretary had to be supplied.

Mr. Jackson answered my question with eyes cast down. "identify environmental initiatives"he said.

I couldn't quite visualise that. Every year after at budget, I inquired what"initiatives" had been identified. As years passed, it seemed the question became ever more mystifying to those being questioned.

I always suspected the only environment Wayne Jackson was conerned about was his sanity. He was the first to exit after the Councillor became the Mayor.

When heating for Church Street School was being considered, the environmental initiative engineer was nowhere to be seen or heard. The building is currently pumping out $75ks worth of carbon into the atmosphere which didn't need to be.

A few weeks ago, the chairperson of the Environmental Advisory Committee came to Council to urge a plan to reduce our carbon emissions. It was cold outside. We were freezing in the Council chamber. I had a blanket over my knees..

Massive folding doors comprise an entire wall of the chamber. They were open to accommodate cable cameras. One set is always held open to signify" openness and transparency".

Rogers Cable approached the town four months ago about installing cameras in the chamber at no cost. The issue was discussed behind closed doors. Once. Our most enterprising Councillor thought Rogers should be asked to pay for the privilege. The idea has never been heard of since.

The Council Chamber has a thermostat. The building is heated by furnaces. I suspect somewhere those suckers are burning like hell itself in a totally futile attempt to keep that chamber's temperature at the level set on the thermostat. .

To-night at Council ,we will approve a "sponsorship" of a thousand dollars to an environmental group to publish two thousand , eighteen page leaflets, to distribute "where needed" to urge people to "Shop like the Planet is Watching You". It is recommended by the Environmental Advisory Committee which has an Environmental Initiative Engineer as resource person.

Thirty-six thousand pages of paper, milled, printed and collated and stapled with power, to be circulated throughout the community adding to litter already blowing about and having to be collected by vehicles burning combustible fuel, and taken elsewhere to be turned into something else using....you guessed it ...power.

While we have righteous well-meaning individuals, whose avowed reason for being is to save the planet, blithely and blindly contributing to its destruction, what hope is there.

When the Green Bin program was approved by Regional Council, an item for subsidised compost bins was removed from the regional budget. The material people had been putting into their compost was needed for processing of green bin material.

I noticed a recommendation in a recent report from the Infrastrucure and Environmental Department that a means of reducing collections was to encourage people to use backyard composters.

Imagine how much additional paper, print and collating is needed annually to accommodate all those double and triple barrelled titles we now have in our administration re-org.

I saw a poster on the wall of Owen Slingerland's office once. Owen was the Medical Officer of Health for the Region. I was Chairman of the Board.

The poster said, and I paraphrase; " It's not corruption in government you have to worry about, it's the stupidity"

Amen Amen I say .