Emergency Management creating resilient communities does not happen by accident. It has to be planned for and prepared. Some of the ways to do this was laid out by, BC Chief Coroner. Coroners deal with any death that does not happen under a doctor’s care. In the near past the coroner was reactive and now they are proactive trying to be more preventive. Road Safety; has included the problems of lighting, drugs, roads
Wildfire discussion was that communities need a preventive plan. Planning for development needs to look at building out into thick forested areas. “Can’t plan for what you cannot manage” is a descriptive phrase for subdivisions allowed to be built surrounded by forests. Insurance is going towards their fees being connected to the “Fire Smart Manual” to decide how to charge for insurance rates. Resilience in communities, Japan is a good example how communities can handle disastrous situations. Disasters will happen it is how you are prepared for them and how you let them affect you then and later.
Web page set up for local governments I did not write all of it down but I did leave with one piece of advice that stayed with me. Web sites are like puppies (or kids) they are cute when you bring them home but take a lot of work to keep them up. They mentioned that a well set up web site is well worth the trouble.
Industry Product Stewardship (IPS) working with Local Governments (LG) to recover materials that would normally go into land fills sites. IPS intends to reduce products going to landfills, reduce costs of recycling, recapture metals, plastics, essentially become a source of materials, keep toxic materials out of the waste stream and generate a positive economic from waste. LG can help by providing education; imposing bans for certain materials in to land fill sites and work with the Recycling stewardship council to find solutions to recycling. There is a fundamental shift in thinking as to product debris in rural areas. Presently service in rural areas in inadequate and not generally at acceptable levels for product stewardship. The economics of scale do not work in rural areas as in cities the cost is higher. Recycling has its benefits for every ton of recycling, there is $500.00 is added to the economy. Consumers pay for the recycling and use of the product and a 100% goes towards recycling the product.
Concerns from participants were; black plastic mulch that farmers use costs 8 times to recycle it as to make it. If it is banned from landfills it will end up (and does anyways?) in illegal land fill sites. There is a movement afoot to deal with agricultural recycling called “Clean Farms” that will recycle farm wastes.
Health Net work is a group started up in the Cowichian Valley where the government health agency threatened to close down their medical facilities fought back. Originally they had to face some very angry people eventually they admitted they had blundered. The large success in this was the Vancouver Island Health government agency admitted they were wrong and worked with the people of the area to find solutions to the problems. It is a shared stewardship of local health issues. It is not focused on hospital beds but looks at treatments.
Agri-culture its problems and solutions. Farms are finding themselves at odds with the Endangered Species Act such as the Salish- sucker and certain frogs found on their lands. It is stopping agriculture some of it is well intentioned people are stocking farm ditches with salmon and other fish and the ditch becomes a restraint to the farmers. If farmers are impacted by the “Species at Risk” act then they should be compensated for the lands/business lost. Chicken farms are limited to 99 birds and then have to be part of the egg marketing board, most of which are in the lower mainland. It suffers the interior farmers to have a successful business in the interior. More quotas need to be allowed in the interior and not have it moved to the lower mainland. There apparently many young families who would like to farm and do not have access to the farm land. There is ALR laying fallow or being used for “gentry farming” where a large sprawling home is built as ties up many acres of land. There needs to be a way of getting speculating out of agriculture; it becomes a situation of “saving the farmer or save the land”. In BC there are 14,000 people in farming and 65,000 farming families. There have been successful communal farming businesses, such as in Roberts’s creek. Concerns from the Min of Agriculture when these business break up as to who gets what out of the land (there is no subdividing of land). Successes have come from a Vietnamese family who came with essentially nothing and built up a very successful mushroom farm. Agriculture can be a profitable business in certain sectors.
Lottery Tickets and being lucky
A story I heard while eating lunch we were discussing dikes and the costs of who pays for what. The story rolls around to Pemberton and the floods they have had there. The problem largely being urban people coming out and building in the flood plain and then being surprised when they are impacted. The bridge was washed out, there was the raging muddy torrent, and concrete ripped apart rebar left like jangling nerves. A vehicle passed the people stopped in the drizzling rain watching the torn bridge right into the river. It was tragic, eventually the river subsided and they found those who were caught in nature’s power. The machines started to re-dig the concrete structure to replace the bridge, a game we play with the strength of the river. The endless liquid of rock and mud crushes our displays and we replace them again a bit bigger better and the water proves itself again. The excavator operator moving those round river rocks, how ever found another vehicle rolled up like a ball, one not accounted for. No one had reported anyone missing and it was months, many months had passed. There was little to tell who it was, except they managed to find lottery tickets in the car. Tracing the tickets they had found the night of the collapse of the bridge a store was robbed of its lottery tickets and those same tickets were related to the unfortunate driver of the car who’s luck ran out when he drove over the bridge in that rainy night. I wondered out loud I wonder many of those tickets were winners? Likely one was maybe there were all winners but it doesn’t make much difference. Justice takes its toll.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Economic & tourism in Shuswap OCT 2011
Economic Development
The Downtown Community College (DCC) outreach to the rural communities has not been stellar and many of the directors feel that their areas are not being considered enough within the planning of the DCC. Education for adults in the North Shuswap has not been a big issue for the area. There is a case made of poor return for the amount of time/money invested in rural areas. Public interest courses seem to have the most interest in rural areas. Education for employment has not seen a demand in the electoral area, is there a need for employment education courses? The outlying areas are not the only places waning in learning; courses in Salmon Arm are running at 30% capacity showing a lack of general interest in education or a lack of courses that are relevant to the current economy and employment.
CSRD is in the process of reviewing an Agricultural strategy for the Shuswap area and also presently researching what other areas do for their Agricultural Plan. This initiative will be submitted to the board in the 2012 budget for approval. The South Shuswap has an interesting situation cropping up in their ALR near Sorrento. The land is near the lake and residencies and the owner is putting in a chicken boiler barn in their midst. You can imagine the concern from the local people with the smell, waste and disposal of the byproducts of such a business. ALR land is not often thought of in those types of industrial uses and is (I think) generally thought of as a way to keep green areas in a community. The ALR is a very powerful legislation and trumps any local government laws; therefore all ALR lands can be slated for boilers, egg laying, piggery and other agricultural industrial uses. The Director in Area “C” is trying desperately to solve this problem with the provincial government.
Concerns of the economic state of BC/Shuswap area was discussed and what can we do to turn it around. Concerns were; much of the new housing has stopped because of HST, the province has to wake up and do something. Alberta has lots of jobs; booze and gas are cheaper and taxes lower. Competition from the USA is drawing Albertans and other Canadians away from BC; commodities are 30% less. Flying from Bellingham is considerably less than Vancouver, was one instance given.
The lack of rural infrastructure (highway, transit, high speed internet connection, medical services etc) needs to be included should be involved in getting support from Governments. You have to speak up and rattled cages, from the different government heads.
Agri- forestry from the province; has funding for multiple use of forestry and agricultural where they could be used together. An example is sheep grazing in vine yards to keep the grass down – supporting sheep production and the vineyard. Is there any farms that could use agricultural use for forestry production?
Shuswap Tourism
A houseboat tour of Mara Lake was donated by Waterway house boats, to the members of Shuswap Tourism and an introduction of houseboats and the changes that have been made by the houseboat industry was presented by Waterway General Manager – Neil Millar. When pressed about the pollution that the house boats create on the lake; they told us the changes they have made to help prevent or reduce the impacts on the lake from house boats. They now have lock outs on hot tubs so the water cannot be dumped out into the lake, they have removed dishwashers and they can now do round trips without needing pumps outs. There is a difference in houseboat companies in how they deal with waste and their impact on the lake. The type of people on the house boats have calmed down there are not as many wild parties as they used to be. While house boat companies are easy targets to single out by government and non-government agencies about 1/3 of the houseboats are private ownership that have no monitoring, other than themselves, like leisure boats.
Application for funding to support “Experimental Tourism” for a Southern Interior Business Association Committee (SIBAC), with Shuswap Trails Alliance, is being researched. The “Routes & Blues was a huge success by going out in the rural areas in its outreach program. The North Shuswap was the biggest benefactor by having 3 venues in our area, out of five!
The Downtown Community College (DCC) outreach to the rural communities has not been stellar and many of the directors feel that their areas are not being considered enough within the planning of the DCC. Education for adults in the North Shuswap has not been a big issue for the area. There is a case made of poor return for the amount of time/money invested in rural areas. Public interest courses seem to have the most interest in rural areas. Education for employment has not seen a demand in the electoral area, is there a need for employment education courses? The outlying areas are not the only places waning in learning; courses in Salmon Arm are running at 30% capacity showing a lack of general interest in education or a lack of courses that are relevant to the current economy and employment.
CSRD is in the process of reviewing an Agricultural strategy for the Shuswap area and also presently researching what other areas do for their Agricultural Plan. This initiative will be submitted to the board in the 2012 budget for approval. The South Shuswap has an interesting situation cropping up in their ALR near Sorrento. The land is near the lake and residencies and the owner is putting in a chicken boiler barn in their midst. You can imagine the concern from the local people with the smell, waste and disposal of the byproducts of such a business. ALR land is not often thought of in those types of industrial uses and is (I think) generally thought of as a way to keep green areas in a community. The ALR is a very powerful legislation and trumps any local government laws; therefore all ALR lands can be slated for boilers, egg laying, piggery and other agricultural industrial uses. The Director in Area “C” is trying desperately to solve this problem with the provincial government.
Concerns of the economic state of BC/Shuswap area was discussed and what can we do to turn it around. Concerns were; much of the new housing has stopped because of HST, the province has to wake up and do something. Alberta has lots of jobs; booze and gas are cheaper and taxes lower. Competition from the USA is drawing Albertans and other Canadians away from BC; commodities are 30% less. Flying from Bellingham is considerably less than Vancouver, was one instance given.
The lack of rural infrastructure (highway, transit, high speed internet connection, medical services etc) needs to be included should be involved in getting support from Governments. You have to speak up and rattled cages, from the different government heads.
Agri- forestry from the province; has funding for multiple use of forestry and agricultural where they could be used together. An example is sheep grazing in vine yards to keep the grass down – supporting sheep production and the vineyard. Is there any farms that could use agricultural use for forestry production?
Shuswap Tourism
A houseboat tour of Mara Lake was donated by Waterway house boats, to the members of Shuswap Tourism and an introduction of houseboats and the changes that have been made by the houseboat industry was presented by Waterway General Manager – Neil Millar. When pressed about the pollution that the house boats create on the lake; they told us the changes they have made to help prevent or reduce the impacts on the lake from house boats. They now have lock outs on hot tubs so the water cannot be dumped out into the lake, they have removed dishwashers and they can now do round trips without needing pumps outs. There is a difference in houseboat companies in how they deal with waste and their impact on the lake. The type of people on the house boats have calmed down there are not as many wild parties as they used to be. While house boat companies are easy targets to single out by government and non-government agencies about 1/3 of the houseboats are private ownership that have no monitoring, other than themselves, like leisure boats.
Application for funding to support “Experimental Tourism” for a Southern Interior Business Association Committee (SIBAC), with Shuswap Trails Alliance, is being researched. The “Routes & Blues was a huge success by going out in the rural areas in its outreach program. The North Shuswap was the biggest benefactor by having 3 venues in our area, out of five!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
THe Last Foot
He went through the different BC communities the trend being older people moving away from the city centers into the outer rural areas. Negatives to attract young families are; raising the cost of housing for families and not providing jobs within the community all help in creating smaller child base for the schools to draw from. In rural areas it will create a smaller tax base and more demand on rural healthcare. The question he posed was; “why are they building hospital and services in city centers and not more out in the urban areas?” Looking at the mega trends most of the retired people are moving away from the dense centers and living in more rural like settings. The care centers should be built in these areas to service these people rather than have them driving in droves to city centers.
The solution of bringing in more immigrants in Mr. Foots estimation is not sustainable. There are about ¼ million immigrants to come in to Canada and at that rate the amount of foreign workers to fill in all the jobs needed would take 40 years! The USA has many more young people than Canada and they will be a stronger economy because of it (eventually). These younger people are the Hispanics so learn Spanish, if you are planning to work with the Americans in the future. California has 38 million people Canada has 33 million. Europe has the same older people bulge in their demographics and especially Germany where there are more death than births. The future suggests that European power will wane. Russia's weakening power, (whose youth population has also plummeted) along with Japan's diminishing strength. Turkey, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan and Afghanistan (with one of the highest birth rates 6 per family) have the potential to become powerhouses. These large young populations in economic strained areas will likely prove the adage “youth vote on the streets and the older people vote in the ballot box”. Surprisingly he suggests that China, will run out of workers because of the; one child per family policy and it will negatively affect China economy as it does ours.
People are going to live longer and our pension system is not ready for that. Grandma will outlive grandpa. Grandpas that do last longer will have a larger harem to draw from, he wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not. The boomers are going to be healthier and wand to work but not steady shorter days and hours. You will see gardening, pet care, walking and bird watching up in use as this older group grows in numbers. More driving and less bicycle & transit use, it seems that the 60-80 year olds, partially because of ailments of sights, joints and weakness would avoid using buses. The need for doctor’s increases slowly through our 60s, 70s and 80s, but our use of hospitals takes off in our 60s and rises dramatically to the late 80s. In our 90s it reaches 12 times the lifetime average because of broken hips, injuries from falls, and pneumonia. It was noted as well crime has gone down as well; it is not just because the police are doing a great job but it is harder for the older folks to move and commit crimes. Charitable causes will receive more money and less volunteer time; the elderly value their time and will not give it up freely. Casinos will be growing as that is also an attraction for an older set. The use of wine will go down and whiskey will be the favored drink for older population.
He left us with some quotes that maybe useful for all of us who are age gracefully or otherwise. What businesses are finding (and adjusting their selling techniques to) is that: “there is a gap of 12 years between, of what you think you are and what you are”. Always remember you are unique; like everyone else!
The solution of bringing in more immigrants in Mr. Foots estimation is not sustainable. There are about ¼ million immigrants to come in to Canada and at that rate the amount of foreign workers to fill in all the jobs needed would take 40 years! The USA has many more young people than Canada and they will be a stronger economy because of it (eventually). These younger people are the Hispanics so learn Spanish, if you are planning to work with the Americans in the future. California has 38 million people Canada has 33 million. Europe has the same older people bulge in their demographics and especially Germany where there are more death than births. The future suggests that European power will wane. Russia's weakening power, (whose youth population has also plummeted) along with Japan's diminishing strength. Turkey, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan and Afghanistan (with one of the highest birth rates 6 per family) have the potential to become powerhouses. These large young populations in economic strained areas will likely prove the adage “youth vote on the streets and the older people vote in the ballot box”. Surprisingly he suggests that China, will run out of workers because of the; one child per family policy and it will negatively affect China economy as it does ours.
People are going to live longer and our pension system is not ready for that. Grandma will outlive grandpa. Grandpas that do last longer will have a larger harem to draw from, he wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not. The boomers are going to be healthier and wand to work but not steady shorter days and hours. You will see gardening, pet care, walking and bird watching up in use as this older group grows in numbers. More driving and less bicycle & transit use, it seems that the 60-80 year olds, partially because of ailments of sights, joints and weakness would avoid using buses. The need for doctor’s increases slowly through our 60s, 70s and 80s, but our use of hospitals takes off in our 60s and rises dramatically to the late 80s. In our 90s it reaches 12 times the lifetime average because of broken hips, injuries from falls, and pneumonia. It was noted as well crime has gone down as well; it is not just because the police are doing a great job but it is harder for the older folks to move and commit crimes. Charitable causes will receive more money and less volunteer time; the elderly value their time and will not give it up freely. Casinos will be growing as that is also an attraction for an older set. The use of wine will go down and whiskey will be the favored drink for older population.
He left us with some quotes that maybe useful for all of us who are age gracefully or otherwise. What businesses are finding (and adjusting their selling techniques to) is that: “there is a gap of 12 years between, of what you think you are and what you are”. Always remember you are unique; like everyone else!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Boom Bust Echo
The keynote speaker was impressive, a Dr Foot who wrote “Boom, Bust & Echo” many years ago. He related the study of people in groups of ages and how it will affect our society in the future. Demographics can; shape how we grow, how we think and act as a society. We can use this information in government to help us make our decisions. Low school enrollment, difficulty in getting workers, cost of health care going up; these were all predicted some time ago. Ontario government had asked him what they should do about their schools if they needed to build more and improve them. Mr. Foot said not bother you will not have the kids to fill them. No, they didn’t listen they built more and bigger school only to find there was no children to fill them. If you want to attract young families to your area (other than giving them employment) providing accessible child care, is a big attraction to those with children.
The new word for the science of demographics is; mega trends; “lots of people doing the same thing”. When you have large numbers of people doing the same thing it is easy to predict what will happen (if you study the numbers). The same thing is happening and it will get worse; only 2 out of 5 teachers (coming out of university) will be employed in the coming future. In the 70s there were many people going into debt to their eyeballs and what happened? The cost of borrowing money went sky high by so many people wanting to borrow. Twenty years later they are 40 years old what are they doing trying to figure out how to get distressed from working so hard to pay the loans off. The big bulge of age group is the 50 plus and the money is being spent on Grandkids and pets. Comparison between provinces; Quebecers- have a shorter life span- connected to their habit of smoking, Saskatchewan- have a lot of youth & seniors neither who bring in a lot of taxes, there will likely be problems with having the funds to keep services going in the future. Alberta has many working young families hardly any seniors; their costs for health care are down and there is a large tax base to draw from. BC has many seniors, there are fewer young families again impacting the Health Care system.
The new word for the science of demographics is; mega trends; “lots of people doing the same thing”. When you have large numbers of people doing the same thing it is easy to predict what will happen (if you study the numbers). The same thing is happening and it will get worse; only 2 out of 5 teachers (coming out of university) will be employed in the coming future. In the 70s there were many people going into debt to their eyeballs and what happened? The cost of borrowing money went sky high by so many people wanting to borrow. Twenty years later they are 40 years old what are they doing trying to figure out how to get distressed from working so hard to pay the loans off. The big bulge of age group is the 50 plus and the money is being spent on Grandkids and pets. Comparison between provinces; Quebecers- have a shorter life span- connected to their habit of smoking, Saskatchewan- have a lot of youth & seniors neither who bring in a lot of taxes, there will likely be problems with having the funds to keep services going in the future. Alberta has many working young families hardly any seniors; their costs for health care are down and there is a large tax base to draw from. BC has many seniors, there are fewer young families again impacting the Health Care system.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
UBCM 2011 #1
My last UBCM was in Vancouver I got to say; “so long” to the many Regional Directors, Councilors and Mayors that I have befriended along the way. I did come to politics with a attitude that I was going to run into a fair bit of slackers and crooked politicians. Instead it has been an amazing array of dedicated hard working people who truly care about their community. Just when I think I am the most dedicated worker I know, there comes some one who; works tirelessly, spending money out of their own pocket to further a cause that will benefit their community. It is humbling and inspirational. As usual there is a ton of information that comes to one at these conferences and it has to be weeded out and shortened to get back to you folks. After all you are the reason we go to these things (that and the stuff and dinners), to get informed, recharge and improve our abilities to representing yourselves.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Rural areas & Docs or the lack there of
I had 1/2 hour to discuss topical and local medical concerns with IHA on the Monday of the beginning of UBCM. I talked and listened the whole time often directing the topic back to what can you help rural areas with getting physicians. Often when talking about medical issues it is such a complex issue inter connected to so many other My purpose was two fold. One, to elicit help from IHA to help us set up our Community ran medical clinic/society. Secondly to use this style of community supported clinic in other rural areas; to help lessen the pressure and burden on other areas because of lack of physicians in rural areas.
I asked if they would help with anything more than helping with the lease of the building. They would responded negatively the reason is that; IHA is worried about having communities bid against one another for doctors. Raising the price in one form or another to the point that poorer communities would have no medical services at all (much like now- only both poor and rich communities suffer this malaise), I suggested that this need not be the case. Instead, what we are doing is; presently doctors not coming at all! and communities by; welcoming them, supporting them and making it attractive for them to come to an area is a way of bringing in more physicians and retaining them. This did not seem to convince them though, I thought. IHA also suggested that there are lot of communities that desperately need doctors; far more than North Shuswap and if he was asked(by the doctors, he would send them there. My response was" this not a case of you being the one to give this choice; it is one of where the doctors want to go!" IHA did admitted that they never had any Doctor ask that question; they all knew where they wanted to go. We are attracting and retaining them into the rural areas, that it is better to have the Physicians somewhere in BC than in the other part of the world. We would all benefit by any community in BC getting Physician rather than forcing them to work in areas that do not make their job easy.
IHA did say that he would supply other medical professionals to the area (diabetic/respiratory technologists) if there were enough cases, to justify it. In other words he would not like to see a person drive from Kamloops to N Shuswap for a 2 hour meeting and 1 or 2 people. I clarified getting the need for other medical services that if they had enough clients to fill in a slot of time from 9 is to 5 pm; would be considered enough and they seem to agree with that.
As well they mentioned that I should discuss these issues with Mayor Harry Danyluk to get a better idea of what is going on with Doctors in Chase. Mayor Danyluk is also the Chair of the Thompson Regional Hospital Board
As well, asked if they would consider selling or giving used equipment to the community. IHA said if it was worth while for re-using they would pass it on to the Health Society possibly at a cost or not. Some equipment of course would not be usable for either the cost or for technical reasons and that is of course understandable.
Pain management concerns; apparently, there are people to not getting enough support for their pain. These are not addicts or abusers but have people who are in chronic pain that are not accessing the proper amount medication. They knew nothing of such a problem and would try to find out, if this in fact true.
I asked if they would help with anything more than helping with the lease of the building. They would responded negatively the reason is that; IHA is worried about having communities bid against one another for doctors. Raising the price in one form or another to the point that poorer communities would have no medical services at all (much like now- only both poor and rich communities suffer this malaise), I suggested that this need not be the case. Instead, what we are doing is; presently doctors not coming at all! and communities by; welcoming them, supporting them and making it attractive for them to come to an area is a way of bringing in more physicians and retaining them. This did not seem to convince them though, I thought. IHA also suggested that there are lot of communities that desperately need doctors; far more than North Shuswap and if he was asked(by the doctors, he would send them there. My response was" this not a case of you being the one to give this choice; it is one of where the doctors want to go!" IHA did admitted that they never had any Doctor ask that question; they all knew where they wanted to go. We are attracting and retaining them into the rural areas, that it is better to have the Physicians somewhere in BC than in the other part of the world. We would all benefit by any community in BC getting Physician rather than forcing them to work in areas that do not make their job easy.
IHA did say that he would supply other medical professionals to the area (diabetic/respiratory technologists) if there were enough cases, to justify it. In other words he would not like to see a person drive from Kamloops to N Shuswap for a 2 hour meeting and 1 or 2 people. I clarified getting the need for other medical services that if they had enough clients to fill in a slot of time from 9 is to 5 pm; would be considered enough and they seem to agree with that.
As well they mentioned that I should discuss these issues with Mayor Harry Danyluk to get a better idea of what is going on with Doctors in Chase. Mayor Danyluk is also the Chair of the Thompson Regional Hospital Board
As well, asked if they would consider selling or giving used equipment to the community. IHA said if it was worth while for re-using they would pass it on to the Health Society possibly at a cost or not. Some equipment of course would not be usable for either the cost or for technical reasons and that is of course understandable.
Pain management concerns; apparently, there are people to not getting enough support for their pain. These are not addicts or abusers but have people who are in chronic pain that are not accessing the proper amount medication. They knew nothing of such a problem and would try to find out, if this in fact true.
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