Welcome to Your Kamloops!

Why It's Critically Important to be Nice in Politics....

Reading one of Daily News and past Mayor Mel Rothenburger's blog posts about Kamloops politics today, and finding myself with a very different point of view. In a nutshell, here is Mel's argument:

Something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. We’ve gone from nasty and fun to nice and boring.

Whatever happened to the days when Betty would push Terry, Terry would push Betty, and tempers would flare?

Ah, those were good times in the news game. Betty would snark at everyone in sight, Terry would grump away at Betty and there was never a dull moment, always a good headline.

Mel is of course referring to another former Mayor Terry Lake and former MP Betty Hinton.

I thinks it critically important to be nice in politics. If we want people to work together, to bring as many people on board with a strategy or policy as possible, we need leaders to play nice. Mayor Mel Rotherburger often worked hard to do this - whether it be through initiatives like the Kamtalk community forum or bringing many community leaders behind the Tournament Capital initiative.

I know media types like spicy stuff, but I think there is also ways to make nice not equal boring. A bold initiative does not have to adopt conflict as the dominant paradigm.

After Council again floated the controversial idea of mandatory water meters, I was really happy to see Mayor Peter Milobar at my Rotary Club speaking about meters, explaining his stance, and taking any questions. He did this in a measured, reasonable way. And he walked away with the respect of many of us in that room, even if some did not agree. People were actually more open to the topic because of the way Pete handled himself.

The Case Against Domtar's Request for Extending It's Air Quality Related Work...

I won't say who, but a prominent local environmentalist told me yesterday that they thought I might be working on behalf of Domtar with their request to extend and amend the Kamloops Pulp Mill's air emissions permit.

I found that a bit jarring considering I haven't really stated a position on this Domtar's current request. Still, though, I have definitely devoted a lot of pixels and bytes to Domtar's case, largely due to their much better public engagement on this request than their 2007 request for extension.

My interest here is to provide all sides of this issue.

So, today, I outline the case for rejecting Domtar's request. These are the most solid arguments I can come up with as well ones I have heard in the community:

1. The Mill has had since 2000 to get their air quality improvements done. At that time, the Ministry of the Environment had provided them seven full years to get the work completed. In 2007, they requested and secured and extention to 2013. Now, they are requesting a second extension to 2016. It did not take so long to put a man on the moon. And many in the community wonder if the Mill is simply running out the clock until the decision is made to close the operation.
2. Domtar has not made a solid commitment to complete the work by 2016. In our interview last week, Domtar's Bonny Skene could not rule out a request for a further extension. She gave the impression it would be extremely unlikely, but left some wiggle room.
3. The prospect that the West End of Kamloops may have some days of worse air quality is quite problematic. Domtar's modeling suggests that this will be a very small diminishment, and that overall annually all areas of Kamloops will see better air quality, but what's small overall may have large efffects on individual people in neighbourhoods.
4. Domtar has essentially funded at least part of the Ministry of Environment oversight of the Kamloops Mill, and that raises questions of impartiality and integrity in the Ministry's oversight.

Interested to hear other arguments!

Podcast: Domtar's Bonny Skene, Kamloops Pulp Mill and Air Quaility

Thanks to Domtar's Bonny Skene for agreeing to answer some of my questions about the Kamloops Pulp Mill's request for an air permit amendment and extension. If you would like to provide feedback to Domtar on their request, their formal 60 day public consultation period ends on next Monday, August 11th. I would imagine folks could still contact Rick Adams at the Ministry of Environment after this.  

Domtar's contact info for this issue is on their air permit amendment web site.  Rick Adams' phone number is (250) 371-6225 and can be emailed.

Audio Map:

01:00 -  Can you briefly describe why Domtar is seeking this amendment to the Kamloops Mill air permit?

03:33 - Can you explain the proposed new stack configuration for the mill?

06:01 -  On the valley stacks, is there any way that you could avoid them?

07:27 - As this is the second extension request on the mill's air permit, can you give any confidence that Domtar will not seek further extensions?

09:58 - It's a pretty bad economic environment for pulp producers and some would say pulp producing is a secondary area of business for Domtar, what is Domtar's vision and outlook for the Mill?

13:05 - Is there a committment from the senior management of Domtar, those who the Kamloops Mill management report to, that this air quality work will be done by 2016?

15:05 - Concerns have been raised by West End Kamloops residents that their air quality may actually be worse if your proposal is granted, is this true?

19:27 - In my opinion the public engagement from Domtar on this air amendment has been well done, can you talk to the importance placed on consulting and engaging the community on this issue?

       

My Short History with the Kamloops Spirit Square....

I'm really glad the Kamloops Spirit Square (corner of MacKenzie and Yew) is finally open for the community.

This little community square project has seen quite a few twists and turns since City Hall first started working on it in early 2007. As a member of Council at the time of the planning,I was fortunate to have a pretty good seat in the proceedings.

The essential impetus behind building the square was the the BC Government was willing to match city funds dollar for dollar, up to $500 000.

In Early 2007, when a Kamloops Spirit Square started being discussed in the community, there was significant backlash to the concept. Since there was two streams to the provincial  funding applications, or so we thought, the decision of Council was to apply for funds to conduct community consultation and planning. Even then, Kamloops This Week editor Chris Foulds took me to task for supporting $25 000 for such an effort.    

For most of 2007, we heard nothing from the Province about our community consulation funding application. In October 2007, Joe Leong, Tina Lange, and I met with then BC Community Services Minister Ida Chong at the Union of BC Municipalities convention. The Minister and her staff seemed to have discontinued the community consultation money, and told us they were very anxious for us to get building. It was kind of surreal really.

Community concern over the expenditure never really re-surfaced to a great degree.

Ok. So then the big question became building at what location and with what theme. Mayor Terry Lake was warm to the idea of a ice hockey theme. Other Council members initially favoured one shore of the river over another.

The question of south shore or north shore was a biggie. I remember attending an "emergency meeting" of the North Shore planning public members called out of concern council was showing bias towards the south shore.

In fact, when the outside planning company contracted to do identify initial locations presented to council, their list of criteria did not score north shore locations high on the list. Council added the criteria of "revitalization" and the north shore locations scored quite a bit higher.

Once we had unanimously settled on MacKenzie and Yew, there was the issue of more detailed planning and building. There was some considerable back and forth with Victoria and the plans and a desire to wait a while for the economy to cool down so we could get more competitive bids for the construction.

Assorted Highlights from Last Week's Council Meeting

Update on City Recycling Program
City Hall environmental services supervisor Glen Farrow recently updated City Council on the curbside recycling program. A couple of reminders from Glen that plastic bags and styrofoam are not currently accepted under curbside recycling. Many grocery stores will recycle plastic shopping bags. Glen also asks that residents consider breaking down cardboard into pieces no larger than a standard magazine cover. Since the beginning of curbside recycling in Kamloops, recycled materials have increased 225% and there has been a 16% decrease in the annual amount of materials going to the dump. Way to go Kamloops!

City Council Pass Pesticide Use Restriction - to Start in 2010....
Council has approved restrictions on cosmetic, non-health related use of pesticides on residential properties. As of March 15th 2010, only certified applicators will be apply to pesticides within city limits. Notices will need to be posted 24 hours before using pesticides and have to remain for 48 hours after use. There is an exception for edibles - fruit trees, vegetable gardens and the like. For more information, call Karla Hoffman with City Parks and Rec at (250) 828 3888.

City Approves Selective Covert Video Surveillance in Public Facilities
Councillors Denis Walsh and John O'Fee represented two different views on the covert video surveillance. Councillor O'Fee said that he felt that it would be a very rare case to film people secretly and this would need to go through a stringent approval process. Councillor Walsh felt that there was no need, and covert video surveillance could get the city sued. Council approved the policy . For more information, contact Cindy Kennedy at (250) 828-3485