Welcome to Your Kamloops!

Tips on being Fire Smart....

If you are looking to get tips on "firesmarting" your home, you can obtain the FireSmart Manual from the Kamloops Fire Rescue web site or by calling Kamloops Fire Rescue at 250 372 5131. Here's a useful excerpt from page 4:

Do you have a cleared zone around your house
and buildings?
The first 10 metres of space around your home
is your “First Priority”. It’s the most critical area
to consider for fire protection. A good fuel free
space gives firefighters a chance to save your
home from an advancing fire. A home without a
good fuel free space around it can make firefighting
difficult, if not impossible.
What to do?
Remove any shrubs, trees, deadfall or woodpiles
from this area and keep your grass mowed and
watered.

Kamloops has also instituted a ban on outdoor burning of any type.

I called the very helpful Sheldon Guertin with Kamloops Fire Rescue and he was kind of enough to also share the following information. There has been an unfortunate string of suspicious fires in Kamloops, so please report any suspicious activities to the RCMP. Try to record as much information as you can. Describing the situation and the people involved as this helps the RCMP do their job better.

When traveling, please report people throwing cigarette butts out car windows, and make double sure that any and all campfires or cigarette butts are fully extinguished.

How to End Homelessness - Create Economic Activity, Reduce Crime, and Save Taxes at the Same Time.

Ending homelessness in Kamloops makes sense for so many different reasons - morally, fiscally, and in terms of crime and community safety. Whether someone voted conservative, liberal, ndp, or green in the federal election - we will all find significant common ground in ending homelessness.

Ending homelessness is not a left wing issue. It is not a right wing issue. It is a community issue, and we all can benefit. So many of us feel that having people in our community without a home is morally just not right. And added to that:

Businesses benefit when people are not eating, sleeping, and defecating in this alley. Victims of crime benefit as less people get caught up in breaking the law on a habitual or occasional basis.

Significantly, and I have had this number confirmed by BC's Minister of Housing and Social Development, providing services to people living on the street costs taxpayers (round numbers) $55000. Housing the same person, and supporting them in housing costs (round numbers) $37000.

Ending Homelessness in fiscally responsible.

So again, there are many good reasons to end homelessness. To right a moral wrong. To help businesses grow. To reduce crime. And, in fact, to be more efficient and accountable with our tax dollars.

So how exactly do we end homelessness in Kamloops?

Let me say, first of all, we have great social agencies  working to house people and support them in housing. We have great and growing community involvement from faith based organizations, the business community, and from concerned citizens from all walks of life. What I will propose today, I have learnt from all these great people.

1. We need to adopt a "housing first" approach. This approach emphasizes providing people housing before helping them beat an addiction issue or helping address mental health issues.
   
   
2. We need to stop doing homeless counts, and start doing needs assessments for homeless people. And then we have to find resources for social service professionals to find housing and provide supports that meet their needs.
   
   
3. We need a coordinated effort. And I believe city hall needs to coordinate and facilitate this effort. We need to state that one of our official community goals is to end homelessness in Kamloops. We should consider a council committee whose goal it would be to coordinate community action to end homelessness.
   
   
4. We need to monitor our progress carefully and publicly report on our progress. We need to make sure everything we do is moving towards zero homelessness in Kamloops.
   
   
5. We need to continue to work closely with our primary funding partners, the provincial and federal governments, so that they understand our needs and requirements to achieve our goal.  We should find out how much city bylaw officers, fire department and RCMP spend on issues involving homeless people.

Many communities across North America are adopting these approaches and are starting to have great success.

Lastly, let me say how proud I am to have been of part of our current city council that has, I think, worked very hard to assist the creation of supportive housing in Kamloops. I would like the next council to build on this success.

The Backyard Cooking Fire "Firestorm"

Forget water meters, the real hot council issue these days is the new bylaw banning outdoor cooking fires. On one side, I didn't expect it, but now I know the passion people have for their outdoor wood fueled cook outs (some people keep the fire going long past the food being ready). A couple of the email headers from the past few weeks:

"Bring Back...Back Yard Family Weiner Roasts"

and

"Welcome to Dictatorship Kamloops"

And there is also this online petition, which mirrors several paper ones going around our fair community. My friend, September Weir, has even started a Facebook Cause.

On the other side, folks are also contacting council members to say how much they appreciate a bylaw that protects their ability to preserve the air quality in their neighborhoods. They want the ability to prevent smoke from fires on neighboring properties drifting into their yard and affecting their own enjoyment.

I have to side with the "please protect my air quality folks". Yes, your private yard is your private yard, but you should not be able to enjoy it when your activities detrimentally effect others.

That seems reasonable to me.

Look, even with new bylaw, the reality is that if you have an outdoor cooking fire that does not bother your neighbors, there is little chance the bylaw will be enforced in your situation. City staff are far too taxed to run around on cooking fire patrol. So, if you are a good neighbor and responsibly monitor your outdoor cooking fire - fill your boots, light your logs, have at er.

This "turn an initial blind eye unless there is a complaint" approach is exactly the same as city hall's approach with illegal suites.

I'm Arjun Singh and that's one man's opinion.