Weather presenters butcher language
EDITOR:
To follow on to Messrs Barillaro and Nield…
There is one glaring word wrongly spoken by most of our weather presenters on television. — “a cupla days more”— meaning “a couple more days.”
And my thoughts on how children start off speaking incorrectly. They don’t listen carefully to what is being said.
Examples from my three, when younger:
Our son had visited a neighbour to see a new pet bird:
“It was blue and small and called a bggerijar”
No said Mum — a budgerijar — “that’s what I said.”
Daughter 1: In a line up —“Get off, you are trodding on my foot.”
No comment.
Daughter 2: Sang at Sunday School to “Onward Christian soldiers.”
“Christ the Royal Master leans against the fort.”
No — “He leads against the foe — you are wrong/”
“No, I’m not — he was tired after fighting.”
Luckily, they finally got it right and entered professional life well- spoken.
Marjorie Montgomery
Penticton
Please be careful when using detour
EDITOR:
Re: Haven Hill detour (Herald, Sept. 16).
Traffic to Naramata and the Naramata Bench is being rerouted via Vancouver Hill and Lower Bench Road whilst necessary changes are being made to water/sewer lines on Haven Hill Road.
Vancouver Ave./Lower Bench are primarily residential with access to the KVR trail. There are school children crossing, tourists and locals accessing the KVR and seniors who live in the apartments on Abbott Street. It is a busy area for walking, biking. skateboarding, running and dog-walking. It’s always busy even though it looks quietly residential.
We have the Bench lower down and access to the waterfront and the community gardens. The KVR crosswalk has a signal, but is on a bend so if you are going too fast downhill, well, you know what could happen.
Please use the road with caution That includes cars, small trucks, motorbikes and cyclists as well as the larger trucks.
This is important particularly for empty trucks rushing downhill, Your air brakes let us know when you are traveling too fast. Everyone must use their brains and be cautious when coming down the hill.
Please use the road with caution That includes cars, small trucks, motorbikes and cyclists as well as the larger trucks.
Please slow down!
Sandra Smith
Penticton
Limit access to the backcountry
EDITOR:
Why are governments not limiting access to the Okanagan backcountry during this period of extreme fire behaviour?
The devastating month-old McDougall Creek wildfire remains classified as “A Fire of Note.”
And a fire erupted Sunday about 15 kms west of Peachland near Glen Lakes. It is expanding rapidly and will concern us for some time and is believed to be “human caused.”
The Okanagan has been suffering from severe drought conditions, and there is no indication of any significant precipitation in the forecast.
Forest fuels are explosive and yet the provincial government seems unwilling to clamp down on public access to Crown land in the back country!
Twelve years ago, a potentially devastating fire broke out mid-afternoon on Sept. 9 by the entrance to the Trepanier Creek Greenway Regional Park at the Highway 97 C and Trepanier Road interchange.
Very high winds coupled with extremely dry fuel conditions raced it towards Peachland, and only an abrupt and very favourable weather change that evening gave the cooperative firefighting agencies the break that they needed to save many properties. Their superb efforts on land and in the air limited the losses to about three homes.
So why has the Regional District of Central Okanagan just reopened public access to this popular park after having wisely closed it for several weeks due to fire concerns? They should reconsider this decision.
This fire season may be a long way from over. Some of you will recall the awful firestorms in the Spokane area in mid-October 1991.
So please let common sense prevail.
Paul MacNamara
Peachland
Not warming to Poilievre’s platform
EDITOR:
I am amazed by Pierre Poilievre’s continuous misunderstood reference to climate change, or is he just supporting the views of the faux-intellectual Jordan Peterson about inflation?
They criticize and attack, but have no alternate workable plan.
Pierre Poilievre constantly rants about the carbon tax, which most scientists and environmentalists agree is one of the most effective and efficient ways to reduce carbon emissions and avoid the worst impact of climate change.
What Poilievre does not explain is that the carbon tax accounts for only 0.15 percentage points of inflation, and that those provinces that remit the fuel carbon tax to the Federal Government receive a full refund of the fuel carbon tax — the federal government keeps nothing.
For two years, millions of families in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba have been receiving climate action compensation for the charges they pay to the fuel carbon tax. This year they were joined by Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Most families receive more than they pay in, and poorer families actually receive more than they pay in. A family of four in Ontario could receive a rebate of $976 this year.
The carbon tax collected by the federal government is fully refunded to needy Canadian families, businesses, farmers, and indigenous groups.
Poilievre and his mentor Peterson at some point must acknowledge that since 2018 the carbon tax has reduced air pollution by 15 per cent of what it would have been — or will they continue to deceive the public?
We are currently in an interglacial period, and I urgently suggest that both these individuals read and try to understand how the Milankovich Cycles refer to slow global climate changes over thousands of years — and cannot be applied for the short period of the last 100 years and the rapid temperature rise.
It appears to me that the unswerving objective of the Conservative continues to be to give tax breaks to those that don’t need tax breaks. Nothing has changed.
What about our grandchildren and other future generations, or does current greed supersede their future ability to survive?
Our actions will tell.
Patrick MacDonald
Kelowna
Short-term rentals a negative impact
EDITOR:
Kudos to Cortes Island residents for realizing that short-term vacation rentals are a major reason for the lack of affordable housing when other politicians haven’t managed to figure it out!
This affects many other tourist areas in B.C. — including Victoria and Vancouver —and besides all the ferry workers, health-care workers and hospitality workers (among others) who are unable to find affordable accommodation, hundreds of students, seniors and others on fixed incomes are being evicted as their apartments/houses are turned into STVRs.
It’s not surprising that home-owners who used to get $1,200 to $1,500 a month from renting out a basement suite or guest cottage to a ferry worker jumped at the chance to get $250 a night from tourists, but both they and our politicians need to understand the huge negative impact this has on the inventory of affordable rental accommodation that these communities require in order to function!
If allowed to continue, this will inevitably reduce their quality of life as local businesses, medical facilities, cultural events etc. shut down due to lack of staffing (and ferry services deteriorate even further).
Ann Jessey
Qualicum Beach
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