11779 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Either way, doesn't every man woman & child living on FN land receive regular income from the federal government anyways?

 

Not sure they get an automatic cheque in any way.   But there are social services programs (including monthly benefit cheques) similar to provinces run for non-natives.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 February 2022 - 01:05 PM.

[JimV]

You're assuming the next council won't be made up of most of the members of the existing council. I am not sure it's wise to believe CoV voters will come to their senses by October.

I share your concern and am not counting the chickens yet.  And I never underestimate the stupidity of Victoria voters (which quality they have so amply demonstrated many times.)

 

That said, my sense is that there has been a mood change in the land, even here.  I think people want some solid, sensible leaders.  That could very well result in a new council if we’re offered anything but the usual assortment of cranks, ego maniacs and wannabes.  

[Seechelle1969]

What on earth was the point of doing the budget survey to provide input on where people feel the priorities are if city council is just going to ignore the input. 52 ish % strongly disagreed with the FN grant and yet they went ahead with it. What a waste of time and an insult

[Victoria Watcher]

Victoria council has approved advocating for upper levels of government to move away from the fare system for public transit and implement a guaranteed livable income for certain groups.

 

The advocacy resolutions were all passed at the Jan. 27 council meeting.

 

One motion brought forward by Couns. Jeremy Loveday and Ben Isitt calls on the province to work with local governments and invest in fare-free transit.

________________________________

 

Another approved motion from Loveday and Isitt will see the city advocate that the B.C. government revise provincial income assistance programs to provide a liveable income for seniors, people with disabilities and community members living in poverty. The councillors said current assistance levels don’t cover the cost of necessities and increases to the cost of food, housing and transportation have made the situation worse.

 

Loveday also joined Coun. Marianne Alto on another adopted resolution that advocates for the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities to push for a federally funded guaranteed livable basic income. The effects of poverty create downstream pressures on municipalities that have limited resources, their motion said.

 

 

 

 

https://www.vicnews....livable-income/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 February 2022 - 05:34 AM.

[A Girl is No one]

I guess I will be able to quit my
Job and do just as well (or better) as I do when working. Can’t wait. Better that than to have to pay the taxes to cover that program!

Typical commie style, they buy people’s votes with other people’s money and labour.

[Stephen James]

^ Bear in mind that the survey forced you to assign a priority to every proposal. I am sure that if you could only vote for the items you wanted and not score the others approval would have been like 10%.

Even worse - it's not a survey, in the sense that anyone expects. Literally anyone from anywhere int eh world can contribute and influence. 

That being the case, that M Helps and her ilk will continue with this grant shows how little she ever cared about our community.

[Stephen James]

I'm a fan of reconciliation but M Helps either doesn't understand it or doesn't care about it. Reconciliation isn't, by definition, done to people. It's an exercise of coming together through understanding. Reparations follow that understanding, they don't lead, and this is a nation to nation, province to nation issue, not a tiny city issue.

 

What M Helps has done is consistent. Collaboration, consensus-building, are blind-spots for her; she has no tools, as anyone who has participated in a meeting with her on any topic of import has witnessed. But collaboration and consensus-building are the very hard work necessary for change.

 

This idea was hatched through a corrupt, secret, process with no accountability to the community. (The antonym for good governance is corruption.) The idea has been promoted with an even more corrupt survey system, and even that support is obviously questionable.

 

In the absence of any mature tools to make positive change happen, M Helps has instead forced it through with the help of a slate that's on life-support. Even more unconscionable, she presumably does this because she knows better than the 60% of people who answered the "survey."

 

What she's done is to set reconciliation back for a considerable portion of the population. This is very sad. Her lack of understanding of the difference between her own self-interest (her strongly held beliefs), and a more enlightened self-interest, "what's good for you is good for me" means she's responsible for people who will turn their backs for a long time. I'm less interested in discussing reconciliation and this makes me angry.

 

I'm embarrassed by her, again.

[Nparker]

Victoria council has approved advocating for upper levels of government to move away from the fare system for public transit and implement a guaranteed livable income for certain groups...

This is NOT a municipal issue! Just ****ing fix the roads already.

[Awaiting Juno]

This is NOT a municipal issue! Just ****ing fix the roads already.

 

And don't take ****ing forever to issue a building permit for a project that conforms to the zoning and the OCP. Maybe update those while we're at it - and send a clear signal that spot zonings will no longer be entertained, either the project conforms and can expect green lights expediently, or it doesn't and should be shelved until the zoning/ocp is updated at some future date to accommodate. Conditional zoning might also be an option - this would be zoning IF a certain set of conditions are met.

 

On the affordable housing front the province needs to: update the residential tenancy act to facilitate the supply of secondary suites and accessory dwelling units by having a different set of rules apply to owner occupied properties and "investment" properties, get rid of the damage deposit model and implement tenancy insurance, and fill the gap in regulations governing "room mates". 

[spanky123]

What on earth was the point of doing the budget survey to provide input on where people feel the priorities are if city council is just going to ignore the input. 52 ish % strongly disagreed with the FN grant and yet they went ahead with it. What a waste of time and an insult

 

People who complete the survey are stupid and don't count.

[JimV]

^Yes, it’s a good thing we have a council with broad experience, practical know how and almost infinite wisdom to lead and guide us.

[Seechelle1969]

“What she's done is to set reconciliation back for a considerable portion of the population. This is very sad. Her lack of understanding of the difference between her own self-interest (her strongly held beliefs), and a more enlightened self-interest, "what's good for you is good for me" means she's responsible for people who will turn their backs for a long time. I'm less interested in discussing reconciliation and this makes me angry.”

@Taco thank you for this. You articulate so well many of the thoughts I am having better than I could have. I agree this will set back true reconciliation for some time. It just creates more anger frustration and division. Which is not where we want to go.

[Harry]

I'm a fan of reconciliation but M Helps either doesn't understand it or doesn't care about it. Reconciliation isn't, by definition, done to people. It's an exercise of coming together through understanding. Reparations follow that understanding, they don't lead, and this is a nation to nation, province to nation issue, not a tiny city issue.

 

What M Helps has done is consistent. Collaboration, consensus-building, are blind-spots for her; she has no tools, as anyone who has participated in a meeting with her on any topic of import has witnessed. But collaboration and consensus-building are the very hard work necessary for change.

 

This idea was hatched through a corrupt, secret, process with no accountability to the community. (The antonym for good governance is corruption.) The idea has been promoted with an even more corrupt survey system, and even that support is obviously questionable.

 

In the absence of any mature tools to make positive change happen, M Helps has instead forced it through with the help of a slate that's on life-support. Even more unconscionable, she presumably does this because she knows better than the 60% of people who answered the "survey."

 

What she's done is to set reconciliation back for a considerable portion of the population. This is very sad. Her lack of understanding of the difference between her own self-interest (her strongly held beliefs), and a more enlightened self-interest, "what's good for you is good for me" means she's responsible for people who will turn their backs for a long time. I'm less interested in discussing reconciliation and this makes me angry.

 

I'm embarrassed by her, again.

This is one of the best explanations I have seen that explains the issues with the way M Helps has conducts herself on issues and her lack of a tool set to adequately govern on this issue and almost every other issue in her job. This way of doing things seems to be quite popular with this council I cant help but wonder if Victoria has ever had such an ill equipped council. They seem to blunder through things constantly making an incredible mess of the simplest of things.

[Nparker]

...I cant help but wonder if Victoria has ever had such an ill equipped council...

I just hope the next council is better, but I fear it could be even worse.

[Sparky]

I'm a fan of reconciliation but M Helps either doesn't understand it or doesn't care about it. Reconciliation isn't, by definition, done to people. It's an exercise of coming together through understanding. Reparations follow that understanding, they don't lead, and this is a nation to nation, province to nation issue, not a tiny city issue.....

 

Yours is an excellent post Taco. Thank you for stating what I have been thinking since the statue affair. I can't imagine the joy that she must have felt when that story garnered national media attention. The problem is that in the context of reconciliation, that attention was ill gotten booty. That wee hours of the morning act of reconciliation was more divisive that it was healing. It polarized the thoughts of many for all the wrong reasons.

 

In my mind reconciliation is as much a feeling as it is an action.

 

One of the definitions of reconciliation is "the action of making one view or belief compatible with another."

 

In my mind it is naive to think that actions without feeling can restore a human's emotional position. You can't rebuild a relationship with a neighbour by slipping a fifty under his door after you have driven over his dog. That would be considered rude and uncaring. It's going to take a lot more than that before you even get to the part where he accepts your money.

 

Reconciliation is a lot like love. There is the physical aspect that needs to be rewarding for both as well as the emotional and spiritual aspects. Unless all of these needs join harmoniously together, love simply just can't flourish.

 

It can feel like love and look like love, but in all fairness it can't really be true love if there is cash left on the nightstand.

[Stephen James]

Yours is an excellent post Taco. Thank you for stating what I have been thinking since the statue affair. I can't imagine the joy that she must have felt when that story garnered national media attention. The problem is that in the context of reconciliation, that attention was ill gotten booty. That wee hours of the morning act of reconciliation was more divisive that it was healing. It polarized the thoughts of many for all the wrong reasons.

 

In my mind reconciliation is as much a feeling as it is an action.

 

One of the definitions of reconciliation is "the action of making one view or belief compatible with another."

 

In my mind it is naive to think that actions without feeling can restore a human's emotional position. You can't rebuild a relationship with a neighbour by slipping a fifty under his door after you have driven over his dog. That would be considered rude and uncaring. It's going to take a lot more than that before you even get to the part where he accepts your money.

 

Reconciliation is a lot like love. There is the physical aspect that needs to be rewarding for both as well as the emotional and spiritual aspects. Unless all of these needs join harmoniously together, love simply just can't flourish.

 

It can feel like love and look like love, but in all fairness it can't really be true love if there is cash left on the nightstand.

i like this very much, and agree that to understand reconciliation is to understand the relationships between feelings and beliefs. Your writing helps me to crystallize my profound disappointment in the work of reconciliation in our community:  

 

I thought it was obvious to us all that it was more about relationships than transactions.

 

To Vic City Council it's just about tearing down statues loved by many people, reparations without understanding, allowing the occupation and destruction of iconic parks and facilities (also loved and needed by many people), and excuses for career criminals, among other failures. 

[Midnightly]

i am one of many who are completely against this giving a check idea Helps has... i think it is a horrible way to go about it.. you don't throw money at a problem and expect it to be all repaired, you need to get to the root of the problem (this is the same with many issues in this province.. like healthcare.. but that is a whole different thread!)

 

i'm not against spending the money on reconciliation.. i'll straight out say that, i'm against writing a check and leaving it at that... i would much rather see time and effort put in the process.. use that money to pay for the supplies to allow the first nations to finally build that log house at the top of beacon hill park... use that money to host gatherings to have first nations movie nights where you show first nations stories and films they have made, use the money to openly offer language classes with an elder teaching for anyone who wishes to join...sponsor all sorts of cultural classes to keep the lessons of the traditional people alive... so much can be done that would bring people together, that would shine a light on the culture and the beauty of the culture and help it thrive...to me that is soo much more reconciliation then ripping down statues and writing checks

[JimV]

^You propose some very reasonable and constructive uses for the money.  That said, I think the entire area is well beyond the remit of council, was  passed without any citizen consultation (beyond the phony survey) and is likely opposed by a majority of residents.

[JimV]

Morris Tobacconist is folding up.  That will be the second classic Government Street business to close down recently.  There’s plenty of blame to go around, but City Hall bears a large part of the responsibility - encouraging vagrants, undermining the police, high taxation, totally snarling up downtown traffic, etc.  But  not satisfied with their efforts so far they vote to administer the coup de grace by rerouting cruise busses.  Pretty soon there will be nothing left down there but convenience stores and T-shirt shops.  (And, of course, bums sleeping in doorways.)

 

I suggest they make the busses unload in the 900 block of Pandora.  The tourists could gawk at the beating heart of Victoria.  Then they could make their way in small groups, perhaps with police escort, to the deserted streets of Old Town.  It would be like visiting an old west ghost town, with the additional thrill of a lingering sense of menace.

[m3m]

Yes, I’m sure the drastic drop in tobacco use over the past decades had nothing to do with it.