Post by CRCP on Nov 1, 2006 13:39:35 GMT -5
Kelowna Capital News
Okanagan growth needs fresh thinking
Oct 29 2006
To the editor:
I wonder if the business and community leadership could approach certain problems like growing traffic and lack of water; without creating a plan that demands more pavement and wider roads, and more water?
Our world here has obviously changed, so let's make common sense prevail. Don't continue to invest millions of dollars into tourism marketing annually with the hope of increasing visitors each in their own car.
As a result, this sort of promotion grows our visitor traffic by 10 per cent a year. This marketing approach was good 20 years ago, but today we need to invest those marketing dollars wisely, in-sync with our infrastructure capabilities, investing more in group travel and conventions, and embracing a plan that clearly attracts more visitors, but less traffic.
When we know the planet is warming, we're going to have less water. And the source for most of our water is in a very fragile eco-system that is not fed by a mountain source, it's a groundwater source and on the long-term not dependable-it's the nature of living in a confined valley, which is either a desert or on the edge of a desert. This limitation provides an environment that should be treasured by most people who live here, and at the same time recognized as one in the balance. This understanding should be at the core of our cultural development here.
But if we would accept a ceiling on our urban growth, we could better plan around labour shortages and maintain accurate forecasting so that our community planning will be accurate, which is key when one considers how much this planet and our world is changing.
Attracting more and more workers into the valley whether they be immigrants or not, in order to solve a worker shortage particularity with new home construction, which then causes population increases and infrastructure that can't cope, seems, well, somewhat silly.
And as far as attracting those younger workers to replace that ageing workforce, here's a novel tip: Try paying them more.
More than half of the 30,000 people who access the Kelowna Food Bank are currently employed in low paying jobs. If you couple this with the growing number of self-employed people who could be defined as working poor, there's every reason to believe that a sleeping giant of a problem is lurking here, needing to be solved now, not 20 years from now.
I am surprised that given the degree of homelessness in the Central Okanagan, that any discussion of economic development actions targeting opportunity and prosperity can exist without considering poverty. A discussion about one cannot be real without including the other. This discussion should be at the core of what drives community investment in economic development. If we stray from that foundation principle, we truly have not anticipated what may be in our future.
Please, invite some new and fresh idealists into the mix, and I'm sure a balanced positive perspective about the Okanagan's future will re-emerge.
This time, one that is more sustainable.
Don Elzer,
Kelowna
_________________
Okanagan growth needs fresh thinking
Oct 29 2006
To the editor:
I wonder if the business and community leadership could approach certain problems like growing traffic and lack of water; without creating a plan that demands more pavement and wider roads, and more water?
Our world here has obviously changed, so let's make common sense prevail. Don't continue to invest millions of dollars into tourism marketing annually with the hope of increasing visitors each in their own car.
As a result, this sort of promotion grows our visitor traffic by 10 per cent a year. This marketing approach was good 20 years ago, but today we need to invest those marketing dollars wisely, in-sync with our infrastructure capabilities, investing more in group travel and conventions, and embracing a plan that clearly attracts more visitors, but less traffic.
When we know the planet is warming, we're going to have less water. And the source for most of our water is in a very fragile eco-system that is not fed by a mountain source, it's a groundwater source and on the long-term not dependable-it's the nature of living in a confined valley, which is either a desert or on the edge of a desert. This limitation provides an environment that should be treasured by most people who live here, and at the same time recognized as one in the balance. This understanding should be at the core of our cultural development here.
But if we would accept a ceiling on our urban growth, we could better plan around labour shortages and maintain accurate forecasting so that our community planning will be accurate, which is key when one considers how much this planet and our world is changing.
Attracting more and more workers into the valley whether they be immigrants or not, in order to solve a worker shortage particularity with new home construction, which then causes population increases and infrastructure that can't cope, seems, well, somewhat silly.
And as far as attracting those younger workers to replace that ageing workforce, here's a novel tip: Try paying them more.
More than half of the 30,000 people who access the Kelowna Food Bank are currently employed in low paying jobs. If you couple this with the growing number of self-employed people who could be defined as working poor, there's every reason to believe that a sleeping giant of a problem is lurking here, needing to be solved now, not 20 years from now.
I am surprised that given the degree of homelessness in the Central Okanagan, that any discussion of economic development actions targeting opportunity and prosperity can exist without considering poverty. A discussion about one cannot be real without including the other. This discussion should be at the core of what drives community investment in economic development. If we stray from that foundation principle, we truly have not anticipated what may be in our future.
Please, invite some new and fresh idealists into the mix, and I'm sure a balanced positive perspective about the Okanagan's future will re-emerge.
This time, one that is more sustainable.
Don Elzer,
Kelowna
_________________