“Given the amount of money, time, and hard work which goes into the decision process, Abbotsford will find it awfully difficult to ever re-gain the trust of the provincial government for another grant.”
That is from someone who ought to know discussing just how inconceivably dumb it was for Mayor Bruce Banman, and Councillors John Smith, Bill MacGregor and Les Barkman to slam the door on Mike de Jong’s guarantee of $15.3 million to make a small dent in the ‘Abbotsford Homeless Crisis.’
The damage, it appears, goes far beyond the fact this Mayor and Council either don’t care or don’t know how to deal with homelessness. The damage now extends to the basic trust provincial politicians, cabinet members and premiers either have or don’t have in local communities and their ability to live up to the deals they make and to use the funds with which they are entrusted.
Believe it or not; trust is everything in politics. And now the provincial government doesn’t trust Abbotsford.
Why does it seem everything John Smith does seems to have a generation-long tail of costs associated with it …
The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse
Bruce Banman
Bruce Banman:
“This issue has divided the community in two … on both sides.” – CBC Radio, Feb 19, 2014
‘The provincial government has to come to the table. We need the participation of service providers, community organizations, churches and businesses to solve homelessness.’ Public Hearing, Oct 9, 2013
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Bill MacGregor
Bill MacGregor:
“It matters not where they are tended but that they are tended.” – Public Hearing, Feb 17, 2014
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John Smith
John Smith:
“Their fears may be irrational but that doesn’t matter.” Public Hearing, Feb 17, 2014
“In a previous existence I was a banker.” Public Hearing, Feb 17, 2014
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Les Barkman
Les Barkman:
“I met two homeless people at a fundraiser and they told me housing is not what they need.” Public Hearing, Feb 17, 2014
Wow did these schmucks think before they spoke or did they think we were so intelectually challenged that we couldn’t identify the diarrhoea spewing out of their mouth.
1. Les Barchman talked to “two homeless” people….HOLY you are kidding me ??? What kind of so called leader bases an opinion and MAKES a decision “on statements of so called “two homeless”
individuals??? So who are these two homeless people that he rests his decision upon can he produce names… I think not, one can safely assert that he talked to “two business men”… Moreover did he contact the Ministry of Social Services, Gov’t of Canada, the Province of BC, any social workers? What about psychologists or psychiatrists to ensure that he gathered adequate information to make an “informed” decision.
John Smith assertions of being a “banker “is laughable, and shows that he lacked insight education and initiative to grasp elementary concepts for social issues in regards to the homeless. His aforementioned assertions of “irrational fears” was also interesting… were these “irrational fears” not predicated on the actions of chicken manure, possessions being destroyed and BC supreme applications? In light of those facts alone one can safely state those “fears were not “irrational” at all.
The deliberate deceitful assertions of the Mayor Bruce Banman when he states “‘The provincial government has to come to the table. We need the participation of service providers, community organizations, churches and businesses to solve homelessness.”
Correct me if I am wrong did not the Province of BC already commit to 15.3 Million? Was it not the community organizations and churches that have thus far shouldered the care and attention to these individuals? What the voters need is this… the City council needs to… quit lying, quit the deceit, quit blaming every one else, (for the your lack lustre , and extremely poor performance in your job duties) and most of all quit making the assumption that you can treat the weakest of our citizens as waste… You were voted in to “represent” your contistuants not to humiliate them