By Mike Archer. So; Abbotsford City Council just passed a bylaw on blueberry cannons which, for all intents and purposes is exactly the same as the provincial legislation law which governs this issue, but allows the City to enforce the province’s law through its own bylaw.
Have I got that right?
This ludicrous issue, which has gone on for years because (I know … I keep repeating myself) the City does not have jurisdiction over the issue and the province keeps reminding it of that fact.
To make matters worse; the fines the City is seeking to collect as if it is allowed to enforce this provincial law are so small they are laughable.
If our bylaw department is now going to sit in the blueberry fields waiting to hand out $200, $300 and $500 fines to multi-million dollar per year businesses on behalf of less than a dozen chronic complainers … without even changing the existing rules … what on earth has been accomplished?
For (I promise) the last time:
- the City has no jurisdiction over the matter
- the number of people affected is so small it boggles the mind
- the has become a racial issue in a community which can ill-afford more division
Now that we have this enormous and completely unnecessary piece of business out of the way, can we get back to discussing at least one thing that is within the City’s jurisdiction?