Dear Editor,
When it comes to civic matters, indifference and inertia leave us with “We get what we deserve”.
My absence from the spring forum held in the Community Hall in Ashcroft on Thursday, April 14 was regretted. Pain and arthritis is my excuse.
When informed of the Village’s own testing of our water supply, and its acceptable results, it leaves us wondering why Council is still enamoured by the enticement of infrastructure money to the tune of millions of dollars, leaving the village yet indebted to several million more.
The Health Advisory board is just that: an advisory board. Advice is not a direct order; it is advice.
If civic health is proved to be threatened, that is one thing. If civic health does not appear to be threatened as a result of tests, then how can we justify taking on a debt that will cost many hundreds of thousands more over time? It simply doesn’t make sense.
It is not hearsay that should determine Council’s decision. It is the facts. How Council reacts to doubts expressed by the electorate can be telling.
In small communities like ours, the reaction to any opposing views seems to be entrenchment; that is, entrenchment regarding a decision that has already been made. It was seen in the case of the 600-signature opposition to the naming of one of our schools, and it rears up again in the expression of doubts about the water upgrade by experienced older residents of Ashcroft.
Former journalist and columnist Allan Fotheringham had a name for those who “go along”. He called them “trained seals”.
Esther Darlington
Ashcroft