Statistically speaking, we need more
Give yourself a pat on the back if you attended the annual fireside chat James Miller and I hosted Monday night at the Bufflehead Tapas Room.
The event raised $240 – all of which is going to the Salvation Army through our Be An Angel campaign.
The stories we’re running on the front page each day are heart-wrenching and demonstrate the importance of the Sally Ann’s work.
Thanks also to the Penticton Lakeside Resort for donating use of the room.
Many of the questions pitched to us during the 90-minute session focused on the state of newspapers in Penticton and elsewhere, but there were a couple others I found particularly interesting that I’m going to rehash here.
The first was whether the media has access to enough data to properly inform people about what’s going on in our community. My answer was no.
The example I cited was my attempt to confirm whether Penticton has been plagued by a wave of youth suicides in recent years, as some have suggested.
That effort led me to filing a freedom of information request to the BC Coroners Service. I got back complete data for adults, but only partial results for youth.
According to the service, there were no youth suicides recorded between 2011 and 2013, and somewhere between one and five youth suicides each year from 2014 through 2016. The service refused to disclose the actual numbers, because it believes doing so would allow the public to divine the identities of those kids who took their own lives. Hogwash. Unfortunately, my only recourse is an appeal through the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C, which will take months, if not years.
Meanwhile, if there is a serious problem with youth committing suicide in Penticton, we’re losing valuable time mounting an effort to stop it.
The other question of interest focused on whether the City of Penticton is doing enough to address the $175-million infrastructure deficit. Again, my answer was no.
About $100 million of that deficit – defined as the replacement value of infrastructure that has exceeded its service life – belongs to the utilities, which are self-financed.
The real concern lies in the other $75 million, like arenas, which are financed through general taxation.
The city’s response was to create an asset management reserve that will this year receive one per cent – worth about $1.2 million – of the total 3.4 per cent tax increase.
Based on planned increases in coming years, the fund would have a balance of about $8 million by 2021 – a far cry from $75 million.
However, council voted during budget talks to use the fund to finance a $1.6 million loan for revitalization of the 300 block of Main Street.
Granted, much of the work will address infrastructure, but as Coun. Helena Konanz observed, borrowing from the fund in just its second year for what’s largely viewed as a beautification project could be perceived as “tampering with the integrity” of it.
No one wants to pay more taxes, but I think council has to get serious about the issue.