‘Old Bag to Tea’ event boosts PRH
Dear editor: Please accept our sincere thanks and appreciation for your generous donations towards our recent Take an Old Bag to Tea hospital fundraiser. Just over $15,000 was raised – a new high for the event!
Proceeds will be used to help purchase equipment for the new David E. Kampe Tower at Penticton Regional Hospital. It will also help us in raising the $250,000 we pledged to the campaign.
Everyone in in our community and surrounding area will benefit from our much needed hospital improvements. From birth to death and everything in between, we are all touched one way or another.
Local business and talented artisans are often called on to help with fundraising events, and it is so encouraging to live and work in such a generous volunteer-oriented and supported community.
During our fundraiser this year we placed a spotlight on local business and on shopping local and supporting local talent, as they are the heart and soul of our community! Thank you again for your support! June Revell-Quevillon
On behalf of the Penticton Hospital Auxiliary
When I first moved to the Okanagan nearly 30 years ago I looked at developments on reserve lands and decided I couldn’t make a substantial investment in housing while renting the land. I never once thought about school taxes or the lack of contribution to the communities these homes was attached to. But that doesn’t make it right. Red Wing has 353 homes that don’t pay school taxes to the province: 353 x $600 = $211,800; over 20 years that’s $4.2 million that should have gone into supporting the school system.
Now magnify this by 353 + 600 + 48 = 1,001 homes, and we are talking about $12 million over 20 years that has been siphoned out of school taxes just in this area.
Now magnify this by West Kelowna; the Squamish and Musqueam bands down at the Coast plus likely hundreds of others across this country.
This will give you a clearer picture of the problem and perhaps explain why the province is stretched for funds for schools.
This is wrong and the provincial government has a duty to correct this. Taxes have to be applied in an equitable manner.
Currently when the City of Penticton does business with reserve lands they charge an offsite fee for some of the services they provide. There should be no reason why the province cannot do the same. They have lots of high-priced lawyers at their beck and call that can deal with this issue. Elvena Slump
Penticton
Here we are three years later, with the Parks and Recreation Master Plan presented to the city. The mayor commented as to some of the faux pas along the way in more or less of a mea culpa way. He alluded to the fact that lessons had been learned as to openness with the community and interacting with the citizenry on a more positive way. Is this a buttering up for the upcoming election or what?
Wow! It only took three years of committee work and a substantial amount of taxpayer dollars paid to an outside consulting firm to come to this realization. I am impressed with council’s perspicacity here. They are masters of the obvious, but at our expense.
In October, some of the current council may be running for re-election. Here are some things to consider. Do some real soul searching and ask yourself the following.
1) Did this current council do the job that it promised in pre-election canvassing?
2) Did each and every council member meet or exceed any aspirations that I had for them?
3) When I vote this time will I gather all of the facts that I can before I vote? 4) Will I vote with my heart or my head? 5) Is the city better off than it was before this council came on the scene?
If you have any reservation for doubt here, start the learning process now or we could likely find ourselves in a similar situation for another four years. Is this to your liking? Ron Barillaro
Penticton