Cheers &Jeers
JEERS: To Green MLA Ole Hammarlund for failing to pay his taxes – for the last three years! Disclosure statements showed the unpaid taxes, as well as unpaid HST, as liabilities. Hammarlund should obviously know better – he is currently drawing a $73,000 a year salary from the very taxpayers who do dutifully file their taxes each year. He had plenty of time to pay his dues. He was first nominated as the Green candidate a full 10 months before being elected. An elected official should set an example for their constituents, fulfilling basic civic responsibilities like attending community events and – yes – paying their taxes. These tax dollars are the lifeblood for essential environmental and energy-efficiency programming offered by the province. Hammarlund and his Green colleagues argue more investment should be made in these areas. His lack of care on this matter undermines his own ideals, as well as the work of his opposition colleagues.
CHEERS: To the City of Charlottetown for taking steps to increase the safety of cyclists and pedestrians in two separate areas of the city. There are plans to put in a long overdue sidewalk that extends along Kensington Road from the entrance to the Eastlink Centre to the entrance of the Red Shores parking lot. Since the gate went up in the Red Shores receiving area, blocking people off, patrons to the hockey and basketball games were forced to either walk around to the back entrance of the arena or out onto Kensington Road. It can be hard enough to see at night without adding hundreds of patrons to the equation. And, the city is moving forward on plans for a new dedicated bike lane on the Towers Road in behind the Charlottetown Mall, another dangerous area for cyclists and pedestrians. We also like the idea of pursuing an extended bike lane around Riverside Drive.
JEERS: To WestJet for recently denying a refund or credit to a Halifax woman who couldn’t make her flight because she is battling cancer and was placed in palliative care. Kathleen Spilek purchased a ticket to Ottawa to visit family members, but when her cancer worsened, she was unable to make the trip. We understand that airline companies have rules about refunds or giving customers credit, but these are not ordinary circumstances. Airlines also brag about their community initiatives, but this time they had the chance to show that they really are members of the community, and they dropped the ball.
JEERS: To two teenagers who were sentenced recently in Charlottetown provincial court for stealing and crashing a truck while drunk. Stealing the truck was the easy part since the keys were inside (this could be a separate Jeer for the truck’s owner). The youngest of the two, who wasn’t old enough to drive, was the one who crashed the truck, which was a total writeoff. The teens were placed on two-years probation. As well, they have to write an apology letter to the victim, perform 100 hours of community service and each pay $5,000 in restitution. This was a dangerous act that could have killed them or someone else. Let’s hope they learn from their stupid actions and don’t repeat this behaviour.
JEERS: To Three Rivers for taking so long to restore the websites of the former towns that make up the new municipality – Georgetown, Montague, Lower Montague and Brudenell. This could also be a soft ‘cheers’ for restoring the websites, but Three Rivers only did so after business owners complained, and still had to wait for something to be done.