About this feature

Email roastandtoast@ lethbridgeherald.com or send to The Herald, 504 7 St. S., Lethbridge, T1J 2H1. Submissions will be edited for length. Comments are the opinion of the readers, not the Lethbridge Herald and not all will be published, particularly if they are of similar content, no longer timely, in poor taste, potentially libelous, contain accusations, target specific persons or businesses or where facts cannot be verified. This feature appears each Tuesday in The Lethbridge Herald.

ROAST: To Nancy Giles of the LCCR for her recent comments concerning odors. Quit playing the victim here as you know that you are in violation of the Land Use Bylaw. It is hard to believe that no odors would come from the LCCR residence when there is reportedly 40 plus cats residing there. Also, being that food is being left out for feral cats perhaps the neighbours are smelling the skunks that would also be attracted to the cat food. It is also totally uncalled for when reading about board members and the plaintiff being verbally and physically attached. It is no wonder the plaintiff didn’t show up to the hearing.

TOAST: To everyone involved in the clean up along Bridge Drive this past week. It is much more pleasing to walk and drive down that way now. Also, a toast to the two ladies for their cleanup efforts along Walsh Drive West. It too looks much better than before.

ROAST: I read Councillor Crowson’s comments on Twitter regarding bridge/ward funding. It’s really come full circle on council when she’s the one with the immature comments. That was the old mayor’s way of running council; stop living in the past and learn from the history you always quote.

ROAST: To the city and its plans for adding another cart to store on my property. I will be returning my cart if they try to leave one.

ROAST: To city council and the Enmax Centre manager for implementing paid parking at the Enmax starting in September. With the gouging of utilities and the cost of gas prices in Lethbridge many can’t afford the luxury of the great entertainment our Hurricanes offer. Instead of being welcoming, the Enmax closes entrances herding patrons into metal detectors and this during a pandemic when they should be opening extra entrances to encourage social distancing. Is all city owned parking having fees (Casa, soccer centre, Galt,

ATB Centre, Logan Boulet arena, etc.) or are you just trying to drive out another junior team? We already lost the Lethbridge Broncos; don’t think it can’t happen again. I hope residents around the Enmax are willing to put up with the extra traffic.

ROAST: Now that the City thinks parking should be paid for at the taxpayer funded Enmax Centre I can only assume the City employees will start paying for their parking at their workplace? I look forward to seeing this on a council agenda. Prime downtown real estate should be a higher fee than our Southside arena. I think the going rate for parking is $70/ month downtown, seems only fair that the Council members should pay too as they voted it in.

TOAST: To MP Rachael Thomas for hosting a very informative town hall meeting on Thursday night at the Sandman Lethbridge Lodge. She is incredibly knowledgeable with a balanced wit and humor that kept us all engaged during the session. The open microphone question-and-answer segment was very interesting. Rachael, keep up the excellent work, and I look forward to your next open house - I will be there!

TOAST: To Councillor Dodic who seems to understand Lethbridge residents’ frustration with the change-over to front street bin pickup. It has been a disaster. For some other councilors to say that we should have to pay for a service we previously had – what kind of logic is that? Furthermore, for ourselves we had a written commitment from city administration at the time bins were brought in that bins would remain in the alley. Based on that commitment we paid to have concrete work done in our backyard for a place to put the bins. Obviously, the city’s word isn’t worth a nickel. Thank you to councillor Dodic and those others who stand/speak up on this issue. Please move the bins to the lanes in the back – they are unsightly, unsafe, and difficult to maneuver.

TOAST: To Kelly at the Herald’s front door. Your skills and kindness and thoroughness are first class.

TOAST: Big praise for all those who did such an organized job guiding the traffic to and through the AMA Shredding Event at the Enmax. In and out – no hassles – smiles all round. The Charity Angels even sent a glorious spring day for the occasion. I do hope the Food Bank did well.

ROAST: I was very disheartened to read that Jason Kenney was on the Russian sanctions target list of no entry to that country. It’s too bad for Alberta and Canada as a whole. He would have made a good Russian under Putin. Their gain is our loss.

TOAST: To the City of Lethbridge water department for great drinking water. We shouldn’t take our tap water for granted. Thank you.

ROAST: To whomever is in charge of the caretaking at the Yates. The windows are so filthy both inside and out it’s embarrassing to be there. It’s been like that since before Christmas.

TOAST: To Ryan Parker for standing up for us transit users who aren’t happy with the new system which is a big disaster.

ROAST: To all the mandate protesters – again in Ottawa and some in Lethbridge. They have chosen to let people lose their lives because of their attitudes. My neighbour is a retired nurse and drives to B.C. every second week to spend the last days with her son. He was diagnosed with early-stage cancer and could have been saved but his surgery was cancelled four times because surgeries were delayed due to hospitals filled with COVID patients who wouldn’t get the vaccine.

TOAST: In her April 23 UCP hate essay, West Lethbridge

MLA Shannon Phillips tells how the UCP is responsible for the huge increase in automobile insurance rates. Above that column the Herald poll asked if there should be a cap on insurance rates: 91 per cent said yes, 9 per cent said no. The only poll I recall that bested that one in the yes column was when the Herald poll asked “Should Alberta environment minister (Shannon Phillips) quit over her handling of the Bighorn country file.” The result was 93 per cent yes - 7 per cent no. West Lethbridge is fed up and will replace Phillips with a more positive, productive representative!

TOAST: To city council for approving cityLINK. Transit needs to adapt to the times and those times have changed. You can’t make everybody happy, but most people shouldn’t suffer because of that.

TOAST: To Tim Sanderson and his team at City Transit for cityLINK. Yes it doesn’t accommodate everyone but it’s a huge improvement over the old system. It’s time to embrace the future.

TOAST: To council for looking into the way garbage is picked up. Hope you can fix this mess.

ROAST: To the city council for not assisting more with the group trying to cope with the stray cats that people drop off and/or leave abandoned. We should applaud these people who are making such efforts to do their best to address this issue.

TOAST: To the city for rolling out the green carts. With two weeks between garbage pickup, it’s not easy for families sometimes to wait that long. The organics program is going to help immensely.

TOAST: To those whose efforts are bringing new doctors to Lethbridge. Finally, we have some good news which I hope the NDP will acknowledge. Something is being done and for that, congratulations and thanks are in order.

TOAST: And a great big laugh to D. Rayne. Every time I see your name on a letter I start laughing and “can’t wait to see what the lefty” is going to ramble on about now. You never fail to disappoint or provide the chuckle I need to start my day.

TOAST: To the recruiters who have managed to bring new doctors to our city. Eleven new ones is a step in the right direction. Glad the city is on board to help show why Lethbridge is such a great place to live.

TOAST: To city council for being representative of all citizens here and giving us a voice. We need opposing views and a council who can work together for everyone’s best interests. This crew is doing that. Long overdue.

ROAST: If two former leaders of the defunct Wildrose party, Brian Jean and Danielle Smith could be persuaded to help Jason Kenney with his counting of mail-in ballots on his leadership review, things will speed up and credibility will increase. They will, when the results are known, help Kenney to decide whether to stay or go.

In a different arena, it was incredible when all of Canada’s premiers decided to stop publishing the depressing daily reports of new cases of COVID outbreaks and deaths. If nothing is reported, nothing is happening right? Why depress Canadians needlessly with reality?

ROAST: To Notley and the NDP for the relentless CTV ads towards selecting Notley and Alberta would be better off -NOT... ley. The NDP is in their standard mode of spend, spend, spend on advertising on an election that is not even on the near agenda.

ROAST: To Shannon Phillips for continually harping about insurance rates and the doctor shortage in Lethbridge. Insurance rates go up and down according to coverage changes because of newer vehicles, fines et cetera.

People drove a lot less during the height of the pandemic which resulted in fewer claims. You never said how many doctors we lost from 2015-2019 when the NDP was in power. I fail to see how anyone can see you as a good legislator.

TOAST: To the SPC for moving ahead with the Oliver Block designation; it’s truly one of our great historic buildings here. Glad to see there is interest in preserving history.

ROAST: As reported on the front page of April 29 Herald, “Man in stolen property case back in custody.” 1. 50 stolen property charges reduced to four. 2. Adjournment after adjournment over two years. 3. Lawyers withdrawing as can’t contact client. 4. Client not in custody after a two-year courthouse circus act. 5. Stolen property charges totaling thousands of dollars. 6. Man now in custody again as no deterrence. The hiring of more police is futile - they may as well not answer the phone or bother attending the scene. What’s the point?

ROAST: What a farce that the City will only issue tickets under extreme circumstances for failure to remove your vehicles for street sweeping. It should have been all or none.

ROAST: To Trudeau and company on the hill. Here we are on the brink of World War Three and he wants to ban assault rifles and handguns. Exactly how does he figure we are to protect ourselves?

ROAST: To the city and their ‘we must increase our spending budget’ attitude. Now we will have three bins to store and stink up our property. This, of course, will result in more infrastructure and employees and more burden on taxpayers. Yard clean-up is really the only time we need green bins.

ROAST: To the City for not having its Legacy Park pump house problem dealt with yet.

ROAST: My parents moved from Alberta to Manitoba when the NDP ran insurance as a government entity. Their rates doubled overnight. Reason given? “Everybody pays the same rate regardless of age, experience or driving record”. Same in BC under ICBC (see no fault accidents). Your solution is far worse than the current situation, bad drivers should pay more. By the way, the price of vehicles goes up each year therefore the price of insurance has to go up to cover replacement or repair costs, pretty simple if you put your politics aside and use common sense. Nobody likes it but it’s simply a fact.

ROAST: Time for police to lay charges against anyone attacking the volunteer board members regarding LCCR. Your site was not shut down, it has to move. That’s it, the 100 per cent complete story. It violated bylaws for usage in a residential area. Blame Spearman and his influence for overlooking laws if you want to point a finger, not the people who upheld the laws.

ROAST: Councillor Crowson, your post on Twitter would lead some to believe that Council voted on a ward system motion when in fact it was a committee with only a few Councillors on it, and it was an internal motion only. If you don’t get your way you are choosing to mislead? Was this willful inaccuracy designed to make others look bad? I used to respect you but now I have questions. An apology to Council is needed and would be appreciated.

ROAST: So now the City wants me to pay more to attend events at Enmax? Parking meters (just like downtown) for hundreds of vehicles in a small amount of time? One councillor responds “people will just have to show up earlier”? I work downtown, I see the frustration of people trying to use the meters, now line up 20+ people per machine in the freezing temperatures waiting to get into a concert or hockey game – any councillor who voted in favour of this is disconnected from reality.