Thoughts on BC Politics and More

The mayor of Penticton and Penticton-Summerland’s MLA had a bone to pick with each other last week over a controversial homeless encampment in the city, now a town hall meeting is planned where local residents can have their say. BC Conservative MLA Amelia Boultbee is having a town hall to discuss the encampment at Fairview Road and Highway 97 next to Ellis Creek as well as the broader issue of how to handle homeless camps. The event is at the Seniors Centre on Main Street at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 5. Boultbee said a big part of the issue is a lack of clarity on what specifically is being done to address the camp and support the people living there ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Last week the B.C. government took control of a fourth retirement home from Retirement Concepts, British Columbia’s largest chain of for-profit care homes, citing neglect of seniors. The home in Summerland joins homes in Comox, Nanaimo and Victoria that are already under the control of BC’s health authorities. In total, 30 per cent of the long-term care beds that Retirement Concepts owns are now being run by government agents. The company is paid by taxpayers to provide care, but the health authorities are clawing back the cost of running those facilities they now control. Retirement Concepts was established in 1988 and in 2016 the federal government’s Investment Review Division accepted the foreign takeover of Retirement Concepts by Anbang Insurance Group. A few months after the purchase, the chairman of Anbang was jailed for fraud by Chinese authorities and the company was put under the control of China’s insurance regulator. The Chinese government then ...

This week my Summerland office was visited by an individual living on a fixed income who is very concerned about being unable to afford the monthly gas bill. Does it seem fair that carbon tax revenues increase solely due to sub-zero temps, because citizens are forced to increase use of energy to keep warm? This individual also questioned why the carbon tax on the monthly gas bill was higher than the actual commodity cost of the gas used. It was also asked, with the temperatures dropping below freezing this week throughout the Okanagan, “ why was the (Provincial) NDP Government punishing citizens and cashing in on extra carbon tax revenue while people try to keep the pipes from freezing and try to stay warm ”.