Following are emailed reader responses to stories or letters to the editor for the third week of June 2024. They have been edited slightly for readability. 

Got something you want to add? Send an email to editor Marshall Jones at mjones@infonews.ca.

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Kelowna forest clean up group removed 200K pounds of trash this year, launches new pollution reporting app

I would suggest dumps reduce what they charge you when you bring stuff to them. They rob you blind. I took an old coffee table to mission flats and was charged $10, outrageous! Try making it affordable to haul your waste to these landfills and people might start using them again? — Lois Genge

Suggestion: start a gallery of photos revealing those who took the time to use the trash containers. Mount cheap cameras and provide internet fame and recognition for responsible people. Just a thought. — Mel Garratt

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Hello Marshall,

The problem of littering goes back to accountability and lack of enforcement. Can you imagine how many people we would need in a single city to enforce littering laws, even if people reported those who are guilty of littering?

At Walmart, I found an abandoned minivan seat but didn't see who left it. There is little likelihood of tracing ownership and ultimately bylaw and police officers have too few staff and too much to respond to.

If we catch anyone, we have to ensure they are properly and fully punished as their conscience arguably isn't working.

Maybe hold people fully accountable at the dump, charge little or nothing if they are responsible but hit them hard if they aren't?

With residences, interview each member and ensure they are following clear rules fully? If they keep messing up on the rules then fine them heavily in a way they cannot avoid paying?

Cities and towns need to provide garbage cans and recycling containers and ensure they are secure against being heavily messed up or broken into.

Bus companies must be part of the solution at their bus stops and the same with skytrain etc.

Malls need to provide adequate and durable bins. Why did one mall in Penticton have a special kind of bin completely removed without replacing them?

Sincerely,
Patrick Longworth

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Threatened turtles on their way to lay eggs crushed by cars in Kamloops, Okanagan

I'm not sure how people are so dense that they drive right into turtles. I see them frequently, they are easy to avoid for anyone watching the road in front of their faces. — Brent Lipinski

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Kamloops mayor changes tune on support for performing arts centre

The plan to make that space into performing arts well surpasses Reid's, hopefully short, time in his position. Reid is just being oppositional as that is his narcissistic oppositional simple minded default.
Get arts into downtown. — Matthew Marra

Arts are in downtown, from museums to theatres to concert arenas, and they lose money every month. Narcissism is fantasy living and it's fantasy to think this project would do anything but lose money. It's fine if private citizens who have been milking this city for money for decades want to fund it with their own money but it's any responsible politicians job to martial public resources with careful thought and in case you missed that part in this article, the funding for this over priced money loser has not even been detailed. If you're so keen, please contribute publicly to a GoFundMe campaign for this project so everyone can see you'll put your money where your mouth is. If it isn't that would make you narcissistic. — Marshall Krueger

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JONESIE: Just kill the problem deer, already

I have had hundreds of deer encounters. Most of the problems happen from encounters with stupid people, trying to get a photo and lure them with food. I've even seen people trying to pet a fawn that was left for a bit by its mother, a common situation while the mother rests or feeds. How many attacks by deer in a town compared to assaults, traffic accidents etc.? With perspective it shows very little risk. — Ian Chadwick

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Conservatives take Liberal stronghold in last-minute Toronto byelection victory

iNFOnews.ca managing editor Marshall Jones asked newsletter readers: "Do you think Trudeau should step down?"

No, I don’t think he should step down. I believe he should endure an election loss and go through the humiliating process of dealing with that. He needs a lesson on humility and honesty. Then the party can decide his fate going forward.

I don’t think the conservatives will have a majority in Parliament if they win. I believe they will have to call another election within a short period of time. Eventually, I think, we will see a two party democracy with the NDP almost extinct, which is sad because of all the work Jack Layton did.

My two cents.

Marc Bremner

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Thank heavens this is just a byelection. Hopefully those rich people from St. Pauls will change their minds when the real election starts. In the meantime, stubborn Justin Trudeau should listen to his party members and step down. With Stephen Harper being rated as the worst PM in Canada, Pierre Poilievre is far worse. — Devon Johnstone

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Hello Marshall,

I was born in 1969 so I was unaware of Trudeau-mania but in my lifetime I don't think I have ever voted for the federal Liberals never mind B.C.'s pseudo Liberals. The only prime minister I came close to admiring was Joe Clark but not because he was from Alberta or a Conservative, he just seemed unlike any of the other politicians I had witnessed to that point. He is tainted by his time with Mulroney as well as his short time as prime minister. To me, John Turner seemed untrustworthy if not criminal and I never liked Mulroney nor his rapport with Reagan. I don't think I have ever voted for a winning party federally because the winners are tainted by criminality or compromise. I cannot think of a federal Liberal who could replace the unlikable Justin Trudeau and I don't like Pierre Poilievre.

I feel strongly about federal politics and the need for true change not pseudo change through a changing of the corrupted old guard parties of Liberal or Conservative.

We have no right to mock the U.S. for their ridiculous two party rule politics when we have the same problem in Canada.

Sincerely,
Patrick Longworth

PS: My apologies for perhaps the first totally negative letter without even any positive suggestions but that is what politics in Canada has come to be for me, completely negative and a waste of my voting and valuable time.

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$19,000 fine and house arrest for Lake Country man who defrauded EI

Persistent thievery from the social safety net at some point should disallow access to the social safety net. — William Mastop

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Hi Marshall,

It probably isn't fair to small business owners, but why do people think that businesses should continue in perpetuity or that corporations should "live forever"? Even the business theorists bear out that eventually competition will weed out certain lower performing businesses, right? My employers have exploited my body and my labour and barely used my brain to the extent that I am an old man before my time and they paid me pittances. The BC government doesn't enforce laws or make employers afraid for their lives. I earned three dollars an hour at McDonald's when I was a teen, the minimum went up to $3.65, then I got fifteen cents extra, then the firm shoved me out the door.

BC arguably is a "slave wage labour market" in a lot of industries especially with the "fraudulent" unions like the ones that corporations protect themselves with.

Sincerely,
Patrick Longworth

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Drones replacing fireworks for Canada Day in Kamloops, Vernon

I've watched a couple of those drone shows in other areas. They appeared a little slow and clumsy at times but still very impressive and I'm sure they'll improve to the point of being far more entertaining than fireworks as their potential is currently unlimited. Fireworks are pretty for sure but they're also pretty much all the same. The drone shows actually entertain and transmit messages.  And of course, fireworks terrify most animals - wild and domestic - as well as cause pollution and involve risk of fire and injury. Conscious positive evolution requires an open mind, creative new ideas, and the willingness to adapt. Looking forward to watching the drones! — Karen Klein

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Great news that Kamloops and Vernon will be using drone displays rather than igniting fireworks! It is long past time to be responsible and intelligent about these displays! Fireworks have always had a dangerous history, from the exploding Chinese factories where they are made, and the deaths caused by these burning factories, to fires caused by being too close to greenery and buildings, and to burns caused to youngsters lighting firecrackers in their hands. Years ago in Central Park in Burnaby my husband as a young boy was watching the Halloween fireworks when one firecracker accidentally shot out the wrong way, hitting a young pregnant woman in the stomach which immediately killed her and her unborn baby. It made a lifelong impression on him and so many others who were at the display. With the gorgeous displays we have seen with drones, it is time to stop using fireworks powered by dynamite. Hooray to Kamloops and Vernon moving away from fireworks! — Eileen and Hank Hackett

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