Never ending growth bad for us all
I was reading a local article which stated the local North Cowichan bureaucracy wishes to expand itself some more with over $500,000 hoped to be spent on three new employees.
In the next breath we are told that over $700,000 collected from the deforestation of Mt. Tzouhalem must continue because it puts dollars in our North Cowichan coffers (to pay for the expense of running the municipal bureaucracy). The bureaucracy then expects an additional four to seven per cent tax increase each year to cover their expansive and lofty plans for the Valley. However, this drives up local rents and thus affects those living on a lower income. I mean are lower income and those on a fixed income or retirement income going to be given a four to seven per cent increase in their living allowances each year? Not likely.
Personally, I have come to understand the importance of slowing down the push for never-ending economic “growth”. Cutting up the environmental pie for logging, mining, fracking, fishing and oil extraction has put us into this sad state of affairs which is seen around us today. Consumerism and the push for more has landed us all in this place where the borders of Vancouver have expanded almost to Chilliwack. The natural farmland that once surrounded the city has been replaced with big box stores, warehouses, shopping malls, and subdivisions of expensive homes. This has been going on across Vancouver Island as well, where natural forests which support wildlife are gradually being mowed down to make way for subdivision after subdivision of new homes. I predict that Vancouver Island will be one big continuous city from Swartz Bay, through Victoria, on to Mill Bay and Shawnigan Lake, past Duncan to Lake Cowichan, on past YellowPoint/ Ladysmith/Nanaimo, right on up to Campbell River, all within the next 50 years.
Our woes are in the way we live our lives. And presently everyone wants better homes, better cars, better cities, bigger bureaucracies, newer hospitals, newer police stations, and more wealth for themselves. I take a look at what has happened to North America in the last 300 years and I ask myself: “Can this mindset continue? Can we afford to cut up the environmental pie non-stop?”
Bill Woollam
Duncan