Letter to the editor - Vote yes for economic opportunity

Posted by on 3 November 2009 | 0 Comments

The Daily Townsman - November 3, 2009

Cranbrook has and continues to be a primary resource reliant City. As we are all aware, such industries (Tembec for instance) and the once prolific and well-paying jobs have been down-sizing and disappearing. This community has and will continue to experience negative impacts as this scenario continues to spiral downward. A healthy local economy is essential for a sustainable and livable community. It brings the resources and investment that allow residents and a community to prosper. A healthy local economy brings employment and a solid and balanced tax base to support services and improvements that can lead to healthier lifestyles and greater personal opportunity. With a strong economy, Cranbrook can achieve a higher standard of community development and offer an overall higher quality of life for everyone.

Currently, Cranbrook has some major physical constraints which preclude the possibility of achieving meaningful sustainable economic development. It is apparent that the City recognizes that a strong economy can be a vehicle for positive change. A strategic boundary expansion will relieve this problem and set the stage for new major land dependent business to locate here - the type of business that can provide many sustainable and well paying jobs. Although important, I am not referring to 5, 10 or 20 job industries. Rather, 300, 400 or 500 job industries. Notwithstanding other benefits, this type of opportunity will keep our youth in the community, provide them with a future here, permit them an opportunity to afford housing and  raise families, will attract new families and return our population growth to its former, healthier rate. The quality of life will improve for everyone rather than a few.

So, I encourage our community to critically dissect the "facts" that are being circulated to us. I can assure you as a professional community planner that if you do, you will discover that far too much of the information is superficial, presumptuous, sensational and full of conjecture. It often loosely strings together concerns/ issues/ facts to create a false logic that only distorts or confuses understanding. It does not properly or responsibly reflect the scope of the issues involved in the east hill boundary expansion. Accordingly, this does a profound disservice to informed discussion, the question at hand, and ultimately, generations of Cranbrook residents to come. Community consultation is central to informed decision-making particularly in the context of a referendum of such significance. However, with that comes a sobering responsibility to ensure that all statements are factual, contextually accurate and properly and reasonably representative. In reading over a recent boundary expansion flyer, it was alarming to discover that the information did not come close to meeting this test either by accident or design. It was overtly biased, sensational and alarmist. This is very troubling to me. I expect that reading such distorted information will result in many Cranbrook residents being unnecessarily confused, or worse, misled causing folks to go to the polls with an inaccurate assessment of the expansion issues and perhaps squander a fabulous opportunity for Cranbrook to move toward a healthier and economically sustainable future.

Ross Blackwell
Cranbrook