Sound Off — June 23, 2012

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/06/2012 (5195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Clean up the business in the back as well

Very pleased to see that business places will be doing a cleanup, don’t forget the back of your building. A renovation that is one year past already has left a fair amount of cement debris to sit on a city sidewalk, very unsightly, especially when the sidewalk is on a major street in Brandon.

Enough already — just do it

OK, enough complaining about our garbage containers. Moving garbage containers to be picked up each week is not new. If you live in a newer part of town, there are no back lanes and your container is moved out every week and put back. Why is it that if you have a back lane this is such a difficult chore. Try to be a help to the city instead of a hindrance and complain about a small request as rolling your container to the lane. The city has a program in place to help those who need help. Quit thinking up excuses of why you don’t want to do something and look at a way to make things work.

Double standard

The government has just implemented legislation that requires all cigarette packaging to have 75 per cent of the package surface covered with health warnings. Gross, disgusting and sometimes stomach-turning pictures of diseased cancerous lungs, people with the effects of COPD, the disfigurement of cancer surgery, even children exposed to second-hand smoke etc. and all the printed horrors of what smoking can do. As a whole society we stand up and applaud the “shock” value of this approach, hoping perhaps the next generation will be saved from our mistakes (even cause some adults to think and quit). Why then are some segments of our society so outraged and offended when they see stomach-turning pictures of babies being torn apart and killed by abortion? Do these members of society seem to have a double standard?

Bins should be out front

A better solution than having garbage bins put out in the back lanes for pickup would be to have all bins put out on the street, in front of houses. It’s easier as people keep their driveways and sidewalks clean in the winter and they would take them in when they get home or have nowhere to park.

With a little help from my friends

If neither the mayor nor the MLA understood the meaning of a conflict of interest, I wonder about “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours!”

It’s raining … it’s pouring … stop wasting our tax dollars

It is no wonder why our taxes are so high — this is the third time now that I have seen city workers watering the hanging flower baskets downtown in the pouring rain. Now, what is the point of that? They are wasting gas and wages when there is no need for it. This is totally stupid!

Providing a safety net

The reason the RCMP, and all police agencies for that matter, don’t pull off the road the whole way is for their safety. It forces people to slow down and move over so that they have a safe office to work in. This way, anyone speeding or out of control hits the police car and not the police officer. Unlike most people who go to work inside a building where they are safe, police have to work alongside the highway where people do 110 km/h beside them. By law, or at least by courtesy, you need to slow down and move over anyway, so how did this affect your day? It took you an extra two minutes to get where you were going and you didn’t kill anyone. Thank you to all the police agencies that keep us safe.

A taxing situation

Well, Mr. Selinger, I recently received my tax notice and, being a senior, wasn’t I surprised when I noticed I’m still paying a school tax. I refer to the media release on Sept. 18, 2011, and I quote, “Seniors and Farmers will pay no school taxes, Premier Greg Selinger announced today.” You even mention how you wanted close senior family members to live without having to worry about their property taxes. What I had planned on doing with that extra money was to add to my TFSA, to further build for those rainy times we all run into every so often. Thank goodness I quit smoking last year, trying not to burden our health-care system and save some money at the same time. Mr. Selinger, I hate to say it, but it appears your promises are without substance and as each day goes by, more and more of your promises are showing up empty.

Raise your own funds

Re: Strand proponents have not raised any money for their project. Why don’t these people put their own money toward this project? If it is such a worthwhile project, why haven’t they at least tried to raise some private money? They could have charity auctions/ barbecues/fundraisers, etc. Is it too hard? Are they too lazy? It boggles the mind.