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| OPINION - July 27, 2010 |
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| Editorial |
| Pushing Us Back |
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Post Staff
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Cancel the Hylo dump.
Halt the Bold Center.
Rip up the lakeshore walking trails.
Board up the Lac La Biche County offices.
Annul the marriage of county and town.
We can’t have anything nice. Or, perhaps a better way to say it, is the only way we can have something new, is to debate it until no one cares if we have it or not, and as the public is moving from concern to apathy, threaten legal proceedings to spice up the news coverage, host public forums, campaign for and against it as though it were a provincial election, and then have a community-wide vote that will accept it anyway.
Is the Hylo dump issue (which now that we look back at the first line of the second paragraph, is not so much ‘nice’ as it could be ‘new’) heading toward Lac La Biche’s County’s second favourite P-Word? (Plamondon is first, of course … Petition is third).
A plebiscite by residents of the county as to whether or not a new regional waste landfill facility should go in at the proposed Hylo location is sure to be coming.
It’s sad that some people have so little trust in those elected to make decisions of this magnitude for us, that they demand the onus be once again put to the voters. We already voted to get elected leaders. Perhaps we should let them lead. It’s agreed that there has to be some skepticism, some concern when big ticket, big impact ideas are proposed. But if we kick and scream, fight and pull, at every opportunity or project that is being created to make life better for our community, how will be move forward?
Those who are willing to bear the brunt of ridicule and scorn for sticking their necks out in defence of their beliefs are to be commended,. They are entitled to rebut. It’s what makes democracy great. But at what cost to the greater good are they doing it?
It seems that their fight has begun to overshadow the issue.
A landfill is needed. The current regional landfill has reached its capacity. A new location has been investigated for the last decade. The Hylo location, alongside an existing landfill site, was deemed the most ideal placement. Studies, reports, specialists’ testimonials and a vast array of information has all pointed towards the same result: Hylo is it.
Will a vote make the evidence any less believable? Will it make the nay-sayers any less credible?
Nope.
It will just be another wound in the scar-filled history of this area’s terrific struggle to move ahead.
Bold Center, amalgamation, county office; all previous plebiscite winners. Get ready for one more battle-scarred candidate to enter the winner’s circle if they Hylo landfill debate gets put to a grand vote. |
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