I know, catchy title, but...although my dog is long past the age of placing these lovely gifts about my home, I feel I am walking into puddles of this every single time I go out my door, or turn on the TV.
Maybe someone in the "know" is reading my blogs? I only just mentioned the lack of sidewalks, and the terrible waste of money my last rant, when lo and behold, I am going down the road, and I spy caution signs all along the highway. I notice a dump truck, in the middle of a park...????WTF?????My eyes just about popped out of my head, they had dug up the very acceptable gravel pathways in a small park, and...wait for it....were putting in proper sidewalks!!! Really!!! Last year, brand new play ground equipment, hundred dollar pots surround the Gazebo, in the winter, Christmas lights grace the whole frigging area, with little deer (really) Santa and the works, lit up night after night for months and months. Ohhhh...doesn't it look lovely? Imagine folks whipping through town, on their way to someplace they want to get to, suddenly spying this park, screeching to a stop, and spending days, laying out cash all about town.
Tourism is something that our government sells on a steady basis. They dole out money for a gigillion projects that apparently are going to make every little hick town in British Columbia a tourist pit. Beautify, for the tourists. They will save your towns. Local folks will be able to find all types of employment, because of tourist dollars. Ki$$ my big fat A$$!!
For an extremely short period, each year, I AM one of these tourists. I have a travel trailer, and we go from point A to point B. We do the Wal-Fart thing, part-way... You know, stay in the parking lot for free...The only money I spend in the hick towns along the way, is fuel money, so no one is making a job beyond those who are already in business. We purchase our food in places with cheaper stores, and are totally self contained.
I personally do not care if we are traveling through a pimple town along the way, and they have flower pots hanging all over the bloody place. That is not going to make me stop, because, guess what...every single town has the same frigging flowers!! Do I decide to spend my money in a place, simply because they have "cement" sidewalks in the parks, or lovely playground equipment? Not on your life!!
I see what is happening in my town, nice big parking area by the Tourist Information building (which just happens to be beside this park) and every morning when I go to work, there is at least one of these spendaholic tourists parked for free, likely making their breakfast from the groceries in their cupboards. I doubt a single business in town has made a penny from them.
Tourism is a promise that the government shoved down our throats, back in a time when my honey was unemployed (because logging had become a big issue). I heard all the hype on how the whole damn town was suddenly going to survive, because of tourism. Well, perhaps it is my lack of people skills, but...I never saw a penny.
I work in a local hotel...guess how much of the money is made from tourists? Not a whole whack!!! No matter how nice the sidewalks are in our parks, or how many flowers grace the preferred possible tourist attractions , folks just do not come here to spend their holiday money.
We just get the dribbles of handouts from the government (our tax dollars) so we keep quiet when millions and billions are spent in Vancouver and Victoria, because...those ARE in fact tourist meccas in our province. My tax dollars were spent so Vancouver could have the Winter Olympics, my tax dollars are spent for the Dome and the Convention Centre. Hey, maybe if the town got a grant for a Sports Dome, we just might make some tourist dollars.
I saw my dear friend Christy Clark on TV last night, blinking away, saying how it doesn't matter how much money B.C. is promised from the big pipeline, we are not in this for the money....I call Bull Sh*t!! Every single government is always in it for the money!! They are in it for the money when they tell us we have to hand more tax dollars over, because we want things, and we don't have enough in the budget. They tell us, we can have something they want, because somehow they have a hidden stash, set aside for these special projects. It is ALL about money. Mark my words, when Christy feels she has won her little peeve argument with Alberta's Premier, she will be telling the people of this province what a good deal the pipeline is, and how much we need the money they are giving. Any bets?
See, government is filled with Mike Duffys, if they can sweep their sh*t under the rug, and get away with it, they will. Very few of them get caught, because , we, as Canadians, have no power to bring them to task.
Prime example of money lies. B.C. Hydro, huge debt, but they want to build Site C. Only yesterday, this corporation that is so far into the red, it is pathetic, just promised the Peace area over 2 million every year for who knows how long, as a legacy. Hellooooo....I certainly hope the people of the Peace understand this money will go to our towns, only through our pockets. The only way Hydro can manage to hand out money they don't have, is to raise rates. Silly Rabbits!!! They are not giving us anything, they are simply taking more away from us, re-wrapping and handing it back!
Somehow, folks, we have to stop this rampant waste of our hard earned cash. What would happen if we took all the books, offered an accountant 10 million bucks to sit in a room and prepare a document that was given as pubic information to every single person who pays tax, to show them exactly where all the money goes? I think that would be cheap at twice the price! We need to have clarity, we need to make our "leaders" responsible for their actions.
Truth is, tourism is a sham, unless you have a store close to the docks in Vancouver. Tourism is not going to save my town, when 1/2 the valley is flooded, and the river(reservoir) is filled with submerged logs, spewing mercury into the fish. Come on to our town...you can't fish, because the slopes will slough, and if you caught a fish, you couldn't eat it, because it is poison, but, hey...you can walk on a lovely sidewalk, and see some pretty nice flowers!!!
Just saying it as I see it! Dog Vomit!!
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