Skip to content

Bickering a detriment to entire region

"There are Castlegar companies, contractors etc. that have taken millions out of here and not put one dime back into the community."
Letter to the Editor generic image.indd
Trail Times letter to the editor

Well the Trail candidates forum has come and gone and for the most part was well received. We have some very good  choices for mayor and new choices for councillors.

Two of the mayoral and two new councilor candidates are well aware of the issues. As for some of the incumbents and the recycled candidates it is more of the same.

The letter to the editor by Mr. Rodlie (Trail Times, Oct. 29) brought to the surface the problem we face in Trail, the people that work here don’t live here.

Teck states that 40 per cent of their work force live in Trail/Warfield. Well Warfield isn’t Trail and more than a few residents will make sure you know it too.

The other 60 per cent live outside of Trail.

So that leaves Trail with maybe 25 to 30 per cent of the Teck work force actually live in Trail. Within five years if the pattern of workforce renewal continues there will be less than 20 per cent of the Teck workforce residing here.

Much is said about Castlegar’s rapid growth, well they hit the perfect storm.

1) A Trail MLA gave them the highway through their town

2) Teck Resources restuctured in the early ‘90s and sent and continues to send an unending pile of money into their community.

3) Lastly and most importantly they had an NDP MLA with 10 years of an NDP government that helped them connect the dots. So the Conroy clan looked after their town first and Trail specifically and the southend in general got table scraps.

There are Castlegar companies, contractors etc. that have taken millions out of here and not put one dime back into the community.

More than once the statement has been made that Trail’s downtown core is for a population of 14,000 people and we need to downsize our core because our town is getting smaller.

I guess we had better restructure our recreation as well since we don’t have anybody living here anymore.

There is a consensus in the Beaver Valley that the aquatic centre, fieldhouse etc., brings no value to their property or their quality of life and user pay is best. I like user pay but lets do it for everything. I have never raised a family but I continue to pay school taxes, let’s make that user pay.

One thing that has been made crystal clear no one is interested in amalgamation so no need to spend one cent of our money to do a study.

What is clear though is this constant bickering is killing us all.

More than one politician outside the City of Trail feels that they should get a share of the Teck tax gravy train like Bill Trewhella. Sure Bill no problem, what else would you like on Forrest Dr, slag piles, listen to the oxygen plant, listen to the Kivcet furnace, smoke or truck traffic 24/7 take your pick neighbour.

So to our neighbours in the Beaver Valley, Salmo, Nelson, Rossland, Warfield, the Boundary area and mostly Castlegar understand this, it is us, the citizens of Trail, that continue to rubber stamp the operation of the smelter within the city to the benefit of everyone else but us. Read above again if not sure.

Bryan DeFerro

Trail