Sir John A. Takes a Hit

The Ontario Elementary Teachers' Federation have decided that the name of our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald should be removed from all schools. He, along with most of the Fathers of Confederation agreed with the creation of residential schools for our native population.

This is getting ridiculous!  We cannot judge past history by today's standards.  We will all agree that residential schools were a terrible failure and caused suffering and death to many, but those who set up those schools thought they were doing the best for our indigenous population!  I don't believe they were being vindictive!  Removing their names from history won't change the past and I think it will give Canadians a better chance of forgetting these horrible indecencies!

I do concede that the statues of Cornwallis in Nova Scotia be removed from places of prominence and put in museum grounds.  Cornwallis actually put a bounty on heads of indigenous people living there, but that was hundreds of years ago.  That fact cannot be erased from history but his statue is causing quite a bit of consternation in Halifax.  I say decide on a new location for his statue along with a sign describing reason for its move.  We must not lose this history!

We need to examine each situation like this with cool heads!  If we don't, this whole process can get really silly!  When you read the writings of Winston Churchill, it's not hard to notice that he was a chauvinist and a bit of a bigot!  Is he next on the hit list?

How about William Van Horne and the rest of those who built Canada's national railway!  They promoted the importation and exploitation of workers from China!  Shall we zap them?

Why stop there?  You do know that the Roman Emperors Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus both promoted slavery and gladiator games fought to the death!  Will we soon be changing the names of the months of July and August?  That's how silly it could get!

LED Lights & Seventh Street

Street Lights;  I was very pleased to see that our new LED street lights are being installed!  These new lights are far less expensive to operate and their light is less glaring thus cutting down on the light pollution.

I'm hoping that they'll be installed throughout the village soon!

Seventh Street;  I'm sure you've noticed that we began work on Seventh Street.  We're trying something different, there.  We are removing the top layer of surface and replacing it with chipped asphalt, then sealing it with a special material.

It's not as good as pavement but it is considerably cheaper!  By my calculations, far less than a quarter the cost fresh asphalt.

You will recall that when we planned to pave Seventh and Eighth Streets some years ago, the folks along Seventh took up a petition to stop that work along their street,  Provincial municipal acts dictate that council must agree to their wishes.  Seventh Street was dropped from the project.  That project included a Local Improvement Tax (Frontage Tax).

The residents along Eighth are partially paying for their pavement through that frontage tax.

Council decided that since this Seventh Street project is significantly cheaper and it's an experimental procedure, we would not reinstate the Local Improvement portion of that project.

No Water From Beiseker?

A couple of you mentioned to me that you were concerned that the Rocky View Fire Services was recently refused water to fight a fire outside the village.  Last night at our council meeting, we got the whole story from our fire department.

A while back our firefighters and the Rocky View Fire Services responded to a fire east of the village.  The Beiseker Fire Department arrived at the scene first (they were closer) and started work on the fire.  The RVFS soon arrived from Irricana, took over command and joined in fighting the fire.  It was decided that more water might be needed, so water trucks were dispatched to the closest water source which was Beiseker.

Standard Operating Procedures dictates that the municipality providing the water be informed so that adjustments can be made to the pumps and pumping capacity of that municipality's water system if necessary.  Beiseker has one of its pumps in for repair.  Caution must be taken so the people of the village don't completely lose water pressure.

Due a communication glitch, the Rocky View firefighters were unable to contact village staff so they decided to proceed to Irricana to get the extra water.  As it turned out, the extra water was not needed and the water trucks stood down and returned to their fire hall in Irricana.

Beiseker Fire Chief Martens reported to council that the communication glitch has indeed been rectified.  Fire apparatus fighting fires in this area (whether inside or outside the village) are once again able to get water from our hydrants here in the village.  There is also another source of water in Beiseker, the old reservoir behind the post office which has well water and it is untreated.  Unfortunately the pumping capacity there is quite low and filling up one of those huge tanks would take a very long time!

I hope this clears up some of the misunderstandings around this incident.

I'll take this opportunity to give shout-out to all of our firefighters both from the Beiseker Fire Department and from Rocky View.  You folks do an incredible job protecting all of us!

Gas vs. Electric Cars

I think it'll be just a matter of time before our governments outlaw gasoline as a propellant for cars,  Other jurisdictions have already done it!  Britain is the most recent, saying it will outlaw gasoline in 2040!  my question is; why?

A little over a hundred and ten years ago, the automobile was just coming into being.  Engineers and scientists experimented with different ways of fueling and propelling these new contraptions.  There were steam powered cars, methane powered cars, electric cars and gasoline powered cars all roaring around,

Eventually the gasoline powered cars won out, and the others faded away.  There were no laws outlawing them.  Gasoline just happened to be the most efficient and least expensive way of powering these new machines!

Now, environmentalists say we must stop using gasoline because it creates too much pollution.  Major car companies have all joined the race to create cars using other fuels, mostly electric powered though batteries.  These vehicles are becoming more efficient in every new model coming out but they are still more expensive then their gasoline powered equivalents.  Some of the processes making components and power for those electric cars create huge amount of pollution!

Why don't governments just stay out of it?  Gasoline won out in 1910 because it was the cheapest and most efficient.  When electric cars are the cheapest and more efficient than gasoline powered cars, they will win too!