Wikipedia featured Lethbridge on its home page today.
I am so excited. I made a significant (if not a majority) contribution to the article and it’s a testament to the work so many people have put into it in the last 2 years.
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Author: Kim Siever
I live in Lethbridge with my spouse and 5 of our 6 children. I’m a writer, focusing on social issues and the occasional poem. My politics are radically left. I recently finished writing a book debunking several capitalism myths. My newest book writing project is on the labour history of Lethbridge.
I’m also dichotomally Mormon. And I’m a functional vegetarian: I have a blog post about that somewhere around here. My pronouns are he/him.
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My photo chosen for a guide
The following photo of mine was chosen for inclusion in the Schmap Vancouver Guide.
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2007 Conservative Tax Plan
The Canadian government issued $60 billion in tax relief this week. Here’s a brief breakdown.
- GST cut one percentage point to 5 per cent, effective 1 Jan 2008
- Personal income tax cut retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007, cutting lowest marginal tax rate to 15 per cent from 15.5 per cent
- Jump in basic personal exemption to $9,600, retroactive to 1 Jan 2007, increasing to $10,100 in 2009
- $10-billion in federal debt relief
- One percentage point cut in corporate tax to 20 per cent in 2008
- Reduction in corporate tax rate to 15 per cent by 2012
- Small business income tax reduced to 11 per cent by 2008
Overall, a good tax plan. Apply surplus to the debt, cut corporate tax, and reduce income tax.
A couple of comments though.
Generally, I agree with corporate tax cuts. I am especially intrigued by the plan to have the lowest corporate tax rate of any industrialized nation. I am just not so sure giving a blanket tax cut is th right idea. I believe what we need is more diversity in our economy. Our economy is still very heavy in manufacturing (despite the western boom in energy). Blanket tax cuts will encourage manufacturing companies (and export companies for that matter) to use the extra surplus to compete with our strong dollar. Hopefully, they’ll use the surplus to invest in mechanisms that will help them as the dollar pushes higher, but I am sceptical it will get used for much more than profit.
I’d like to see tax structures in place that encourage more economic diversity, so we can prosper no matter the position of our dollar.
The second comment was toward personal income tax. I am glad they are raising the personal exemption amount an decreasing income tax for the lowest tax bracket. when we consider, however, that they raised the income tax for the lowest tax bracket and lowered the exemption amount when they first took power, it’s hardly much of a cut. It brings us back to nearly what we were at when the Liberals were in power.
The GST cut is my last point. I disagree with it. I mean, honestly, 1% savings? How am I going to benefit from getting $1 back for every $100 I spend? Superstore gives me more back in coupons when I shop (e.g $30 for every $250 spent). The only way I can benefit from a smoke-and-mirrors cut like this is making large purchases like homes and vehicles, but these are not things I buy frequently.
How about cutting the lowest tax bracket to 14% and raising the cap to $40,000? Now, that would be a nice tax break. Oh, and make the universal child benefit tax-free.
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Lethbridge Newspapers
What this city really needs is another newspaper.
It has a daily and a weekly, and both are provided by the same company. That isn’t too much of a bad thing, but the Herald has a poor track record for on-time delivery and providing timely international news.
The problem though is if one wants to leave the Herald, one’s choices are to get more international news and next to no local news, or get no newspaper at all.
Besides, the Herald seems to have any lack of a visual style guide. Their articles (particularly the headlines) are all sorts of font faces and sizes.
I wish there was a newspaper (even if it were a weekly) that provided good local news and was nice to look at.
Ted Stilson, et al, had the right idea when they started the precursor to the Lethbridge Sun Times years ago. I wish someone else would come along and start a newspaper. If I had the resources, I’d be half tempted to do it myself.
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Lethbridge’s Homicide Rate
There was a homicide in Lethbridge this weekend. Lethbridge’s homicide rate has now jumped form 1 per 2 years to 2 per 1 year.
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What’s with all these Africans?
Over the last year or two, I have noticed an increase of Africans and Caribbeanians (?) in the Lethbridge area. They seem to have taken over Heritage Day. A few months ago, an Ethiopian restaurant opened downtown. Just today, I came across an African/Caribbean store on 9 Avenue.
I welcome my African/Caribbean brother and sisters. I hope one day Lethbridge may even have a Little Africa like Dublin. It’s nice to bring in such diversity in a city still under 100,000 people.
I just don’t understand what’s attracting them. I mean, why not more South Americans. Or for that matter more of the Chinese and Japanese who have been here for generations? What could Africans and Caribbeanians possible see in Lethbridge that they don’t see in the larger centres or say Kamloops or Hamilton?
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Self-monitoring traffic
Last Wednesday, I visited Gastown while staying in Vancouver.
I noticed something very interesting. Once you get past the entrance, there are no lights and few signs (other than one-way street signs) to limit traffic flow. There are very view crosswalks.
Yet despite what would potentially be chaotic and dangerous seemed to have a poetic flow to it. The cars and pedestrians shared the street. There was no honking, and everyone seemed courteous.
I wonder what that would like like on a larger scale.
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Lethbridge Rezoning
A property developer in Lethbridge has applied for a bylaw amendment in order to rewrite the Hardieville/Legacy Ridge/Uplands Area Structure Plan. They intend to rezone some undeveloped commercial property to direct control in order to build multi-family housing. This would allow them to avoid the hassle of dealing with public outcry twice (first by rezoning to multi-family, then once it’s rejected, rezoning to direct control).
I oppose this move, and here is the response I sent to the mayor.
Your Worship Mayor Tarleck,
I am responding to the public notices regarding bylaws 5462 and 5463.
While I do support the intent to build additional higher density structures in Lethbridge (particularly outside of the downtown core), I am strongly opposed to developing them at the expense of commercial development.
While campaigning in the Hardieville area during the 2001 municipal election, one of the most common issues brought to my attention was the lack of convenient commercial and retail spaces to the far north. Granted, since then Uplands Common has been developed and the new centre anchored by Wal-Mart is under construction. Nevertheless, the solution for addressing a lack of commercial/retail space is not removing lands zoned for commercial use.
If Classic Communities Ltd. needs space for multi-family housing, perhaps a better alternative would be replacing some of the sprawling single-family housing.
Sincerely,
Mr. Kim Siever
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Lethbridge Growth Management Review
Apparently the City of Lethbridge requested public comments regarding their Growth Management review. I missed it, so I sent the following letter to Tom Wickersham, who was acting mayor at the time.
Dear Mr. Wickersham,
I apologise for the lateness of me message. I heard about the request for comments on the Growth Management Review only yesterday in the Lethbridge Herald. I check the city’s website frequently and had failed to notice any requests posted there. I am not sure if my comments will still be regarded given the timeframe, but I think they are still valid.
I welcome manageable growth. I am not opposed to growth in Lethbridge per se, but I do feel, it should not be unmanageable as we have seen in other Alberta centres.
That being said, I also think as stewards of the city’s resources (financial and physical), city council is ultimately responsible for judicious use of these resources. As such, I think it behooves city council to seriously consider the current trend of having the bulk of development being low density, single-family homes.
Lethbridge has one of the lowest high-density housing start rates among the province’s cities.
This is unfortunate. The City has plenty of opportunity to address many of the growing concerns that come with urban sprawl. By encouraging higher density developments, all of the following concerns can be addressed:
- Lower off-site levies
- Lower infrastructure costs
- Increased use of transit (leading to reduced cost to run transit)
- Decrease in traffic
- Revitilisation of downtown
- Lower crime
- Improved emergency response times (again, leading to lower operating costs)
- Increased use of public facilities (arts, library, etc)
- Decreased air pollution
The list, frankly, goes on.
Obviously, Lethbridge isn’t in a position where it needs to build 30-storey residential and office towers downtown. Nevertheless, it is apparent that if the City does not address the above mentioned trend soon, we will find ourselves in the midst of many problems that will be very difficult to eliminate.
One of the things I have loved about city councils (and city administration) past and present is their foresight in managing growth. I honestly hope Council will continue to uphold this expectation I, and many other fellow Lethbridgians, have for them.
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2014 Olympic Logos
Now that the IOC has shortlisted the candidate cities to host the 2014, I thought it was time to review the logos as I did for the 2012 logos. My job this time around is easier since the committee cut four applicant cities from the shortlist. Unfortunately, I’m not that impressed by any of the logos of the three candidates.
First one is PyeongChang, South Korea. What I do like is the inclusion of the Olympic colours in the logo and the treatment to show motion in a left to right direction (implying forward movement). But it ends there. I understand the connection between the brush strokes and art of the Far east; however, I didn’t like the painting style in the Paris 2012 logo, and I don’t like it here. In fact, that leads me into the next logo.
Salzburg, Austria, also went with a logo that looks drawn. It also doesn’t include the Olympic colours. The colours of the Olympic rings represent the colours in the flags of participant countries; every flag has at least one of those colours in it. By not including all the colours, it suggests exclusivity. I guess they get around this by using continents in the centre of the logo. That, I suppose, is a bit more ingenious than simply using the colours. I prefer logos that include all the colours, however. Another thing going for this logo is how it represents both fireworks (celebration) and a flower (Austria’s national symbol). Granted the edelweiss isn’t blue and yellow.
Finally, Sochi, Russia. One of the things that makes this logo stand out from the other two is it’s sharp clean lines. I also like the symbol treatment trying to represent a star and a snowflake at the same time; although, snowflakes have six points, so it seems a bit awkward. Beyond those points, however, it lacks any sort of punch. Again, it doesn’t include all of the Olympic colours. In fact, I see nothing that represents inclusiveness in this logo at all. And what’s with the sales-growth-chart look? I suppose it’s supposed to represent mountains or something, but it’s lost on me.
I guess if I had to choose my favourite, I would have to pick Salzburg. It’s probably the most imaginative of the three. But calling it my favourite may imply I adore it. And I don’t.