Thursday, July 07, 2016

This Day In Clarkland...Polakcisms On Parade (Campsite Edition)

NevermindTheTouristOperatorsWithTheFistFullOfReservations
HidingBehindThatTreeVille


Why haven't GordCo, Inc. and/or the Wizards of Clarklandia built campsites for the rubes?

Well....

According to our fine Environment minister Ms Polak, in her 'OpEd' published in the journal of PAB-Bottia earlier today, it's the fault of those darned tree huggers:

...The ultimate solution is to increase the supply of campsites, but that will take some time. Availability of land in high-demand areas is one challenge but, as well, for everyone who wants to see expanded campsites for recreational purposes, you have another person who says, “No, I don't want you to cut down more trees.”...



Gosh.

I'm sure glad Ms. Polak cleared that wee little matter up for everyone.


_____
And, no, as snarky as this post was meant to be, I wasn't making that part about the 'OpEd' label that was affixed to this propaganda release from the wizards behind the government comminications curtain...Seriously.
And how many fulltime Park Rangers do we have compared to, say, fulltime PR wizards at the moment?


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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The ultimate solution is to increase the supply of campsites, but that will take some time." - Mary Polak, BC Minister of Environment

Which begs the question: How many campsites have been created in BC since May 16, 2001?

Another squeeze is the closure of private campgrounds as their owners have cashed in on the rising land values in desirable vacation areas.

e.a.f. said...

Lets see Polak makes it sound like no provincial camp grounds have been expanded or built because of "tree huggers". Gee, when did Polak and the rest of the B.C. Lieberals start listening to "tree huggers"? they sure don't care about how the tree huggers feel about Site C or much else, especially all the logging on Vancouver Island and then the raw logs are shipped over seas.

Mary Polak is so sleezy, her comments were just too funny. Perhaps she could take her show onto the comedy network because that is about all its good for.

Golden Ears could be expanded. Cultus Lake, not so much. Most of the land around there is privately owned.
Shuswap Lake, provincial campsite also surrounded by private land, but there are other areas on the lake which could be used. O.K. Lake was too small back in the 1960s but no one purchased the land then and now its too late.

Face it Polak and the B.C. Lieberals just didn't want to spend money on the people of B.C. Its sort of like schools, lack of nurses, lack of doctors, lack of affordable housing, and now its lack of camping sites. Finally the shit has hit the fan and as all good B.C. Lieberals its lie, pass the buck, blame the NDP.

In the O.K. private campsites were sold so condos and resorts could be built. the private tour companies didn't build campsites because they know they have access to the provincial ones and its just too bad that Canadians can't use them. the tour operators need to make money and surely they have paid Christy and cabal enough to get what they want.

North Van's Grumps said...

No mention of pipeline companies reducing the sizes of our parks just to make money for their shareholders.... the mustn't not camp in British Columbia

Anonymous said...

All I can say is "pathetic". What a bunch of pathetic fools.

And we have to put up with all their BS until next year, you know the promises, money shoveled off the back of a truck, photo ops, promises, promises. Money for everyone until a month before next May.

Anonymous said...

7 days of work make one week
7 park rangers make one province

e.a.f. said...

Did some on line checking for Provincial park campsites
I bought a truck and off I want to go.

Bromley Provincial campsite: outside of Princeton along the highway, very popular. has 17 campsites and 12 are reserveable.

Cultus Lake Provincial campsite: 100% reserveable

Shuswap Lake Provincial campsite: reservations required. 274 spots and all are reserveable.

This information came from the websites for each provincial campsite. So whatever Mary Polak is peddling I'm not buying. Those camp site can all be reserved by tour companies excluding all of us who are the tax payers of B.C. Nice going Mary, now try another line.

I can't go camping until sept in these parks. I've lived here my whole life. my family has been paying taxes in this province since 1951 and unless I get lucky getting a reservation I'm s.o.l. My relatives in Europe will have no problem getting a spot. Their tour operators can take care of things.

Anonymous said...

Let's call it Polak's Prentice moment.

BC Liberals have been in office since 2001 and Polak officially joined the tribe in 2005 after spending years being a sorry Surrey bigot, but somehow it is the fault of all British Columbians there are not enough campsites.

"In terms of who is responsible, we need only look in the mirror."

e.a.f. said...

Yes, the B.C. Lieberals are responsible for the lack of campsites. They have been in power for 15 year. During that time the population of this province has expanded greatly. the number of camp grounds, not so much. Now why would that be?

Its gotten so many can no longer afford expensive vacations, homes cost a bundle, so getting your tent out and going camping is a nice way to go, well it used to be, until the reservation system came into play. Made it ever so nice for the tour operators to maximize profits. Sort of like the tax payers provide them the hotels to put their guests in.

When most of the popular campsites are 100% reserveable, how are families going to get to go camping they way we did even back in the 1990s, nice weather, load up the car and lets go. Not so much these days. Need reservations months in advance. If nothing else it will lead people to go into forested areas and the results could be forest fires. Now that is going to cost a bundle. Its cheaper to build more provincial campsites.

Anonymous said...

In Bc ,basically the evidence and actions point to the bc libs being the party for the 2 percent and the NDP the 98 %?

Scotty on Denman said...

Guerilla trail maintenance has been the norm for years in the venerable Strathcona Park, otherwise "Trial Closed" signs would be all one ever saw. Good thing Strathcona's got friends.

There were hundreds of so-called "Forest Service" campsites around Campbell Lakes and the Snowdon Demonstration Forest---almost all gone now. They were very popular, even if a bit rustic.

Meanwhile Polak demonstrated her expertise about trees by personally giving a building site the okay. She claimed she didn't realize the site was in an avalanche track because there were trees nearby; a real geo-tech consultant brought it to her attention after the work had begun and foundations had been poured---all for nought, though. This is what happens when incompetence mixes with insider scheming, and it doesn't only happen in places like the municipality of Jumbo Peaks---but at least in other municipalities such goof-ups are likely reported by alert citizens. In this case, Polak and the helicopter pilot had swelled Jumbo Peak's population to two---for a few minutes, anyways.

Gordo's plan had always been to bankrupt provincial parks and sell or "lease" them (for 999 years like BC Rail) to insider friends for a pittance. It's so simple: rope off the trails, put parking meters everywhere, take away picnic tables and outhouses and fire all the parks staff.

When Christy came along, the BC Liberals ruminated about finding timber in parks and protected areas like ecological reserves so's to "compensate" loggers for timber "they lost" to the mountain pine beetle---except loggers can't lose what they never had, and the value of the beetle-killed pine is far, far below that of the spruce, balsam and fir they were drooling over in the parks. I guess they just couldn't quite get away with that one, though---or have they?

Tourism used to be one of BC's strongest sectors---until these economic charlatans came along.

Anonymous said...

Given the history of the BC Liberals it would probably be prudent to parse Polak's phrasing, and do a deep dive into her numbers.