The April edition of MoneySense magazine reported on the best place to live in Canada, and New Westminster declined, now only ranked at 89.
Obviously the ranking system doesn't take into consideration, for example, the detrimental health effects of too much noise from the SkyTrain, big trucks and long freight trains, as well as too much air pollution, especially diesel engine particulates, a known cancer-causing agent - sort of like second-hand cigarette smoke 24 hours a day - from the too-many big diesel engine trucks and too-long multi-diesel engine freight trains, both without adequate diesel engine particulate air filters. No doubt the ranking, especially for downtown, where more and more people are being exposed to the sickening life-shortening health effects would go even farther
down - maybe almost to the bottom of the list.
A while ago, a well known TV talk show host said Windsor, Ont. is the A-hole of Canada. Windsor, also on a river but not part of beautiful B.C., is ranked higher at 80 than New Westminster. The really best features of New Westminster have been around for many years, long before the current mayor and council.
In the past 10 years, New Westminster has become more and more a mediocre and probably the highest-taxed city in the country.
The British Columbia Fraser Institute, based on actual school performances, ranked the schools in New Westminster, mostly below and much below the average at 193, 363, 647 and 773.
Of course, there is a lot of criticism of the rankings system, especially from the B.C. Teachers' Federation, who not only disagree with the FSA
testing, but everything else education experts have to suggest and say the report does not adequately reflect the school and actual teachers' performance.
Once again, at best, mediocre performance and higher costs for the taxpayers. The too-long serving leadership of the New Westminster school board has stumbled from crisis to crisis for more than a decade - not good for the teachers, not good for the students and their parents.
The CBC Survey of Hospitals in Canada reported the Royal Columbian Hospital only got a below-average C grade for large community hospitals.
In fact, it was ranked in the bottom four. The nursing was a major concern getting only a D. Again, below mediocre performance with very high costs for the taxpayers.
So obviously, there must be a logical explanation for all the mediocre performance and high costs in New Westminster - city, schools and hospitals.
It is well known that monopolies usually provide mediocre performance with high costs. Even worse are monopolies like big unions, especially education and health care within a big monopoly like the public sector.
Report, after report, including the CLC, says on average big public sector union members are over compensated by 10 to 15 per cent, or $5 an hour, or $10,000 a year, etc.
There is a group in New Westminster that is very consistent and chose political representatives that seem to prefer mediocrity, higher costs, higher debt and higher taxes.
Allan Solie,
New Westminster
