Mapping Accessibility in BC’s Parks
Monday, July 4, 2016 @ 9:09 AM
MLA’s Mike Morris and Shirley Bond make announcement.
Prince George BC -The Province has announced a 27 week project to profile and rate more than 150 parks and heritage sites in BC for accessibility.
The project will employ 26 EI eligible participants who will gain experience in assessment of facilities as well as office administration and community consultation.
The Province is putting $215 thousand dollars into the project with Northern Development Initiative Trust contributing a further $80 thousand.
Pat Harris who is wheelchair bound says the results of the assessment will be posted online “$80 billion dollars a year is spent worldwide by travellers with disabilities and we want some of that money.”
Comments
Nice that they are studying BC parks accessibility for the mobility impaired, sure wish they would spend some money on protecting our parks.
Did you know there are only seven (7) park rangers protecting total park areas in BC the size of the country of Greece? Yup, these seven park rangers have also had their program funding cut to the point they cannot afford hotel rooms and have resorted to sleeping in park service trucks. Maybe this is the Christy Clark government’s definition of world class park protection?
www .cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-parks-rangers-1.3661583
I and many others believe that we pay enough in taxes and we don’t have a burning desire to pay more! The BCGEU website states that they currently represent over 68,000 members in the private sector and public services. I think that it’s pretty safe to assume that at least 40,000 of these members are Provincial Government employees, so let’s look at the 40,000!
Walk into any Provincial Government office with 10 or more staff and it’s not at all uncommon to see at least one staffer standing around doing as little as possible. While some staff are worth every penny that we pay them, I think that it’s very easy to assume that for every 100 people on the payroll, there is at least 1 person that should be turfed. That’s a measly 1%!
So, using 40,000 as the number of staff, if we get rid of the 1% that don’t do or accomplish much if anything at all, that’s 400 salaries that could be used to fund some more Park Rangers!
Hmmm!
ditto for sitting mla’s. get rid of a couple of them twerps and you could fund a lot of things!
Greece has an area of 132,000 square kilometers so if all the parks in B.C. add up to about the same size area it is easy to see how 7 park rangers can not look after that much in any meaningful manner. I suspect that there is a Parks government department that has ten times that number of people sitting in offices pushing pencils.
Campsites being booked to people that don’t even live here before BC residents. We are just letting others decide things for us. No protection, zero. Just come on in and rape us!
Great project, but really 250? Wheelchair bound? No longer acceptable wording. Please update this story.
Wheelchair bound is acceptable… my mother is wheelchair bound.. thats exactly how she describes herself…( on occasion its… stuck in this damn thing ) I am sure Pat has no problem with it or it wouldnt have been printed… he has been in a chair since age 10 if memory serves..
what did you want instead… handicapped, walking challenged?
Enlighten us with your politically correct rhetoric…
We could save a bundle by cutting a lot of handouts to business. Mining and forestry come to mind.
JGalt. Is there any info on how many Park Contractor positions are supporting the Rangers?
The article also references seasonal support staff. If you add all these positions up, is the BCGEU just trying to spin a half truth? Or is the truth somewhere in between?
“The B.C. government reduced its park ranger staff for the up-coming summer months and shortened park operating seasons in most regions of the province…”
“B.C. Parks has issued contracts to private companies to manage park facilities since the 1980s. Latest business plans show that the government employs about 700 people through contract work, but the responsibilities are quite different from that of rangers.”
“A park facility operator is not the equivalent of a park ranger,” Barlee said. “Rangers are trained and are there to represent B.C. Parks.”
www .canada.com/story_print.html?id=04e02e61-c71e-41bb-946c-718c4b64ddc3&sponsor=
JGalt…..thanks.
Comments for this article are closed.