Following are emailed reader responses to stories or letters to the editor for the first week of April 2024. They have been edited slightly for readability. 

Got something you want to add? Send an email to editor Marshall Jones at mjones@infonews.ca.

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City won't say how much it paid former Kamloops bylaw officers

"So much for transparency." — Lorne McElroy

Why the drug crisis is much more visible in Okanagan, Kamloops than out east

"Perhaps it is that the BC government is uniquely short sighted and cruel in its decriminalized regulatory environment? I'm amazed at how utterly gobsmacked NDP party hardliners are at the idea that the evidence shows that their policies are abject failures, and other jurisdictions that were equally ideological in their approach have since admitted defeat, and reversed course, Oregon." — Lucas Squire

Residents scramble for places to live as downtown Kelowna building deemed unsafe

"If this institution receives public funds, then administration should be more transparent. What is the administration hiding? This would provide ripe grounds for whistle blowers and rumours.
Thank you. — Lawrence Beaton

"Between 2021- 2022, did UBCO Properties Trust hire a geotechnical company to complete a risk assessment report for excavating 4 storeys below ground? If so: Which geotechnical company completed the report? Date of report? Were all members of the Basran council given a copy of this report before approving the UBCO tower project on July 26, 2022? Is this report on the City of Kelowna website?" — David Buckna

Kamloops mayor not ruling out more attempts to suspend city's top employee

"Making opinionated articles without knowing all of the information is dangerous and unethical. If he is suspending based on poor performance that is a part of the mayor and all persons in supervisory positions obligatory duties. That is why said persons are hired/elected into their positions. You have an option to vote in someone you prefer next time. But for now it would be more prudent not to fan the flames, albeit that appears to have become the role of media these days. If what was going on in the city hall was all on the up and up then why are the majority of meeting closed door and the public left out of the loop. We are left only to speculate. Public outcry should be for more information. Not picking an uneducated side." — Travis Struss

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Dear Editor,

When I arrived here in 2010, specifically to reside in Okanagan Falls before moving into Penticton where I had found a job, I imagined it might be a short stay, long enough to get on my feet then return to the lower mainland and the church I had left behind when lower mainland life got too expensive and I was backed into a corner.

I never imagined being here 14 years later, however shortly after my arrival I fell in love with the Okanagan beauty here as well as unique businesses.

More recently I realized I might never return to the Lower Mainland due to Greyhound shutting down and the loss of my truck which was broken into by thieves or intruders that infest the city of Penticton.

However, I have reasons and means to return to the Lower Mainland and will do so with a sad yet joyful heart. How? Sad to leave, joyful to head back to the coast, sad for the state of this fair city that I have come to love.

I wish to thank Colin Cross, Penticton Chamber Theatre, Okanagan Falls United Church and other churches, The Grooveyard, the long gone CD Plus, So Sweet, The Dream Cafe and the local newspapers for their welcoming me in the ways that they did, especially the newspapers for letting me write and express myself as well as the two employers who I have worked for.

I would be remiss to not mention that I am disappointed in my fellow Penticton residents for their failure to protect this city from pollution as well as double dealing politicians and business people as well as absentee landlords who often reside in other cities.

I am saddened that businesses such as Penticton Accounting were not welcoming to me and that some employers in Penticton are not fair to their staff.

I am saddened by nimbyists such as the Slumps who seem to be against visitors to Penticton as well as by those letter writers stuck in the ideologies of long bankrupt political parties.

I want Penticton to be a unique and flourishing city without it becoming a smaller version of Kelowna or Kamloops. I wish that local and visiting drivers would obey the safety laws of this city and that we would see far better service from the Penticton branch of the discredited, colonialist Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

I wish that homelessness would be honourably overcome by all citizens working together, that the criminal element would receive fair and just punishment and change their ways, and that this city would return to being safe in reality not just in the perception of the police, politicians and civil servants.

Sincerely,
Patrick Longworth

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