Homeless inaction in Surrey and the closure of the Pattullo Bridge
Former Surrey North MP Chuck Cadman has been lauded as a political saint for his decency and his willingness to resist political thuggery.
But at the risk of being rude, I'm going to suggest that he along with other politicians, including former mayor Doug McCallum, bear some responsibility for Surrey's homelessness problem.
And homelessness could be at the root of the closure of the Pattullo Bridge.
Surrey RCMP Sgt. Roger Morrow recently told CKNW Radio that homeless people created a cooking fire on the weekend under the southern side of the Pattullo Bridge.
RCMP haven't confirmed if this is what set the Pattullo Bridge on fire, creating commuter chaos south of the Fraser River and probably costing the regional economy millions of dollars in lost travel time.
So what does this have to do with Cadman, who was an MP from 1997 to 2005 before succumbing to cancer?
During that time—when Vancouver MPs Libby Davies and Hedy Fry were pulling together the $25-million Vancouver Agreement to deal with addiction and homelessness—Cadman was almost solely focused on youth crime.
I remember former Surrey North NDP MP Jim Karpoff telling me before the 2004 election that Cadman should have spent more time trying to secure federal funds to address drug addiction and poverty in Surrey North.
Meanwhile, McCallum riled the B.C. Civil Liberties Association in 2003 when he pushed to have local pharmacies keep records of methadone use in the municipality.
During his nine-year tenure as mayor between 1996 and 2005, McCallum was never at the forefront of Vancouver Agreeement-sized efforts to secure federal funding to help poor, homeless, and addicted people in Surrey.
The Campbell government's draconian cuts to the provincial welfare system, which were introduced in its first term, have undoubtedly contributed to the rise in homelessness in the federal riding of Surrey North.
The results soon became clear.
In 2007, the operator of Surrey's main homeless shelter, Darrel Ferner, told CBC that Surrey had 50 shelter beds for a homeless population of 2,000. It was a far lower percentage of shelter beds than existed in Vancouver.
Last April, the B.C. government tried to catch up by announcing 172 new supportive housing units and 20 "sobering beds" in Surrey.
In December, the province announced $830,000 for renovations and operating funding for a 10-bed shelter in Surrey.
For commuters coping with the closure of the Pattullo Bridge, this was possibly a case of too little provincial assistance too late in the day.
Homeless people continued living under the Pattullo Bridge through last weekend. And because of that, there's a very real possibility that a major regional transportation artery will be out of service for at least a month.
Comments
3 Comments
SwiftKick
Jan 20, 2009 at 11:53am
Oh Charlie Smith I wouldn't say you ran the risk of being rude; ignorant is more like it.
I can only assume that you chose to use Chuck Cadmans’ name in the first line of your blog to make sure someone read it. Why else would you point your finger at a deceased man to try and connect him and his politics to the fire on the Pattullo Bridge?!
Surely you haven’t forgotten why “Cadman was almost solely focused on youth crime”? The murder of his son Jesse Cadman in 1992 saw the Cadmans’ create the group CRY – Crime Responsibility and Youth. Jesse’s death was the catalyst for Chuck stepping into the political arena. He took his passion for victims' causes with him to Parliament. He didn’t sit back and wait for someone else to do something. He fought for what he believed in.
We all have to pick our battles, Charlie. Youth crime was the battle Chuck Cadman chose to fight. And I am among many who applauded him for his dedication to both the seriousness of youth crimes and the memory of his son.
Maybe the next time you pick a battle it will be with someone who is still around to defend themselves. Or maybe you will chose to get directly involved in helping out with the homeless situation instead of writing such drivel.
sleepswithangels
Jan 20, 2009 at 5:06pm
At the risk of sounding too much like I am trying to defend Charlie Smith (who, btw, I think is a little too quick to censor comment on this site), I think SwiftKick is being disingenuous in his criticism of Smith's comments. Either that or SwiftKick's own political slant prevents him from having any sense of balance in this matter. While I think Cadman was a man of honour in his job I always thought he lacked the depth of intelligence and training it took to be a great MP. Who can forget the evidence that when he started campaigning for changes to the youth justice system there were serious questions about his own financial status and his competence as a small businessman. I only bring this up because his sole focus, youth justice, suffered from his inablity to understand the root causes of the problem. That he chose to be a member of the singularily reactionary, undereducated Reform Party speaks volumes about Cadman's inability to truly understand why there was a youth crime problem in the first place, never mind how to solve that problem.
When Chuck died I was literally the only person on the Tyee website to criticize the right wing commenters who were taking back handed shots at Chuck. These were party insiders who had always rankled at Chuck's independent stance as a grass roots politician...a stance I still respect.
As a public figure a politician is fair game for critics even after they are dead. Saying otherwise is simply a chickensh*t way to attack the critic.
Latarnik
Jan 23, 2009 at 9:36pm
It is a shame that one of the most important bridges in BC is wooden (!!!) Enemies of civilization would put us all into caves, but there is not enough of them. Caves that is. It may take million tonnes of concrete to support that bridge, but motorists who go to work and pay taxes waste million dollars a day of their after tax money, idling their engines on a big parking lots called "bridges" inhaling tonnes of car exhaust.
Those who do not have to go anywhere, most likely parasites will be in opposition to any progress. I hope that they will find themselves a cave and a goat without need for welfare or any industrial goods. Just feed the goat and scavenge the wilderness.
Mark Jaworski Vancouver BC