All we need is a laugh track

Oct 25 2006 Editorial http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/
Kamloops MP Betty Hinton has announced she has taken the "unprecedented request" in asking a senior federal bureaucrat to send a staff member to the Tournament Capital to give the city a hand in this time of crisis. What could be so pressing a matter that our Conservative MP feels the need to take this "unprecedented request"? Has the Thompson River finally dried up? Have pine beetles commandeered city hall? Is the non-Tory tandem of Terry Lake and John O'Fee plotting Round 2 against our member of Parliament? Nope. It's a much more dire. Hinton feels those toiling at city hall need help filling out forms.
That's right. After months of confusion, rumours and more confusion regarding how and where the city should seek federal funding to complete its planned airport expansion, the situation has officially become sketch comedy. Perhaps the bureaucrat's assistant can stick around Kamloops after showing city staff how to fill out funding forms, and demonstrate additional crisis-management skills.Maybe city council can attend a workshop on how to look both ways before crossing the street. Perhaps city staff can be shown how to wash their hands before eating. How about flying in another bureaucrat to teach the highly specialized skill of how not to talk to strangers? Seriously, if Hinton believes it necessary to ask for someone to come to Kamloops to teach City of Kamloops employees how to apply for federal funding, perhaps the problem lies with this "New Government" of Canada for making the process so damned confusing that politicians at every level have no idea where to go. Hinton has said it is "unacceptable" to have any further delays in submitting an application for funding. Yet city hall remains without a specific program to which to apply. Liberal MLA Kevin Krueger highlighted this mess when he felt the need to seek out Pacific Gateway Minister David Emerson on the issue. And even Hinton's peer in Kelowna, MP Ron Cannan, said as recently as last week there is no specific infrastructure program that would apply to that city's desire to secure funding for its own airport runway extension plan. At least Kelowna airport authorities managed to show its runway expansion plan directly to Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon and Cannan. Has Cannon met with our MP and those in charge at Fulton Field? To paraphrase Tory talk, this situation is a real dog.