The Similkameen News Leader
Editorial
CLEAN AIR WINS BY A NOSE
EDITORIAL - August 22, 2006
Have you noticed the increase in traffic this Summer compared to last? We are lucky enough to have a storefront location in one of the busiest blocks of downtown Princeton and we can't remember the amount of foot traffic we've had in the past even coming close to what we've seen this Summer.
Obviously the gas prices aren't scaring away tourists.
For comparison sake, regular gas at the time of this Editorial was $1.17.9 per litre. The same week last year we were paying 99.9¢ a litre (the same time in 2004 it was 89.9¢).
So what is attracting visitors from out of town to our little piece of Heaven?
Well, we've been asking the question to those who stop into our office and are not too surprised with the responses.
Clean air seems to be a very big deal to folks from the Big Smoke. More so than we ever thought as we keep hearing it time and again.
"We can't believe how clean the air is here," is a regular comment. Ordinarily we'd take this time to toss in a silly joke about how lucky they were to not be passing through during the (fill in the blank) forest fire but with all this debate about coal-fired energy we'll ignore the opening and look a little more at the recent developments regarding our clean air.
Last week our Mayor put his neck on the chopping block and took a stand that was obviously not a ploy for re-election. He made it clear he doesn't want a coal-fired energy plant in his back yard and most definitely not during his lifetime.
Gutsy move.
It reminds us about a proposal that came to town ten or fifteen years ago about a medical waste disposal plant that would have been built near Memorial Park and the developers assured us the emissions were going to be pretty low and well within guidelines set out by government standards.
We remember that public meeting as if it took place last night. The crowd of concerned residents never let them have a chance to explain what was going to happen with this disposal plant and the impact on the community.
Pretty amazing when you consider we still had a beehive burner at the time. Now we don't and all we hear about is the demand for clean water and clean air.
If clean air was a currency we'd all be gajillionaires right about now earning massive amounts of interest daily.
How much of your fortune are you willing to gamble?
