To the Editor,
As time goes by, we’re getting more and more nutty ideas from the port authority and city hall.
Specifically, there’s the proposal for a retail condominium/hotel development at Alberni Harbour Quay which would involve razing the marine building there and ousting the current tenants.
If there are more than a few units, there would be no parking available in the adjacent area around the waterfront restaurant and the current marine building site. Proponents of the development would also have to buy the old Shell Canada property for parking.
Moreover, it’s highly unlikely that the Donut Shop and the Clock Tower Gallery would be able to afford the high rents in any new development. And where would they go in the meantime? And, again, parking would have to be reserved for retail businesses, locals, and tourists, not condo owners.
The second balmy idea is the suggestion that there might be “a liquefied natural gas site down the Alberni Inlet,” a preposterous idea worse than the idle speculation about a container trans shipment facility. Where would the LNG come from? Alberta? Northwest B.C.?
In sum, we have more silly proposals from the port authority and from a city council that can’t reduce operating expenses and relied for budget cuts this year on one-time cuts from the McLean Mill dam project and from the new vehicle budget.
God help us!
Richard Berg,
Port Alberni