Editor:
Re: LBN meets LDM about local roads
Okay it's time to speak up.
After reading the article on Lake Babine Nation (LBN) and Lakes District Maintenance (LDM) on local roads I have to jump in with both feet.
1) Carey Derksen you need a reality check along with Wendy Benyk.
If you've lived here for that many years (40) you would remember back before privatization in the 80s Burns Lake had some of the best kept highways in the North, even up to when Bulkley Valley Maintenance nearly went bankrupt trying to maintain the highway to the standard set when the ministry still had control. There is no way your contract should be extended when the term is up in a year or two.
And giving this company more money to maintain the road to the standard it once was is out of the question.
The Minister of Highways and Transportation had better take a good look at the de privatization of this portion of it's roads.
LDM's bottom dollar is not the safety of you or me and my family but to the shareholder at LDM.
Any of the old timers that are still around, including myself who worked for the highways back when they were kept in pristine condition will attest to this.
2) All the blame can not just go on LDM's workers. They are told what to do by management, for example how much salt or sand to apply and when there standards they change to suit their financial obligations to their shareholders and one of their biggest is Ms. Benyk .
3) We all have excuses for why something can't be done right and we are all tired of the same one liner that comes from LDM every year. "We've hired more people." But they forgot to mention they laid off two, and rehired one.
Please stand up people and let the province know we have had enough.
Bring our highways back to the standard they should be, which is safe and sound.
Next time you want to make a complaint about the condition of the highway phone your MLA, John Rustad, not LDM's hot line for complaints.
Only then will you be heard.
Bill Watson
Granisle