Musings and meditations on a cool Wednesday morning.
JUMPING THE GUN … OK, so they got ahead of themselves.
While members of Sooke council along with provincial government rep MLA Jordan Sturdy were busy patting themselves on the back for the “completion of the Brownsey Boulevard roundabout and town centre improvements” last week, construction crews were busily working around them.
Paving on the project wasn’t completed until last Friday and much of the ancillary work is still in various stages of completion.
It made for a good photo op, though.
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FIEFDOM COUNTING … Now that the amalgamation czar has told those other municipalities in Greater Victoria they must do it alone, perhaps there’s no better opportunity to talk of an amalgamation of another sort – one that could help Sooke.
It’s time to look at a regional police force and fire department. It wouldn’t be as difficult as one would imagine.
In fact, the region already has a regional police force in the RCMP and there are detachments in most of Greater Victoria communities.
Sooke RCMP routinely calls on help from neighbouring detachments and reciprocates when assistance is needed elsewhere.
There are also services provided by the provincial and federal RCMP divisions which aid in everything from major crimes to counter-terrorism.
Fire departments wouldn’t be that big of a shift, either. Most already have mutual aid agreements. And, quite frankly, it could just be a matter of changing all the fire trucks to the same colour.
Of course, the stumbling block is always about protecting your fiefdom and unless the partners can agree, it won’t happen.