To each one of you councillor present at the Monday April 22 Council meeting:
I do understand your point of view Mr. Haldane and know very well that I shouldn’t have spoken out of turn at last night ‘s meeting. I sincerely apologize for this and ask for your forgiveness.
I spoke out of turn not because I believe I am important as you mentioned Mr. Haldane in your email to me - you obviously do not know me at all. I believe in following rules and I truly believe SRTA association did as much as any other association seeking funding.
I spoke out of turn because of my strong passionate belief in supporting my community and that a grave injustice and very bad decision for the well being and the prosperity of the community I cherish was happening for reasons I still have a hard time believing truly exist. All the money received and spent is recorded through the financial book of the association and these were given by the treasurer of the association to the District of Sooke.
I have worked very hard for the last 35 years to make Sooke more well known because as you may not want to believe, the more Sooke is well known the more every one of us in the hospitality sector benefit from it. The decision some of you took last night has great implications and does affect a large number of businesses not only in the District of Sooke but for the whole region from Sooke to Port Renfrew!
If we want our community to strive in these challenging times we need to work together, collaborate and try our hardest to come up with the right decision. Last night was not a good day for any of us, especially not for the community of Sooke.
Please accept again my sincere apologies for speaking out of line during a council meeting, it was only done because a grave injustice was happening.
*If I remember the only other time I did speak out of turn (I was reprimanded by Janet Evans then mayor ) was when the Council gave approval to the Prestige hotel to only build 101 parking stalls for a hotel with 122 rooms, restaurants, spa, and 300 seats conference centre... and look were we are with this now!
Frederique Philip
Sooke