What do the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics and the Native Sons Hall in Courtenay have in common? Both would use money that should be use to help the poor, to entertain the rich.
According to the article in the local news paper, the Native Sons Hall will get a complete renovation of the floor, bathrooms and heating system.

I would like to have a list of the proposed upgrades so I can justify with my experience in the field, how is it possible to spend 644,000 Canadian dollars in upgrading a building that is a heritage building and it needs to be kept as such, not with a modern face lift that will spoil its charm and functionality as a community venue.

In the other hand, it seems such a misuse of community funds to create the image of wealth in a community in which there are 250 officially homeless people, with another 3,000 people in the verge of becoming homeless. Also is well known by the people that have appropriate housing, that the there is a 40% portion of the population in the Comox Valley that cannot truly afford to live here, the cost of living rivals with the cost of living in richer areas of the country, and still is unthinkable and a slap on the face of those people, to spend such an enormous amount of money in a building that doesn’t improve the living standards or the affordability of life in the valley, and only serves a limited number of people that have their needs covered. Also questionable is the number of days that this venue is used every year, is like having an elephant that eats 270 lbs of food a day, of which 60% it goes undigested and expelled as manure, and only use it to go to the market once a week; this brings the subject of the appropriate use for a venue. Previously, the farmer’s market used it once a week on Saturdays for a few hours; the question now is that a hard wood floor was used for this purpose for something that in the summer months is held on dirt at the fairgrounds, it is like bringing your unused elephant into your carpeted house in the winter months because it is too cold to keep it outdoors. In Switzerland, the farmer’s markets are held outside for as long as there is produce to be sold; I would imagine that there would be a referendum to oppose that, if the local governments decide to use their community hard floor building for a farmer’s market.

My final question to the general public and local authorities is: what is the course our community members can take to oppose such an arbitrary decision, based on the intention to show to the world something we are not? This is not a wealthy community, it is composed of meddle class working families, retirees and people that can hardly afford to live here.

Please, let’s stop this non-sense misuse of resources and turn the funds into a tool to make living in the Comox Valley a sustainable endeavor for the people that have chosen to make this valley their home until the day they die, me included.