ATAMANENKO: A year in review, part one
By Alex Atamanenko
The past year has been an eventful one.
In January the Haiti earthquake hit. My staff and I worked for days with Foreign Affairs, a School District and Mt. Sentinel School of South Slocan to safely locate, press for transportation assistance, and rescue a class of high school students caught in Haiti.
In February, after much lobbying by me and other MPs, a new Passport Office opened in Kelowna to help serve the people of the Southern Interior. While the Olympics brought people to the lower mainland, I was working to fight the shutdown of Pacific Coastal Air flights from Trail, imposed by federal authorities, then lobbied with others for at least some compensation for the airline’s – and Trail’s – loss of business.
I held several forums and town hall meetings over the year to hear matters of concern to constituents, and discuss local issues. Town Hall meetings were held in Montrose, Warfield, and Beaverdell.
As the Federal Agriculture and Food Security Critic, I saw my Food For Thought report on food sovereignty finally released in June. I took part in food sovereignty forums in Castlegar and Oliver, organized by the Development and Peace committees of their Catholic churches. Local farmers, consumers, distributors and those involved in community gardens grappled with the issue of how to better support agricultural producers and ensure food safety, security and sovereignty. I also worked with the Grand Forks Boundary Agricultural Society, Cawston Cold Storage and other organizations in the riding, discussing issues related to food production, storage and distribution, to support various initiatives moving forward. The burdensome meat inspection regulations imposed by the Canada Food Inspection Agency continues to have a stranglehold on smaller producers.
The Boundary Women’s Coalition and I co-hosted a screening of the documentary “Poor No More” in Grand Forks, with over 80 people attending and participation from a number of community groups. It sparked a soul-searching community discussion of poverty issues and some contributing factors, and looked at options to follow-up. The following morning Kokomo’s Café graciously hosted an “MP Open House” where my staff and I had an opportunity to hear more personal constituent and community concern to follow-up. Plans are to show “Poor No More” in January in the West Kootenay and South Okanagan, and host Open Houses in the South Okanagan and Similkameen.
I worked with individuals and businesses in the Riding on issues experienced by other Canadians: the erosion of postal services in rural communities, the plight of fruit growers and cattle ranchers, and of course, the HST which was rammed down our throat by the Harper Conservatives.
In New Denver, I worked with one MLA around opposition to the location of a cell phone tower near a playground and residences. Current federal policies give communication companies powers that can over-ride a municipality’s choice about where a tower is located. I also lobbied with individuals and businesses for better high-speed internet access to fight the unequal access of rural communities to digital information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the resulting differences in opportunities for social and economic development.
The rushed federal Economic Action Plan to widen Highway 97 in the South Okanagan created problems for local fruit stand owners. I worked with them and the local MLA to modifying the highway plans to achieve better access to the businesses. I also worked with the MLA, local government officials and federal ministers to ensure a compensation package for those devastated by the Oliver slide. In the Boundary, I will continue to meet with Grand Forks Council and Community Future representatives, and interested parties from Washington State and the Boundary to try to resolve the proposed shutdown of the Omnitrax-owned KVR, and pursue the federal government for what role it will play in this process to support businesses in the Boundary.
Alex Atamanenko is the MP for BC’s Southern Interior.
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