Dear editor:
In the Western News March 1, 2024, editorial page, columnist John Arendt said “Kardashian was wrong.”
How true. She was born into fame and money and is used to giving orders.
About five or six years ago – maybe longer – I believe it was on the front page of a Penticton newspaper, I read that a Penticton business man said that “people in Penticton did not want to work.”
That made me so angry!
I have raised three children and all have moved away from Penticton because of poor wages and lack of opportunity. And many of their schoolmates have done the same.
Yes, there are a few people living in Penticton that some times do not show up for work because the beach and lake call and they can’t resist, but most are working hard and doing their best.
Former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm said, “If you want to live in a nice place you have to pay the price.” That was his excuse for what some call the Sunshine Tax.
Businesses in Penticton often only pay minimum wage and no benefits.
They do not give full-time work only part-time so they don’t have to give benefits. Without workers, the business owner would have no business. Service workers, store clerks, gas attendants, waitresses, dish washers, etc., do a great service for those of us who can afford to attend their work establishments.
We were transferred to Penticton in the fall of 1986. Young people had to leave Penticton to get an apprenticeship.
Businesses often said it cost too much to have an apprentice, and then if the business did accept an apprentice some would not give the raise when the apprentice came back from a second or third year of schooling. Now we hear complaints about no workers – I told people 30 years ago that businesses need to train young people – even then, the media was warning the public about the problems of retiring baby boomers.
A few years ago, I read an article that stated if a community has more that 32 per cent seniors, everything starts to go downhill because there are not enough young people to service the seniors. The reason we cannot get workers is because there are not enough young people in Penticton. I think our population is more that 50 per cent seniors.
Look at the newer workers in some stores, a lot have grey hair, they need to supplement their income. Workers cannot afford to live here. Rent is astronomical.
An example of greed is a landlord painting an apartment after a renter has been moved out and then upping the rent $800. Why do people with a modest income have to live in a beehive? Why can’t they have a modest, simple home and a plot of land? For that, they will have to leave Penticton.
Jane R Turnell
Penticton