There are a lot of beautiful parks in Canada and there are a lot of beautiful beaches, but how many places on earth have a beautiful beach with a beautiful park in a desert valley as a whole?
The efforts of so many volunteers, council and residents who gave up their homes made Skaha Park a Leonardo Da Vinci creation with nature as its canvas, yet the city wants to put a trench coat, top hat and beard on the Okanagan’s Mona Lisa of parks. It makes me question what kind of salesmen from Trio and city hall is there to persuade supposedly intelligent people to destroy this work of art.
Try to think of anywhere else with such a natural undeveloped beauty in a city. I have been to all the provinces, 44 states and cannot think of any freshwater beach/park setting as nice as Skaha. How can anyone be so blind to our paradise that currently exists right here in Penticton? Ask any tourist, oops you forgot, we asked hundreds for you. I laugh when they say the kids have nothing here to do. My lord, there is more to do here in the Okanagan than almost any place in Canada, yet some are blind to what we already have.
The issue is not a waterslide, the issue is irreplaceable parkland the public trusted city hall would never commercially develop without a referendum. City hall says too many referendums would be expensive. How often would we need a referendum if the city did its job, and that is to serve the public and leave our parks alone.
Why do tourists come here? Because it is not like Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton or any place else in Canada. Penticton is unique because our natural parks and beaches are our biggest attractions. A vast majority of the tourists we talk to at Skaha were shocked they would even consider commercializing a portion of such a beautiful park.
The city keeps saying the save Skaha Park side keeps giving misinformation, yet I beg to differ. I have personally been approached saying we have been giving a lot of misinformation, yet when I asked for examples, there were none. Is this then a tactic to discredit the save the park side to gain public support of the lease?
Petitions will be ongoing at Skaha splashpad area from 5 to 8 p.m. daily. Contributions for legal action can be made at any Valley First # 2765832 .
Clifford Martin
Penticton