Enough with the butt tossers and guilt trips. A few brief contemplations concerning fire and water.
First, fire. Surrey firefighters fought 12 brush fires on Monday alone as this dry heat spell continues and shows little sign of forecasted relief.
Any time is a good time to not chuck cigarette butts out of car windows.
But tossing them now almost guarantees a boulevard brush fire or worse. The result is danger, damage and unnecessary expense to already burdened taxpayers.
READ ALSO: Dry conditions keep Surrey firefighters busy with brush fires
As long as cigarette-tossing imbeciles range free among us, there really needs to be bone-cracking fines levied to properly school those who would toss their butts. An encouraging precedent was set in Victoria in 2019 when a driver there was fined $575 for throwing a cigarette butt out of his car, in violation of B.C.’s Wildfire Act.
It was a good start, anyway.
Next, water. Last week, Emergency Management and Climate Readiness Minister Bowinn Ma exhorted British Columbians to take shorter showers to save water because “every drop counts,” seemingly forgetting that we do live in a coastal rainforest and later this year, as with every year, plenty of rain will fall.
This week, the City of Surrey is encouraging residents to water trees on their street. So who’s right?
Clearly, it’s government that needs to get its act together.
Here’s a novel idea: What say the politicians and bureaucrats be good stewards of our water resources, preparing for dry times rather than dropping this year-round responsibility of theirs on the little guy every time a dry spell comes along?
– Now-Leader
edit@surreynowleader.com
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