Exotics issue: Kamloops Daily News editorial

[Sinikka Crosland]

http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/opinion.shtml

Kamloops Daily News

Friday June 22, 2007

Editorial

 

SH: Politics about issues

     both big and small

The amazing thing about politicians is that they’re totally capable of dealing with more than one issue at the same time. Looking for a solution to one problem doesn’t mean they can’t deal with other problems, too.

So it was an odd comment that Coun. Tina Lange made this week when council discussed putting more teeth into its animal control bylaw on the issue of exotic pets.

“We have pedophiles on the street and we’re worrying about iguanas?” she asked, as her way of brushing off the topic.

One could apply that comment to any number of things. “We have pedophiles on the street and we’re worrying about who gets parking tickets?”

Or, “We have pedophiles on the street and we’re worrying about putting grates on culverts?”

Or, “We have pedophiles on the street and we’re worrying about free bus rides on election day?”

And so on, and so on. Each one of those examples happens to be something Lange debated at the council table. Certainly, pedophiles present an important community challenge. So do other major issues such as affordable housing, managing growth, developing new recreational facilities, prostitution and drugs.

And, as it happens, a large number of what we might consider less pressing issues, such as bus rides on election day, grates on culverts, parking tickets and, indeed, ownership of exotic pets.

Speaking of which, if Lange wants to restrict herself to bigger issues this week, maybe she could have tackled the provincial government’s failure to deal with the exotic-pet ownership issue in a more timely manner.

Surely, when someone gets killed by an exotic pet, namely a tiger, confined in a facility that was of questionable safety standards, as happened recently in Bridge Lake, that’s an issue worth discussing by our council.

But it’s also worth thinking about who should be responsible for issues that are of province-wide importance, and the ownership of exotic pets is one of those.

Nonetheless, in the absence of provincial action, council was right in reviewing its own regulations. The current bylaw prohibits exotic-animal performances within the city, and at least one circus has abided by that bylaw by leaving its animals outside city limits when it came to town.

It was a revelation, though, that the same tiger involved in the Bridge Lake tragedy had been brought into town at one point.

So, clearly, putting a little time and energy into discussing improvements to the bylaw was worthwhile on a Tuesday when there were only a handful of items on the agenda.

The reality is that a great deal of what a municipal council deals with is of a minor nature, often boring in the extreme. When was the last time you were held spellbound as council debated the pros and cons of a new drainage project, or a new records-management system.

Civic politics is about big and small, and about managing all manner of issues. If politicians can’t multitask, they shouldn’t be politicians.