Susan on the Civil Society

To The Editors Re: Civil Society - fact or fiction? SUN - April 5/08

In a civil society, Small Businesses and the families that operate themshould not have their life's work expropriated by the government and hugecorporations. Small independant businesses are the heart and soul of ourcommunities - to be cherished and supported.The Canada Line and all it's government and corporate partners have turned ablind eye to the agony caused by excavating the length of Cambie Street forthe past 2 and a half years, and are hiding in part, behind a lack oflegislation.Jane Bird the CEO of the Canada Line project, defended their position torefuse any and all financial relief by saying "there is no existinglegislation that requires it" and "as a society, we may want to have aconversation about whether to compensate".We most certainly do.In a civil society, when governments use their powers to confiscate valuefor the common good, such as when they build multi-billion dollartransportation projects with taxpayers money - individuals must becompensated. If all the impacts of these mega-projects cannot be adequatelymitigated with factored in compensation and financial support, then theprojects should not proceed.All of us who face this preventable financial ruin expect the City, theProvince and all the Canada Line partners including TransLink with theirrecently announced $408 Million dollar 'slush Fund', to do the right thing.Our life's work is at stake, along with our faith in government to act withintegrity.We expect full compensation and legislation to ensure that citizens areprotected, and that this despicable situation never happens again.And, in a civil society, small businesses should not have to take theunthinkable step of taking their government to court to achieve this.As Stephen Hume said in his piece, 'let's hold society to higher moralitythan economic self-interest'.

Susan HeyesHazel&Co3190 Cambie Street604 687-0721