Dear Christy Clark:

Congratulations on winning the recent by-election. I understand that your government will be putting families first, so I thought I would write to you about some of my family’s particular concerns. First, as I send my children across the street each morning to their school, a 100-year-old brick building, I’m extremely concerned about earthquake safety. I understand that you committed to seismic upgrading when you were the Minister of Education. And still, our school — rated at high risk of severe damage in the case of an earthquake — is not even scheduled for repairs. I find this offensive, particularly when I drive by BC Place and see its $563 million new roof. (Which, by the way, is horrifically ugly. Have you seen that thing? It’s likely to scare tourists from the city.)

Onwards. My second concern is the underfunding of the school system as a whole. I notice that you transferred insurance payments to the individual school districts this week, which to me doesn’t indicate a strong interest in better funding. Also, I take issue with the way the carbon tax is being implemented. While I support the tax, I was appalled to read in the Vancouver Sun that the money taken from the Vancouver School Board — enough for the equivalent of five full-time teachers — was given to Encana, the oil company currently being sued for contaminating drinking water through fracking. I had the opportunity to speak with David Eby before the by-election, and he mentioned that one of your key advisors is a former executive of Encana. Nice.

These facts alone lead me to doubt your “families first” priorities… and I haven’t even done any research yet. In order to earn my vote in the next provincial election, I’m afraid you would have to improve your environmental standards, and begin repairs immediately on our neighbourhood schools.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,
Tanya Kyi