Nanaimo Costco

I am officially an unhappy customer. Now as a single person I do not feel the need to frequent Costco, since I do not have a large family to feed (the main purpose of Costco, IMHO). I go there MAYBE once a month. So for me to spend $50 on a membership seems pointless. It wouldn't be worth it for me. I understand Costco has some decent pricing (but let's be realistic, no one TRULY saves money at Costco - in fact I seem to spend far more than I wanted to!) and they try to provide wholesale prices, but I fail to see the purpose of PAYING for a membership just to SPEND money somewhere. I'll stick to the story here.

I went to Costco with a member and at the till was asked whether I have a membership to which I replied "no". I was asked whether I wanted a membership to which I replied "no, I don't come here enough to benefit from that". Upon us both putting our groceries through I was going to pay for both orders when the cashier lady informs me apparently as a "non-member" they are unable to accept my debit card. I fail to see the point of this as I am also paying for a member. She informs me there is an ATM machine in the far corner. I take out money (and yes of course I get charged for using it). While passing her the cash I ask her whether my "non-member" cash is accepted here. She snidely responses yes, and the reason they wouldn't take my debit card is they would be charged for the transaction. I inform her I understand that but I was also paying for a member so there was REALLY no difference, and that she just wasted everyone's time. In the meantime she had placed a sign up for membership card in my groceries after I repeatedly said no. Needless to say as a very easy-going person I left the store feeling irritated and appalled. Let's just say I won't be getting a membership card anytime soon. A company that can't provide polite and considerate customer service will not have my business. Thank you Costco. Especially Thank you Maureen D, who allowed me to have the worst customer service experience I've had in a long time.

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Vancouver Island Weather ...

Where's winter? There has been no snow for Nanaimo since the beginning of 2010. Now we are looking at double digits (10+) until Monday and it feels like spring! Looks like the whole island is going to see unusually warm temperatures for the next little.

Can't say I'm complaining!

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Nanaimo Off-Leash Parks

There is some good news for dog owners in the Nanaimo area, there are some new off leash area's tentatively planned within the next year or so. Some places being considered are:

- Beban Park facility
- Beaufort Park
- Diver Lake Park
- Colliery Dam Park

These places are set to open this spring, with the following places being considered for 2011:

- Nanaimo Ice Centre
- Northfield rest area
- Groveland Park

For it's size and land area, Nanaimo only currently has 3 off leash areas, Cable Bay, Beban and the back portion of Westwood lake, some new area is definitely needed.

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For or against the Olympics?

What we could have done with the money spent on the 2010 Olympic Games

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 9:30pm

Source material: Pete Mcmartin, Vancouver Sun.

Healthcare: The cost of the Olympics could have funded the construction of 6 state of the art hospitals to replace St. Paul’s.

Seismic Upgrades For Schools At Risk: The cost of the Olympics could have funded the entire budget of the seismic-upgrading program four times over for schools in British Columbia. As it stands now, only 32 out of hundreds of elementary and secondary schools have been upgraded as of last year.

Education: The cost of the Olympics could cover the four-year tuition fees of 345,383 UBC arts students – or 314,004 UBC science students – or 287,853 UBC engineering students – or 100,963 UBC medical students.

The cost of the Olympics could pay the salaries of UBC’s 587 full professors for 73 years.

The cost of the Olympics could cover the cost of educating every elementary and secondary student in the Province for roughly a year and a half.

Government: The cost of the Olympics could fund the Premier’s office for 500 years.

The cost of the Olympics could have paid the entire public service payroll of British Columbia for 2 years.

The cost of the Olympics could have allowed the Provincial government to waive property tax for 6 years and sales tax for over a year.

The cost of the Olympics could have funded all of the social welfare programs on the Lower Eastside – including food banks and social housing – that receive Federal, Provincial, and Municipal funding for more than 16 years.

The cost of the Olympics could have built roughly 20,000 units of social housing.

The cost of the Olympics could have afforded the city the ability to hire 3,000 new police officers and pay them, with full benefits, for 20 years.

Security: On average, every family in British Columbia will be paying $300 towards security costs during the games. Spread out over the country’s entire population of 34 million, every Canadian would be paying $26 dollars.

During the games, the military presence in Vancouver will be the largest since the Second World War.

The total cost of security is more than VANOC’s initial assessment of what the Olympics as a whole would cost.

$79 million dollars of the security budget is being used to house military and police personnel on three cruise ships.

Security costs include $29 million dollars for new computers and $6 million dollars for new radios.

BC Ferries will receive $15 million dollars for security upgrades even though no events are taking place on any of the coast islands to which they sail.

The Canada Border Services Agency is receiving $15 million dollars in supplemental funding.

The original security budget for the games was $175 million. It is currently hovering around the billion dollar mark.

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Vancouver Island Short Film Festival

Coming very soon is the 5th year for the Vancouver Island Film Festival. This festival is sponsored by the Nanaimo Arts Council. All entries tend to feature local actors, writers, directors, musicians and film technicians. The films must be 10 minutes or less.

The festival will stretch out over two nights in 2010, February 12th and February 13th both at 7pm at Vancouver Island University Theater. Awards will be presented after the February 13th showing.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at any of the locations below!

The Nanaimo Arts Council (located at North Town Center - Rutherford)

Falconer Books (located at Port Place Shopping Center)

The House Of Indigo (Commerical Street location)

The Nanaimo Art Gallery (located at Vancouver Island University)

For more information please contact admin@visff.com or call 250-729-3947.
You can also check out http://visff.com/ for more information !

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Vancouver Island Organic/Local Food.

I've always been inquisitive about where the food I eat comes from. I found some useful and informative links on local and organic food on Vancouver Island - enjoy!

Island Farm Fresh

Island Farmers Alliance

Spud

Saltspring Seeds Co.

Read, learn, grow!

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