Rick Shea's Page

Is Wal-Mart fishing for a location in Salmon Arm?

It’s difficult to tell from the SmartCentres webpage devoted to the proposed new shopping centre. Other retailers are mentioned there as expressing interest, or writing letters of support, but Wal-Mart is nowhere to be found. Unless, that is, you look at the two recent SmartCentres developments listed at that page -- Queensborough Landing in New Westminster, and Grandview Corner in Surrey. Although a bit difficult to see from the photos, both de… Continue

From the Salmon Arm Observer, November 17, 2009

The usual myths are being trotted out to try to sucker Salmon Arm residents into accepting a strip mall at the west end of town.

In particular, we are told that this “development” will create local jobs. Sure, some temporary construction jobs will be created, and certainly some longer term low-paying part-time jobs will be created. But looking at the larger picture shows that the net result is not favourable.

Let’s look at the results in other n… Continue

An article in the Guardian claims that the International Energy Agency - the most authoritative source regarding global energy supplies - has been overestimating global oil production capacity and underestimating oilfield depletion rates for years, and is for the first time acknowledging the reality of the peak of global oil production. New calculations indicate that we may already be past the peak, and any upturn in global economic activity will bring this reality home.

Why would this informat… Continue

Wal-Mart has, in the recent past, enlisted bloggers in an attempt to improve their public image. Information is fed to these bloggers, who have frequently quoted verbatim what they are told by Wal-Mart employees without citing the source -- a big no-no in terms of intellectual honesty. I wonder if any of that is happening here too.… Continue

From the Salmon Arm Observer
Published: October 27, 2009 6:00 PM

Denial allows people to think that more growth is somehow “smart” or sustainable as long as we stack people on top of each other. All the while, we can ignore the failures of this practice everywhere it has been tried.

Denial allows us to believe that we can create “compact, walkable cities,” when in reality rental and real estate prices in these cities invariably become so expensive that those who do the work cannot afford to li… Continue