To: MLA Randy Hawes and Ban the Cannons,
We left the Bradner area last month after 30 years in Bradner. We could not tolerate another summer with the cannons. Our 10 year old Golden Retriever spent the summer panting with his head under the coffee table in our living room. He would only go outside before 7 AM or after 9PM in the evening. He obviously felt the same way as we did about the cannons. We accepted a price well below market value in order to make the move quickly and to ensure that we would not spend another season in the area. My working life was spent in the field of agriculture, first with the Ministry of Agriculture, then owned a Long English cucumber greenhouse and later worked for the Forest Service in the Silviculture Branch then with the privatized nursery company PRT.
In the early 1970s, starlings were a serious problem for agriculture. Their population is down drastically since that time and my observations last summer was they were almost non-existent. The cannons raised few if any birds from the fields. If anything, robins are a bigger problem and they seem to be unaffected by the cannons.
In addition, one newly planted field with no harvestable fruit was firing cannons daily. Maybe it was to get the neighbours used to it or perhaps to encourage them to sell and leave as the new grower had made approaches to the neighbour to see if he would sell.
As you can see from the last paragraph, I am fairly cynical about the present motives for the use of the cannons.
It is time that agriculture accepted that it must develop measures that work for everyone in the community. The Right To Farm legislation, as presently enforced allows the agriculture community to abuse the rights of the rest of the community.
W. G.
from Balfour, BC
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