Opinion

It's mid-way through January and time to take stock of New Year's resolutions passed in seriousness and in jest.

Complacency is a malignant tumour that is hard to excise. To avoid rampant cynicism that all too often dominates social discourse, here's a to-do list for 2013 in the Tri-Cities.

FACE TO FACE: Was $15 million for Coquitlam's new library money well spent? F ifteen million dollars seems a lot to spend on Coquitlam's new Town Centre library branch.

Ask a Lower Mainland resident who takes care of our garbage, water and sewage, and even air quality, most people draw a blank.

FACE TO FACE: Was $15 million for Coquitlam's new library money well spent? I n November, the city of Coquitlam opened its new, fancy $15-million Town Centre library branch. Now, this is the Cadillac of libraries: It's 31,000 sq. ft.

FACE TO FACE: Should out-of-bounds skiers and boarders pay for their rescue? W hatever happened to personal responsibility? Growing up, I was taught that when you do something wrong, you have to suffer the consequences.

FACE TO FACE: Should out-of-bounds skiers and boarders pay for their rescue? S ebastian Boucher, an Ottawa snowboarder, is being billed $10,000 by Cypress Mountain to help defray his recent rescue.

On paper, the net worth of thousands of Tri-City residents has either climbed slightly or dropped a bit thanks to changes in property values calculated by BC Assessment. Are these changes anything to worry about? Not really.

"I 'm interested in your thoughts on Thursday's elections," I asked, interrupting a conversation on widespread unemployment in Nepal . The three local men at my table, highly opinionated entrepreneurs, responded with blank stares.

School District 43 got the equivalent of a lump of coal in its Christmas stocking from Education Minister Don McRae last month. The bad news came in the form of a Dec. 3 letter requiring all school districts to find 1.