LETTER: Is bureaucracy discouraging young folks in Surrey?
Published 7:00 am Monday, May 11, 2026
Editor,
For the last decade or so I have hired local teenagers to do yard work and other chores.
Growing up in the ‘60s, nearly all my friends mowed lawns in the summer for spending money, and in a few cases to finance world travel after high school. It seemed like a good tradition to maintain, and it feels good to support a neighbour kid.
My first yard man soon moved away, but the next one worked with me for nearly 10 years until career and romance issues intervened. I was about to engage a garden service when I spotted a poster on the pole advertising a local high school student for yard work. I hired him, and he’s turning out to be great; reliable, conscientious, etc.
Yesterday I asked him how his customer base was growing. He explained that he was told to take the posters down or face a fine. Apparently someone complained.
I don’t know the details, but I can’t fathom why a kid who shows initiative and is willing to work should be squashed, rather than encouraged. We all moan about “too much screen time” and “entitlement,” but God forbid that a young man willing to get off the couch to earn a bit of spending money should be applauded.
Michael Dickens