A lump of coal would almost be too good for a “naughty” Victoria city council to hope for in its stocking, if the Canadian Taxpayers Federation was playing Santa.
Citing everything from the massively over-budget Johnson Street Bridge project to the city’s $8-million purchase of the Victoria Visitors Centre building and the installation of musical handrails in a city parkade, the federation’s “naughty” list for this year prominently features B.C.’s capital city.
“I think it was a dismal year for Victoria city council and I don’t see very many positive signs that anything’s going to change in the new year,” said Jordan Bateman, B.C. director for the federation.
“So if you’re a taxpayer there, especially one on a fixed income, hold onto your wallets. This could get ugly.”
Mayor Lisa Helps called the federation’s comments discouraging.
She said the advocacy group appears to be “nitpicking” and ignoring the positive.
“They always look at the negative. That’s their prerogative,” said Helps, who rattled off a number of city accomplishments, including opening a new business hub at city hall, working to create the Southern Vancouver Island Economic Development Association and the fact tourism is up.
“I actually don’t have a response except to say: Look more holistically and don’t just nitpick,” Helps said.
Describing Victoria city council as a group “that lurched from one mistake to another,” Bateman said that when it came to compiling Victoria’s list, there were too many questionable decisions to list.
The interactive musical railing in the Bastion Street parkade only amounted to an expenditure of a few thousand dollars, but the money could have been better spent, he said.
“Why would the city put money into parkade stairwells when we have people camping in city parks?”
The city decided this year to spend $7.98 million to buy from the province the building that houses the Victoria Visitors Centre at 812 Wharf St. Bateman said the building would have been better off in the hands of the private sector.
“It just makes more sense to leave it in private hands. That building can be controlled through zoning and approved uses. You don’t have to own everything to make sure that’s a productive piece of the city,” Bateman said.
Also making the naughty list was Surrey city council, which this year introduced a $100 recreation levy, a 2.9 per cent property-tax hike and a 28 per cent increase in secondary-suite fees on the heels of an election campaign in which no incumbent mentioned a tax hike.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson made the list for a “mind-boggling travel schedule” that took him to the Vatican, China, Paris, New York and Washington, D.C., in the past year.
“He made [Prime Minister] Justin Trudeau look like a stay-at-home dad,” Bateman said.
“When you take the eye off the ball in a city like Vancouver, bad things crop up. You have 100-plus marijuana dispensaries now. You see homelessness continuing to be a bigger and bigger issue with affordability.
“Well no wonder — the guy who is supposed to be keeping an eye on this is having more fun with the Pope.”
Premier Christy Clark also made the naughty list for yet another increase in medical service premiums.
On the nice list, the federation lists Joe and Jane Public for defeating the 0.5 per cent tax increase for TransLink expansion, scuttling a yoga-thon on Vancouver’s Burrard Bridge and killing the Kamloops theatre tax hike; Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, West Vancouver Mayor Michael Smith and Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read for their opposition to the TransLink tax hike; Wayne Louie, who took Lower Kootenay Band leaders to court over payments they made to themselves of band funds; and the B.C. legislature, which began posting MLA expense receipts.
