Given their performance, is a raise justified?
It is unfathomable that any city employee has the right to vote themselves a raise, let alone 25 per cent. About $13,000 in real money.
What have these councillors done?
Well, they have bullied taxpayers by allowing the city to change our Centennial Square into a family waterpark (reality: public toilet and homeless encampment).
We have been told there will be a new greenspace/homeless encampment built on Blanshard Street.
Upper Fort Street has been turned into the worst day-long traffic jam in the city.
They are adding apartments downtown but have made them for one niche group. People who have time ride their cute bike wherever they go. Families cannot get around this city without a car.
When these councillors put their name in for this job, they agreed to take the salary they were offered. Taxpayers should not have to give them a raise because they can’t plan their family budget.
We are not here to pay your student debt. That is your job. Our job is to pay you the salary you agreed to.
Can’t wait to see their benefit package improvements.
James Kelly
Victoria
On a per capita basis, the salary makes no sense
I am having trouble with the math pertaining to the salaries paid to our mayor and council.
For example, the mayor’s salary of $131,050 amounts to $1.37 per capita over the City of Victoria’s 96,000 population.
A quick survey of western Canadian cities (Vancouver, Surrey, Calgary, Edmonton) reveals that mayoral salaries in these places range between $157,000 and $214,000, for a per capita average of the four cities of $0.2045.
On a per capita basis, Mayor Marianne Alto is paid 668 per cent more than the average of the four cities surveyed. Even if the mayor were responsible for all of the municipalities in the metro Victoria area, (population 398,000) the salary would still be 33 cents per capita, or 161 per cent of the average of the surveyed cities.
Something just does not add up.
The conclusion that we are over-governed and desperately need municipal amalgamation is unavoidable.
John Day
Victoria
Ask constituents about the pay raise
Victoria Coun. Jeremy Caradonna “cherry picked” 18 Canadian cities to determine that Victoria councillors are underpaid so deserve an increase to $65,525 from $52,420.
This unreasonable hike is $10,525 over the B.C. median of $55,000.
Instead of spending taxpayer time on this research, I suggest that Caradonna poll his constituents on this bold issue in front of the daily homeless encampment at the Shoppers’ Drug Mart on Douglas Street.
Taking the lead on such a motion without any consideration or respect for residents facing the most challenging financial concerns in Canada’s third most expensive city is not acceptable.
The five councillors that gifted themselves this raise should be reminded that a vocal council member who attempted this type of hefty increase was not re-elected.
Mayor Marianne Alto and councillors Marg Gardiner and Stephen Hammond are to be commended for acknowledging that taxpayers are not going to be getting this level of income remuneration, and for being opposed to having the authority to increase their own pay.
Constituents have the opportunity to reverse this unreasonable action by voicing their opinions to the mayor and council. We have the numbers to defeat this outrageous decision from going forward.
Elizabeth Kozak
Victoria
Instead of a raise, reduce their pay
So Victoria councillors believe they are worth a huge raise. After watching all the stupidity that has been emerging from them, what they are worth is a 50 per cent decrease in pay.
Remember that you volunteered for the job, which most of you are not qualified to do it.
Dennis Bourne
Saanich
They say they didn’t know what job entailed
Five members of Victoria council voted themselves a pay raise of 25 per cent. Sneaking it in under the radar, there was no notice to the public and no opportunity for public input. It was not even on the council agenda!
Councillors Jeremy Caradonna, Dave Thompson, Krista Loughton, Matt Dell, and Susan Kim voted for their own raises, claiming this is fair because they did not know the demands of the job and how much time it would entail when they ran for office 18 months ago.
They apparently did not know that the city faced “big-city problems like homelessness, street disorder, and mental health and addictions challenges.”
Really? One might wonder how they knew so little about the city they hoped to serve.
I applaud Mayor Marianne Alto and councillors Marg Gardiner and Stephen Hammond for recognizing the inappropriateness of ruling on their own pay raise, for noting the discrepancy between the size of this raise and what most taxpayers might get and for trying to defer implementation of any raise until the next council takes office.
The MNP consultant’s report on governance, delivered to council in 2022, also suggested that any new remuneration rates not take effect until the next council takes office.
With no opportunity for input on this decision now, we can only wait until 2026 to tell councillors what we think in the next civic election.
Noreen Marshall
Victoria
Class-based policies hurt elected offices
Those who object to Victoria councillors raising their pay should recall that class-based policies to keep working people and the young out of elected office has a long history in B.C.
Small “c”-conservative provincial governments for decades chortled as their MLAs could manage with part-time salaries because they were business owners or old-money wealthy, while salaried people could not afford to leave their employment to run for office, much less to hold it.
I dealt with the same “you knew what the pay was” false argument at the municipal level in the 1980s. At all levels, it should be affordable for anyone to be an elected representative.
If we don’t like the cost of democracy, consider the alternatives.
Gerald Rotering
Former mayor of Nelson
Slow down, let’s save Goldstream Park
Goldstream Park is a priceless gem, and the irreplaceable heritage of all those who live in the Southern Vancouver Island region.
It is time that we recognize the gifts of nature we have been given, and work to protect those.
For the government to be considering felling hundreds of trees, many exceedingly old, which provide homes for bird-life and unseen biological life, and which provide protection and cooling for the salmon stream, is beyond belief.
When will we learn to value and respect the magnificence of nature, over destruction in the name of people and transportation?
One simple solution is to reduce and enforce speed limits in the area of the Finlayson Arm Road intersection. Install a traffic light that is triggered as needed or works in intervals, depending on the amount of traffic.
We humans will benefit from learning to slow down! We can simply add a few minutes of time to our trip, as we accept the speed restrictions in this sensitive area.
To ignore the pleas of First Nations who are expressing concern about this area and seeking its protection, is completely unacceptable.
We have a responsibility to them, and to all our future generations.
Mary Reher and Andy Nowak
Pender Island
Peninsula can’t help Malahat traffic woes
Over the years many people have stated the best solution to improving the traffic on the Malahat would be a bridge to the Saanich Peninsula.
Obviously these people don’t travel that road often. Ferry traffic backs up the roadway for miles.
The Saanich Peninsula is not a solution to the Malahat traffic problems. Moving the problem from one road to another is not the answer.
Eileen Cannon
Victoria
Goldstream Park road should be two-tier
Fifty years ago, when we moved to London, England, we were amazed at the Hammersmith Flyover, a two-tier structure for vehicular traffic, which has functioned admirably for traffic into London.
What in Heaven’s name would be wrong with a two-tier highway through Goldstream Park?
It would be cheaper and more efficient, with no loss of trees and habitat. Frankly, a no-brainer.
G.R. Greig
Victoria
Official community plan is being ignored
Re: “Victoria today: A requiem for my city,” commentary, March 14.
I concur with the position taken by Stuart Stark. The City of Victoria has been on a tangent for some years, thinking that more density and taller buildings will solve the social malaise that has gripped downtown.
This is in complete disregard to any amount of study, which confirms that high rise accommodation results in and enhances social isolation.
This approach, needless to say endorsed by the development community, has been taken with almost complete disregard for the Official Community Plan, with the elimination of many neighbourhood zoning requirements, and with virtually all larger projects demanding exemptions for height, setbacks, parking, any civic amenity or tangible benefit to the city or its citizens.
The new hotel proposed for the site at Government and Pandora is a good example.
To top it all off, we now have the City, in apparent sincerity, asking for citizen input on revisions to the plan update.
Based on the current process, this can only be seen as ignoring citizens’ expectations for their city, and will amount to flak catching, providing the illusion of input into the process while proceeding to a predetermined result.
John Keay
Retired architect
Victoria
Look at our downtown, and start cleaning it up
Re: “Victoria today: A requiem for my city,” commentary, March 14.
As someone who spent decades working, building and protecting the downtown core, I have repeatedly spoken loudly about exactly what Stuart Stark wrote about.
For nearly a decade, the civic government has stated the problem in the core is a provincial issue.
City leaders have repeatedly turned a blind eye while the downtown core has dissolved into a lawless land full of filth and danger.
Our city has a bylaw department that visits and penalizes property owners for not keeping heed to the rules about unkempt yards, boulevards, unhitched trailers, and overnight camping.
Wouldn’t it be nice if our civic leaders would look into their own yard, which is the downtown core, and start cleaning it up?
I can’t blame my neighbour for my disregard of the rules, so why can council turn a blind eye to the filth and danger in their backyard, while blaming their provincial counterparts?
To the newcomers with stars in their eyes about beautiful scenery, and wonderful weather, I invite you to buy a downtown condo.
Let me know in six months how that is working out for you.
Vacancy in downtown business units has never been higher.
Violence has never been higher.
Filth and degradation has never been higher.
Welcome to Victoria.
Dewane Ollech
Victoria
Fixing Victoria’s decline should be a priority
Re: “Victoria today: A requiem for my city,” commentary, March 14.
I applaud the author for this very reasonable and factual assessment of the decline of Victoria.
As a frequent visitor, I have found the decline to be striking over the past 12 years.
Every time I come into the city core, I see more and more evidence of decay and I wonder if perhaps those who are there every day have just learned to turn a blind eye and rush quickly past the problems.
Appropriate and immediate action on these issues should be at the top of the public and council’s agenda and budget.
Judy Love-Eastham
Nanoose Bay
Change the guidelines over who gets parole
Re: “Man who killed UVic student 37 years ago gets day parole,” March 15.
The moment I saw Marguerite Telesford’s picture on the front page, I became a statistic: another outraged friend of the parents of a murdered daughter, seeing her killer gain an improvement in his incarceration conditions.
In that moment, I was transported back to the evening in 1992, my first Bible study in her parents’ home. I saw her beautiful portrait on the wall, and asked who she was.
That’s when I heard the story, told quietly, without anger, but the pain and heartache in their voices and eyes was vivid. I felt guilty about bringing it up for them to relive yet again.
The litany of her murderer’s crimes is a list of reasons to deny him this step; that they’re fully acknowledged by the parole board, and day parole was granted anyway, beggars belief.
How has this system gone so horribly wrong? Didn’t the people who run the prison system get the message last summer, with regard to the murderer of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy?
I don’t want to hear that they’re just applying the guidelines. Change the guidelines.
We, the public, can only hope and pray that they guessed right about this man; that some other young woman and her parents aren’t going to pay the price for their error.
Lorraine Lindsay
Saanich
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