Category Archives: Thoughts

Consider, Municipal

City Council Priorities

Leave a comment

Surely G.H. Chandler is not suggesting that water, roads, sewage, facility fees that are affordable for families and the average citizen are more important than Abbotsford city council’s ego projects?

How could G.H. Chandler possibly expect council to put the needs of Abbotsford’s taxpayers, the need for significant investments in water delivery and other infrastructure for the City of Abbotsford, ahead of the need of council to assuage their ego’s?

With Chilliwack having the Prospera Centre and the WHA Bruins hockey team; with Langley building their Event Centre for the BCHL Langley Chiefs (after Abbotsford Council sent the Chiefs on down the road) – how could Abbotsford city councillors be expected to hold their heads up proudly unless they built the AESC and acquired a hockey team, whatever the cost to taxpayers?

Undoubtedly G.H. Chandler (or other voters) will be pleased to know that their hard earned tax dollars are not going to support the Calgary Flames since Calgary does not own the Heat.

No the millions of dollars of taxpayer funded subsidies go into the pockets of those favoured local citizens who make up the ownership group of the Abbotsford Heat. And why should the ownership group of the Heat be expected to assume any of the risk of owning an AHL team when Abbotsford’s city council is willing to make the taxpayers of Abbotsford liable for all the risk?

Think how embarrassing it would have been for city council if they hadn’t put the taxpayers of Abbotsford on the hook for $57 million and therefore had no hockey team, leaving city council with an embarrassingly empty arena. Is G.H. Chandler daring to suggesting that saving the taxpayers $million$ of dollars in yearly operating costs and subsidies to the Heat ownership should have been a higher priority for city council than saving face?

Is it reasonable to expect council to feel that solid management, prudent planning and financially sound behaviour are higher priorities than ego projects?

Pshaw. If council made a priority of solid management, prudent planning and financially sound behaviour the city would not be at its current risk of insolvency or running out of water and there would be no need for city council and staff to be offering bribes in a desperate bid to get developers to build in Abbotsford.

Poverty

Magnificent Nonperformance

Leave a comment

WANTED:

Preferred Option – someway to have the Cavalier examined and adjusted so that it can pass Aircare, runs well and hopefully save gas $$$;

OR

Secondary Option – a functional vehicle capable of passing Aircare as replacement for the Cavalier.

Either option must be reflective of financial reality – I am so tapped out that I don’t have/cannot afford the gas to drive someone to the West Coast Express to catch the 5:27 AM train to get to the hospital in Richmond for a knee operation. While careful budgeting and spending could free up a little cash flow it is highly unlikely to exceed $50 a month and is subject to being needed for any unanticipated expense.

In other words I need a repair or a vehicle that falls at the extreme luck/miracle end of the spectrum.

At this point it should be clear that the Cavalier failed Aircare – but at least it did so spectacularly. On the hydrocarbon idle test were the maximum allowable limit is 101 ppm the Cavalier was at 2000 ppm.

I do not know why but with such a spectacular failure I found myself more philosophical than anxious and panicky. Since it was not even close there were no ‘if only I had done this or that’ thoughts to beat myself up with.

I remember the mental horror show I went through when the VW that had been my home through several years of homelessness barely failed Aircare. The mental meltdown, the anxiety and panic, took days to run their course. If fortune had not smiled, made available a Plymouth Duster for $100 and interrupted the mental downward spiral it could well have led to a full blown relapse into the darkness of mental illness.

This time the failure to pass Aircare left me a little shaken and stirred but not nonfunctional. People complaining about the exhaust from the Cavalier resulting in the suspecion it would not pass Aircare so it was not a total shock. Although dealing with the anxiety this possibility caused, keeping it from becoming a consuming anxiety and blossoming into panic resulted in an ongoing struggle with its own mental ups and downs.

Anxiety and panic threaten my mental health on this matter because I depend on this vehicle to get to work, to food, to the pool to swim (a mainstay of my mental and physical health), to group, to volunteer commitments, to committees (housing, homelessness, mental health etc.), to a myriad of other commitments and involvements.

The limited, impractical nature of the bus service in Abbotsford means that the only way to get to where I need to be when I need to be there is to have my own vehicle for transportation. In particular a work shift that ends at 1:30 AM across town from my abode.

The job that enables me to pay for my housing and without which I would quickly be homeless and on the streets of Abbotsford once again.

As is the case for many citizens, a car is not a luxury but a necessity.

Fortune has smiled in that, thanks to a friend, I was able to pay for the full three months of insurance I could get because the Cavalier passed Aircare last time. Fortune because, unlike a year of insurance where you can get on a monthly payment plan, all three months of insurance must be paid up front.

I had the $100 set aside in my budget for the monthly insurance payment but needed a total of $282. A good friend loaned me the difference so that I could have three months to deal with this issue. Fortune may have smiled a little there as he was so busy he had not been to bed in over 24 hours.

My mechanically adept friend Thomas recommended I take it to Hub Motors (he trusts their work and service) to have them ‘put it on the machine’ and determine exactly what the problem is. Which is why having the full three months allowed is so important – it gives time to scrape up the cash for an automobile visit to Hub Motors.

In the meantime Thomas and others will be keeping their eyes peeled for a super bargain on a vehicle of some type to meet my need to get to work, to food, to the pool, to group, to committees, et al.

Should you see me around Abbotsford with my tambourine panhandling, it is to address these transportation needs.

Hmmm, Municipal, Snafu

Shame, Shame, SHAME …

Leave a comment

… on that naughty Lynn Perrin. Imagine Ms Perrin daring to think that the purpose of the short 15 minute question period at the end of public council meetings was for … … asking council questions.

Why should council be accountable to citizens or have to answer the questions of citizens? What do people think Abbotsford is – a democracy?

Why should council be expected to explain:

·Why it is that while council always cries it has no money to do anything about housing for Abbotsford’s poorest citizens it has millions of dollars to purchase a professional hockey team/franchise for wealthy Abbotsford citizens.

·Why it is council pleads poverty when it comes to building affordable housing yet it can find $45 – $50 million to cover the cost overrun in building the arena.

·Why should citizens have any right to expect council to explain why the arena cost was almost (as far as citizens know) 100% over budget and why council felt free to spend double the amount council guaranteed citizens was the maximum cost and to hold council accountable for the doubling of the cost.

·Why would citizens expect the mayor or councilors not to vote on matters that directly affect the profits of companies or people who have contributed money to their election campaigns? The fact that these companies or people have made payments, make that contributions, and may possibly make future payments, I mean contributions, surely would not have any influence on how the mayor or councilors vote. You wouldn’t let the fact someone gave you money make a difference in how you voted on a matter of interest to them– would you? Although it does make one wonder whether any of the ownership group of the Abbotsford Heat made any political donations to members of Abbotsford council.

·Certainly citizens have no right to expect the mayor and council to respect the intent and spirit of legislation governing BC’s municipalities rather than finding ways to circumvent the legislation in order to obligate the taxpayers of Abbotsford for a $75 million dollar liability.

·Just because watering restrictions began April 1st and a total ban began July 1st, even though this was a wet cool spring, citizens certainly have no rights or reasons to question council about their actions, or lack thereof, in preparing to meet Abbotsford’s current and future water needs. I have no doubt that should there be a need for rationing water from the municipal system City Hall will find any monies necessary for bottled water for city hall.

·Why would citizens question how or why it is that in just two short years Abbotsford has gone from being debt free to BC’s most indebted municipality?

No, citizens should not be asking council questions they should be grateful to mayor and council. After all:

·The unfunded $75 million liability council committed taxpayers to covering is now down to only $67.5 million.

·The $7.5 million reduction in this unfunded liability only cost the taxpayers $2.6 million. Well $2.6 million in direct subsidy payments to the Heat ownership plus the additional $2.5 million cost of the operating loss absorbed by the city as the cost of operating the arena for the Heat to play in.

·Council will no doubt get on top of the water supply issue – hopefully before the taps run dry.

·Even if there are no restaurants or coffee shops or any other such amenities open latter in the evening people, couples looking for something to do in Abbotsford later in the evening can always go to ARC and workout in the gym until midnight.

·Look at all the money saved by council not doing proper maintenance at Matsqui pool and then using the condition of the pool to close it.

How dare Ms Perrin force council to cancel the public’s opportunity to ask council questions by asking them questions.

Of course Mayor Peary is quite correct – council bears no responsibility for cancelling the question period simply because they cancelled the question period to avoid taxpayer/voter questions.

Ms Perrin should have known that the purpose of the question period was not the questioning of the mayor or council but to provide an opportunity for people to praise councils decisions and behaviours.

Of course that would be a lot easier if the decisions and behaviour of the mayor, council. councilors and city management were not of such a questionable nature and they had accomplished anything praiseworthy.