22 km walk for public education despite school district PR campaign

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Proposed closures of public schools in the Nanaimo and Ladysmith School District 68 (SD68) have galvanized parents to form a group called Stand Up for Public Education Rights (SUPER).

On Saturday, May 25, 2013 SUPER has organized a 22 km walk from Ladysmith to Nanaimo.  The walk will start from 341 First Avenue in Ladysmith at 10 am and finish at Southgate Mall in Nanaimo.

Everyone is encouraged to join in the walk this Saturday, as the school closures will affect the entire community. Home values in these areas will most likely decline as a result of not having a local public school nearby. The proposed school closures include:

Doug Player, hired as a consultant to draft the School District’s ten year plan, was a former superintendent of public schools in West Vancouver. West Vancouver has three public high schools.

Nanaimo Ladysmith School District plans to close several schools and dispose of school property in an effort to save money. Yet at the same time SD68 has spent taxpayers’ money to rebrand their image with a new logo and an advertising campaign. Here is a full page advertisement which was printed in a local magazine called Gateway to Commerce.

SD68ad 22 km walk for public education despite school district PR campaign

SD68 full page ad in Gateway – new district logo featured

What is happening to Ladysmith and Nanaimo public education? Read more about the SD68 ten year plan.

In the meantime, the School District is looking for donations of exercise equipment for their behavior classes.  Please contact SD68 at 250-754-5521.

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Is the Nanaimo Mayor wearing a shoulder holster?

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At the Monday, May 13, 2013 Nanaimo Council meeting, the public got a quick look at something under the Mayor’s suit jacket.  Was Mayor Ruttan wearing a shoulder holster? Or could it be a back support strap?

NanaimoMayor Is the Nanaimo Mayor wearing a shoulder holster?

Nanaimo Mayor checks his suit jacket

The ad below states, “The shoulder holster: It’s not something you have, it’s something you are.”  Is this the latest fashion trend for Canadian mayors?

shoulderholster1 Is the Nanaimo Mayor wearing a shoulder holster?

Shoulder Holster Fashion

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New Nanaimo Hotel to attract 70,000 young Chinese tourists

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The SSS Manhao International Tourism Group (Incorp. 2012) from China is proposing to build a 17 floor hotel at 100 Gordon Street in downtown Nanaimo behind the Conference Centre and the Great Canadian Casino.

SSS Manhao is a subsidiary of Suzhou Youth Travel Services Co. Ltd., a travel agency from Jiangsu Province. In 2010 SSS Manhao built a hotel in Fiji. That same year they also visited Atlanta, Georgia with a similar proposal. This year, SSS Manhao is looking at locations in Nottingham, UK and Nanaimo.

Based on their 14 minute presentation to Nanaimo City Council on Monday, May 13, 2013, the proposed 145,000 sq. ft. building is to cost $50 million and will have commercial spaces on the ground floor. The other floors are as follows:

  • 2nd floor = hotel amenities
  • 3rd floor = pedestrian link to Conference Centre with more retail spaces
  • 4th = pool, spa
  • 5th to 16th = hotel suites (197 rooms)
  • 17th = bar and restaurant

They require a perpetual lease of 200 parking spaces in the Vancouver Island Conference Centre because it’s not possible to have sufficient parking at the hotel (based on their studies) so they have to look elsewhere for parking. The parking spaces would be leased at $3.17 per day based on usage.

Why would tour groups require parking if they arrive by plane and are transported by bus to this new Nanaimo hotel?

SSS Manhao International Tourism Group proposes that they will:

  • “attract” 70,000 young Chinese tourists annually to the hotel
  • establish a new tour route with an overnight stay in Nanaimo
  • promote the conference centre
  • enter into a partnership with VIU to have students in hospitality work at the hotel
  • house international students
  • sell off individual suites to investors in order to recoup capital costs.

No mention was made if they will have direct flights from China to the Nanaimo Airport. Using temporary foreign labour from China was not included in the presentation.

The hotel is to be similar to their hotel in Fiji designed by GBL Architects. GBL Architects were responsible for the rezoning of the Vancouver Olympic Village and involved in the Pacifica Tower building in Nanaimo.

Questions from Council and answers from legal counsel representing SSS Manhao:

Ruttan: Will you build a 4-5 star hotel? A: ”Of course, and he wants to build an extension to the Conference Centre as he is the owner of the hotel and the tour leader.”
Pattje: You will take advantage of a 10 year tax break.
Pattje: Can the current company who operates the Conference Centre stay? A: ”Haven’t figured that out.. they can promote and we can promote.”
Johnstone: The City was built on the backs of the Chinese..[interesting] how things have come full circle.
Kennings: Staff are working with NEDCOR, the next step is to put forward an agreement. A: “We’ve prepared an offer to purchase which contains a few standard conditions, we want to move forward and make plans away from city officials.”

Although the property is appraised at $565,000 there are still soil studies that have to be done.

What earthquake studies have they done? No. 1 Mine shaft is nearby and the hotel site is sitting on fill on the former Commercial Inlet.

There are currently a total of 57 five-star hotels in North America, China and Singapore, according to Forbes.

What will 70,000 young Chinese tourists want to do while in Nanaimo? Will SSS Manhao want to take over the Great Canadian Casino and the Conference Centre and turn these both into a mega Macau Casino?

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Flashback Friday: 1922 Patronage Appointments

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1922Partronage Flashback Friday: 1922 Patronage Appointments

1922 Patronage Appointments – with the party or not

Back in 1922, patronage appointments were very common.

After winning an election, the newly elected party gave government jobs to its supporters as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party. This was also known as the ‘spoils system.’

Meanwhile, public servants feared that their jobs would be on the chopping block.

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Colliery Dams: one of 37 extreme rated dams in BC

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On Monday, May 13, 2013 the Nanaimo City Council decided in a 5 to 4 vote to have the Colliery Dams removed in July. The cost of removing the Colliery Dams is between $5 to $7 million.

The City of Nanaimo will finance this project through short term borrowing over the next 5 years. The taxpayers of Nanaimo are facing growing debt. Currently, the debt stands at approximately $400 million and will rise annually.

The City states that the BC Dam Safety Branch has informed them that taking no action is not an option because if there is an earthquake the Colliery Dams might collapse.

In 2011, the Dam Safety Branch published “Inspection and Maintenance of Dams” (Dam Safety Guidelines). Throughout this entire document there is no reference to seismic regulations for dams.

As of 2012, there are 5 levels of consequence classification for dams, the last three are High, Very High and Extreme. In British Columbia, there are currently 250 High, 53 Very High and 37 Extreme rated dams.

The only requirement for an extreme rated dam is for a regular dam safety review. There is no law or regulation that states an extreme dam must be removed according to the public documents provided by the provincial dam safety branch. Is Nanaimo the only community being forced to remove its dams?

In the presentation to council on May 6, 2013 by KCB Engineering, it was admitted that the seismic standards used for the Colliery Dams tabletop exercise were exceptionally high; far beyond any other public building or infrastructure in the province. Also mentioned was that the fill used to build the original dams is “the cleanest we’ve ever seen.”

Who will benefit from the removal of these dams? How much is high-grade clean fill worth? For example, a residential development for 30 homes in Ontario spent $400,000 to acquire clean fill.

There are dams further up the Chase River - are these going to be removed and a massive new dam created?

The Colliery Dams were once used to wash coal a hundred years ago. It is one of the last heritage monuments to Nanaimo’s history. The removal of the Dickinson Barn in Harewood, Foundry building, and heritage block on Commercial Street replaced by the conference centre are sad reminders that history is being lost.

Will the Colliery Dams Park become a victim of another land swap?

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Private vs Public pension plans

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Every day in Canada over 1,000 Canadians turn 65.  Is retirement only for a lucky few?

Here is a story of two Vancouver Island neighbours. One neighbour worked for a university while another worked for a forestry company.

The neighbour who worked in forestry got laid off when their employer went bankrupt. They had to downsize and sell their home and as money ran out over the next few years they had to move off Vancouver Island to look for work. Their retirement plans went out the window.

The other neighbour who retired from the university enjoys regular holidays, lives in the same home and has made various renovations and participates in a number of leisure hobbies.

Who will be able to retire?

There is a growing sense of unfairness among workers who don’t work for the public sector, two thirds of whom don’t have any kind of company pension plan. Those who do have a private company plan have seen them converted to defined-contribution plans, where their pension depends on what the invested funds provide at retirement.

Senior level public sector contracts and gold plated public pension plans are unsustainable. In Nanaimo, 80% of the City’s workforce will be eligible to retire with an unreduced pension by 2016.

In 1979 there were 6.35 workers contributing into the BC Municipal Pension Plan for every retiree. By 2009 that ratio had dropped to 2.72.

The average homeowner in Hamilton, Ontario is facing an extra tax bill of $2,700 just to pay for their municipal pension deficit.

There will be a  new wave of protesters. The grey wave, “Save our Seniors” will take on a new meaning in Canada as more and more seniors will be living in abject poverty while others will be oblivious that there is a problem.

A typical public sector compensation package allows for a yearly 3% raise coupled with benefits. So for example, someone receiving a $50,000 pension with 3% increases over 20 years would then end up with $90,305 compensation annually.

Our country is broke. The current federal government has spent more money than any other government in history. Canada’s debt stands at over a trillion dollars and is growing every day.  The federal government says that it will balance the deficit by 2015 in time for an election. This means reducing health care spending, amongst other services.

Every man, woman and child in Canada owes $72,000 to pay for public pensions. Combine this amount with personal debt ($25,000 per person) and you can see that Canada is heading off the edge of a cliff with no real hope of maintaining our collective standard of living.

The effects of this debt will soon reach municipalities who are already incurring their own massive amounts of debt. When will all the wheels fall off?

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