Monday’s Nanaimo council meeting saw a packed house. The main focus of the meeting was a wishlist of mega projects and the Beban Park development.

Mega Projects and Public Consultation

A very brief presentation was made by the Communications Manager referring to one slide which had a list of major projects that Council identified as priorities to move forward:

• sports and entertainment complex
•  redevelopment of Beban Park
•  connected waterfront walkway
•  Georgia Avenue pedestrian bridge
• south downtown waterfront development
• property acquisition and affordable housing

There was no mention of the E&N trail project which the City has already spent approximately $50,000 in studies.

All the Councillors took turns heaping praise on staff and the CAO for their work on the strategic plan.

Councillor Brennan then opened a can of worms suggesting there should be more public consultation for these mega projects.

Brennan: I won’t support just having one town hall meeting, there are things on the list that people have not thought about much…all the information has to be available to all, some of the discussions are in small groups. I think having one very long meeting is not the best. Good community development involves getting proper feedback. We haven’t done that, we have yet to have community consultation on the core review. We have a lot that we haven’t talked to the community about, the community has to have their say…this is a tremendous amount of money. There are questions to be asked, I think arranging one town hall is not the way to go…

The CAO replied to Brennan that a volume of engagement has already happened.

Hong: …if it is a $100 million project we are not necessarily going to do it… we’ll tell staff go look at it…How much is a sport and entertainment centre going to cost?…I don’t know…and how can we do it…it’s a vision…forward it to the people…we are at the stage of picking projects…we are not going to build all this stuff…

Kipp commented that as an example, with Colliery Dams they had lots of public engagement and petitions and no one was listened to, so basically why bother wasting more time.

Bestwick: …we have had lots of time to get here…do it right, do it once, do it fast.

Hong: …let’s just do one – get her done.

Thorpe: …I want to see this move forward quickly – let’s get this going!

Yoachim: …I get hair on my back when someone says that we are not consulting people…everyone is working…if we need more town halls we will…

All voted in favour of one public town hall meeting except Brennan.

Beban Park development and art space

A presentation was made by VIEX (Vancouver Island Exhibition). They talked about their history in Nanaimo since 1894 with some interesting photos. They would like to have upgrades to the buildings and want to find new partners.

Island Roots Market Coop presentation to council proposed a permanent location at Beban Park near the VIEX buildings for their year round food market.

Another speaker spoke about the lack of affordable exhibition space for artists to display their works. They  suggested that Woodlands Secondary (closing June 30, 2016) be made a cultural centre, similar to the art centre in Qualicum Beach where they made use of an old school.

Best Attractions on Vancouver Island

This gorgeous coastal city is separated by inlets as well as sea entries within the continental area, producing some areas with remarkable urban destinations and also others with sensational all-natural landscapes. Many of the attractions and resorts in the city remain in the historic Vancouver area, which also features countless bridges, marinas and even docks that provide magnificent sea sights.

1. Observation Tower Vancouver

Vancouver Sight Tower is just three blocks from the Canada Area. This impressive view factor known as Vancouver Lookout uses spectacular panoramic views of the city, in addition to glass lifts that rise to more than 120 meters above road level.

2. West End (English Bay)

English Bay is mainly a suburb, on Davie and Robson roads, and there you will find hotels, cafes, dining establishments, bars and also stores. However, if you want to skip the hotels this time, 1825 Summerhill Place Apartments is the perfect choice for you.

3. Island Granville

Granville Island this picturesque place lies under the Granville Bridge and functions marinas, craft stores, houseboats as well as a vivid market. Film studios, theaters, cinemas, boutiques as well as dining establishments have additionally been developed right here.

4. Vancouver’s Nightlife Scene

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5. Vancouver aquarium
Vancouver Fishtank is the largest fish tank in Canada and is located in the middle of the Stanley Park Woodland. The abundant aquatic life on screen comes from areas as far as the tropics and the Polar circle.

Killing a local supplier

The most painful part of the evening was watching a local water works supplier detail the slow death of his business since 2010. His troubles began when the City of Nanaimo decided to shut him out.

As soon as the supplier began his speech, the Mayor stepped out and was gone for the entire presentation.  One by the other councillors drifted in and out of the meeting.

Councillor Pratt, as acting Mayor, told the obviously distressed man he had one minute left. Councillor Bestwick commented that the speaker could have more time. At this point Pratt called for a show of hands. The legislation staff told Pratt this was not proper procedure, at which point Pratt laughed and said, “majority rules.”

Despite the distractions, the speaker carried on. He commented the waterworks industry was not invited to meetings and outlined how the City is switching back and forth from bronze to stainless steel; making no sense.

He stated that the City water audit shows that 9.83% of water is leaking and that 50% of commercial water users are under-reporting their water use. The City knows it is losing money.

With emotion he left council with parting words: “I have spent 6 years to get approval…6 years of my life…it is not a fair process…I feel I have been discriminated against…..Damn you all.”

Councillors’ comments:
Kipp:  …I am well aware of his problems…it started with back flow and the Oak Tree Manor…I sent out questions in 2015 and still don’t have answers…Do we have a back flow program started in Nanaimo?

Staff: we have started it..

Kipp: …it has taken 8 yrs…why would staff go to the USA and not local? It is not consistent..inconsistent purchasing process…using Wikipedia for info? …cross contamination….disappointed…changes to product approval process changes every day. I want us to have a standard…stainless steel then bronze?…Council needs to set policy…and we haven’t acted on this…

Yaochim: …I am not an expert …FOI’s are ridiculous…Tracy [CAO] is doing a great job…we have treated people wrong…how we treat people is not good enough…first year was hell…culture is changing…

Fuller: …culture of the past is hopefully changing…I am happy, I ran five times…triple deleting…I know how to triple delete…if you get an FOI …it is useless…people need to be respected.

Bestwick: …it takes a lot to come to council to speak openly about what is happening…we need more people like him…

Question Period

A question was asked of Mayor McKay why he and several Councillors walked out on the supplier’s presentation. McKay replied that they don’t take a set break so they come and go from the meeting as it suits them. The questioner suggested that they should establish set breaks for COW meetings so everyone is in their seats when there are presentations.

There was a question regarding the Colliery Dam audit and McKay argued the question was invalid as it didn’t pertain to an agenda item, to which the questioner (a seasoned council watcher) replied, “is this not a Committee of the Whole meeting?”

Quote of the night:
Fuller: “This is a great council.”

At the June 20th Nanaimo Council meeting there were two major presentations. The first one was from the Lantzville Mayor regarding the water agreement.  The second was from City staff on the proposed two kilometre trail downtown beside the E&N railroad tracks.

Other items on the agenda included $2 million repairs to the Bastion Street Bridge and a parking variance for Summerhill Place near the hospital.

Lantzville Water

The Mayor of Lantzville, Colin Haime, gave a presentation to Nanaimo Council requesting the following changes be made to the Nanaimo-Lantzville water agreement:

Section 6.6
change from ‘new development only’ to any households and existing

Section 14.1
a specific surcharge, rather than open ended

Section 6.2
an emergency water provision to include Snaw-naw-as

Mayor Haime also addressed concerns such as urban sprawl and the capacity of the watershed, adding that everyone is on water meters in Lantzville. He said user rates would be the same as Nanaimo, and the cost of the water treatment plant would be shared through connection fees.

Frosty welcome

Mayor Haime was given the cold shoulder by the Nanaimo Mayor and Council. This was in stark contrast to their effusive welcome to three visitors from Ghana who were given gifts on behalf of the City just moments before the Lantzville Mayor took the podium.

At the end of the Lantzville Mayor’s presentation the vote was called to accept the presentation. Councillor Kipp voted against receiving the presentation. Was this a first for Nanaimo Council?

There were no questions or comments and frowns all around. Councillor Yoachim was away. The CAO was not in attendance for Mayor Haime’s presentation, but was there for other parts of the meeting.

Kipp comes alive

The strange part happened at the end of the Council meeting when two delegations spoke about their concerns regarding the Lantzville water agreement. Oddly, there were comments from both Mayor McKay and Councillor Kipp, who prompted the speaker.

One delegation raised the question of our water security. What are we going to do about our watershed because we do not own it? He said the City would be in trouble if the watershed were to be purchased by outside interests.

The speaker also referred to a water report from 2013, what was being done about leaks in the pipes and Lantzville’s bulk water rate.

Bastion Street Bridge – repair or replace

Councillor Pratt originally brought forward a motion to have the Bastion Street Bridge repaired. The estimated cost of the repairs was $2 million. Council was going to vote to go ahead with the repairs but something happened.

Mayor McKay suggested why don’t they build a new bridge. He commented it would only cost about $5 million. He added that the current bridge was built in 1936.

Councillor Hong suggested that it would be better to fix the bridge because they had more urgent items to deal with such as some issues in the south end.

At question period a speaker asked did they know what happened in Victoria regarding the Johnson Street Bridge? The bridge was going to cost $60 million and now it is estimated to cost $150 million and it’s not finished yet. The speaker asked, can you really get a bridge built for $5 million?

In the end, Councillors voted to have staff do a report and find out how much it would cost to build a new Bastion Street Bridge. Councillor Pratt withdrew her motion to have the bridge repaired. She commented that she has been known to change her mind (as she shared a laugh with McKay).

E&N Trail – downtown

City staff presented a detailed plan for a 2km trail beside the E&N railway in the downtown area. This trail is budgeted to cost $7.2 million. The goal is to develop a 2km trail from downtown to 7th street by 2019.

The problem areas are between Franklyn & Pine; there is not much room on either side of the train tracks for a proper trail.  There are six at-grade railroad crossings which would cost $800,000 to $2 million.

The City doesn’t know what is happening with Southern Railway. Will there be a railway in the future? Council decided to hold off on the E&N trail project until it is known what is happening with the railway.

(The lack of progress on the railway issue caused Council to defer upgrades to the Northfield Road and the Island Highway because they don’t know if the railway is going to stay or go).

Hospital area parking – new building

A builder was at Council last week and was back again this week, appearing grim-faced stating he was not there to give a presentation but to answer their questions, if they had any.

Last week the City had turned down this builder because of concerns about the lack of parking for the new building at 1825 SummerHill Place off of Dufferin Crescent.

Staff originally recommended a parking ratio of 1.06 and requested that the developer add more parking. The City found that the first phase of the project (Summerhill I) increased on-street parking demand by 15 to 20 more cars.

The City suggested that the builder could reduce the parking from 161 spaces to 102 spaces. The builder came back with a new design and City staff recommended Council approve the revised plan, which they did.

Councillor Fuller raised the issue of Glen Oaks Drive and how builders keep coming to Council to fast-track their problems rather than going through City departments. Staff suggested that in this case it was different.

Did you get your tax notice yet? The average Nanaimo taxpayer has seen their taxes go up by about 12% to 18%.

Nanaimo Property Taxes

A resident wrote a letter to the local newspaper stating that their taxes have gone up by $439 or 18%. Why? The response from City Hall was that the increase was due to their provincial assessment which had gone up by $60,000. Why did their home assessment go up if they did no improvements or renovations? The assessment goes up because the homes on the street are sold for higher prices and or new homes are built with higher assessments.

Some people say this is great. Don’t you want your home to be worth more? Yes of course. But what happens when taxes go up 18% every year? How long can people afford these tax increases? For seniors and those on disability there is a tax deferral program for those who qualify. For everyone else, they will have to move elsewhere.

Vancouver Island housing prices

What is happening now in Nanaimo is a repeat of what happened in Vancouver and the North Shore in the 1990’s. There was an influx of money from Hong Kong and the locals couldn’t afford to stay in their homes due to the corresponding surge in property tax levies so they had to move to Squamish or Vancouver Island.

Foreign investors have no intention of living here because for them, there is no real economy here. There aren’t many jobs in Vancouver either –  Vancouver median incomes remain the lowest among Canadian cities. These Chinese investors make their wealth in China, not in BC. They will continue to pursue those interests and will avoid paying as much tax as possible in Canada.

To illustrate this point, a Point Grey mansion that was owned by Canaccord founder Peter Brown sold earlier this year for a record $31.1 million to a man who gave his occupation as a student. There are many others like this student who are claiming to have poverty level wages yet who reside in million dollar homes and aren’t paying a penny in income tax.

Vancouver – bulldozer bait

Vancouver has been named the second most unaffordable city in the world for four of the past five years.

Property prices rose by 40% last year alone by one estimate. Home prices are also artificially driven up by the desire by money launderers looking to park their assets. That is distorting the real estate market so local people can’t afford the houses anymore.

Between 2004 and 2015 more than 10,000 demolition permits were issued in the City of Vancouver alone. Last year, an average of three houses were being torn down per day. And these homes that became ‘bulldozer bait’ were in excellent condition.

This is not a bubble. It’s a disease that has spread to other areas of the province including the Sunshine Coast, and Oak Bay. This will continue until our government wakes up and does something. But what have they done? These real estate speculators are being enabled by our own Canadian government.

Are we any different from the U.K.?

Are Tibetans Racist?

There are people who pull out the racist card and claim that all this about the mainland Chinese investors is just xenophobia. If that’s the case why not apply that same mindset to Tibet. Remember all those bumper stickers that said Free Tibet? No one accused the Tibetans of being racist when they set themselves on fire to protest the Chinese bulldozing their villages. There are now more Chinese people in parts of Tibet than Tibetans.

The Chinese government has a campaign telling its citizens to avoid hiring or having relationships with white foreigners, because they might be spies. Has someone mentioned to Mayor Robertson that his Chinese girlfriend could be a spy?

Chinese Banks fuel real estate binge

It would seem that buying up BC is a priority for the Chinese government. China’s top banks had mortgages and loans for real estate worth $1.9 trillion USD at the end of 2015, up 11% over the year, up 26% from 7 years ago. The money being pumped into BC shows no sign of slowing down.

2012: The Agricultural Bank of China, a Chinese state-controlled commercial bank headquartered in Beijing, opened an office in Vancouver, its first in Canada and its fifth overseas.

2013: Bank of China (Canada), a wholly owned subsidiary of the government controlled Bank of China, opened its International Business Centre in Vancouver.

Nanaimo mega projects

It was reported in the News Bulletin that the Nanaimo Council is trying to decided what project is a priority — a football stadium, a paddling centre, or Port 1 waterfront development. Mayor McKay mentioned in the paper he would like Council to pick three to six projects and go to the community to get an idea of what people want.

There is nothing wrong with planning for projects. The problem is we are not in “normal” times. We are in the process of being run out of our homes. We cannot sustain tax increases of 15 to 20% a year and also bear the burden of more mega projects.

If the current crisis in the BC real estate market is not dealt with, what will happen to your average Joe Taxpayer? Another addition to the soon-to-be extinct list?

At the Monday council meeting the Nanaimo Core Services Review Report by Western Management Consultants was presented by the City Manager who gave an overview of the report via an audio link.

The City of Nanaimo paid approximately $250,000 for the report. The purpose of the report was to give ideas on how to increase efficiencies and cost savings and to streamline the structure of the corporation.  Here are some highlights from the report:

Problems noted:

• City lacks strong corporate structures, controls and measures
• departments operate independently
• lack of purchasing procedures
• less than 50% of purchases have purchase orders
• lack of planning for purchases contributes to a high use of open purchase orders
• lack of clear direction from council to senior management to staff

Recommended cuts:

• close Departure Bay Activity Centre
• sell 89 Prideaux and relocate Public works offices when rebuilt
• close Beban pool for 3 months in summer instead of 1 month
• close the CPSO
• eliminate culture and heritage group director position
• eliminate four prisoner guard positions
• eliminate vacant management position for bylaw services
• end grants to DNBIA and replace with specific grants per project
• reduce overhead of Bylaw department
• stop paying $78,000 to VICC for security

Recommended additions:

• hire consultant for parking planning
• add marketing resources for recreation (a sponsorship position?)
• renegotiate parking fees with hotels
• update service plans for recreation services
• automate replenish orders and increase usage of purchase cards
• increase use of carpool fleet
• monitor fuel use for fleets vehicles used by directors and CAO

The report suggests that $1.7million a year could be saved and there could be a one time savings of $255,000.

45% of the City’s expenses come from the following five service areas which were not included in the report:

• RCMP
• Fire Department
• IT Department
• Waterworks
• Sewers

The report did look at NEDC, VICC and DNBIA.

NEDC (Nanaimo Economic Development Corp)

• the City should continue to fund NEDC
• have a five year plan of what they are doing

DNBIA (Downtown Nanaimo Business Assoc)

• discontinue city grant of approximately $250,000
• fund specific projects as chosen  (the report noted a lack of a working population in the downtown area and any change would have to be made through urban planning)

VICC (Vancouver Island Conference centre)

•  attract a hotel with help of City funding
• draft a new management contract with stronger performance incentives before the end of 2017

(the report notes that the VICC loses more money per square foot of space than all its competitors. The City spends on average $1.2 million a year not including loan payments.)

Other Recommendations made were:

• partner with SD68, RDN and Snuneymuxw on youth projects
• give Harewood Community Centre to another community group
• consider not renewing the assistance given to the Island Corridor Rail Foundation because the RDN has decided not to
• landlords getting tax exemptions should report changes of occupancy or face repayment
• have a clear sponsorship policy
• clarify fees charged for rentals and leasing for parks & recreation

The City 2016-25 capital plan has a total planned outlay of $391 million.  In 2015 the City completed 122 capital projects; outlay was $8.1 million.

City of Nanaimo has 62 managers and 527 staff.

City Manager to Staff Ratios:
1 communications manager 2 staff
1 community development manager 2 staff
1 building permits/inspector manager 16 staff
1 human resources manager 11 staff

Suggestions from Joe Taxpayer

• get rid of NEDC – the taxpayers can’t see their accounting
• combine all tourism, recreation, and communications marketing staff into one department
• do we need consultants to write reports every time we turn around?
• how much money could be saved by ending sole sourcing contracts?
• why doesn’t the prison guard budget come out of the RCMP contract? For $20 million we should be getting more for our money.
• do we need so many managers?
• why not have the culture department work with the tourism people?
• have a romance policy to avoid costly human resources when relationships sour and people claim harassment etc.
• get an updated phone system so staff have direct lines
• have everyone change their voice mail every day (so people know if they are in or not)
• have a policy that all calls and emails from taxpayers (ie the customer) must be responded to within 24 hours

It was reported in the local Nanaimo Bulletin that the consultant recommended an integration team to implement recommendations based on this report. The CAO was quoted as saying that she plans to add more jobs. Are the jobs going to be outsourced? Is outsourcing going to save money? Is the City going to be hiring more consultants?

The Core Review report was thin (245 pages) and most of the information was not new. Considering the City has an annual budget of approximately $200 million, the savings found through this report missed the mark.