Category Archives: Municipal

Municipal, Snafu

Why was anyone surprised?

Leave a comment

This is a mayor and council who swore up and down they would not be helping subsidize the travel costs for AHL teams to travel to Abbotsford – and then proceeded to do exactly that. A mayor and council who maintain their willful blindness, insisting that it is the Heat who subsidize the visiting AHL teams travel costs and that the council’s multimillion dollar yearly subsidy of the Heat has nothing to do with the Heat’s ability to subsidize travel costs for visiting teams.

A mayor and council who had Global Spectrum act as their agent vis-à-vis the agreement between the city and the Heat in order to sidestep the provincial municipal statutes that prohibited this type of agreement. A prohibition intended to protect citizens by preventing municipal governments from putting the taxpayer on the hook for paying a potential liability such as the $73 million guarantee given the Heat ownership.

And when citizens questioned this action the mayor replied – so sue us; a mayor who berated Chilliwack’s mayor for grandstanding when she declined free Olympic tickets on the grounds of ethics.

With a municipal election next year, the mess, misery and financial woes council have afflicted upon the voters is it any surprise politicians would not want to put at risk political donations from businesses?

Given that if Mayor Peary and Councilor Smith had not voted in favour of the developer the developer’s proposal would have been defeated 4 – 3 rather than approved 4 – 5 (3 + Peary + Smith).

Why was anyone surprised that, even with the clear conflict of interest of having received political contributions from the developer, Mayor Peary and Councilor Smith voted in favour of the developer and the development?

Consider, Municipal

If only.

Leave a comment

That was the thought that crossed my mind in reading Abbotsford City Councilor John Smith’s comments concerning the incinerator.

Councilor John Smith: “There is a cost to everything … at the end of the day, decisions are based on economic reality.”

If only that were true … the taxpayers of Abbotsford would not be groaning under the fiscal burden of: an Arena that cost nearly twice what was promised in enticing citizens to vote yes, million+ dollar arena operating losses where taxpayers were promised operating profits and multi-million dollar subsidies to the owners of a professional hockey team were politicians promised during the last municipal election bribes (aka subsidizes) would not be paid to seduce a team to play in the new arena.

Councilor John Smith: “Up until now, we have been dealing with emotion. Let’s now take a look at the cost,”

If only that were true … let us review the history of the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre. The pending arrival of the Bruins in Chilliwack had the Chiefs seeking a new home and in that regard approaching the city council of Abbotsford proposing a partnership to build a new arena as the new home for the Chief’s – a successful team with an established fan base in the Fraser Valley.

Remember city council’s response? That the city did not need a new arena … and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of town.

Then suddenly council felt the need to not only build an arena but to build a bigger, fancier arena than the arena in Chilliwack or the new arena under construction as the new home of the Langley Chiefs.

Why after brushing off the Chiefs and their offer to partner with Abbotsford in building a new arena did council suddenly feel the need to build, on speculation and without a tenant such as the cavalierly dismissed Chiefs, not simply an arena but an arena that was bigger than those of Chilliwack and Langley?

Why, when it would have been cheaper to leave the arena without a team did council burden taxpayers with a further liability of $73 million? The attendance and results of this first year of operation suggest that taxpayers will be fortunate if they only end up paying out $20 million of the $73 million liability assumed on their behalf by council.

No responsible person, no responsible city council, would have made the decisions that Abbotsford’s city council using cost as the basis of the decision.

Only emotion can account for the complete disregard of economic reality in building the arena or in signing the agreement that the City of Abbotsford entered into with the Heat team ownership. Well … I suppose a complete lack of even an infinitesimal scrap of financial common sense or substance use could also account for such a divorce from economic reality.

Of course “Let’s now take a look at the cost,” only works if you do your homework. That way you can avoid failing to include costs necessary to maintain the warranty on jungle gym equipment – markedly improving the accuracy of ‘estimated costs’ and lessening the number of 100% cost overruns or losses in place of promised profits.

While he hopes an unbiased analysis of the numbers will show incineration is not cost-efficient, (Councilor John) Smith says he would oppose the WTE (waste to energy), even if it was cost-friendly.

Aha! Now that statement reflects the actual way that Abbotsford’s current council acts – if fiscal reality does not support the action you want to undertake – ignore the financial facts/reality and do whatever it is you want, pursue your priorities and ignore the cost to the city, its citizens and taxpayers.

Council pursuing its own priorities, no matter how inappropriate or costly to taxpayers those priorities are, is how you end up with the city being “unable” to afford to subsidize minor amateur hockey in Abbotsford by $9,500 while “able’ to afford to subsidize professional hockey and the ownership of the professional team by $3,000,000 (approximately, considering direct subsidy to the team and the indirect subsidy of arena operating costs).

Councilor’s personal priorities is why the minor hockey rate increase proceed “as it was necessary to cover operational cost increases” while the professional team does not cover any, much less increases, of the operating costs of their arena.

Council’s priorities have resulted in the city imposing double digit fee increases for the use of city recreation fields and facilities over the past several years; increases that have resulted in an increasing number of families being unable to afford their children’s participation in youth sports and recreational activities.

As a grandfather of my acquaintance was lamenting – the cost of baseball for his grandson has gone from $45 to $100 over the past three years making affordability an issue for his family.

It is not just children who have been affected by these double digit fee increases. Lack of affordability resulted in me no longer being able to afford a pool pass; for the first time in my long residence in Abbotsford I found myself without a pass and dealing with the negative physical and mental health consequences of not being able to swim as needed.

Personally my priorities dictate that fees for fields and facilities should not be being raised ever higher in order to have funds to subsidize a professional hockey team and the council ego project better known as the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre.

Why is it that Parks and Recreation spent $135,000 (plus however much they went over budget) to buy used jungle gym equipment (to be rented out to those who can afford the rental cost) instead of spending the funds on repairs to Matsqui Village pool?

That the Langley Museum has a perfectly fine utilitarian electronic sign and ARC had to have a costly fancy, bells and whistles electronic sign to impart information undoubtedly reflects the differing priorities of Langley’s council versus Abbotsford’s council and explains why Abbotsford’s taxpayers paid $90+ million for an arena comparable to the arena Langley’s taxpayers paid $15 million for.

Abbotsford’s council needs healthy priorities, an ability to plan for the needs of Abbotsford and avoid problems rather than stumbling from mess to quagmire to disaster. A little financial and personal discipline would be nice and would go a long way to stop council and staff from digging the hole they have dug the city into ever deeper.

If only …

Municipal

Not as simple as a Heat/Moose switch

Leave a comment

Re: the Manitoba Moose

I must agree with Mr. Redekop that the attendance at the Heat playoff games is ominous news for the future of the pocketbooks of the taxpayers of Abbotsford.

It bodes ill for future attendance at Heat games that even with the marked advantage of novelty with this being the first year for the Heat in Abbotsford, that in their first year the Heat made the AHL playoffs and that AHL playoff games have never been available west of Winnipeg before the Heat are drawing poorly.

The fact that attendance is lackluster under such favourable circumstances strongly suggests that, under the terms of the 10 year agreement council entered into with the ownership of the Heat, the taxpayers of Abbotsford will have to pour millions of more taxpayer dollars into the coffers of the Heat ownership.

Just as an aside Mr. Redekop: if the Heat ownership was in fact “… community minded, generous …” they would have assumed at least some of the risk associated with the ownership of an AHL hockey team rather than foisting all the risk off onto Abbotsford’s already overburdened taxpayers.

While I concede that the Moose would perform better that the Heat, how could they not, the view expressed in Mr. Redekop’s letter strikes me as viewing this possibility through the same rose coloured glasses the mayor and council wore when they committed city taxpayers to the overly generous agreement signed with the Heat ownership.

The attendance dynamic of a single yearly visit by the Canucks farm team is markedly different from the dynamic when there are numerous opportunities to catch a game over the course of a season. The fact that during their one visit the Moose drew full houses does not mean they will fill the arena for every home game.

The attendance at this year’s playoff games is probably a better predictor of a realistic attendance level over a season than the attendance at ‘the only chance this year to see the Moose’.

It is important to be realistic because I doubt that “the win-win situation for all parties should require no payment by anyone.”

What I mean by this is:

If the Heat remain in Abbotsford and attendance follows the historical patterns/trends the taxpayers of Abbotsford are looking at contributing 2 – 3 million dollars a year over the remaining 9 years of the agreement council signed with the Heat; a total of 18 – 27 million dollars.

If Mr. Redekop’s assumption of full attendance if the Moose were exchanged for the Heat was correct that would mean taxpayers would save $18 – $27 million over the term of the agreement between the City and Heat ownership.

Let us use the lower $18 million as the amount that taxpayers would save. That means it is worth $18 million to the taxpayers of Abbotsford to have the Moose as Abbotsford’s AHL team. Thus the ownership of the Moose has a team with a value of $18,000,000.00 in respect to moving the Moose to Abbotsford.

Sound business practices dictate that the Moose ownership should charge $18,000,000.00 to exchange franchises/teams given that that amount is the value of the savings to the Abbotsford taxpayers of exchanging franchises/teams.

However should the assumption of full attendance turn out to be another of the ‘rose coloured glasses’ mirages sold to the Abbotsford public and the ‘they are here all season long’ attendance prove to be not significantly higher than the Heats current attendance then the value of the exchange of the Heat for the Moose has a $0.00 value. A value significantly lower than the $18,000,000.00 value under Mr. Redekop’s full attendance assumption.

Although it would be in keeping with the mismanagement of this matter by Abbotsford council to date, it would be rather unwise to pay $18,000,000.00 for an exchange of franchises/teams that in fact has a zero value.

The large difference between these values is why it is so important that any projections as to the benefit of having the Moose as the team in Abbotsford be realistic and reasonably accurate.

‘The Winnipeg Heat owners would win because …’ again a ‘rose coloured glasses’ view of the situation.

Hockey is taken very seriously on the prairies and rivalries are heated. Calgary and Winnipeg have a rivalry established when the Jets were Winnipeg’s NHL team. There was no love lost between Winnipeg (Jets) and Calgary (Flames) when they were NHL rivals. This situation was not improved when Winnipeg lost its NHL team but Calgary and its oil money held onto the Flames.

The ownership of the Winnipeg AHL team would be taking a not insignificant risk that a Calgary affiliated team would tap into old feelings and be rejected by the fans.

On the prairies it is Toronto that is despised; Vancouver is simply la-la land.

It is in the statement ‘The Canucks would also be big winners’ that I feel both the biggest fallacy and barrier in regards to an exchange of franchises/teams lies.

Whether the Moose games are sell-outs or not is of no interest to the Canucks as they have no financial interest in the attendance at Moose games.

The interest of the Canucks in the Moose is not in the ability of the Moose franchise to make money but in the ability of the Moose to develop the skills and abilities of players to the level that enables them to play and contribute to the NHL Canucks.

It is in order to preserve the ability of the Moose to develop Canucks prospects to the level of playing and contributing at the NHL level I suspect the Canucks would block any attempt to move their farm team from Winnipeg to Abbotsford. I certainly would if I was running the Canucks organization.

In Winnipeg the Moose are simply a AHL team and subject to no unusual media attention.

If the Moose were relocated to Abbotsford the team, coaches and players would be caught up in the Canucks media circus/frenzy. This intense, constant media attention would interfere with the ability of coaches and players to focus on hockey, player and skills development.

Given that the fortunes of the Canucks depend on the ability of the Moose to develop players, perhaps more importantly have players ready to step into the Canucks line-up and produce (injuries etc.), I would certainly not want to move the Moose into a market where these functions would be compromised or impaired.

I would expect that for these reasons, as well as several other issues that come to mind, the Canucks would be opposed to a move of their AHL farm (player development) team into Abbotsford.

While having the Moose (the Canucks farm team) as Abbotsford’s AHL team is an idea worth exploring, I have serious reservations that it would be either the cure all or slam dunk Mr. Redekop envisions.

I am not saying it is not a possibility to be explored. I am solidly in favour of anything that will reduce how much of the $65,700,000 liability city council has put taxpayers on the hook for that the taxpayer’s of Abbotsford end up having to pay out.

What I am saying is not to rush into something based on the ‘rosy glasses view’ and promises of success.

That’s what happened with the new arena and what created this financial quagmire. Unlike council and their supporters I am a firm believer that when you find yourself in a hole you do not keep digging yourself in ever deeper, creating ever larger costs that the taxpayers are on the hook to pay for.

Municipal, Provincial

BC’s Community Charter not enforced?

Leave a comment

After reading the Abbotsford Today story concerning the non-action of the Liberal government on behalf of the taxpayers of Abbotsford to protect them from Abbotsford city Council’s violation of the Community Charter I have composed the following two letters to Gordon Campbell and Carole James.

I would urge people to send a copy of the first letter to the Premier and our local MLAs (premier@gov.bc.ca; john.vandongen.mla@leg.bc.ca; mike.dejong.mla@leg.bc.ca; randy.hawes.mla@leg.bc.ca) and a copy of the second letter to Carole James (carole@bc.ndp.ca; carole.james.mla@leg.bc.ca)

Dear Gordon Campbell: I am writing in order to achieve an understanding of how the Liberal government decides which of the provincial laws, statutes etc. it will enforce and which of the provincial laws, statutes etc. it will NOT enforce.

I had assumed that the provincial government would enforce all provincial laws, statutes etc.

However it has been brought to my attention that Deputy Minister Dale Wall of the Ministry of Community and Rural Development, the Ministry responsible for the Community Charter which governs the behavior of municipal governments, informed a concerned Abbotsford citizen (Lynn Perrin) that:

“It is Ministry practice not to obtain a legal opinion about whether a municipality has met the legislative requirements.”

Leaving aside, for the moment, the obvious question of why a government would pass laws, statutes etc. it does not intend to enforce and of the deception inherent in a government passing laws, statutes etc. it does not intent to enforce; contrast this non-action on violations of the Community Charter by a municipal government with the BC governments taking action to appeal the BC court ruling that where municipalities lack sufficient housing citizens who are homeless as a result of this lack of appropriate housing have the right to establish shelter on municipal property.

These circumstances would seem to suggest that the Liberal government policy is to deny the rights of citizens and the protection of law to citizens, giving preference to interests of municipalities to the extent of exempting them from answering to citizens or the courts for violations of the Community Charter.

Is the rule for deciding which laws, statutes etc. the provincial government of BC will enforce or not enforce:

1. enforce or support those laws, statutes etc. that violate the rights and needs of the citizens;

2. NOT enforce or support those laws, statutes etc. that protect the rights and protect citizens from acts of questionable legality by government.

If this is not the criteria the Liberal government uses to decide which laws, statutes etc. it will or will not enforce would you please provide the criteria upon which the Liberal government does make the enforce/non-enforce decision?

I also want to express my concern that the failure of the Liberal government to protect citizens by enforcing the laws will force citizens to resort to vigilantism to protect themselves.

I thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to your reply so that I may come to an understanding of how decisions to enforce or NOT enforce laws, statutes etc. are made.

Yours Sincerely (citizens name)

Dear Carole James: I am writing to request that you and the NDP party stop grandstanding and trying to score political points on the matters of the HST and school budgets long enough to focus/address the Liberal governments stated policy of not enforcing the Community Charter and thus allowing municipal governments to do as they wish; forcing upon taxpayers the financial liabilities and consequences that result from a municipal government ignoring the provisions of the Community Charter.

I realize that the mundane day to day concerns of citizens such as the taxpayers of Abbotsford concern with the multi-million dollar liability and costs that have resulted from Abbotsford city council’s decision to ignore the Community Charter provisions on financial conduct pales in comparison with the opportunity to get your picture or name on TV or in the newspapers.

Nevertheless I and the citizens of Abbotsford would appreciate it if the NDP could task the Liberal government on their failure to enforce their own Community Charter.

Many citizens would also appreciate it if you could inform us what taxes/fees will be raise or programs cut to repay the Federal Government the $1,500,000,000.00 paid to BC and to offset the $200,000,000.00 yearly shortfall in the matter of the HST.

It would also be appreciated it if you would specify which taxes/fees you propose to raise and what programs will be cut to pay for additional funding for schools.

I thank you for your attention to these matters and look forward to your reply.

Yours Sincerely (citizens name)

Municipal, Snafu

Underhanded?

Leave a comment

The truly damning thing is that Abbotsford city council does not even see what is wrong with their behaviour. Indeed, given their comments on having a supporting legal opinion council is busy congratulating themselves on their cleverness in having circumvented the provisions of the Community Charter in signing their ethically challenged pact with the Abbotsford Heat ownership.

Among the purposes of the Community Charter, the BC law setting out how municipalities are governed, is preventing municipal politicians from the type of financial misconduct Abbotsford council has entered into with the ownership of the Abbotsford Heat.

The Community Charter seeks to prevent local politicians from saddling/committing taxpayers with/to responsibility for large liabilities as Abbotsford’s council has done with its agreement with the Heat.

Taxpayers are on the hook for $200,000 to $300,000 for the first year of operations. While it is unlikely that taxpayers will be stuck paying the entire remaining $51,300.000.00 liability council has made taxpayers responsible for, with an agreement that spans ten years and is tied to the fortunes of a hockey team there is an unacceptable potential for the taxpayers of Abbotsford to be stuck with a $multi-million$ dollar bill.

The Charter also seeks to prevent sweetheart deals between municipal councils and businesses, groups or organizations within the community at the expense of other businesses, groups, organizations or the community as a whole.

If local amateur hockey teams, or other local groups, wanted to use the Entertainment and Sports Centre they would be paying hefty fees for the privilege. A privilege that the professional hockey Heat receive for free, while city taxpayers are out of pocket for the cost to operate the arena for the Heat. A cost responsible for a significant portion, if not all, of the $2,000,000 arena operating loss taxpayers are also digging deeper into their pockets to pay.

And although I doubt those who crafted the Community Charter ever thought of the particular transgression Abbotsford’s council is engaged in, buying a favoured ownership group a hockey team, I think it a safe bet that the Community Charter was written to prevent violation of the taxpayers in this manner.

Make no mistake; Abbotsford’s council has effectively bought the team for the Heat’s ownership group. Council has assumed a huge liability in guaranteeing the Heat $5,700,000 as a minimum yearly income; council has made citizens responsible for paying the multi-million dollar costs of operating the arena for the benefit of the Heat who get use of the arena for free; despite promises by council the city, in guaranteeing the Heat’s minimum revenue part of which is designated to cover the cost of travel for teams coming to Abbotsford to play the Heat, taxpayers are paying the travel expenses of professional hockey teams to and from Abbotsford.

As a result of the actions of city council the taxpayers of Abbotsford have assumed a large liability, are contributing millions of dollars to the Heat and their ownership by absorbing the operating costs of the arena while not charging rental and contribute further taxpayer dollars to the Heat’s ownership to top up revenue to $5.7 million yearly.

City council, on behalf of taxpayers, has assumed all the risk associated with the hockey team and is pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into the Heat.

If the Heat fail be profitable the taxpayers pay. If the Heat are successful the taxpayers still are paying but it is the Heat ownership group that reaps the financial rewards of owning a successful hockey team.

Given the actions of Abbotsford city council, the question of the legality of council’s attempt to use Global Spectrum to evade the Community Charter must be determined and any needed amends made to the Community Charter to close the loophole Abbotsford’s council slithered through.

Given the pride council evidences at having circumvented the purpose of the Community Charter it is clear that there is no hope council will resign. Instead it is probable council will simply continue to do as it wants to do while ignoring the consequences of its actions on the City of Abbotsford, the citizens of Abbotsford and Abbotsford’s future.

Leaving Abbotsford’s besieged citizens forced to wait, counting down the 19 long months until the next municipal election, to replace the current councilors with a council with councilors possessing common sense, financial responsibility, ethics, honour and integrity.

And Praying that the additional damage this council and these councilors do to the City’s finances, facilities, infrastructure and citizens is not so great as to be irreparable.