During the referendum we at stopplana.com asked repeatedly at public meetings, on the websites and in the written word why senior levels of government would contribute funds to a project after the City’s taxpayers were on the hook for the full amount. Why when senior staff and council blithely blew off this question did the News fail to pursue this point on behalf of City taxpayers/readers?

It is pretty easy to say “it appears, then, that Abbotsford City Hall should have approached the province for financial support prior to the $85 million Plan A referendum” after the premier says no. It is easy to not pursue questions that Abbotsford City Hall does not want asked, much less to answer. It is pretty hard to stand up for the taxpayers by demanding answers to those “unwanted” questions. It is harder to explain not pursuing answers to such obvious financing questions with their high cost to taxpayers/readers.

While on the subject of obvious questions: Why would anyone contribute funds to building the arena when the city is committed to building the arena and assuming all the costs and massive debt? In fact, with the City’s desperate need for a tenant of some kind for this white elephant, anyone with common sense would recognize an opportunity to squeeze lots of goodies, freebies, bonuses and low, low fees out of Abbotsford City Hall. A little financing help with the franchise fee? Covering start-up/relocations costs? A guarantee of minimum attendance and revenue levels?

Rather than stating the obvious in hindsight or hoping for divine intervention it would better serve taxpayers if the News were to promise to practice diligence in holding Abbotsford City Hall to standards of good financial practices and fiscal responsibility in future. At the very least and in particular with reference to any “success” they have in securing a tenant. Taxpayers cannot afford any more of what Abbotsford City Hall calls “success”.

Penticton $9.7 million provincial grant secured BEFORE project presented to public; Langley $15 million provincial grant secured BEFORE project presented to public, project modified to maximize grant; Abbotsford $0.00 provincial grant secured BEFORE project presented to public.

In the Friday Abbotsford Times much gnashing of teeth and cries of “we was robbed” by Abbotsford City Hall. Common sense dictates, for those possessing common sense (which evidence suggests is nonexistent at Abbotsford City Hall) that your maximum leverage on a senior level of government for grants is before you fund the project when they (province; federal) can be blamed for the project not proceeding. This was the case in the recent extortion of $2 million each from both the federal and provincial governments for Stanley Park restoration making Vancouver’s contribution $ZERO$.

When asked during the referendum campaign why they had not and if they should not have gotten grants BEFORE coming to the taxpayers for approval, as any rational, fiscally responsible City (i.e. Langley, Penticton) would do, Abbotsford City Hall blew off those posing the questions as “naysayers” and “negative people”.

It turns out that it is Abbotsford City Hall which was/is negative, or is that negligent, to the tune of $millions$ of taxpayer dollars. This may have taxpayers justifiably wanting to say Nay to Abbotsford City Hall and its cavalier and careless attitude to taxpayer’s money.

{shake head} – I am left contemplating how much good could have been accomplished in addressing affordable housing, poverty reduction and homelessness with the $$$ millions Abbotsford City Hall’s carelessness is costing the City. Abbotsford City Hall could have satisfied their hasty drive to saddle taxpayers with $85 million in debt and had a major impact on these growing social problems by diverting borrowings in an amount matching any government grants into investments in meeting the social needs of our community.

But then the one thing the behaviour of Abbotsford City Hall has made very clear during this entire process is that it is not about dealing with the needs for facilities or social issues of the citizens of Abbotsford, but about satisfying the wants of Abbotsford City Hall.

It is also very, very clear Abbotsford taxpayers simply cannot afford to continue to fund Abbotsford City Hall’s record of failure and co$tly mistakes.

… is the answer and the question is “how much is the ineptitude and laziness of senior city staff and council going to cost Abbotsford taxpayers”.

“… frankly I think our treasury board would have a great deal of trouble providing money for something that’s already been funded” said Premier Gordon Campbell during a visit to Abbotsford.

I enjoy being right. I really enjoy being proven correct when a position I take, especially in an area of personal expertise such as finance, is blown off as untrue and nothing to worry about; particularly when it is a point of plain common sense. But it is not enjoyable when it comes at such an outrageous cost to my fellow taxpaying citizens.

When asked during the NO Plan A campaign why senior staff and council had not bothered to seek funding from senior levels of government to reduce the burden on Abbotsford taxpayers, senior staff and council stated that was something to be done after borrowing the money was approved.

When asked why senior levels of government would contribute funds to a project after the City’s taxpayers were on the hook for the full amount, senior staff and council blithely stated that the fact that voting yes for plan A was also voting to pay the entire cost would be “no problem”.

Yes problem, big multimillion $$$$$$$ costly to the taxpayers problem given Premier Campbell’s statement: “… frankly I think our treasury board would have a great deal of trouble providing money for something that’s already been funded”.

If Abbotsford City Hall had not been so smug, self-congratulatory and busy cramming Plan A down the throats of the taxpayers and had actually listened to the questions of the NO side … well there is no way to tell how many millions of dollars this would have saved taxpayers.

$9.7 million Penticton; $15 million Langley; $0 Abbotsford. It is obvious why senior staff and council did not want to accept personal responsibility for taxpayer’s money wasted on Plan A. What is not clear is why taxpayers should be expected to just accept this demonstrated irresponsible behaviour and how much MORE the ineptitude and laziness of senior city staff and council is going to cost Abbotsford taxpayers

Contrary to City council and staff accusations I am neither a naysayer nor a negative person.

It is that I hold myself to a standard of excellence and expect of others a job well done. I cannot abide a half-assed effort such as the one City senior staff and council made on Plan A.

Below is what I demanded that the City do before asking my agreement on their plans and the outcome when another Municipality did the work I demanded of Abbotsford senior staff and council. You judge the outcomes.

I felt it was necessary, that as part of my program of mental health and self-improvement, to reflect upon how I behaved and what I had learned over the past year before setting any goals for 2007. Since Plan A was only a month ago I decided to start my year in review there.

I asked myself if my objections, questions or position on the matter were reasonable since council, senior city staff, people conducting commerce and people laying claim to representing various groups of citizens acted as though it was heretical to question the dictates and decisions delivered to the serfs, I mean taxpayers, from the rulers in their castle, I mean city hall.

What I asked about and wanted the City to provide before I would consider supporting a proposed facility was:

1) I wanted a set of architectural and engineering drawings in order to determine exactly what would be built.
2) I wanted a business plan setting out projected revenues, expenses (all expenses) and deficits. As part of the business plan I wanted to know anticipated users and usage to evaluate how realistic the financial projections were. This would also demonstrate the need for and priority of any facility.
3) For facilities such as an arena I wanted to know who the major tenant would be, permitting the building to be planned to match the actual need and avoid costly overbuilding of the facility. Also avoiding ending up with an expensive white elephant that would be a money devouring black hole.
4) I wanted to explore all possible funding avenues, being ready to adapt and change the building plans to access government $$$. I also wanted to explore private participation in the funding of the projects – whether sponsorship or partnership.
5) I wanted to explore private participation to take advantage of expertise and solid fiscal management practices.

For having the audacity to suggest applying the good governance and financial practices any BCom, Chartered Accountant or businessperson would insist on I, and others of like mind, were vilified as nay saying, negative people. It was asserted none of these actions were needed or would be of any benefit to Abbotsford’s taxpayers and their pocketbooks. During those November days I might have begun to question myself, except that in looking around at those I was standing with – I realized I was onside with the people of reason and intelligent decision making processes.

The questions of heresy and what, if any effect the City having done the homework required to answer my questions would have had looked to go unanswered for years. Then like an early Christmas present, a huge and much appreciated present, Langley made their arena/recreation center announcement.

By doing their homework Langley’s city staff and council will build an arena and recreation center for a net cost of $15 million. Abbotsford’s city staff and council are building an arena and recreation center that will only cost Abbotsford’s taxpayers $75 million. It would appear that Abbotsford’s city staff and council refusal to address my questions and use basic common sense will cost the taxpayer’s an extra $60 million. Chump change, it would seem, to this city staff and council.

You can count an a few things happening in the New Year. Senior city staff and council will have all kinds of excuses for why addressing the questions I and other stopplana.com supporters asked would not have had similar massive savings for Abbotsford’s taxpayers. They will also have excuses for why it was that Abbotsford chased a hockey team out of the City then decided to build an arena, while Langley agreed to build an arena after they had a hockey team – the same one chased out of Abbotsford. You can be sure that they will also have some kind of unsatisfactory explanation that no, the reason they could guarantee the quoted price of $75 million for arena and recreation complex was not that it should only cost the $45 million total that Langley will pay for arena and recreation center. You can count on council and city staff to have many excuses as to why they cannot learn anything from Langley and why re-examining the Abbotsford projects in light of Langley’s behaviour is a “waste of time”. They also can be counted on to insist on rushing ahead while making all kinds of excuses as to why such haste is necessary, that it would only waste time to look for grants and/or private sponsorships or participation.

You can be positive that Langley’s citizens would refuse to trade their senior city staff and council for ours, even if we offered to throw in $50 million. You can also be absolutely certain that even at a cost of $50 million the trade of senior staff and council would be a great deal for the citizens and future of Abbotsford.