Caveat emptor, Consider, Finances, Municipal, Politics

Apples and Apples OR Oranges?

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That is the Question that I asked myself after I finished reading Let Minor Sports Use Abbotsford Centre.

Now I know that people after reading the opening sentence may well be thinking ‘He’s lost it’ if they know or read me and that anyone reading my writing for the first time is going ‘Huh?’ how can comparing an arena to an arena not be comparing apples to apples? Especially if they have stood in both the Abbotsford rink and the Langley rink and know how very similar the rinks are.

Disclosure:

When the Abbotsford Centre was originally completed and city council was scrambling desperately because they had built this $100,000,000.00 facility and had no tenant lined up to play there I called for council not to let their egos have them paying any price to save face by getting a hockey team to play in their Great White – Empty – Elephant and to save the Abbotsford’s taxpayers $3,000,000.00 a year by leaving the facility closed until they had a sound business plan.[Here we go again – Rush, Rush, Rush,  Not another costly ‘profit’,   Abbotsford’s $expensive$ AHL pipedream ]

Since the Heat have left town I want to know why council renegotiated Global Spectrums contract for the Centre rather that mothballing the Centre, an action that would save taxpayers $3,000,000.00 per year. At least until such time as council finely came up with a viable business plan.

The fact is that in several ways comparing the Langley arena to the Abbotsford arena is comparing an apple and an orange.

Consider this chart:

One of the things that always leaves me shaking my head sadly is that once you have stood inside both Arenas and experience the extent to which both arenas are the same, it boggles the mind that the taxpayers of the Abbotsford paid 667% more than Langley’s taxpayers paid.

Given that Abbotsford City Council always makes excuses and never accepts responsibility for the consequences of their errors in judgement it is no surprise Council has refused to explain to taxpayers how it is that Abbotsford’s taxpayers paid 667% more than Langley’s taxpayers did, for what is effectively the same arena.

It is even more mind boggling that for some unfathomable reason, Abbotsford taxpayers, in light of the fact they have re-elected those responsible and never question the WHY of paying 667% more [6.67 times as much], seemed to be comfortable with and accepting of the fact they, as Abbotsford taxpayers, paid 667% more for the same arena, than did Langley’s taxpayers.

I find that acceptance unfathomable because the only reason for the difference – the vast difference – in the cost to taxpayers between Abbotsford and Langley is the decisions, actions and competence of the two councils.

During the fiscal year Abbotsford pays $6,696,000.00 [7,884,000.00 – 1,188,000.00] more then Langley for their arena.

So, even if you assume that Langley’s arena is as badly managed as the Abbotsford Centre is and thus runs the same yearly operating deficit of $3,000,000.00 as the Abbotsford Centre does, the $6,696,000.00 less per year for construction and interest costs paid by Langley and its taxpayers, gives Langley significantly more flexibility, affordability, when it comes to paying for an annual subsidy of $3,000,000.00.

I think it highly unlikely that Langley’s arena is as badly managed as Abbotsford’s arena for several reasons.

First is that over the past decade plus Abbotsford’s council has time after time demonstrated a lack of basic financial and management sensibilities or abilities. Every time that council has promised a profit or savings or senior government grants, the reality has turned out to be losses/operating subsidies or large cost over runs or Zip, Nada, Nothing from the senior levels of government – because Abbotsford council failed to handle the grant request properly. So while Langley’s council may not have demonstrated masterful financial, business or management skills…… they have demonstrated their ability not to ‘screw up’ financial, business or management as Abbotsford’s council has repeatedly done over the past decade plus.

Second is the fact that the Langley Chiefs were partners with Langley in building the arena – after Abbotsford’s council turned down the Chief’s offer to partner with the City of Abbotsford to build a new arena for the Chief’s to move into and play out of. Langley benefits from the Chief’s experience with the arena in Chilliwack. More importantly Langley has a stable, profitable franchise as their anchor tenant.

The final cost consideration that needs to be consider, another significant negative financial factor for Abbotsford is that Abbotsford’s council has been playing….fast and loose shall we say….with the DCC [Development Cost Charges] funds, using the funds to avoid the large tax raises that were required to pay for council’s profligate, spending.

Actually, not avoid having to have large tax raises but to push the large tax raises into the future in hopes of……an economic miracle that would allow council to avoid or further delay having to crank taxes by double [10% or more] digits?

There has been no economic miracle and Abbotsford’s taxpayers are on the hook to pay back the money used to keep tax increases artificially low. Since the DCC funds are to be spent on infrastructure, not operating the City, Abbotsford’s taxpayers are facing large tax increases, deep cuts to city services or some combination of tax increases and service cuts to repay the DCC funds.

It may well turn out that Abbotsford’s civic government either saves $3,000,000.00 by mothballing the arena OR cuts $3,000,000.00 from other parts of its operating budget or raises taxes by $3,000,000.00.

No matter how similar the Abbotsford and Langley arenas may be in structure, when it comes to the financial realities of each building, the buildings are as different as a luxury penthouse condo and one of Abbotsford’s many [thanks council] homeless camps.

There are also significant differences between two Centres structure and infrastructure.

Langley’s arena is part of a complex that has outdoor sports field, indoor basketball courts, meeting rooms etc. Abbotsford’s arena is squeezed onto a piece of property that only has room for the arena itself..

The Langley complex is surrounded by acres of parking – free parking.

From the day the site of the Abbotsford Centre was proposed parking has been an issue, a nonexistent nightmare.

Why would any local sports team, teams that depend on parents and their participation, want to use the Abbotsford Centre and tell parents: you can park free at a mall and transport yourselves and all the hockey equipment to the arena by bus, reversing the process [bus to shopping centre parking lot] in order to leave; there is paid parking available for only $1 for every 2 hours. Of course the parking is a long or longer distance to be hauling hockey gear so you might want to consider dropping your hockey players off before looking for parking; parking times are strictly enforced and fines for violations are not cheap; there is free parking available if you can handle the 2 – 3 [or longer] kilometre walk to the arena.

Finally, importantly, there is also the fact that there was no need for another ice surface in Abbotsford. The ice surface at the Abbotsford Centre was constructed not to meet a community need or demand for more ice but to meet the needs of mayor and councillors egos.

Enticing teams to use the ice surface at the Abbotsford Centre simply reduces the use, the revenue, at other city rinks – at the cost to taxpayers of $3,000,000.00 a year.

Oh, BLEEP!  An idea that will cost, waste $3,000,000.00 of taxpayers hard earned dollars? Just the types of idea Abbotsford’s mayors and councillors have shown they love.

Homeless, Municipal, Politics

More Banman Balderdash

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In an interview with the CBC  Mayor Banman stated “It comes down to financial dollars, resources and expertise. Cities are supposed to look after really exciting things like water and sewer.”

Hmm. Let us set aside questions of what rational – or irrational – words Mayor Banman would use to fit boondoggles such as the Heat, the International Garden, the Great White Elephant, roads were you cannot see the markings, traffic circles with warning signs not to get in beside a transport truck because the poor design means trucks crush any car that makes the mistake of being in the traffic circle with them, etc. into this latest Banmanism.

A well managed city looks after the well being of their citizens and the health of the city. And while water and sewer are part of looking after their citizens, the well being of citizens and the health of a city extend well beyond infrastructure.

A city is a community of diverse parts and peoples and the health and well being of a city and its citizens comes from the interaction of all the parts and peoples of a city. Including those with mental health challenges, our large East Indian community, all those who have immigrated to Canada and Abbotsford, including previous and current immigrants to established groups such as the Mennonites, the homeless, business people, the poor, commuters, students,………….

Mayors and councillors who ignore the reality of the complex nature of a city impoverish their city, not just in terms of finances but also the spirit, the soul of their city.

 

The City of Abbotsford, its’ mayors and councillors have repeatedly used poverty or lack of resources as an excuse for doing nothing effective or competent to address the growing issue of homelessness in Abbotsford.

And when the provincial government, the favourite target for blame and finger pointing, puts funding on the table the city, mayors and councillors simply move to favourite excuse #2 – wrong location. Or “I am allowed to make an irrational decision” or the utterly nonsensical “we need housing Now, not in two years” given that voting down the rezoning means that in two years time Abbotsford will still hot have any of the needed appropriate housing.

Yet Abbotsford, its’ mayors and councillors have all the money and resources they needed to take actions against the homeless that have proven, time after time after time, to be ineffective in achieving any beneficial outcomes.

Although just how much the bullying persecution of the homeless by the city and its’ politicians has cost is unknown because the city refuses to say what it is spending on the insanity of doing the same thing over and over hoping that the results will be different – next time.

One of the many realities that Abbotsford and its’ politicians choose to ignore is that  even from a narrow dollars and cents view, it is in the self-interest of citizens to deal with homelessness, substance use, mental illness, hunger, poverty. In truth, from strictly a dollar and cents point of view, the city’s behaviour towards the homeless makes less sense – and is as harmful to the taxpayers pocketbook’s – as the $20 million Heat boondoggle.

Any realistic look at the costs incurred in how we deal [more accurately fail to deal] with homelessness at the municipal, provincial and federal levels will show we are wasting $100s of millions, the odd $billion$ or two, adhering to the establish practice of recycling people through various aspects of homeless/mental health issues/substance use.

The true poverty, the resource the city lacks, that prevents Abbotsford from effectively addressing homelessness is not $$$$ but leadership.

Over more than a decade people, organizations, officials from other cities who had experience with the practices that have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing homelessness have come to Abbotsford to share their knowledge, experience and expertise.

And Abbotsford, its’ mayors and councillors have ignored them….or taken actions that were the opposite of those advised.

Studies, knowledge, experience, outcomes of best practices designed around the reality of homelessness, mental health and substance use – as opposed actions based on what we have been doing for decades or what the public ‘knows’………

We know what needs to be done. We know what actions and practices are effective in achieving the results we need to achieve. We know that those communities that have chosen to use the knowledge from research and the outcomes experienced with best practices to address homelessness and its related issues have achieved, and continue to achieve significant reductions in homelessness.

This is not rocket science.

The ‘expertise’ needed is how to Listen.

Not listen as mayors and councillors in Abbotsford do, in one ear and out the other, there being – demonstrably – nothing in between for the information to adhere to.

But Listen, to hear what we don’t want to hear, or would rather not hear, or that is not what we believe or want to believe. Hear the Reality – which does not care what your ideology says is true, what you believe is true or what you want to be true; Reality that does not care what we think, that exists separately from us and simply is what it is.

It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.      Mark Twain

Finances, Life, Mental Health

HELP! Auto Destruct In Progress

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I don’t know what it is with me and cars these days……

.,,,,,, but they have become The Bane of my mental health, of my existence.

I stayed to help the volunteer clean up after Bingo on Wednesday July 2, 2014. My personal policy is to keep my karma balance with as solid a positive balance as possible. Unfortunately Tuesday was apparently a ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ day.

I was headed to the Library and then home but as I shifted gears turning off Essendene onto Montvue there was the sound of mechanical mayhem and while the engine was running, no motivation was being delivered to the wheels.

I managed to glide into a parking spot in front of the Fraser Valley Inn; but no joy – the automobile remained unmotivated to move.

Getting out of the car I stood there looking at HUB – so near and yet so far – and thinking about the $45 – $60 to be towed a single very short block to HUB. ##@!!!&%^$## I thought to myself, getting into the car, starting the engine [so I can easily steer] and beginning to work the car into traffic.

Two gentlemen stepped off the side walk, telling me to put on my hazard lights and pushing me out into traffic and into a u-turn headed in the direction of HUB.

I got around the corner onto Essendene, popped out of the car and put my shoulder to the door frame to keep the car rolling when a gentleman in a pick-up truck whips into HUB and he and his passenger pop out and hustle over to help push the car into HUB.

Two separate times people stepped forward and lent a push. It is this kind of help appearing that is why I consider it wise to keep my Karma account with a solid positive balance.

I suppose it should have been no surprise when Balance had some ill-mannered lout accelerating away when the traffic signals on Essendene turned to green, clearly bent on denying me the left turn into HUB motors without having to stop, then start, the car rolling.

With the transmission probably gone, the car likely toast and worth only scrap value – the condition of my car was a matter of complete indifference to me. Indeed, the only useful purpose the car seemed capable of achieving was to deliver a lesson in the wisdom of manners.

Wisely the lout apparently recognized the kamikaze nature of the situation and wisely decided not to play chicken.

I got the car parked and spoke to the HUB staff about them checking to see if it is something [relatively] cheap and worth fixing. I also arranged to leave the car there for a day or two if the problem – the car – is not worth the cost to fix; a state of affairs which would leave me scrambling to find a replacement and perhaps looking to find short term replacement transportation.

Having dealt with The Bane to the extent I could at that point in time, I set off to walk down Gladys to the Salvation Army and access a phone, phone book and computer to get a ride home and start spreading the news of my quest for affordable and [please, please, please, please, please] dependable transportation.

While it is not a long distance the walk became a matter of focusing on the destination and purpose and coping with the rising level of pain as my right leg became a burning pain and my back turned my steps into grinding torture.

Adding insult to injury an internal nattering nabob of negativism manifested and started berating me [myself?] for not bringing one of the canes I keep in the car for more than short walks or periods of time on my feet without a chance to sit; a nattering stream of negativism into which occasional comments of catastrophe and Auto Destruction of my Life were injected.

Oh Joy. On the upside, the pain that would be involved in stepping off the sidewalk onto the roadway means I have no urge to go play in traffic.

I got to the Salvation Army at 5 pm, the beginning of the Intake shift at the emergency shelter, and find Mike there having just given Steve a ride to work. The door opens revealing Steve and Cliff and I explain about the probable demise of The Bane and ask them to keep their eyes and ears open for an automobile and to spread the word of my critical need for a car at a marvellous price.

I stepped through the door to head for the office for the computer and phone when Steve suggests I get a ride with Mike – who is just pulling away. A hot day means Mike has the windows down, hears me as I shout forth his name and grants my plea for a ride home.

We swing by HUB to leave them the Keys so they can make sure it is not something easy, simple and affordable to fix – at 4:32 PM PST Thursday July 3, 2014 the call confirming the demise of my transport vehicle was received –  and Mike dropped me at my place.

I am thinking a beer sounds good, and six sounds even better. So I have a coke. Sit in front of the fan and read a Calvin and Hobb’s collection I found at a thrift store for a dollar.

Letting my mind process the $$$##@***&^)($!!!!@!!!* Car.

When my mind wondered if Vancity’s decision to offer payday loans to help people escape the clutches of those blood sucking leeches Money Mart, Moneytree et al might mean I can get a modest car loan???????……I know I am ready to start dealing with the The Bane and the BLEEP hitting the FAN.

I moved to the computer to begin to set down this latest chapter of my transportation tribulations and the Universe’s ongoing offensive against my sanity. Paranoid? No, at this point in time there would appear to be evidence attesting to the Universe’s use of transportation tribulations – car problems – to test my mental mettle.

Writing about this latest transportation tribulation helps me to vent, to process and to accept that the car is dead; prepares me mentally to deal with disposing of the dead coupe’s remains, finding a replacement and somehow managing to finance the purchase.

More importantly writing about the situation allows me to network and spread the call for aid in finding a replacement for my prior transportation that has shown a complete lack of consideration in becoming a scrap metal sculpture.

Sigh! I had just finished repaying the money used to purchase The Bane and was on track to full financial recovery from the effects of needing to replace my prior Bane.

Then Kablooee!  All that financial pain and discipline is blown up by a blown transmission and the spectre of homelessness looms once again.

The real danger of not having a vehicle is not that I might not make it to Monday’s appointment with the psychiatrist or incur a fine for returning library books late or other annoyances arising from my loss of personal transportation.

The real danger is being trapped at home with my thoughts and within my mind. A component of my Wellness Recovery Action Plan is getting out of my place when I begin to brood and my thoughts turn to the dark side.

With my car having died I am not only trapped at home, but my car woes provide a focus to brood on, to feel sorry for myself, to catastrophizing, a trap of negativism, of not getting out of bed………

Hark! I seek aid in accomplishing a successful conclusion to:

The Search for A Vehicle for James.

If you know of a vehicle or can help in any manner, email acarforjames@gmail.com

The James Commentary

James Commentary July 1, 2014 Which and How Much?

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The problem is not that letter writers Timi McIntosh and Thea Levesque of Abbotsford call upon the provincial government to raise taxes. The problem is that they failed to specify which taxes they want to raise and by how much they will raise those taxes.

Make no mistake, even though they never uttered the word taxes, the letters call for a significant tax increase.

The BCTF says the average teachers’ wage in B.C. is $71,485, and is seeking an 8% raise for the 41,000 teachers in the province. An increase in salary costs of $234.5 million per year.

The teachers demand the government spend $225 million on issues of class size, class composition, and staffing ratios – exclusively for the hiring of additional teachers. An increase of  $225 million per year.

The final big ticket demand by teachers is an additional $225 million retroactive grievances fund as a resolution to Justice Griffin’s BC Supreme Court decision that retroactively restored the stripped language from 2002. An increase of $45 million per year [$225 million ÷ 5 year term]

Over ½ BILLION dollars of additional cost per year [234.5 + 225 + 45 = $504.5 million per year].

Examining the provincial budget reveals that when it comes to new or significantly increased spending the provincial piggy bank has already been broken open and emptied.

For the provincial government any significant increase in spending requires an offsetting significant increase in revenue to pay for the increased spending.

When you call upon the government to give the teachers what they want, you are calling upon the provincial government to increase taxes to cover the increased spending; spending [and taxes] that in this case totals more than ½ Billion dollars.

If one proposes a significant increase in taxes one needs to set out what taxes one proposes to increase and the amount [size] of the tax increase.

It is easy to state ‘I would pay more taxes for education.’

The important question is not ‘would you pay more’ but ‘would you pay $500 more? a $1,000 more?; $2,000 more? $5,000 more? ‘would you pay more taxes sufficient to cover the ½ Billion dollar cost of the teachers demands?’

The fact that McIntosh, Levesque, the teachers and the Media avoid addressing the significant size of the proposed increase in provincial spending does not in anyway change the reality that such an increase must be paid for.

A ½ Billion dollar increase in spending requires a ½ Billion dollar increase in taxes to pay for the increase in spending.

Unless McIntosh and Levesque are calling upon the provincial government to pay for the increases in teachers salaries not by raising taxes, but by cutting healthcare by the ½ Billion dollar cost of the teachers demands?

In these days of CAVEAT EMPTOR [or perhaps more properly ‘let the viewer/listener/reader beware’] days of shallow and incomplete coverage of issues by the media, citizens need to carefully and fully think through the consequences of actions called for by special interests and/or politicians.

Addiction, behaviour, Homeless, Issues, Municipal, Politics

The Void – Wasted Lives

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It isn’t the 8 years of ASDAC work disappearing into the Void of city hall, mayor and council.

It isn’t the 2+ years prior to the creation of ASDAC where the mayor and council “couldn’t do anything until they had a committee to advise them on social issues.”

It isn’t the years prior to this when Abbotsford “didn’t have a homeless problem/issue.”

It is the LIVES wasted by mayors and councils who refused and ignored their responsibilities and Duty of Care due the citizens of Abbotsford.

It is not just the lives of those who have died or are dying or committed suicide or are incarcerated or incapacitated.

It is the lives of those who remain homeless, on the streets, still using substances as a crutch to deal with life, mentally ill, capacity challenged, etc.

If – such a little word for a word that holds so much promise, potential, recovery, wellness……..OR……Pain [mental and physical], waste and damnation.

If mayors and councils had – or citizens had demanded and changed mayors and councils that didn’t – Abbotsford would have made the switch from recycling to recovery more than a decade ago. If….. then today Abbotsford would have the housing, supports and services in place – or at least a solid foundation to build on – to provide what is needed on the journey to recovery and wellness.

“All they have to do is decide….” It is not that easy to overcome all the barriers you face in: 1) achieving even minimal recovery and wellness; 2) getting everything in line that is required to get into housing; 3) managing to overcome/avoid all the pitfalls and traps that will dump you back on the street.

I have watched people struggle and fall, pick themselves up, struggle and fall…….until they finally made it into housing and/or treatment.

Only to emerge from treatment to find themselves effectively abandoned, left to fall back into self-medication, to fall from housing and into homelessness.

I have watched the hope and life die in their eyes as they sink back into self-medication, mental illness, homelessness and hopelessness.

Knowing that we as a society have the knowledge and understanding of what is needed to provide the supports and services necessary for people to achieve recovery and wellness. Knowing that that best practices exist elsewhere that provide the help that allows those with access to those best practice supports and services to recover and become well.

Watching the struggles, the pain, the waste of lives…..Because we as a city, a province, a society choose not to provide the help that we know – that experience has shown – will help our most vulnerable find recovery, wellness and reclaim their lives.