Governance, leadership & communities

BY John Treleaven, Chair of Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria, 2022 Chair’s Report at Annual general Meeting

As our seventh year begins, we look back with gratitude and forward with
confidence.

After municipal elections and the doubling of salaries at the CRD, a
decision was made to form The Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria and
register under the BC Societies Act. The organization is completely a-
political and focuses on municipal governance issues standing in the way
of the health of this city of 400,000. Driven by the knowledge that
greater Victoria is “almost the best place on earth,” we have sought to
make it better.

Our mission statement says it all – the Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater
Victoria Society is a non-profit, nonpartisan, citizen’s advocacy group
dedicated to lower taxes, less waste, and more accountable municipal
government.

Posing questions of elected officials, researching selected issues, reaching
out to the broader community through print and electronic media,growing membership have been our means.Today we have about 200 members and 2,000 on our email distribution list, plus electronic following through our website. We are grateful to thetimes Colonist and six Black Press local newspapers for their interest in our media releases and newsletters. CFAX 1070 listeners have been
provided with frequent opportunities through our interviews to provoke
discussions on issues we have raised.

We are also thankful for financial and substantive support from our
membership, and for the countless phone calls and messages we receive
from the public following publication of our print media materials.

For the years prior to COVID we continuously formulated questions around
issues of local governance to create some semblance of order and predictability for municipalities, the province, and the country. We emphasized the complexity and resultant weakness of our local municipal governance model. (The two largest cities in BC province, uniquely among Canada’s dozen largest cities function without regional government, just committees).

During the pre-COVID years, inflation targets set by the Bank of Canada were 1 to 2 per cent annually with population growth of Greater Victoria in the same range. Yet the cost-plus model of municipal budgeting drove property tax increases two or three times that rate in too many
communities. This rate of increase was clearly unsustainable and then
came the Pandemic, the resultant global financial crisis and a war.

These have been the most challenging times for all of us but most
particularly for those in elective office. To say the least, the future will
not resemble the past. For municipalities in this region the challenges
and changes will be profound.

1. The era of cost-plus budgeting as the operative model will end,
however painful that will be.

2. The need to cut costs of municipal services will force debates
and decisions on integrating services across the thirteen (13)
municipalities. (For those who are curious the CISCGI Report of two
election cycles may offer a guide. The provincial government
commissioned the report, then declined to publish it, leaving that
decision to the current administration. The report was promptly
ignored by all thirteen (13) municipalities, plus the CRD Board. The
opportunities to consolidate services is plain for all to see.
Unsustainable double digit tax increases may lead the report being
tabled and discussed, as taxpayers had wished, but maybe not…)
Whether or not financial pressures lead to a more balanced and
accountable approach to municipal governance remains to be seen.

3. A highlight of the last year has been the publishing of the
Governance Review Report of Victoria Council conducted by MNP.
A failing grade for that Council on most points, the report should be
required reading for all municipalities in the region and for that
matter across the province.

4. The MNP report details significant failures by a Council which seems to have been animated on many issues by the thought that “the end justifies the means”. Our focus on governance issues challenges exactly that approach. Many of the issues the report authors raise, were subject to examination by Grumpy Taxpayer$ over the years. We welcome the report and thank the previous
Victoria Council for leaving a report card for debate and action by their successors.

5. Municipalities are creations of the provincial government. Many of the issues, which are demonstrably beyond the ability andor interest of 13 sovereign municipalities to solve, which are
essential to a modern city. If its residents are to raise their families,
earn their living and for the economy to flourish, public safety,
regional transportation, healthcare, homelessness among other
issues must be met head-on after creating the legislation by which
municipalities operate. When the province will be forced into
action on issues beyond Victoria’s sewage project?

Several examples during the last year have called into question important
elements of governance facing those who step into the public square in
Greater Victoria. A few come immediately to mind.`

The complete absence of a Regional Transportation Authority, the
creation of which has been recommended for years to the CRD in report
after report. Colin Neilson a Grumpy Taxpayer$ board member researched
this subject in depth to discover an intriguing governance anomaly
between the way the Province has treated Greater Vancouver and our
own community on this issue. Reacting to the regional transportation
issue here, the province has indicated they would move to support a
unanimous recommendation of the thirteen mayors. Magically in the
Lower Mainland all twenty-two (22) mayors agreed to establish TransLink,
once the provincial government made clear it would shift revenue from
the Regional Hospital Tax to the new authority and then make up the loss
to the regional budget from other funds. Why not here?

When View Royal decided it needed two more Councillors, we asked
how exactly the public and taxpayers would benefit from razing the total
number of elected officials from 91 to 93 in the region. No answer was
forthcoming.

When we investigated regional policing there was no answer to the need
for five separate police forces. And a problem grew between Victoria and
Esquimalt over funding of their joint police service. When the uniting of
the two took place, the Province indicated this was the beginning of a
regional police service. That was then and this is now and still the
province will not act. Perhaps Mayor Desjardin’s actions will provoke, not
a study but necessary direct action.

And there is no need to point out the obvious that 18 fire chiefs are 17
above the need for a city or 400,000. We need the stations and the
equipment and the superbly trains staff, but for how much longer can we
afford the command structure?

On the topic of municipal governance of course the worst decision taken
recently was that of the provincial government to shut down without any
reasonable explanation the Office of the Auditor General for Local
Government. One can only guess the pressures brought to bear on senior
politicians in the Legislature to make this happen, pressure one might
guess from those subject to audit by the agency. The government offered
the excuse of saving taxpayer money. We suspect pressure from other
quarters led to the decision taken just as the OAGLG was about to audit
the Blue Bridge Project in Victoria.

All taxpayers in the region and indeed across the province will
unknowingly feel the impact of this one decision as municipalities are
denied the wisdom of independent professional evaluations of the value
for money, they offer taxpayers through their expenditure decisions.A final word for those brave souls who step into the public square in Greater Victoria.

We honour the service of all. We recognize too that the governance model in the Region is difficult if not impossible to guide. Neighbourhood municipalities are not designed to create consensus on
major interests across the city. We live work and raise our families in one
city. This city, one of the largest in the country is one economy, not
thirteen. The fact that voters are never offered a choice of visions for
this community is a weakness that needs to be overcome.Political amalgamation has been under discussion for many years.

If it should happen at a future date, it will be because taxpayers finally demand harmonized services across the region, an accountability model which is transparent and harmonized across the thirteen jurisdictions is blocked in a way which may force the provincial government to action.
We are almost the best place on earth and have it within our reach to
move up. I want to thank support from this organization from our
membership and particularly recognize the work of all our Board
members through these challenging times. This is collective effort by all.
But I would be remiss if I did not make special mention of our Past Chair,
Stan Bartlett, who holds our pen. And whose wisdom of the workings of
the news media, discipline our approach to communications and advocacy
– an effort to which others contribute.

And as to optimism for the future – We can be certain that widely
recognized improvements in governance, transparency and accountability
will happen going forward. The pace of same is beyond the control of
voters but within their influence as the results for elections last week
make very clear.

We need your help to sustain this organization. There is a never-ending
need for imaginative knowledgeable committed volunteers. We welcome
all ideas and those with time and talent to help shape an ongoing
advocacy effort based not on proscribing changes but rather, asking
questions about how this community works in ways that make less and
less sense to residents.

Once again thank you, to everyone for making the Grumpies what it is
today.

END