Meet the City of Victoria’s limited-edition for 2023
In recognition of hardworking city taxpayers, the municipal watchdog Grumpy Taxpayer$ is releasing a six-pack of virtual and limited-edition trading cards featuring wasteful expenditures.
While the City of Victoria wasn’t recognized last year for wasting municipal tax dollars, it has in the recent past been well-represented at the annual Teddy Awards from the watchdog group Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“There doesn’t have to be a lot of zeros on a wasteful or dubious expenditure such as the city’s Meet the Fleet initiative,” says Stan Bartlett, vice-chair of Grumpy Taxpayers of Greater Victoria.
“Often the smaller expenditures act as a barometer of the fiscal discipline of a municipality. Blowing tax dollars flys in the face of struggling taxpayers who expect council will be good stewards of public money.”
Bartlett says these tax dollars could have gone instead to help fix up our dreadful roads. In 2012, 85 percent of all roads were judged to be in very good or good condition. By 2022, that plummeted to 23 percent as a result of the failed governance decisions of the last two administrations.
Check out the six-pack for 2023:
- In 2023, the city spent $700 (including printing but excluding the cost of in-house labour). This version features a bucket truck, a carpenter’s crew cab, an electric mower, a backhoe and a pick-up truck.
The draft 2023 budget for the Communications and Engagement department called for an increase of almost 20 per cent to $1.8 million. The forecast in the Five-Year Financial Plan was for additional increases to $2.7 million by 2027. In February staff had recommended the budget be trimmed $82,000.
- In 2022, Victoria spent an estimated $2,500 (including printing and in-house labour) on a ‘Meet the work fleet’ trading card initiative that featured a sidewalk sweeper, sewer cleaner, zero waste truck, street sweeper and garbage truck.
- In 2020, it was nominated for spending taxpayers’ money, about $6,000 plus installation – on a French imported stainless steel public ping pong table. The city also planned to hand out free table tennis paddles and balls to nearby schools, businesses, homes and hotels, the costs unknown.
- In 2017, Victoria’s Johnson St. bridge won the top national award from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for wastefulness. It was also known as the ‘Blue Bridge’ because of its light blue paint, a 100 metre span across the BC capital’s harbour. Built in 1924, the bridge needed some major work. A 2009 report showed the historic landmark could be refurbished for $23.6 million, and a new one built for $63 million. But Council didn’t want an old bridge spruced up, it wanted the fancy, new one which was finished several years over deadline. Final costs around $110 million.
- It’s unknown the costs or what ever happened to the urban spinning bench (USB for short) designed to charge your cell phone that was installed in Cook Street Village and unveiled in December 2018. This was funded by a My Great Neighbourhood Grant in July 2017, installed in the winter of 2018 and in place for one year. The City provided $4,000 for the materials, and the funding was matched by the applicant.
- In 2016, it got a nod with a runner-up award, which is just as offensive to hardworking taxpayers. It spent $10,000 for music sensors placed on stairwell railings in a municipal parking garage. It’s been dysfunctional since the pandemic.
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Are the city’s trading cards terrific treasures or terrible trash?, Times Colonist Commentary, June 7, 2022.