Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria

EDITOR’S NOTE: At a council meeting June 1, Langford council rescinded a April 6 motion to waive public hearings, and are now going to conduct electronic or phone-in hearings like…

Revised property tax increases range from -10 to 6.9% A growing list of municipalities in Greater Victoria are moderating budgets – while remaining very reluctant to reduce staff or make…

Your municipal council has long found their executive chairs around the table and have been managing your municipality for a year-and-a-half or so. The 2018 municipal election resulted in a…

“Good governance has eight major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law.” – The United Nations…

While the full social and economic cost of the wretched pandemic to Greater Victoria residents won’t be known for months, we already know it’s profoundly life-changing. Nearly 5.4 million Canadians…

Denial, delay or complete dysfunction? Grumpy Taxpayer$ believes that most of the 13 municipalities in Greater Victoria are living in their own expensive reality – a twilight zone – and…

Percentage of local budget ranges from 4.5 to 23.3% Victoria, Esquimalt and Central Saanich continue to spend significantly more of their budget on policing than other municipalities in Greater Victoria,…

Code of Conduct with enforcement needed Taxpayers often wonder about remedies when councillors or a mayor behave badly. There are tools available to address or prevent less-than-responsible conduct by locally…

Road investment levels under review in Saanich After one of the rainiest Januarys on record, the war on potholes and deteriorating roads may have to be ramped up in Saanich.…