NATURE

Sea, land, river

PEOPLES

Community

For earlier materials see Table of Contents

April 29^th	We See
	CN Private property

In 2008 a petition to stop train whistles But then ‘Legal Necessity’ of whistling recounted to Council

The signs say that trespassers will be prosecuted --- presumably this is flip side of not blowing train whistles at night – since it is not an official crossing don’t need to blow when moving through the intersection – note it was ‘at your own risk’ (read sign) a year ago

We See – world travelers – and local ‘hand to hand’ struggle

Cedar and Alder ‘struggle to death’ seen at 5 Corners – the Alder is rubbing about half way through the cedar – cutting off its food supply etc

There were 2 bicyclers –I spoke to them at City Library where they stopped --- Seems the man and woman had bicycled across Europe, Turkey, Mongolia etc – and were now waiting ferry to Alaska to continue adventures

Budget comparisons

Cut and Paste from 2009 and 2010

-- note the increased user fees --- but only about 300T

-- More surprising is the reduction 400T$ in Grants in Lieu – presumably the Port -- see below

	Budget comparisons
	So City getting about 180T$ less from taxes in 2010 --- but ‘Reserves and Surpluses’ have doubled – see below

	Budget comparisons
	Here we see Main loss is in Major Industry --- loss 400T$ as Watson Island written down even further

	Budget comparisons
	Note the Residential taxpayers paying 200T$ more than last year and Business about 100T$

There was a very interesting discussion of what the role of Council (and Citizen Committees like Joe Viscount’s proposed Recreation Committee) should be --- Gordon Payne (and Bedard) saw little room for either – leaving main direction to managers and CEO – more later

The question of Surpluses and Reserves

Councillor Gordon Payne seemed frustrated during ‘discussion’ trying to sort out whether $$ to cover Watson Island was from ‘Reserves’ or Surplus’ --- One easy example of ‘Surplus’ would be 300T$ or so budgeted to Snow removal – which probably went unspent during El Nino year etc

Bus to Port Edward --- No increase in fare? Does Port Ed pay anything for the service? More later

Bedard and Bus Fare increases – she was happy with increase – but then she ‘drives in from Port Ed

This is a hard file to work on as most the rationale for increases are based upon increasing costs charges from BC Trasnit to city – no information other than things like above table given --- looks more like something from Vancouver than here – as Thorkelosn question brought out – Joy also reminded Council that in OCP, ‘Poverty’ was seen as the major issue in PR --- poorer people use buses not cars thus---- See my earlier (2008) on Poverty with links

Created by LG on 29/4/2010

Last updated on Thursday, April 29, 2010