By Abnor. Fraser Valley Regional Regional District (FVRD) member cities and electoral areas have an unemployment rate of over seven percent in the individual communities and as high as 8+ percent in Abbotsford/Mission, yet the FVRD Board of Directors voted themselves a raise as announced in a tweet on Wednesday, July 23:
FVRD Board has voted in favour of a phased increase of director remuneration for 2015 and 2016 to $11,557.
That’s quite the hefty pay cheque for FVRD Chair and Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz, who along with her city council cohorts also received raises as reported by the Chilliwack Times on Thursday, July 17
Politicians create smog-filled valley and give themselves a raise while homeless people starve
Does the FVRD board deserve a raise after all they seem to have managed to do is manufacture an air quality crisis?
We have some of the most chronic, irrepressible unemployment and underemployment problems in Western Canada. The Abbotsford Homeless Crisis is receiving national and international attention as BC Hydro moves in to face the biggest group of homeless camps the City has yet seen on Gladys Avenue.
The cities which the FVRD politicians have created and continue to build offer mostly minimum wage jobs, transit which is pointless, and little for people to do after dark.
Because there are very few good jobs in the Valley, a great many residents of the Fraser Valley must drive to jobs in Vancouver. By doing so they have become the biggest reason for the air pollution the FVRD loves to fight with taxpayer funds and all the hot air they can muster.
Do they really deserve a raise?
Tell Abnor know what you think.
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Abnor:
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Abnor
Editor’s Note:Abnor joins us from time to time with a question or two about what he sees around him. He has plenty of time on his hands and he spends a great deal of his time wandering the streets of Abbotsford wondering about what he sees and hears. He’s a modern day hobo with a Blackberry.
Abnor’s Story
Jay Mitchell Says:
No.
Aside from annual adjustments for inflation, I see no reason councils should vote on their own raises. Should be sent to referendums. The FVRD Board should be no different.
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Ken Wuschke Says:
In New Zealand councillors and other local government elected positions can not increase their own salaries. Instead there a national agency that sets the salaries based on population and committee workload. Not the best but perhaps better than our system.
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Jeannie Rye Says:
No. The economies of member communities within FVRD the are weak. The Board that presides over the FVRD, aside from being seat warmers, have a myopic vision and are out of touch with the global world around them. To vote themselves a raise implies they have earned it. They haven’t. Ross and Gaetz in particular have drilled the FVRD into the ground and are the equivalent of dumb and dumber in political circles.
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Wendy Bales Say:
It should be noted that both Dennis Adamson and I voted against this.
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Jeannie Rye Says:
So what does that mean will you and Dennis not accept the raise? Would you be willing to give it to charitable issues in your respective communities? As clearly the remainder of the Board has no issue fattening their back accounts.
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