By Abnor. I managed to spend some time on the weekend visiting friends and enjoying the beautiful weather. I don’t often get about much more than walking will allow and it was good to see some old friends in other parts of the Valley again.
Before I left Saturday morning I met with my usual crowd of morning coffee suspects and there emerged a consensus that,municipal politicians being less than honest blaming other people for their own mistakes when they said Ottawa is the reason they can’t catch up to the infrastructure deficit they created..
Then someone pointed out that, being in the only municipality in the Fraser Valley with a negative balance in their Development Cost Charges (DCC) account, Abbotsford would, in effect, be getting taxpayers from all over the Valley to pay for their particularly disastrous financial decisions over the last decade.
They asked me to get this message out to the taxpayers of the Valley:
Municipal Taxpayer Warning
.
If BC municipalities are successful in convincing Ottawa to pay for the inability of local governments like Abbotsford to do the job they were hired to do – local infrastructure – you will be saddled with paying for the incompetence and foolishness of the city councillors and senior municipal staff in cities like Abbotsford who have consistently deferred infrastructure projects in favour of vanity projects and spent their local taxpayers’ money supporting the Calgary Flames farm team and a money-losing hockey rink.If you want to keep your money rather than pay for incompetence, talk to your local municipal politicians and tell them you don’t want to pay for Abbotsford’s infrastructure.
If they won’t listen … make sure you drive on Abbotsford roads, drink Abbotsford water and use Abbotsford toilets as much as you can in order to get your money’s worth.
*This post not sponsored by Abbotsford Tourism.
—
Abnor:
Remember to Tell Abnor If you’ve got any news or stories you think he should look into.
If you have any thoughts or ideas for Abnor tell him.
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
Abbotsford’s Plan A started the domino affect of internal borrowing,
cuts in programs and services and dependence on DCC’S to
replenish empty reserves.
1. Plan A cost of $115 million+
2. Arena Cost overrun of $30 million taken out of Capital Fund
and $30 mil short for road infrastructure in 2009
3.. $14.5 million in arena/hockey subsidies over 3 1/2 years.
4. $20 million internal borrowing for McCallum/Clearbrook Rd.
interchange upgrades to be replenished thru DCC’S
The city was informed about the cost need for water infrastructure
back in 2006, just before the Plan A vote, but, they did not
inform the public until after the Plan A vote and proceeded with
Plan A.
Mayor & Council were well aware of the need for a new railway crossing
bridge at Vye Rd., dating back to at least 2005, yet, put it on the backburner for years, until, the government informed the city, they
had to pay for crossing guards to provide adequate safety for drivers
at the railway crossing.
It didn’t take Abbotsford long, before they began to look to the Federal and Provincial government for new Infrastructure and exisiting Infras-
strucre grants.
Abbotsford’s Plan A started the domino affect of internal borrowing,
cuts in programs and services and dependence on DCC’S to
replenish empty reserves.
1. Plan A cost of $115 million+
2. Arena Cost overrun of $30 million taken out of Capital Fund
and $30 mil short for road infrastructure in 2009
3.. $14.5 million in arena/hockey subsidies over 3 1/2 years.
4. $20 million internal borrowing for McCallum/Clearbrook Rd.
interchange upgrades to be replenished thru DCC’S
The city was informed about the cost need for water infrastructure
back in 2006, just before the Plan A vote, but, they did not
inform the public until after the Plan A vote and proceeded with
Plan A.
Mayor & Council were well aware of the need for a new railway crossing
bridge at Vye Rd., dating back to at least 2005, yet, put it on the backburner for years, until, the government informed the city, they
had to pay for crossing guards to provide adequate safety for drivers
at the railway crossing.
It didn’t take Abbotsford long, before they began to look to the Federal and Provincial government for new Infrastructure and exisiting Infras-
structure maintenance funding.