Snowmageddon

Can you believe this weather? It seems like the snow will never stop.

There has been much coverage in the local and regional media about snow removal over the past few weeks. It doesn't seem like any jurisdiction has been able to live up to residents' expectations in coping with the amount of snow that has fallen.

I, for one, have been thinking about this in depth. Mainly while I am shoveling my driveway, sidewalk, and lane over and over again.

I previously blogged about the need to better coordinate plows and emergency (public safety) services. I think this is still the case. We need to make certain that there is perfect coordination between the two to avoid police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances getting stuck en route to incident scenes. This may come in the form of better radios or even dedicated plows.

We also need to better educate our residents on their responsibility to clear their sidewalks. If we all pitch in a litte, we can make things a lot better for everyone.

But the Township's snow removal policy is clearly unable to scale up to a series of storms of this magnitude. It is fine for lesser events, but is unable to handle a prolonged season of snow like this one.

The issue aren't the main streets--the crews have been doing a good job keeping them clear and passable. Even the secondary roads have been fine. It's the third priority streets--the side streets--that are frustrating so many people. Third-priority roads with tricky hills. Third-priority roads that are the main entrance for subdivisions. These roads have not been done and they keep getting worse. Garbage and recycling service have been affected (although I am hopeful and confident our next contractor, who takes over in the spring, will do a better job than the current one). Mail service has been spotty at best (still waiting for some delivery, Canada Post!).

I think we need to look at creating a new third priority set of roads. These would be the side streets that have tricky topography (i.e. hills or dangerous curves), or roads that have heavier vehicle traffic. These roads would go to a new level of service that would see them plowed after the first and second routes are passable. The remainder of the roads in the Township would go to a fourth level, and would only be done in very difficult circumstances.

This, of course, would cost money--but I wonder what the economic cost has been of slowing down so much commerce, losing snow-bound employees, and other financial outflows of these storms. I think more snow removal would be a prudent investment in our local economy. We could look at contracting private pieces of equipment for these new third priority routes--smaller, one-ton trucks, with blades.

As always, I'm open to ideas and feedback on this. How can we make this better?

The Richter Scale

There is a very interesting posting on the Langley Record blog today regarding Kim Richter and her history with slates. Spoiler alert: she's been on more than one.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times has a column by Al Irwin (as close an observer of Township Hall as there is out there) on Richter and her relationship with Rick Green. Here is the piece in its entirety:

2009 promises to be an interesting year in local Township politics. With the arrival of Mayor Rick Green, Councillor Kim Richter now has one member on council who sees at least some things her way. Both are outspoken in opposition to Kurt Alberts, who, time will tell, was one of the best mayors the Township has had.

Green, in his campaign, adopted many issues championed by Richter, most notably property tax increases, increases primarily necessitated to cover increasing wages (wages are 61 per cent of the operating budget) and new, full-time fire fighting staff, which Richter also championed, and which Green has promised to continue to implement. As one correspondent to Richter's own website noted, that's like ordering from the menu, and refusing to pay the bill. Richter and Green also take issue with airport lease rates, though Richter voted against lease hikes in 2001.

Green's concerns aren't restricted to taxes, and in his election campaign he condemned poor management of major projects, the water management plan, property deals (and there were some very astute ones for the Township's future), fiscal responsibility, commuter rail and the Robert's Bank heavy rail corridor.

Lengthy freight-train traffic through Langley Township is not likely to disappear anytime soon, and if the recent kerfuffle over the Langley Events Centre illustrates anything, it is how hard it is to get funds from the federal government.

Yet extensive work over the past four years by the previous council has secured funding of some $51 million from various partners including Ottawa, for a rail-overpass solution to the safety concerns (particularly for emergency vehicles) at the Mufford/Glover intersection.

That overpass, and its funding, could be in jeopardy since Green and some of his supporters are questioning the route through the ALR lands of Milner. However, the majority on council, those Green refers to in his campaign literature as "the silent slate" (a nod to Richter's website) and Richter chides on her website as the "good old boys," were all returned in the election. These councillors would dispute that they comprise a slate. And when you consider that one of them, Grant Ward, originally ran (unsuccessfully) on the same slate as Richter, the Langley Citizen's Coalition, and another, Jordan Bateman, also first ran unsuccessfully, on the Coalition's arch-foe and raison d'etre, the Langley Leadership Team, and Mel Kositsky served with aplomb and dignity as an independent throughout the Langley Leadership era, the "silent slate" label is at best spurious.

However, as Richter so plaintively pointed out in her inaugural speech, no one on council should be ostracized, though reliable sources say Richter herself has not spoken to some council members, including her one-time Citizens Coalition running mate, Ward, for several years, and her incessant barrage of website vitriol against the "good old boys" may have fostered more enmity than amity.

In fairness to Kim, at the Fort Langley all-candidates meeting, she made a pretty passionate case for the Mufford overpass. I'm hopeful that wasn't just election rhetoric, and that she still sees the need for that type of infrastructure.

UPDATE (10:40 PM): In weird news, the Times has a second opinion piece on its website, this one with a Frank Bucholtz byline, passionately defending the Mufford overpass. It's odd because it begins very similarly to the Richter op-ed. Anyway, here it is too:

It will be an interesting year in Township politics. With the arrival of new Mayor Rick Green, Councillor Kim Richter now has one member on council who sees at least some things her way.

Green, in his campaign, took up many of the issues that Richter has championed, most notably the property tax increases of the past few years, increases primarily necessitated to cover increasing wage costs.

Green's concerns aren't restricted to taxes, and in his election campaign he fulminated against what he believes is poor management of major projects. One of those is the planned overpasses over the Roberts Bank heavy rail corridor, which bisects the busiest areas of Langley Township and City.

Lengthy freight trains through Langley Township are not likely to disappear anytime soon, and if the recent kerfuffle over the Langley Events Centre illustrates anything, it is how hard it is to get funds from the federal government.

Yet extensive work over the past four years by previous Mayor Kurt Alberts and the previous council has secured funding of $300 million from various partners - including TransLink, the port authority and the rail companies, the province and Ottawa - for a rail overpass solution to the safety concerns (particularly for emergency vehicles) at the Mufford/Glover intersection and several other locations along the rail line.

This funding could be in jeopardy, since Green and some of his supporters are questioning the road route through the ALR lands near Milner that is proposed, along with overpass plans.

The overpass plan announced by former federal cabinet minister David Emerson in June, 2007 includes $75 million in federal funds for projects in Delta, Surrey, Langley City and Langley Township.

If the Township decides it does not want an overpass at Mufford and Glover, then the funds for that project, which is arguably one of the most complex and expensive of the nine proposed, will go to other projects.

None of the other municipalities appears ready to look this particular gift horse in the mouth. Thus it is likely they will get the funds Ottawa and the other partners have set aside for overpasses.

Critics of the Mufford overpass plan have some legitimate concerns, notably alienation of farm land and the funneling of traffic onto 216 Street and 64 Avenue, east of 216. However, the Township should not throw out the baby with the bath water, and should make every effort to work with the senior governments to ensure an overpass is built at or near Mufford Crescent.

This community needs relief from heavy rail traffic.

— Frank Bucholtz

Saturday Night Politics

Catching up on my web reading, and thought you all might be interested in some of tidbits...

BC Election 2009 looks at spending rules for provincial candidates. From February 13 to April 14, political parties can spend $1.1 million province-wide, and individual candidates can spend $70,000. From April 14 to Election Day, May 12, political parties can spend up to $4.4 million province-wide, and candidates can spend another $70,000.

In the Times, letter writer Mike Harvey weighs in on the Events Centre's lack of federal funding:

Jordan Bateman hit the bull's eye when he pointed out in Al Irwin's Events Centre funding dispute story that Quebec City got $110 million for its 400th anniversary celebrations, while B.C. got less than $8 million for the entire province, for its 150th.

Unfortunately, that is the direction it will always be as long as Quebec and its political future dominates the Canadian scene. It will always be the recipient of the largest amount of tax revenue.

Quebecers will always have predominance in numbers in the Canadian civil service, far exceeding their population quota. And Quebec will always be the dominant force in Canadian governance.

Isn't it time those of us in Western Canada ask ourselves if we want this unequal and unfair situation to continue?

The Role of an MP

Murrayville's Rian Martin makes some great points about the performance of MP Mark Warawa in this letter to the Advance:

Dear Editor,

The bone of contention between Langley Township and MP Mark Warawa [Township, MP spar over Events Centre funding issue, Dec. 24, Langley Advance] should not have existed, if all parties concerned had practised due diligence.

However, federal funds exist for all manner of projects everywhere in this huge nation; why not funds for the Langley Events Centre?

Isn't our representative in Ottawa Mark Warawa? Isn't it the job of our elected MP to champion our causes?

Isn't it the job of the man, (whose salary our tax dollars pay for) to make sure his constituents are following all the appropriate rules and procedures when looking for federal help? Isn't it also his job to look at all available federal programs to see if his constituents could benefit from those programs?

Shouldn't our MP be working in concert with the local officials in his constituency? Our Member of Parliament is telling us that the Events Centre did not qualify for the Building Canada Fund. Is that his excuse for inaction, or does he think that action means a photo op at the Events Centre?

The agenda for our Member of Parliament should be his constituents and the Township, every day, unconditionally.

I think MP Warawa should read his job description again. As his employer, I am not happy with his performance.

I also had a chuckle when I read this line tucked into Advance editor's Bob Groeneveld's Tuesday column:

We need federal legislation to return environmental balance to this country, at least as far as snow is concerned, and Mr. Warawa, as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment is in a unique position to do something for Langley in the regard.

We're not asking for money, so it's reasonable to assume that there is a very real chance that it may be within his capacity to deliver.

Langley's Labarbera Comes Home

Nice to see Langley kid Jason Labarbera get a chance to play for his hometown Canucks. That being said, Roberto, a lonely city turns its eyes to you.

Top Posts in December 2008

Here are the five most-read posts in December 2008:

1. Tales of the Bizarre (Warawa and LEC funding)
2. Dec. 15 Township Council Meeting Report
3. Vancouver Magazine's Power 50
4. Streetcars Cleanest and Cheapest
5. Township Council Inaugural Meeting Report

Truong Mushroom Farm: 2008 Newsmaker of the Year

The Langley Advance today named the Truong Mushroom Farm its 2008 Newsmaker of the Year, and having given it some thought, I think they made the right choice. Editor Bob Groeneveld defends his choice here.

There's No Business Like Snow Business

This is my fourth winter as a Township Councillor, and once again Council has received a number of emails concerned about snow plowing in residential areas. See the Township's snow control strategy here. (I should note that there seem to be less complaints this year than in previous winters.) I think most people agree that it is reasonable for the Township to focus its resources on the priority and secondary routes during a snowstorm, but once those roads are clear, there is a feeling among many residents that the plows should do the side streets.

Coming out of the Christmas storms, I have a few thoughts that I will be offering our staff.

First and foremost, the snow control team should be thanked and commended for their long, hard hours over the holidays, clearing the priority and secondary routes. It's never fun to be away from your family on a holiday, working in treacherous conditions, but these folks did it without complaint.

I think we need to have one or two plows readily available to help emergency services. One of my concerns is that a resident may need an ambulance on a side street, and the vehicle will not be able to get there. Our plows use a different radio frequency than emergency services, so it might be worth having an "emergency" plow dedicated and available to the police/fire/ambulance dispatchers. If there is a fire, for example, the plow could run ahead of the trucks to the scene.

The second issue is plowing residential streets. I believe we need to step this up once priority and secondary routes have been taken care of. In the past, this has not always been necessary as the rain usually comes and washed most of the snow away. But in a series of snowstorms like this one, we need to be flexible enough to get plows onto as many sidestreets as possible in the days after the snow.

We also need to keep the Township's website up-to-the-minute with information about road conditions, garbage and recycling service, and other issues that come out of these snow storms. Real time information is invaluable for residents. The website could include a place where people can report on the conditions in their neighbourhood.

As residents, we also need to work on our snow etiquette. In our lane, the south half was passable while the north half was terrible for cars. What was the difference? The five homeowners on the south half (including us) took a little extra time during all of the storms to shovel our sections of the lane. The northern neighbours left theirs pretty much untouched (most of them have large trucks to get in and out with). This gave us the ability to get in and out throughout the weather. This isn't always possible in every street in the Township, but it worked for our little lane. It became a neat little community event, with the five neighbours chatting and working together.

The Township's snow removal policy, like everything we do, is always open for suggestions for improvement. If you have any specific ideas, please feel free to post them here.

The Problem With Property Taxes

Last month, the CanadaWest Foundation released a study looking at property taxes in six western Canadian cities--Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg. It's a very interesting and thorough report and examines property taxes in connection with federal and provincial tax burdens, and as a percentage of provincial GDP. (Read the whole study here or a Don Cayo Vancouver Sun column on the study here.)

The study concludes that cities, the engines of much of the economic growth in this country, are chronically underfunded and shortchanged when compared to the federal and provincial governments. From the executive summary:

The property tax is the only substantial tax available for local governments in Canada, and critics of the tax are right when they claim it alone is insufficient to meet the needs of today's large modern cities. Defenders of the tax are wrong in asserting that the property tax is the only way - or even the best way - to fund all of our varied civic endeavours. What is more, property taxes across the local government sector are not out of control,
and the same can be said for property taxes in most large western Canadian cities as well. In fact, property taxes are currently at some of the lowest levels seen in the past 45 years despite claims to the contrary. The property tax may have served our cities well in the past but it is no longer up to the task. For a variety of reasons - and for better or worse - the property tax will continue to form a key part of the municipal revenue mix. But our cities should not be so singularly reliant and heavily dependent on this one tax source. The amount of property tax collected in our cities should be reduced and the gap filled with different tax options.

The study says that of every additional tax dollar collected by the three orders of governemnt since 1961, only five cents has come in the form of local government taxation.

In 2007, local government taxes in Canada were 8.9% of all taxes collected. This is much lower than the 16.7% recorded in 1961. Over the 1961-2007 period, local taxes grew, on average, by 1.7% annually when adjusted for population and inflation. This is one of the lowest growth rates of any tax used by any government in Canada. For example, provincial personal income tax averaged 10.2% annual growth in real per capita terms over the same time period.

CanadaWest also looked at property taxes as a percentage of personal disposable income:

Setting municipal property tax against personal disposable incomes is an important measure of the tax burden, because it is out of this income that the tax has to be paid. An analysis
of property taxes in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg show that municipal property taxes in 2007 are at their lowest level relative to personal disposable income since 1990. Municipal property tax has also dwindled relative to each city's per capita share of provincial GDP. In fact, if property taxes had kept pace with provincial GDP growth, the six cities would have collected $1.3 billion more in property tax in 2007 alone.

Anyway, if you're interested in the history and trends behind property taxes (or finding a different wa of funding civic services), you should check out this study.

This Week's Top Political Jokes

As always, About.com has a list of the week's best political jokes. My favourite is this simple one from David Letterman: "It's so cold today President Bush was ducking ski boots."

Tales of the Bizarre III

I don't want to drag this on and on, but I did promise I would post more documents regarding the Township's attempts to secure funding for the Langley Events Centre from the federal government.

I thought the Times story on Christmas Eve was excellent. It shows that Mr. Warawa was hung up on one single program, Building Canada, which he himself says we were never eligible for. Why would we waste staff time applying for a fund that our own MP says we couldn't access? From the Times story:

"I don't lay this on Mark Warawa. I do think he may have had some difficulty in securing the funds from Ottawa." (Bateman)

Bateman said his criticism was of the federal government, noting that Quebec City got $110 million for its 400th anniversary celebrations, while B.C. got less than $8 million from Ottawa for the entire province, for its 150th.

Winnipeg has just received $15 million for a stadium, but not through the Building Canada Program. "Don't tell me there weren't programs. If it had been a priority (for Ottawa) they would have done it."

(clip)

Township councillors and staff wonder why Warawa and other federal Conservatives (including John Baird, now minister responsible for infrastructure) toured the Events Centre in July and October this year, if not to consider funding.

Anyway, the Times also has a helpful timeline of Township contacts with the feds. Some of the documents referenced include:

- a November 2007 email to Mr. Warawa
- A Feb. 2008 letter to Infrastructure Minister Lawrence Cannon and his April 2008 reply
- Letters from Mr. Warawa to Sports Minister Helena Guergis and Heritage Minister Josee Verner
- A Summer 2008 federal briefing paper, prepared by the Township for use by Mr. Warawa

Crime & Punishment

Happy Boxing Day! (Does one wish a happy Boxing Day?)

A year after hitting a 43-year-old man over the head with a skateboard at the Langley City bus loop (leaving him in a coma for two days), a 16-year-old has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, says The Advance. No jail time, though:

The teenager pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, has been sentenced to six months of deferred custody, 18 months under the Intensive Support and Supervision Program, and 50 hours of community service. He will also have to provide a DNA sample, pay a $100 victim surcharge, and will be prohibited from possessing a firearm for 10 years.

Meanwhile, Langley RCMP have arrested a 16-year-old boy they think attacked and beheaded more than 100 turkeys at a south Langley farm earlier this year. CTV reports that charges of break and entering, mischief and injuring or endangering animals will likely be laid.

Happy Boxing Day!

Ya gotta love the Internet...



Hat tip to Stephen Rees. Make your own bus sign here.