Monthly Archives: July 2014

City Council Needs To ‘Slow Down’ On Reducing Speed Limits

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

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Tomorrow the Victoria City Council is holding a public hearing on their grand plan to reduce speed limits in Victoria. The scheme calls for amending the Streets & Traffic Bylaw to lower the speed limit in the downtown core as well as several main arterial roads from 50 km/h to 40 km/h. It would also reduce the Cook Street Village area between Dallas & Southgate where I live to 30 km/h. This is problematic and unwarranted for several reasons:

1) Following the original proposal to reduce speed limits, professional city staff were tasked with conducting studies and reporting their findings. In April, Victoria’s Transportation Manager Brad Dellebuur presented the staff report which concluded that “…there is no technical data to support the reduction in speed limits on the arterials.”

2) The 2014 report’s final recommendation was to maintain the existing speed limits.

3) The Institute of Traffic Engineering (ITE) has concluded that drivers set their own speed relative to the environment around them and that “posted limits which are set higher or lower than dictated by roadway and traffic conditions are ignored by the majority of motorists.”

4) Deviating from the standard 50 km/h is dangerous as ITE also found that crashes “…appear to depend less on speed and more on the variation in speeds. The likelihood of a crash occurring is significantly greater for motorists travelling at speed slower or faster than the mean speed of traffic”

5) The data collected by city workers on the arterial roads specifically in question found that 50 km/h was appropriate.

6) Simply changing the signage in an area like James Bay as a pilot project would cost ~$65,000 which is $40,000 more than the annual budget for traffic order installation in the entire city.

7) The Victoria Police Department does not support a reduction in speed limits.

8) The City’s website claims “Lowering speeds on residential roads may reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and use of fossil fuels.” While this may be true in the case of a 1965 Mustang with no catalytic converter, it is simply incorrect in this era.

Despite all of the above, Victoria City Council seems intent on pushing ahead with a reduction in the speed limits, ignoring the science, the professional staff, the police department, and common sense.

If you are available on Thursday July 17th for the 7:00pm City Council meeting, as I unfortunately am not, I urge you to attend and have your voice heard.

We cannot stand for a council that ignores the facts.

My Priorities

15 Tuesday Jul 2014

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Municipal government is a “Democratic Service Provider” as it plays the dual role of delivering services to the citizens in addition to representing their political interests. If there are two things our city should know (being the seat of the provincial government and having a booming service industry) it should be governance and service delivery. However, in recent years, Victoria City Council has grown stagnant and shied away from making the hard decisions necessary to get our capital city back on track and instead focused on the minutiae like what to order for lunch. Below are the priorities I believe the 2014 Council needs to focus on and those which I intend to champion as a City Councillor. A Capital city deserves capital ideas:

Fiscal Management & The Economy
Victoria has found itself in a situation where property taxes are far too high, especially in comparison with many of the other municipalities. Rather than address this issue, City Council has resorted to political spin by proudly declaring that this year saw the “City’s lowest tax increase in 14 years.”

This has created an environment where many who once called Victoria home have been forced out. They work, shop, and recreate in Victoria but now live elsewhere in the CRD and tolerate the commute in to town. Victoria saw a 27% increase in residential tax rates (by total assessed values) between 2009 and 2013, compared to a 16% increase in Saanich and an 18% increase in Oak Bay. We now have property tax rates nearly 19% higher than those in neighbouring Saanich. On top of this, the City’s Financial Plan has set out to increase taxes by nearly 18% over the next four years. What makes this situation even worse is the fact that our finances are still not in good shape with three times the debt per capita of neighbouring municipalities.

This is especially worrisome considering the decaying infrastructure that must be dealt with soon. It’s now been half a decade since Council promised to present long-term plans to respond to the fact that 60% of the city’s existing infrastructure is “past its useful life.” Victoria is bound for serious financial trouble by the end of this decade and Council seems far more focused on putting on a show and getting re-elected rather than making the hard decisions. The fact that in 2008 the number of City of Victoria employees making more than $100,000 a year was 16 and six years later in 2012 it had drastically jumped to 46 employees is something that should concern all tax-payers. I am also strongly in favour of a reduction of City Councillor salaries, as it is not intended to be a full-time position, and will stand by that position if elected.

In order to tackle this financial problem we must consider alternative sources of revenue as well as some meaningful cost-cutting measures as tax rates simply cannot continue to increase beyond the rate of inflation. Council must re-evaluate its priorities and adapt to the post-recession economic climate. Having bureaucrats getting in the way of entrepreneurs, developers, and home-owners is not helping either. Development and business permits should be given out and the projects left to the scrutiny of professional inspectors rather than bureaucrats. We must re-establish an Economic Development Office here in town, something that all other Capital cities in Canada fund and reap the benefits from. Making Victoria an increasingly expensive place to live or do business is stifling the diversity and innovation that made this city great.

We must also look into long-term solutions involving the region. While amalgamation may occur eventually, that is no excuse not to strive towards closer cooperation and service integration for the time being. Inter-municipal cooperation and integration is a reasonable and viable option in many cases in the CRD when approached with genuine intentions rather than as a political talking point.

Environmental Sustainability
My generation has grown up being told that climate change and global warming is a problem that we must deal with in our lifetime. It’s not a topic to be taken lightly, and I believe my commitment to environmental sustainability demonstrates this. The City of Victoria has the opportunity to be at the forefront of municipal sustainability initiatives in Canada due to our location, burgeoning technology industry, and long-time collaboration with the University of Victoria (a world-class innovative centre for climate studies and research).

We must look towards expanding public transit, encouraging conservation, supporting anti-pollution projects, and ensuring that sustainability is an important factor in all infrastructure decisions. Environmental sustainability and economic sustainability are not mutually exclusive concepts; both can be achieved as long as those making the decisions on City Council keep each priority in mind.

Beacon Hill Park can truly be the jewel of our Capital city. Having lived across from it for years I truly understand the value of the park and realize that it could easily parallel Stanley Park in Vancouver. It should be maintained and celebrated as part of the allure of our great city. It is not just the downtown core which attracts tourists from around the globe. We can and must work together to preserve the beauty of Victoria. In doing so, we can better our present, whilst ensuring a better future as well.

Public Safety & The Downtown Core
I’ve been told by countless Victorians that they no longer feel safe in the downtown core. With the development of shopping centres elsewhere in the CRD, such as Uptown, a dirty, tired, and unsafe Downtown begins to lack the commercial appeal it once had. I can remember a time when the streets were regularly cleaned in the early mornings and there was a more noticeable police presence on our downtown streets. We must work towards restoring Victoria to the world-class status it once proudly had. We can no longer sit idly by as “For Lease” signs on storefronts spread like an epidemic, as panhandling goes unrestrained, and as civil infrastructure continues to decay.

In order to counter this slow but steady decline of the downtown core, we must promote investment and encourage development in the area by cleaning up the city and cultivating future business and tourism. This can easily be done whilst still keeping with the charm and character of the city. The rise of more affordable housing options downtown set to occur in the next few years, catering those who work in the core, will only help revitalize the region as long as Council supports further commercial development. 15% of all Baby Boomers in Canada intend to retire in Victoria and the city expects to see a 21% increase in population over the next 25 years. We must be ready for the demand.

Transparency & Accountability
A crucial pillar of any democracy is the transparency of government and accountability of elected officials, two issues that I am passionate about. The current council has abused the private ‘in camera‘ sessions at council meetings by using them to avoid public accountability and to give them political cover on countless decisions. It has gotten to a point where nearly every single council meeting in 2011 had a private session behind closed doors. Compare that to Toronto, Canada’s largest city with a budget of $9.4 billion and 50,000 employees, whose council only had 12 private sessions in 2012, accounting for a mere 5% of the total time council sat. While I genuinely applaud the recent initiative by council to broadcast their meetings live and post them on the Internet, it is quite telling that the very first meeting broadcast saw Council vote to retreat from the cameras for a private session.

Not only will I work relentlessly towards ending this abuse of ‘in camera‘ privileges, I will also have council strive towards providing more information about critical decisions made by ensuring access to government data and information is readily available.

Elected officials have a duty and an obligation to to explain their actions to those they represent. We cannot go on having important decisions directly impacting the future of our city made behind closed doors.

Why I’m Running

15 Tuesday Jul 2014

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It’s time for the next generation to have a seat at our City Council.

A majority on our city council have sat there for well over a decade. As someone born and raised in Victoria, I know we can do better. We need new blood and fresh perspectives. Cities work best when their citizens are represented by a diverse group of elected officials, meaning a diversity of opinions, backgrounds, and perspectives.

While we may have an old reputation for being the “Newly Wed & Nearly Dead,” it does not properly reflect the demographics of the vibrant community in which we live today. This need for new blood and diverse representation, coupled with the need for change, is why I have decided to run for Victoria City Council. My generation was raised being told that it will be our responsibility to deal with issues like decaying city infrastructure, the growing debt, the lack of affordable housing, and climate change. Well I say, let us start to deal with them.

We can no longer be the “leaders of tomorrow.”

We must be the leaders of today, because the issues cannot wait.

Victoria is my city and I know we need City Councillors looking towards the future. I am the candidate who will be living here half a century from now, dealing with the long term consequences of every decision City Council makes today.

I am not running to preach, I’m running to represent you, and that means listening. This summer I will be knocking on doors and speaking with residents, business owners, community associations, and other stakeholders across the city. This campaign isn’t about me, it’s about breathing new life into a council that hasn’t made a bold decision in years. It is about having someone who truly wants to represent Victorians in the most direct and democratic way possible. If you have a problem, be it a major infrastructure complaint, or simply the lack of a stop sign at the end of your street, I want to hear about it, and I want to help.

This November we get to elect 8 City Councillors. If you agree that we need fresh perspectives on Council then make sure you cast one of your votes for Andrew J. Reeve. I can guarantee that no other candidate has the time, energy, and passionate dedication to work harder for you and our city than I do.

Let me represent you on Victoria City Council, and together we can both serve the present and build a prosperous future for our city for generations to come.

Click Here to View ‘My Priorities’

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As your candidate I cannot do this alone. Running a successful campaign requires time, money, and volunteers. This is a grassroots campaign up against incumbents who raised as much as $28,000 last election. Anything you do to help will make a difference. Just $10 can buy pamphlets or envelopes for canvassing and mail outs. Donations & volunteers are needed and all are welcomed.