As councilor for Burnaby I would push to speed up permits for new builds and to see where taxes and fees can be reduced, as that is a direct cost to the buyer. Also a goal to streamline bureaucratic and red-tape steps that add costs to building. With the aim to lower the price of putting land to use, and more housing can come to market.

I will also question any new expenses whether it be social or facility based and ask how will it be paid? more taxation? Can we afford it?

The Lower Mainland is not solving homelessness. Safe injection sites, street welfare, and food-and-clothing programs have not broken the cycle. In too many cases they have made it easier to stay on the street. We need a different model: a shared, rural multi-campus facility outside the city. One place for rehab, counselling, farm work, cooking, trades, and the arts. Get people off the street and back to structure, skills, and care. Every Lower Mainland city faces the same problem, so every city should share the cost. If someone wants government help, the condition should be going to the center. Stop managing the problem. Start helping people leave it.

Large infrastructure projects are great but at what cost to the people of Burnaby are they? When these come online it becomes an additional tax burden on a population that is starting to struggle with inflation.

Parking fees, we now see an increase in parking fees where it once was free, this is just another tax grab revenue maker for the city. My concern is that people who need to park for a full day at $10 will have to fork out an additional $200 a month! this takes away from their retirement savings and food on the table.

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

The current issue is that there is no incentive for departments in the City of Burnaby to save money. There is a corporate mindset to spend everything in order to protect next year’s budget. This old way of doing things needs to change. Managers should be rated on their work, not on spending their whole budget. Incentivize managers to save and run their departments more efficiently. Guarantee that they will keep the same budget the following year, and put any savings into a capital reserve fund.

THE RULE

1)Each department gets a fixed envelope.

1. Underspend, and you keep the same envelope next year. Saving is not punished.
2. Unused dollars go into a Tax Capital Reserve.
3. That reserve pays for tax-funded capital only: buildings, roads, roofs, City share of seniors housing, equipment. etc
4. It can also hold the tax rate down.
5. It cannot cover a department that blew its budget.