Why Does Council Think Taxes Must Go Up?

Out Of Touch With Reality??

I realize that it is unlikely anyone on city council has anything to worry about in the money department, and it is a certainty that anyone working on the city of Nanaimo staff definitely has no financial worries either.

That may explain their seeming inability to recognize that the vast majority of Nanaimo residents are not in a position to pay another 21% tax increase over the next five years, that is simply reality. Our MLA told me that when he was first elected, Nanaimo was the third poorest constituency in the entire province. There were only two others considered poorer and one was Vancouver's East Side.

For the months of March and April the Nanaimo jobless rate exceeded 16% which is double the provincial and national average and no one seems to know why. A clue? Jobs are disappearing in Nanaimo at an alarming rate. Ask anyone in construction these days how easy it is to find work. A few years ago you could get $25 an hour pushing a broom on a construction site. Now framers are being paid $15 an hour, and that is IF they can even find work.

Nanaimo's north end retail sector will surely start feeling the effect of the new huge Costco that opened up in the Comox Valley just recently, meaning that thousands of north island shoppers will no longer need to come to Nanaimo to shop at a Costco.

Even long time local builder/developer InSight Developments is reported to be 'readjusting' their direction on Vancouver Island. They are laying off staff at their office and for the first time are working managing projects for other companies. Their high rise development on Front St. beside the Pacifica highrise is permanently on hold.

Is Council and Staff Sleeping??

In spite of the economic reality that is currently unfolding in Nanaimo, this council and city staff are continuing to behave as if we were still riding the wave of a major boom cycle. They are still spending money like drunken sailors on shore leave. The most recent examples of their disconnect from reality was the decision to 'keep' the nearly three million surplus which the Nanaimo taxpayers were over-taxed instead of holding the line on tax increases this year, and the 'In Secret' decision to spend at least $16,000,000.00 on a new office for city staff complete with new furniture and equipment.

I am beginning to understand why most of Nanaimo no longer pays any attention to what these guys at city hall and on city council are doing......... it could drive you nuts looking for the logic!