Seems to me we heard all this before! or most of it anyways! Take another holiday and rethink things there mr mayor. Another study maybe.....

Read and heard it all before. it certainly does look pretty impressive when it's all written down on paper. Maybe a more detailed account of how exactly they hope to accomplish these lofty goals once King Colin returns from the Olympics would be in order. I'm breathlessly waiting to see how they are going to "manage" the pine beetles. Sharpen up the saws and get the chipper out.

Revitalization of Downtown?
Lets think out of the box for a minute. Why not create a reverse tax system for downtown? Heres what I mean. The worst the property and buildings are the higher the tax rate. The more improved and nicer the property is the less tax they pay (down to a set minimum). This would do a few things. One it would strongly encourage owners to clean up and or maintain thier property and buildings. And for those owners that we call slum lords (both local and alot of out of town owners)that don't put a dime into thier property would maybe think of selling due to the high tax rate. This would clean up the down town so fast and it would cost the tax payer alot less and just watch the positive change. Free Enterprise, ain't it great!

Of all the grandiose plans listed you can rest assured that the only ones that will get any attention will be those that will allow the City to spend millions of tax dollars, which in turn will keep the Planning, Engineering, and other City departments working for the next 10 years.

Heres what they will be pushing.

1. Useless and unnecessary new Cameron St. Bridge. Minimum cost aprox $10 Million

2. Unnecessary new Police Facility. The present facility is approx 35 years old. Why do we need a new one. The CN building on 1st avenue that the City bought to house their tourist offices and IPG is only 35 years old and they just bought it. Cost for a new Police Facility approx $12/15 Million dollars.

3. Energy System. This is another ploy to get some Government funding, and in order to get it you have to come up with some scheme for saving energy, or whatever. This facility will cost approx $9/10 Million and will also keep City staff working for years tearing up roads, and of course renovating buildings. This is a stupid idea, and therefore I suggest it will go forward as stupid seems to rule supreme at City Hall.

4. Increasing the tax base. What does this mean? Heres an example. Locate a Rona on 97 West in the area of the old ball fields. This will give you a new tax base, and if it kills off Irly Bird, or Home Hardware in college heights, who cares because the city will continue to collect taxes from all three facilities regardless if they are operating or not. As an example, the empty business East of Victoria St. all have to pay taxes even if they are out of business. Expanding the Tax Base is good the generating taxes but is deadly for some businesses.