The BC Government should remember that behind each of these students, there are two parents concerned, angry and confused by the budget shortfalls being encountered by school boards across the province.

With the vote on the Vancouver School Board (VSB) proposed $18.12 million in budget cuts for fiscal 2010-11, the heat is rising on a provincial government led by a rookie Minister being thrown to the wolves by Premier Gordon Campbell.

Yesterday, over 500 parents and kids packed the John Oliver high school gym to rant against a provincial government that so far doesn’t have the guts to be honest with the amount of funding AND EXPENSES that are being passed on to school board across BC.

Speaking about the politics of the situation for a second, I interpret the shifting of the messaging from the Minister as a sign that the BC Liberals are beginning to realize that it is them rather than the VSB, or any individual school board for that matter, that is going to bare the brunt of the fallout.

First she was spouting off about how BC schools were getting the most funding per capita in history.  Then it was about how there was waste and mismangement within the administration of the VSB.  Now the latest line is about how student enrollment is down significantly, and that is why “we need to do things differently.“  Really?  But I thought that there was more funding than ever…

The fact that North Vancouver, Richmond and other districts are facing the same kinds of crunches mean that trying to attack one particular school board – the one that has been the most publicly vocal against the cuts – doesn’t hold much weight anymore.

Just as Housing Minister Rich Coleman finally came around to the fact that funding homeless shelters is the right thing to do (both politically and based on principles), I have a feeling that the province might just cave on an issue that is poised to galvanize parents across the province…and not in a good way for a government on the verge of padding the coffers with billions of revenues from the dreaded HST.

Then again, these guys seem to have all of their collective heads up Gordon Campbell’s prostate these days, and that is a pretty dark place to be in these days.

This next week is going to be interesting to see what the power of the people can do to sway government.  I think that Bill Vanderzalm might have begun a little to late to find reprieve from the the “harmony” that the government is about to introduce.  But when it comes to parents, I think the province is going to have to bend or face a wrath like they haven’t seen since coming to office.

Random observations across Metro Vancouver

• I was reading over the GCAT’s “Vancouver 2020: A Bright Green Future” report for their plan for increasing the amount of trees in the city.  The stated target is to plant 150,000 trees.  The means to get there, however, is much more vague, including “expanding programs for free or subsidized trees, adopt-a-tree programs, tree plant-ing workshops,” etc. through “partnerships with residents, businesses, and organizations.”  Well, I think that this initiative by the City of Coquitlam is brilliant, simply for the fact that it harnesses the power of trees being planted and nurtured by private citizens on private land.  Cheap, easy and with the possibility to get widespread buy-in.

• So far, so good in terms of public support for the Burrard Bridge bike lane trial, as according to the poll, Vancouver residents support continuing the bike lane trial by a two-to-one margin.  So the big plank that the NPA was going to hang its hat on towards recovery has fallen flat, much like everything else associated with the once mighty political institution.  They misjudged this one, and while Anton conveniently missed the vote on the trial, she cannot hide from its popularity any longer.

• This is great work by my friend Rattan.  Dianne Watts is a superstar, but whether it is her conduct, or the conduct of her councillors, there needs to be more respect for her city’s own rules.  Surrey First is virtually untouchable, much like Vision Vancouver,  but these case of hypocrisy do not help with credibility on the topic of local bylaw enforcement.

• I find this position from Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan and his merry band of socialists disgraceful.  Their political disdain for the BC Liberal administration is the main cause behind the hands-off approach to homelessness.  Derek Corrigan is an ideologue that is playing politics as the expense of people, and it shows that pettiness reigns supreme over progress.

• In my rabid reading of pre- and post-analysis of the Montreal election, this comment from one blogger caught my eye – Mayor Gerard Tremblay “is either mired in corruption or disturbingly detached from the major decision-making that goes on in his office.”  I find this particularly interesting when compared to the comments of former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan’s previous Chief of Staff, Daniel Fontaine, on Tremblay (I’ll let readers draw their own conclusions):

“Despite the flaws, Tremblay’s defeat coupled with the pending retirement of Mayor David Miller in Toronto would have been a major setback for the cities agenda in Canada. There are only a handful of mayors in Canada that can get a Prime Minister to return their calls. Tremblay is one of them and I’m glad to see he survived another four years. Now he needs to get to work and help restore the image of a city plagued with corruption and scandals.”

]]> http://civicscene.ca/municipal-roundup/feed 1 http://civicscene.ca/quick-hits-2 http://civicscene.ca/quick-hits-2#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:35:34 +0000 Jonathan Ross http://civicscene.ca/?p=547

• It is a little presumptuous for COPE Councillor Ellen Woodsworth and her mouthpiece Charlie Smith to state that the Mayor and Council “opposed a peace and justice committee.” It might have been a campaign promise of Woodsworth’s to introduce the committee back into the fold, but unfortunately for Ellen, her party only won two seats on Council.
  
  The fact that the Vision Vancouver majority chose to anoint advisory committees to deal with seniors, women, people with disabilities, multicultural communities, and LGBTQ communities, as well as maintain some of the other committees that tackle food safety, youth and heritage planning, has to do with priorities for and relevance to the City of Vancouver. No one opposes peace and justice.
  
  If Ellen and her COPE colleagues spend more of their efforts focused on issues residing within the city limits, maybe then they will be able to win a greater amount of seats within Council chambers.

• The Burrard Bridge bike lane trial, like most issues in municipal politics, was never designed to please everyone.  So, if you have one block of residential buildings and three businesses vocally upset amidst a sea relatively positive reviews, one must figure that the trial isn’t doing too badly at all.
  
  The concerns of the resident on the ground floor I can understand, although I question whether his neighbours on higher floors have similar complaints or in fact have even noticed at all. What I’ve never quite understood, however, is truth behind the complaints of the businesses, who seem to argue that the previous catchment traffic on Hornby street was a lifeline for their businesses.
  
  Take Appleton Galleries, which specializes in Inuit and first nations art (many pieces of which are very beautiful, and also very exclusive), for example. The owner complains that he has lost half – let me repeat HALF – of his business due to a lack of people hanging a right off the bridge? Before July 13, were those drivers parking immediately? Did they previously just happen to pass by the gallery in their cars and be inspired towards impulse buying?
  
  Something doesn’t quite add up for me with that claim.

• Having worked with George Smitherman way back in the opposition days of 1999, I can confidently say that his personality, his political instincts, and his people skills, are perfectly suited for this, which has been inevitable for many years amongst watchers of the Ontario political scene.
  
  Smitherman is, as one Globe and Mail columnist describes, “a tough, seasoned, smooth-talking political heavyweight, streets ahead of the second stringers on city council who hanker for the mayoralty.”  The fact that he was a chief of staff to former Mayor Barbara Hall is just a bonus on top of his steady and high profile performance as a go-to provincial cabinet minister for Premier Dalton McGuinty.
  
  Smitherman is the kind of guy that I would consider making a move to go help out.

• I realize that Ontario municipalities faced a Local Services Realignment by the Ontario Tories in 1998 and had costs for social housing, social assistance, public transit, child care, public health and land ambulance services to municipalities downloaded onto their shoulders (either fully or partially).
  
  Nonetheless, this kind of collaboration between the Ontario provincial government and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) towards “structural cost-sharing changes that will reduce municipal costs and advance social policy and integrated human services delivery” seems preferable to this kind of approach.
  
  BC Liberal supporters will chalk these protests up to Vision Vancouver’s alleged left leanings, but the fact of the matter is that municipalities far beyond Vancouver are going to have to face the pinch of a budget that, when mapped out visually regarding funding increases and decreases, looks like this (blue representing the gains, red representing the cuts).
  
  This was a budget that is going to hit municipalities hard (without even talking about the HST), and I assume that this kind of backlash is just the beginning of an upcoming tidal wave for the BC government.

• I have heard that the NPA board elections are a convoluted mess that even hard-core supporters are having trouble deciphering.  Some who earned enough votes in last year’s fiasco won three-year terms and are not up for reelection, while others who came at the bottom of the voting results must now face their membership once again.
  
  Considering that the current executive got in with around 100 votes (give or take a couple of dozen), the counting process for those vying for the political equivalent of a ticket on the Titanic should be pretty seamless.
  
  But the question remains – why are NPA board members not installed equally?

• Finally, here is a fantastic article by Councillor Andrea Reimer detailing the accomplishments of City Council over their first nine months.  There is a tangible list of actions taken on a number of key issues, and a good synopsis on a few of the new directions that have been led by a party that swept to power on some bold policy pronouncements.