• The position expressed by Paul Faoro in this article with regards to the changes going on at City Hall is very telling.  Why?  Because a top-heavy, in efficient organization is what was embraced by a City Hall run by former City manager Judy Rogers – and the prospect of ongoing and upcoming consolidation isn’t exactly something that a union leader likes to hear.  Yes, the Sam Sullivan loyalists and NPA supporters stuck in the past have problems with the changes that have been made – and from the looks of it, so do several of the managers that have left over the past year because they weren’t used to getting challenged about their little fiefdoms.  But in the end, the bureaucracy that ballooned out of control without the accompaniment of improvement to service, is now being culled to design a cost-effective and intelligently run system from within City Hall.  It isn’t easy, but it most definitely is the right thing to do, in spite of the backlash from those that are responsible for much of the mess in the first place.

• The over-the-top enthusiasm for the Mayor by pollster Mario Canseco is a little hard to understand, but these numbers are certainly not as dire as the usual suspects are making them out to be.  I won’t go into the different polling techniques and questioning that make this Angus Reid poll and the one conducted by StratCom that far off from each other.  Rather, I will put this question forward: who of any profile or status in this city worthy of a potential Mayoral run would be willing to battle against Gregor Robertson at this point?  I still can’t see a worthy opponent stepping up that easily, and from what I am hearing, neither can the executive board members of the NPA.  Oh, and for the record, there were several other candidates for this round of the NPA nomination process taking place on November 20th, who abruptly pulled their names from the running, promising instead to come on board next June.  Yeah right!  Bottom line, the Mayoral void on the side of the NPA is a huge problem for them that will not be solved by a Suzanne Anton or Ian Robertson candidacy.

• If she decides to do it, two things happen.  First, Surrey First will be in disarray, as the entire team revolved around the salience of Diane.  There are some candidates that could prove to emerge as a viable replacement (Tom Gill?), but the landscape of possibility for opposing parties truly opens up upon her departure.  Secondly, if she is handed the keys to the Premier’s office (as should be arranged if I was advising the party brass), she gives the BC Liberals a fighting chance.  That is of course an assessment made under the proviso that Carole Taylor is truly out of the game, and is going to stick with her new SFU appointment.  If Taylor enters the race, however, I’d say that both women could be game changers for a party that is in deep trouble at the moment.

• And what if they say no?  Is the entire burden on the municipalities?  Weeks ago I advised these Mayors to stand up to Gordon Campbell…and now with the events of the past week, it is all the more reason to step up and take a stand.  Provide some new funding mechanisms devoted for transportation instead of putting everything on the shoulders of property owners – that is the message to be collectively delivered to the Province.  There should be no approval by the Metro Vancouver’s Council of Mayors unless Gordo in his last few remaining months makes a commitment for new revenue sources for these cash-starved municipalities that BY LAW are not allowed to run a deficit.

• I don’t always agree with him on his political viewpoints, but on the eve of Remembrance Day, I have to give huge praise to Allan De Genova, who has been one of the key architects behind the opening of Honour House.  De Genova’s contacts in the development industry have been invaluable in raising funds, and I know how proud De Genova is that the project is now open to host veterans and their families.  Congratulations Allan on an amazing job of taking your dream and making it into a reality – 2 years from conceptualization to grand opening is an impressive feat.

• I have received a number of emails from NPA members wishing to remain anonymous who are upset with not only the individuals that have been acclaimed as candidates for the party (one individual said to me “a man who hasn’t been relevant in decades and tried to change our great party’s name, and a guy who ran for the Conservatives years ago and lost”), but also the fact that they have been shut out of the decision (another email contained this line “They took my money for the dinner, but they aren’t going to get anymore after this kind of interference in the democratic process.  I am done with the NPA!”).  This “nomination” process has already turned into a gong show and we haven’t even got to the date for the actual meeting.  My assumption?  The people that I mentioned above who pulled away from their stated intentions to run are not coming back.  And filling the rest of those vacancies with viable candidates is going to be an effort in futility.  Good luck Manjot…you are going to need it.

• I want to encourage everyone to go out to your local Remembrance Day ceremony and pay your respects.  It has been a tradition for me since I was in high school, and no matter the temperature or weather, I always feel blessed to be in the presence of greatness, and to be able to offer a small gesture of how appreciative I am.   Lest we forget.

Enjoy the beautiful sunshine today.  Vancouver is so stunning at this time of year.

Premier Gordon Campbell has guaranteed that construction for the Evergreen Line will start in the spring of 2011. It is a promise, however, that is made on the backs of the municipalities, not his own government.

Watching the Translink Mayors’ Council  go back and forth with regards to Translink’s demands for funding is becoming exhausting, and is most definitely frustrating.

It is time to take the gloves off, and go bare knuckle with the ailing Premier (you know, the one who has a 12 per cent approval rating), because his empty rhetoric with regards to transportation funding and the municipalities is wearing really thin.

Let’s take a quick look back at the past month in regards to the ever evolving positions of this group.

On September 16th, the Mayors expressed a willingness to look at new taxes – as long as the Province was also willing to come to the table with some new funding mechanisms devoted to transit.

This of course came after the Mayors were held hostage and forced into a $130 million contribution towards Translink under threats of a 40 per cent drop in service that would resemble levels not seen since the 1970s.

The Mayors had refused Translink’s demands for a $450 million infusion that Translink had requested last fall to pay for their share of the massive planned upgrades including the Evergreen Line and additional service south of the Fraser.

Now one week before the Mayors were set to meet with Premier Gordon Campbell, Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan was prophetic in speaking about what he believed was going to happen:

“…Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan believes that regional mayors are about to get taken for another ride by the province, one where they’ll be left paying all the bills again. “When will they learn? They keep buying into these promises and then they get taken to the cleaners.”

So one week later, the Mayors sat down and signed an historic MOU with the province, where the Premier was saying that “everything’s back on the table,” and Transportation Minister Shirley Bond was talking about innovative funding options the Province was willing to consider.

Fast forward to October 9th, where Translink forwarded a request for $68.2 million from the Mayors, including a 2-page proposal detailing how that money could be raised through an increase from property taxes, constituting an additional $54 a year per average household.

On top of that, Bond came out swinging on Monday – the day before the Mayors were set to vote – by taking the Mayors to task to “honour their commitment” for Translink’s $400 million share of the costs for the Evergreen Line, which the Premier guaranteed completion on to UBCM delegates a couple of weeks back:

“I can tell you this, and I can tell you with a degree of confidence that you can take to the bank. The TransLink Evergreen Line is going to start in the spring of 2011…“

So what happens when the Mayors cry foul and ask what happened to the other funding mechanisms that were put onto the table by the Province a few weeks before? The get accused of playing politics:

“Once again the mayors are positioning themselves in a very combative way and that’s disappointing.“

And what does Bond say about that commitment?

“I am absolutely happy to have a discussion about additional tools.  But we can’t do that in a thoughtful way before December.”

So basically, pony up what we’re asking on the backs of your property owners, and then we will discuss the new options that we dangled in front of you to get you to sign that MOU.

I can only imagine how absolutely infuriating it is to deal with these two-faced individuals.

As such, it is no surprise that the Mayors, feeling deceived once again with Corrigan’s words rolling around in their heads, rejected Translink’s demands.

And I say, good on them.  Enough is enough with Gordon Campbell’s bullshit.  “Take this to the bank”???  Give me a break…all he does is dole out false hope and commitments, and people are sick of it.

These are the statistics that need to be properly and aggressively communicated by the Mayors to their various jurisdictions:

“Metro taxpayers already contribute 65 per cent of Trans-Link’s operating costs, up from 53 per cent a decade ago when the agency was created.

• Charlie Smith selectively posts an excerpt from a post I wrote in response to his disgusting speculation about former Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s possible death, and cries foul.  He quotes me pontificating about what might happen if he gets hit by a bus, which was a direct and sardonic way of showing how truly off Smith’s “journalistic” instincts were on his story.  Yet of course he completely ignores his own conduct, as Smith in his bubble of self-righteousness often does.  Hey Charlie, if we are going to have a debate about appropriate content, why don’t you include your own exploits into the mix?  I doubt that will ever happen…because self-examination isn’t something that Smith and his holier-than-thou attitude tends to engage in.

• Since it doesn’t seem that any of the local media are too interested in doing any kind of due diligence in their reporting these days – particularly when it comes to stories about City Hall – let me toss out a question that should have been asked from the very beginning: what are the most immediate motivations of the anonymous source that spoke to both Alex Tsakumis and Global television?  That single query might have provided the offending media organization some context and subsequently a pause for concern before giving him a platform void of scrutiny.

• Excuse me while I am dismissive of these statements by former Vision Vancouver Mayoral candidate Allan De Genova.  For a man that was rumoured (but by no means confirmed) to have spent in excess of $300,000 on a campaign that ended with a final total of about 1000 votes cast in his favour, I can understand his frustration.  His daughter of course returned to the NPA to run as a Park Board candidate just weeks after her father’s failed bid, and Allan himself had little to nothing to do with the party since his campaign.  Those two facts seem to confirm my opinion that Vision Vancouver represented little more than a convenient vehicle for De Genova to get back at Sam Sullivan and the NPA, and also to realize the next step in his civic political aspirations after serving for 15 years on the Park Board.  So, to hear De Genova talk about how Vision Vancouver is “about themselves” is kind of ironic.

• An interesting take on the reinvention of George Smitherman in the Toronto Mayoral race, who could be about 6-11 points behind Rob Ford depending on who you listen to.  Talking to Smitherman campaign manager Bruce Davis last week, however, gave me some insight into what the campaign is going up against.  They are looking directly across at a man that is prepared to dismantle the city and make it as bare bones an operation as possible, all on the backs of latent anger against a former Mayor who never quite convinced people that they were getting value for their tax money.  But while Ford has tapped into dissatisfaction, he is also someone that by no stretch of the imagination can be considered a builder with ideas that he wants to bring forward.  Let’s give my old friend Warren Kinsella some credit with his new involvement in the campaign of Rocco Rossi – a man who in recent weeks has released so many press releases articulating policies and ideas, the media can barely keep up.  That being said, Smitherman is truly the only candidate who has the potential to deliver a message based on where he sees the city going and what he wants to bring to the table – and in the process enamour the minds and imaginations of the public.  Time to think big George, and take a shot at making people dream about their city again.  That, as I see it, is the only way you are going to overcome the Rob Ford juggernaut.

• Yesterday’s post was not an attempt to “change the channel” or even to go on the attack to deflect attention away.  Rather, it was a sincere opinion about what the media have devolved into with regards to a whole lot of blind acceptance of political attacks dressed up a as legitimate news.  Journalists like Jeff Lee, Frances Bula and even Gary Mason understand what I am talking about based on their latest commentaries regarding the situation.  There are those, however, who are determined to build their career by throwing as many bombs as they can towards City Hall, without any concern for context, motivations or depth – just as long as it is sexy and scandalous enough to create a scent.  Lazy journalism is lazy journalism, and if the reporter in question thinks that her work is above reproach, good for her.  I and others (including many of her own colleagues) don’t tend to agree.

• The Evergreen line finally seems to have some political will get built.  The bad part about this new urgency is that cash-strapped municipalities are going to have to raise taxes or create new sources of revenue to pay Translink.  I really like the idea of transportation commissioner Martin Crilly to resort to road pricing, though.  High gas prices and new transporation options are having only moderate success in getting people out of their cars.  But if we took real steps to make people pay more to simply be on the road, and then on top of that we attached additional fees based on the amount of people they had in the car (single drivers in empty cars would obviously get dinged more), then we might just see some dramatic behavioural changes as a result.  Because at the end of the day, relying on municipalities, which as I have detailed many times can barely pay for basic services for their own citizens, is not a sustainable solution – unless, of course, the province allows for some more revenue-raising mechanisms for cities.  The likelihood of that happening?  I wouldn’t be holding my breath…at least not under this current provincial government.

• I just got back from Vegas, where the attire of female waitresses would make any Vancouver server blush.  Nonetheless, I think that this case could very well change the industry in this province.  Now, I will say that I believe that free will has a lot to do with where someone works – they choose to apply, the find out the parameters of the job, and then they make an informed decision as to whether they want to stay.  However, it is most definitely discrimination in my opinion if someone is denied shifts or even employment if they choose not to wear a revealing top or short skirt as part of their job.  If the job is serving, and their conduct with customers is top notch, then the amount of skin they show should not have any bearing on their suitability to work at a particular establishment.

Robertson's looking for another kind of handshake like this (minus the Conservative propaganda), but is unlikely to walk away with anything of substance from Harper this time around.

I have been delinquent during the Games, as unlike those who transformed themselves into “media”, I took some time away from the blog and municipal politics to enjoy the civic experience of a lifetime.

That being said, I am now back in the swing of things, and will be posting regularly from this point forward.  CivicScene will also have some featured pieces coming out in one of Vancouver’s preeminent news outlets in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Mayor Gregor Robertson has left himself little time to rest in between the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as he has made his trek eastward to Ottawa and Toronto in search of “a commitment to a national housing strategy” and more provincial and federal funding for transit.

Yet on the heels of Premier Gordon Campbell’s government preparing people for today’s budget which will dramatically “cut back on the operating budgets of government” as well as Prime Minister Stephen Harper prefacing his upcoming budget by calling it the “toughest of his career,” I can’t see the Vancouver Mayor walking away with anything at all in terms of financial commitments.

But the trip is significant for the way in which Robertson is graduating from his roles and responsibilities that are most often bound within the confines of Vancouver’s official boundaries.

First, let’s talk about transit.  Robertson is saying all the right things when it comes to an area of public policy in which he has little to no autonomy over.

He understands the trend in retail politics that links transit with the municipality it is operating within, even though Translink is of course regional in scope.  He gets that in spite of his goals for making Vancouver one of the world’s greenest cities, public transit is never something that he can ever firmly commit as part of the plan without the dollars kicked in from the upper levels of government.

He also understands that Vancouver is far better served by transit than municipalities like the Tri-Cities, and thus adhering to the prevailing logic that the “Evergreen Line is first up” is smart politics based on reality.

A UBC line down the broadway corridor?  Yeah…maybe in a decade.  And I strongly emphasize MAYBE.

Gregor is beginning to position himself behind the need for transit solidarity with his regional partners across Metro Vancouver, and that he is well placed to advocate broadly rather than just for the purposes of Vancouver’s benefit.

Which leads me into my second point having to do with homelessness.  I have written before about how Robertson should be leading a national rallying cry for better support for housing across the country.

Once again I am going to reference J. David Hulchanski report from 2002 entitled “Housing Policy for Tomorrow’s Cities,” which details how the “federal role in housing since the Second World War has been…checkered.”

It also delves into the fact that municipal or urban affairs has been something that the federal government has only delved into a handful of times over the past century.

Sorry, but this kind of hands off approach to municipalities – REGARDLESS of jurisdiction – does not lend itself well to the realities of the majority of our country’s population.

Enter Gregor Robertson.

Now I am by no means arguing that Robertson is definitely going to have any more success than the Larry Campbells or David Millers who over the years have been very aggressive in engaging the federal government on a number of public policy issues.

What I am suggesting, however, is that housing policy is a place where Gregor can make real inroads in if nothing else, raising the issue back up to a national consciousness and in turn initiating a cross-country debate.

If housing and eliminating street homelessness is his baby (and from all indications thus far into his term, this is shaping up to be his defining legacy – good or bad), then he needs to play a larger role in lifting the issue out of the specific situations found in every city across this country.

So, let’s see what comes about from the glad-handing and the post-Olympic Ottawa love-in that Gregor is bound to encounter.

Even without the dollars, this could be the start of Robertson emerging as an impact player within Canada’s municipal affairs.