Aaron Jasper thinks that the Park Board should escape the cuts coming down from City Hall.
Park Board Commissioner Aaron Jasper is on a campaign to stop cuts to the Vancouver Park Board Budget as part of the serious shortfalls that City Hall is facing for the coming fiscal year. Here is what he told CBC News:
“We need people to make a lot of noise,” said Jasper.
“We will clear our schedules. We are going to work for the next seven days to help get the voice up to city hall … to talk to our colleagues up there to help them realize that parks is important to the well-being of the residents of Vancouver,” said Jasper.”
The Park Board has now deferred a vote on a proposal from staff to cut $2.8 million in expenses from its budget, a move that has been given a deadline of November 25 to occur.
I’m not sure what they’re trying to accomplish in the coming week, however. In fact, I have a very specific question.
There was initially of a budget shortfall of $61.7 million shortfall until a cross-departmental team of staff conducted a major review of spending and expenses to cut that deficit to $28.1 million. This was an absolute necessity, as municipalities are not allowed to run deficits, and with revenues dramatically down for the City, something has to give.
So, my question to Jasper et al. is why should the Park Board be exempt from these cuts when all departments and City services are facing tough decisions?
Now, let me preface my question by saying that I wholeheartedly agree with the Jasper quote that the Vision Vancouver website has posted:
“Our parks, beaches and community centres are essential to the quality of life for everyone in our city.”
On the other hand, there are many areas facing cuts that impact the quality of life for Vancouver residents.
The Vancouver Library Board is having to face options like closing a branch, reducing hours and reducing administration to deal with both a $1.35-million budget gap for the library system and $220,000 cut in provincial grants.
The Vancouver Police Department is cutting its budget by $4 million and has decided not to hire 35 officers for the coming year as originally planned.
There is a a medical response unit from Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services that is likely going to be dropped.
Street cleaning services are being reduced, and are now going to have to be more reliant on healthy rainfall in 2010.
Taxpayers are going to have to make up $11 million of this deficit by way of a reasonable 2 per cent tax increase (likely to be the the lowest in the region for the coming year and the smallest increase in Vancouver over the past five years).
So as you can see, there are a number of areas that are going to have to change the way they do things to adjust to fiscal realities that all governments are currently encountering.
Now while I think that I understand the political motivations of opposing your own party to protect the interests of the Park Board, I don’t quite understand the attitude that the Park Board stands above all other programs, services and staff found in other areas of the city’s administration.
It will be interesting to see whether Aaron Jasper is planning on leading an angry crusade against City Council in the coming week. But if he does, he might very well have to encounter a number of others upset with cuts impacting their area of concern, and if so, will likely face questions about why the Park Board’s place in the city is somehow superior.
This isn’t a question that I would be able to answer. I am curious to see what Jasper’s response will be.
Of course the Park Board would be advocating for reduced to nil cuts. As part of their mandate, the Park Board must promote, preserve and advocate. While I do believe that Park Board must help to address the shortfall, the amount that Park Board should contribute should be lower than any other darptment. The simple reason for this is that Park Board is elected and hence accountable, unlike the Library Board or any other city department.
Jasper has got to be the dumbest politician around– opposing on his own collegues and party will get him dumped faster then he can whine about unfair treatment–someone should remind aaron how party politics work namely people vote for a party not him–he’s a nobody. I’m predicting jasper’s will end up in the political junk heap before too long and it will be the vision powers that be firing the gun.
Paul, your conclusion doesn’t follow your reasoning. Because they’re elected, they shouldn’t have to cut as much? I don’t see the connection. They are accountable to the public, yes. That just means that any decision they make, whether it’s initiating a new program or cutting funding to a current program, should be made publicly (barring privacy matters, of course). That doesn’t give them a free ride, though.
Paul, I am not saying a free ride. Rather, a concession rate. This would recognize the uniqueness of Park Board and its importance to people.