Some interesting things here. Over 1/2 million dollars for consultants . A request to waive the appointment of an auditor. Read these closely . Please remember that any grant money is money from the taxpayer. Tofino truly is a consultant’s paradise .
41 comments:
Time for a Citizen's Task Force for the economic recovery for Tofino from the effects of the Tofino Housing Corporation.
this is a criminal giveaway to un-needed consultants....there was no need for duplicating work that the district already paid for years ago...youve been had by un-named consultants and managers working the long game....for the property management contract...there needs to be a forensic audit of the crap that is going on here.
7:29 your comments would be hilariously funny except there is no joke to be told about their huge and shameful waste of money. Remember who didn’t want an audit and be sure to remember not to vote for them in the next election.
It is criminal. There should be a forensic audit of this corporation
Waived an Audit? I would to if I spent 500k on a consultant and 4k in travel. Stop the madness!
It warms my heart to see Tofino spending a small amount to protect and house the most vulnerable of Tofino’s citizens. All the housing units they have created have gone a long way to keep people out of ghetto campsites. It wasn’t that long ago that people were paying huge money to live in a van or a travel trailer. Kudos to Josie for providing safe and equitable housing for the marginalized and previously overlooked.
Could you please post an address so I can see this marvellous housing complex ? I won’t invade anyone’s privacy, maybe just drop off some food. I won’t drive by , I’ll take the bus.
Read this report from Braden Smith from 13 years ago ! The waste of tax dollars continues unabated !
District of Tofino Committee of the Whole Meeting held December 4, 2007
Braden Smith, MCIP, Executive Director, Tofino Housing Corporation
Braden Smith advised that it has been a difficult month for the Tofino Housing Corporation Board. He explained the challenges they have encountered with the breakdown in their relationship with the Land Economist that was hired to write the financial pro-forma. It was the Board’s intention to present the draft Local Area Plan in tandem with the financial document. He advised that they are looking elsewhere for support and noted that the work will be put out to tender. It is their hope to have someone who will also act as a Project Manager.
Mr. Smith advised that the general scope of the program has not changed. Almost 30% of the units will be rental units. He responded to Councillor Ayres’s request and advised that he intends to bring forward a synopsis to Council on the work that has been done to date and what remains to be done in the future. He pointed out the hard work and dedication by the Board members over the last 4 to 5 years. Their time and efforts are to be
commended. He thanked Council for their commitment to attainable housing. He expressed his hope that the process will carry on expeditiously. Mr. Smith suggested that Council schedule a Special Meeting at the next Council meeting for him to review the financial information and policy criteria.
Councillor Strudwick thanked Mr. Smith for his presentation.
How many millions of dollars later and as far as I know the Tofino Housing Corporation hasn’t bought a nail or a single 2x4. With the amount they have spent , they could have bought a waterfront house at Chesterman’s Beach .
Definition of Kafkaesque. : of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings especially : having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality Kafkaesque bureaucratic delays.
These things don’t happen overnight. Actually , they don’t even happen over 4745 nights. (13 years)
“Agendas and Minutes
Meetings of the Corporation are not open to the public. “
From the THC website. I wonder what they are trying to hide ?
One would think they would strive for transparency and welcome public input.
There is more to this scandal
The recent Sharp road proposal. Waves Development Cost Charges Waves the Lift Tax. Waves rezoning application fees and on and on.
The Dot payed for fisheries and environmental studies , highways and traffic studies all to the developers benefit at the DOT's expense. and on and on.
It proposes a fifty year lease to a proponent for nothing. No compensation to the District whatsoever.
When I asked about how it was to be determined what property taxes they were to pay given the property was to be leased and not sold. I received no answer. When I asked weather or not the property would contribute any property tax at all I received no answer. And you must know this is a piece of Parkland officially zoned as such by the DoT. Parkland on a fish bearing stream.
Including other proposed projects literally MILLIONS of dollars in real estate IS TO BE GIVEN AWAY.
If you go back to it's origins during Smith's tenure the total amount of spending is into the millions and still not one unit built.
Not one person on this committee has any experience in actually developing anything in the private sector. no construction experience. no development experience. Not one of them have driven a nail or done anything on there own.
It is just another example of how the DOT has gotten too big for it's britches and just pisses away money like it is all par for the coarse and means nothing.
I hope a little exposure will wake people up. The leadership of this community is failing badly. They do not value your hard work. Ultimately that is where all this money comes from. Someone had to earn all this money so they could piss it away
it appears there are 2 residents of ucluelet serving as directors........
Smell? What Smell? I don't smell anything but air freshener being sprayed to hide the excrement all the pigs have left behind after feeding on taxpayer's money.
Actually I think the air freshener cannot handle the stench any more.
Maybe they will even smell it in Victoria? One can only hope.
Victoria wouldn’t care in the slightest. They are busy buying 18 million dollar hotels to house the homeless !
This is a grant and also tax money that has come from tourist dollars in the form of the MRDT.
All most of you seem to do is complain about getting nothing from the tourists and that MRDT can't be spent on things that matter. This matters, and costs Tofino taxpayers nothing at all. Stop complaining about everything you see or read on the internet.
Also, @10:33pm, it's hard to take you seriously when you can't use correct grammar and punctuation in your post.
Those numbers came right from the DOT website.
what started out as a district initiative to provide affordable small building lots, some semi-detached long term rentals, and should the need arise some apartment style living/rental.
What it has turned into now is a feeding frenzy of consultants, people who know nothing, and a few individuals who have converted this into nothing but rental housing with a huge cash cow of being the private property manager.
And while this boondoggle is lumbering through the stacks of cash everything else is being built out with condos etc. Therefore eventually no need for affordable housing...... After three or $4 million worth of 20 disappointing years.
I would like to use stronger words to condemn the bean brains who think they're actually doing something but in the name of decency I will curb my tongue..
I can’t print most of the comments I’m getting . Please try to control the rage. The post at 9:17 seems to think that wasting money is okay if it is not from local taxpayers. All tax dollars should be spent carefully.
To 9:17; forget,; grammar and /punctuation?/, I can't take you seriously. Your comments on what matters are not to be taken seriously. Money comes from thin air. Spending oodles of money on consultants with no results is just fine. Ya, got it.
the money isn't wasted ralph. somebody puts it in their pocket. our money in their pocket...the DOT puts our money in their pocket and we get to keep doing it..no one should care though because i can't punctuate write
To 9:17 Money contributed through the MRDT is coming from local people, whose operations are being taxed. Shouldn't we use it responsibly.
I don't punctuate or grammar very well either. You may be better edumacated, but I can tell when the District is wasting money. The truth is in plain site and you can't see it. Not so smart after all.
You have to admit that the mayor is true to her word, she doesn’t believe the private sector can provide housing for Tofino. Of course, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy when private sector development is not approved by the District of Tofino.
Instead, we are fully invested in a social experiment—social housing. So how’s that working out? As far as I can see, not so well. Who’s the big winner here? Why the consultants. Tofino really likes consultants. (As an aside, I would like to see how much Tofino spends each year on consultants. Actually, scratch that, it would be too painful to know.)
If Tofino were to approve private development, the developer pays. Imagine that. No consultants to consult. Also, the developer pays for the land and they donate to parks. Instead, DoT is ‘leasing’ the land. Unfortunately, the land they are leasing is also dedicated park land. So a net loss. Even before these units are built, DoT has paid the bill for all the site development (engineers, surveys, permits, etc.). For some of these items we don’t actually pay anything, but we certainly don’t collect any money. I say we, because as a resident of Tofino, I consider that I am contributing to this project. A developer foots the bill and pays the district. Once again a net loss. Once these units are built (who is paying for the construction by the way?), they will be rented. Who will want to rent these things? There is no incentive for people who want to live here long term, they would, if possible like to buy. Who wouldn’t want to own property in Tofino if possible? Well, if private developers were given a shot, then there would be that possibility. But with social housing, so sorry, you can just pay rent indefinitely with nothing to show for it in the end. Of course, as has already been mentioned, there is a net loss to the district here as well. As people build their own houses on private lots, they contribute with property taxes. Will these units be contributing property taxes to the District, or will that too be waived. And who collects these rents? Is it Catalyst?
To sum up, because our mayor doesn’t believe in private development (read ‘like’ developers) millions of dollars in land, consultants, future revenue are being handed out with no net gain for the District. Unless of course you consider the resorts, who will benefit from having some more housing for their seasonal staff. Great decision council and mayor. Way to go!
that's eggzackly the aim of these hooligans - give a campground and some resorts first come for staff housing rental accommodation.
and we pay for building it and pay one of the resort owners to manage it! a work of genius!
the resorts won't need to provide any more staff accom on site so more resort rental units..awesome.! we pay for it.
and maybe if you quit working at one of these places you won't be able to rent there further....thats all secret.
any forensic audit would be political for sure with the only intent being to make certain individuals look bad.
after all we've done to make housing affordable...such ungrateful people.
This circus show Tofino puts on could be award winning if they gave out awards for the most stupid town governance or awards for which town can spend the most money and get the least for it.
There has to be an award for hiring the most consultants or creating the most non existent housing.
I still remember Gord Johns, a decade ago, saying affordable housing was his #1 issue as a newly elected councillor. But he had no expertise in affordable housing development and neither does anyone else on the current council.
For a number of years, Maureen Fraser was among the directors of this fiasco..... now she seems to have jumped ship? Her name is no longer on the list...... interesting. Is this a case of "Git!, while the gittin' 's good"?
This is the “ new” Tofino Housing Corporation .
How sad, taxpayers screwed again by exorbitant consult fees, and nothing to show for it. How stupid can the DOT, the mayor and council be. All this taxpayer money wasted by the mayor and her leftist views. Contract this to a current development in Tofino where the developer probably paid the district in excess of $400,000 in DCC's and permits to build affordable housing for sale. All with this private development, taxpayers were not saddled with consultants ripping everyone off to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
To 3:55 Agreed, excellent point. And the private development adds millions of dollars to the tax base which will contribute more to the town. And the new development will pay user fees towards the water and sewer system. Win Win Win. And there is also the amenity contributions most new development pays. And there is the 10% administration fee for all subdivision of new land, which that subdivision contributed. and paid for paths and new intersections etc that the town gets for free. And it provides housing for people to live in and housing that can appreciate in value and give long term security to new families And on and on and on.
And it gets done.
What don't they get. At city hall it seems like they want to reinvent the wheel. It still has to be round if you want it to roll. All I hear is clunk clunk clunk clunk. Work with developers for God's sake. If there are any left that are willing to risk their time on Tofino.
Sea Otter went up faster than the 15 years that the Tofino Housing Corporation has been spending money. The Yew Wood condos are going up fairly quickly. Somehow I doubt that $500,000 was spent on consultants for both projects combined. Only the THC can spend at that rate !
has it occurred to anyone to look for some conflicts of interests with some of this consulting as well as the proposed rental property manager owning a few large resorts.........
i doubt anyone knows what a conflict of interest is.
today i was told the reason there are people from ucluelet on the board of the thc is because one of them, as a manager of a financial institution, was there because the board needed to know all about mortgages.
that's odd because the proposed affordable units are all going to be rentals. uuuh no mortgage if you pay rent.
“Obedience is at the heart of political power.” A mayor doesn’t maintain power on her own; she relies on individuals and institutions to carry out her orders. A successful democratic revolution prods these enablers to stop obeying. It makes them ashamed of their complicity and fearful of the social and economic costs of continued collaboration. In Tofino however , there is no fear as the enablers believe themselves so firmly entrenched in the culture of city hall that they cannot be replaced. Councillors won’t rise up against her as they would prefer to just get along and collect their paycheques .They are quick to counter criticism of the THC . “It’s grant money “ is the common refrain. Like it is Canadian Tire money. I had higher hopes from this council but just like the previous council they have drank the Koolaid served up by mayor and staff. Shame on them.
Well the one thing this Covid stuff has taught us is to keep social distances.
It should be a simple matter for the community to do more than that with these tax suckers. Everyone in town should ask them to leave their businesses and not serve these pariah.
Better to socially isolate them and perhaps they will actually quit their positions on the THC and even better yet leave town.
Whereas the District of Tofino has identified, through the District of Tofino’s Official Community Plan and the District Lot 114 Local Area Plan, the use of District Lot 114 for affordable and attainable housing.
Whereas the District of Tofino has established the Tofino Housing Corporation Inc., (“THC”) a private municipal corporation with the sole purpose of building attainable and affordable housing in Tofino and the District of Tofino has committed to providing the majority of the lands to THC for this purpose.
Whereas the Tofino Bible Fellowship (“TBF”) a CRA registered charity, would like to develop approximately 15 units of affordable housing and an approximately 2000 sq ft multi- purpose community room (“the Development”) on the Lands.
Whereas the THC intends to develop approximately 35 units of housing as part of an initial development phase on the Lands (“THC Phase 1”).
Whereas the District of Tofino and THC support the TBF vision the Development.
What happened to this proposal ? Not enough money for consultants ?
if the bible fellowship went ahead with this project the proposed propertty manager would be deprived of 15 units of property management fees(if the units were to be rented) and control over tenants. if they were to be sold, heaven forbid - they would generate fees and taxes for the district. not good for the proposed property manager.
had to send the fellowship proposal off to the dustbin...
Fourty or so years ago the DOT created about 20 lots over on Leighton Way and then Pettersen Drive. Councillors and Mayor at the time thought there might not be enough lots for sale for people who needed/ wanted them. No fuss. "We will just work our way up this draw". surveyors laid out the road and lots accordingly. Local contractors built it, got it done in short order. Sold then for about $10,000 apiece, if memory serves me correctly. Ended up costing the town nothing, actually made a bit, and the property taxes have been rolling in for decades. A lot of people had a place to live. Average education level on that council might have averaged a high school diploma at best, but they were really connected to the place and were down to earth.(pun intended)
Nowadays, things have gotten more complex. Nowadays, millions spent, millions gone down the road back to the city, like waste water down the sewer. Nothing for sale, nothing to rent, 15 years of failure. WOW
What you really don't want to do is assign a group of people who consider themselves to be smart, to go out and hire a group of even smarter high priced "experts", to do a simple job. Particularly when they value their grand ideas more than the people or the place.
Does anybody know who the proposed property manager is?
Sorry , I can’t post unfounded allegations.
I wonder if the problem is the guy hired to manage the THC. He is supposed to be the facilitator. He has been facilitating for a couple of years now. Sucking up about $50000 a year for a meeting every couple of months Does he have any interest in stringing it out? Has he got any connection to the supposed proposed operator?
To 3:47 you are wondering about the problem? When ae we going to vote in some practical people
that don't have some fringe agenda. But of coarse they have to run. Who wants to sit with the loons for 4 years.
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