One of the candidates for mayor says: how do we better capture and retain taxation so that it can be used to properly service, replace and manage the impact of visitation in a way that supports community. What exactly does this mean? How do you capture and retain taxation? I'll tell you how. Quit hiring more staff and engaging consultants to figure out the water situation.
Another of the would be mayors declares we are going to preserve salmon streams while at this very moment the latest under market housing project is destroying the salmon stream on Sharp Road. What's going on here? From the Vietnam War era: we had to destroy the stream in order to save it.
I've had a friend (a Tofino property owner) from out of town ask me how they would go about voting by mail in the upcoming municipal election. The answer, as of today, is "You can't". Looks to me like the time frame involved is so tight that most non-resident property owners won't make the deadline to get their ballots returned and counted. No ballot applications are available until Feb17th, and although the district claims that ballots are available until March 4th, realistically ballots would need to be mailed by Feb 25-26 to have any chance to make it in time to be counted. That's a thin window of only eight days. Assume that I request a ballot application on Feb 17. Assume five days for it to arrive to me in the mail, that's Feb 22. Now I've got only 3-4 days to get it returned to the mail, in order to arrive back at the district office in time to be counted. That's a pretty tight schedule. We've all known who the candidates are for two weeks now. Why this long delay, until the 17th, to get the ballot requests issued? To me, this smells of a deliberate ruse to suppress the right to vote to all non-resident property owners. As a senior citizen with health related issues, it also tends to force me to attend to vote in person, during a pandemic, rather than use the mail-in option.
4:42: You remind me of the Republicans and Democrats. There's a snake under every rock and behind every bush. The search for conflicts of interest and corruption is endless.
I wouldn't be so concerned about the ethics of JJ, if I were you.
It's your friends and neighbours that I'd be worried about.... Despite the provincial health office issuing an "essential travel only" order and the premier telling folks to stay at home, there are still people in Tofino renting out their short term rentals and welcoming visitors to town. The reason they're doing this is quite simple....Greed!! It's because they can amass a few more dollars, and the risks to our hospital staff, seniors, and vulnerable people means nothing to them. These greedy cheats endanger the citizens of our town far more than any of the candidates ever will.
Furthermore, I don't believe that JJ has mentioned closing any VRS, but merely suggests restricting any expansion of them, until infrastructure questions are researched.
All of the mayoral candidates have mentioned short term rentals, in one way or another, during the discussion of housing in the campaign. Josie Osborne gave birth to the lie that most of Tofino's housing crisis is the result of short term rentals, as she wasted a half million dollars of the public's funds at South Chesterman's. Many people in Tofino still believe this malarkey. So it follows that "anti-STR's" is the natural "flavor of the month" during any election........ Hate airBnB, get elected in Tofino.
to 8:10 Funny thing is as you point out, all of the candidates for Mayor and council are concerned about the abuses of illegal VR's. No one has defended the status quo. JJ has said he thinks they should be taxed for what they are Commercial not Residential activity, So sorry 8:10, unlike American politics there is a consensus view emerging here on this issue, and you are the outlier. You are the one trying to muster up the hate. Though I must admit, your creative attempts to make people operating illegally as somehow the victims is as funny as anything I've see coming out of Washington lately. Right now whatever Josie Osbourne said or didn't say is irrelevant. People can think for themselves and most people have decided illegal VR's are a serious problem. Get used to it. We ain't going away.
10:33..... funny how you translate "short term rentals" into "illegal VR's". Two different things, pal. It appears that you consider ALL short term rentals as "illegal" I suspect that you might not be fair or objective in your comments on the subject.
9:17 I don't consider all short term rentals as illegal, just the illegal ones. The legal ones are...well...legal. There is no "translation" going on. I suspect I am not your pal...pal. so what is the translation of that....pal. Illegal VR's are a serious problem. So go ahead, defend illegal VR's
STR's have put us in a pickle increasing property values and demand. Town can't really afford cheap housing for all those who cant afford a $700K condo. So my question would be to any of the candidates How do we slow down the insanity. The only answer I can think of is a halt on all new tourism beds, resort or STR. Town is already on its way to Whistler 2.0
Why did we sign a 60yr lease with Catalyst? after virtually giving them land, and its a very secret deal in terms of details...Pet projects cost us way too much...Kill the deal any way possible. The mind boggles at the business ignorance of all at DOT. All the upper staff need to look at the direction they are taking this town.
re:1:03 the upper staff are just as ignorant and blasé about these deals as everyone else so there's no hope there. There's no qualifications roster that lists business experience in anyone's resume. If there's an elephant in the room it's the elephant that thinks because they have the job or the position or are elected business expertise comes with the portfolio. It seems unfortunate that people with real life experience in, for example, creating housing won't run for public office. Past experience has shown that the dilettantes who get elected to Council don't want to listen to anybody who knows what they're talking about and can help them understand what they're doing..... No! The anointed want to hire a consultant/advisors to tell them what to do. Even if its a stupid idea...
I listened to the all candidates mayoral meet yesterday. Here's what I heard.
Water: Law wants to hire consultants and do more studies to determine....whatever. McQuade wants to stop and consider the philosophical and social consequences of any action. JJ wants to send Gibson Bros to go to Meares and double the size of the reservoir there.
Regarding water we don’t need to expand on Meares we just need to add more storage in Tofino. Another tank the size we have now should do it. Also the first thing Tofino needs as far as housing is more purposely built, monthly year round rental housing. AKA Apartments. Studio, 1 bdrm, 2 brdm and 3. This is ‘entry’ level housing that Tofino needs at it’s very basic for those that can’t yet afford a down payment on a property. Renting is always the first step before any expectation of home ownership. It is encouraging that a recent rezoning application was granted 1st reading to proceed with a 59 unit Apartment Building and a number of smaller affordable single family lots. That will go along way at least to start.
Utility Rates In order to effectively provide water and sewer services to the community and meet operating requirements the utility rates will be amended to increase overall revenues in the water and sewer fund. The 2021 revenue increases required are as follows: Water Fund: $95,556, of which, $77,361 will be made up of the 13% rate increase beginning April 1, 2021 and the balance of $18,195 will be made up of 2020 surplus. In addition to the 13% rate increase there is a further 1% recommended to be added as an Ecosystem Service Fee. This fee will be collected from users against fixed and variable water charges, each quarter, which will be subsequently transferred to Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation to support Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks. The service fee is a small measure of support for the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks initiative which includes the protection of lands that form the watershed from which Tofino draws its municipal water. The addition of this fee is recommended as a step in fulfilling the “key deliverable” in Council’s 2021 – 2023 Strategic Plan.
19 comments:
One of the candidates for mayor says:
how do we better capture and retain taxation so that it can be used to properly service, replace and manage the impact of visitation in a way that supports community.
What exactly does this mean? How do you capture and retain taxation? I'll tell you how.
Quit hiring more staff and engaging consultants to figure out the water situation.
Another of the would be mayors declares we are going to preserve salmon streams while at this very moment the latest under market housing project is destroying the salmon stream on Sharp Road. What's going on here? From the Vietnam War era: we had to destroy the stream in order to save it.
Has Maddy Prince dropped out?
Has Maddy Prince dropped out?
Yes, Maddy Prince has dropped out
I've had a friend (a Tofino property owner) from out of town ask me how they would go about voting by mail in the upcoming municipal election. The answer, as of today, is "You can't".
Looks to me like the time frame involved is so tight that most non-resident property owners won't make the deadline to get their ballots returned and counted.
No ballot applications are available until Feb17th, and although the district claims that ballots are available until March 4th, realistically ballots would need to be mailed by Feb 25-26 to have any chance to make it in time to be counted. That's a thin window of only eight days.
Assume that I request a ballot application on Feb 17. Assume five days for it to arrive to me in the mail, that's Feb 22. Now I've got only 3-4 days to get it returned to the mail, in order to arrive back at the district office in time to be counted. That's a pretty tight schedule.
We've all known who the candidates are for two weeks now. Why this long delay, until the 17th, to get the ballot requests issued?
To me, this smells of a deliberate ruse to suppress the right to vote to all non-resident property owners.
As a senior citizen with health related issues, it also tends to force me to attend to vote in person, during a pandemic, rather than use the mail-in option.
Thanks to the RPA for putting this together. Quite illuminating
Hmm so if JJ shuts down VRS does Cristal Cove benefit close to a conflict of interest?
4:42: You remind me of the Republicans and Democrats. There's a snake under every rock and behind every bush. The search for conflicts of interest and corruption is endless.
I wouldn't be so concerned about the ethics of JJ, if I were you.
It's your friends and neighbours that I'd be worried about.... Despite the provincial health office issuing an "essential travel only" order and the premier telling folks to stay at home, there are still people in Tofino renting out their short term rentals and welcoming visitors to town. The reason they're doing this is quite simple....Greed!! It's because they can amass a few more dollars, and the risks to our hospital staff, seniors, and vulnerable people means nothing to them. These greedy cheats endanger the citizens of our town far more than any of the candidates ever will.
Furthermore, I don't believe that JJ has mentioned closing any VRS, but merely suggests restricting any expansion of them, until infrastructure questions are researched.
All of the mayoral candidates have mentioned short term rentals, in one way or another, during the discussion of housing in the campaign. Josie Osborne gave birth to the lie that most of Tofino's housing crisis is the result of short term rentals, as she wasted a half million dollars of the public's funds at South Chesterman's. Many people in Tofino still believe this malarkey. So it follows that "anti-STR's" is the natural "flavor of the month" during any election........ Hate airBnB, get elected in Tofino.
to 8:10 Funny thing is as you point out, all of the candidates for Mayor and council are concerned about the abuses of illegal VR's. No one has defended the status quo. JJ has said he thinks they should be taxed for what they are Commercial not Residential activity, So sorry 8:10, unlike American politics there is a consensus view emerging here on this issue, and you are the outlier. You are the one trying to muster up the hate. Though I must admit, your creative attempts to make people operating illegally as somehow the victims is as funny as anything I've see coming out of Washington lately.
Right now whatever Josie Osbourne said or didn't say is irrelevant. People can think for themselves and most people have decided illegal VR's are a serious problem. Get used to it. We ain't going away.
10:33..... funny how you translate "short term rentals" into "illegal VR's". Two different things, pal. It appears that you consider ALL short term rentals as "illegal" I suspect that you might not be fair or objective in your comments on the subject.
9:17 I don't consider all short term rentals as illegal, just the illegal ones. The legal ones are...well...legal. There is no "translation" going on. I suspect I am not your pal...pal. so what is the translation of that....pal. Illegal VR's are a serious problem. So go ahead, defend illegal VR's
STR's have put us in a pickle increasing property values and demand. Town can't really afford cheap housing for all those who cant afford a $700K condo. So my question would be to any of the candidates How do we slow down the insanity. The only answer I can think of is a halt on all new tourism beds, resort or STR. Town is already on its way to Whistler 2.0
Why did we sign a 60yr lease with Catalyst? after virtually giving them land, and its a very secret deal in terms of details...Pet projects cost us way too much...Kill the deal any way possible.
The mind boggles at the business ignorance of all at DOT. All the upper staff need to look at the direction they are taking this town.
re:1:03
the upper staff are just as ignorant and blasé about these deals as everyone else so there's no hope there. There's no qualifications roster that lists business experience in anyone's resume. If there's an elephant in the room it's the elephant that thinks because they have the job or the position or are elected business expertise comes with the portfolio.
It seems unfortunate that people with real life experience in, for example, creating housing won't run for public office. Past experience has shown that the dilettantes who get elected to Council don't want to listen to anybody who knows what they're talking about and can help them understand what they're doing..... No! The anointed want to hire a consultant/advisors to tell them what to do. Even if its a stupid idea...
I listened to the all candidates mayoral meet yesterday. Here's what I heard.
Water:
Law wants to hire consultants and do more studies to determine....whatever.
McQuade wants to stop and consider the philosophical and social consequences of any action.
JJ wants to send Gibson Bros to go to Meares and double the size of the reservoir there.
Hmmmmm.....
Re 8:36AM Is this one of those questions from a multiple choice examination to guarantee everyone gets at least one question right?
I pick "c"
Regarding water we don’t need to expand on Meares we just need to add more storage in Tofino. Another tank the size we have now should do it.
Also the first thing Tofino needs as far as housing is more purposely built, monthly year round rental housing. AKA Apartments.
Studio, 1 bdrm, 2 brdm and 3.
This is ‘entry’ level housing that Tofino needs at it’s very basic for those that can’t yet afford a down payment on a property. Renting is always the first step before any expectation of home ownership.
It is encouraging that a recent rezoning application was granted 1st reading to proceed with a 59 unit Apartment Building and a number of smaller affordable single family lots. That will go along way at least to start.
Effective Date – April 1, 2021
Utility Rates
In order to effectively provide water and sewer services to the community and meet operating
requirements the utility rates will be amended to increase overall revenues in the water and sewer fund.
The 2021 revenue increases required are as follows:
Water Fund: $95,556, of which, $77,361 will be made up of the 13% rate increase beginning April 1, 2021
and the balance of $18,195 will be made up of 2020 surplus.
In addition to the 13% rate increase there is a further 1% recommended to be added as an Ecosystem
Service Fee. This fee will be collected from users against fixed and variable water charges, each quarter,
which will be subsequently transferred to Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation to support Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks.
The service fee is a small measure of support for the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks initiative which includes
the protection of lands that form the watershed from which Tofino draws its municipal water. The
addition of this fee is recommended as a step in fulfilling the “key deliverable” in Council’s 2021 – 2023
Strategic Plan.
*Regular Council Meeting - 23 Feb 2021
https://www.westerlynews.ca/business/covid-19-confirmed-at-tofino-resort-and-marina/
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