Well, folks, the cat-and-mouse game is finally over. The elected denizens of muni hall, led by our venerable senior councillor Corinne Lonsdale, have passed a motion to consider a salary raise in the 2011 budget discussions. Given their track record, do the Second Avenue Seven deserve the extra coin for their efforts?
Let's not forget the three major campaign promises made by council candidates in 2008: the creation of high-paying jobs, budget cuts and an expanded commercial/industrial tax base to ease the post Woodfibre residential tax hit.
So far that trifecta has not materialized. Faced with extensive infrastructure remediation costs, residents could be on the hook for a whopping double-digit municipal tax/utilities tab this year.
The downtown has shown signs of revival with colourful new shops and the infusion of a "let's just do it" attitude, but it continues to attract headlines for all the wrong reasons. The rancorous Downtown Business Improvement Association renewal process is rapidly dragging council into fiasco territory.
This convoluted narrative about applicant-led petitions, counterpetitions and finger pointing is a throwback to the acrimonious "she said, he said" political discourse evident in the early part of the past decade.
On another front, a few weeks back the Squamish Sustainability Corporation's (SSC) request for increased Adventure Centre funding hit our elected municipal representatives like a bombshell. Until very recently the SSC board and council were one and the same entity. So why was there a declaration of surprise here? Councillors are more than familiar with the annual Adventure Centre cap-in-hand drill.
In three weeks the Squamish-Whistler Commuter transit service is scheduled to end, when Whistler pulls the plug on its share of funding for the route. Although the destiny of this vital service is in the hands of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, some observers claim the District of Squamish has not given this issue the attention it merits.
According to Murray Gamble, one of the most vocal supporters of the service, there has been almost nothing done to make it succeed. "No effort has been made to promote the service. No analysis has been done to see who uses the bus. No effort was made to raise fares gradually, reflecting rising costs," he claims.
Despite these shortcomings, never before have more studies been commissioned dedicated to keeping us from hurtling to hell in a hand basket. In rapid succession, muni hall published the Public Works Asset Management Plan, the Fleet and Equipment Long Term Plan, the Facility Condition Assessment Report, the Squamish Community Profile, the Service Squamish Initiative, the Economic Development Strategy, and its eminent bedfellow, the Outline for Economic Development Activities: 2011?2015.
The latter two documents are intended to realign the district's economic development efforts, create a general framework to advance our fiscal sustainability and offer a plan for a more consistent approach to marketing the Squamish "brand."
If we consider good intentions and confident mission statements, councillors certainly merit a raise. And with after-tax remuneration in the $14,000 range coupled with an ever-expanding workload, it's hard to begrudge this group a pay hike. However, that concession does not necessarily imply an unqualified endorsement of their performance to date, which has at times been underwhelming.
