After nearly a year in office, it’s time to assess this council’s performance, and the reviews are mixed.
A number of irreverent pundits have suggested the seven elected council members deliberating in the gilded chamber on Second Avenue have exhibited all the wherewithal of the hapless bridge crew during the last voyage of the ill-fated Queen of the North. But let’s be fair, this can be a hard-to-please community, chock-a-block with naysayers, NIMBYists and squeaky-wheel interest groups clamouring for a grease infusion.
Following a decade of negotiations, the Oceanfront Development land transfer is finally almost a done deal. Although the sale will pump a robust $15 million into municipal coffers, nearly $11.4 million has already been spent by the district’s agents on remediation of the former brownfield site. Ergo, the immediate net profit for one of the most lucrative properties in this province is the equivalent of the price of a tear-down in the scorching Vancouver real estate market.
This past spring, ratepayers were saddled with a customary double-digit combined municipal tax/utilities hike. So far, according to some observers, the most noticeable benefit for residents has been a third waste management tote box. And the jury is still out on whether council’s nod to making Squamish a solar city by 2018 was the right decision, given the availability of other renewable energies.
Recently the district received the 2015 Esri Canada Award of Excellence for implementing geographic information system software used for data management, mapping and operational planning. Carbon Engineering, a climate-conscious Calgary firm, has set up an $8-million cutting edge carbon dioxide reclamation plant in town, the first of its kind in the world. Commercial and residential development is booming. Coastal Ford just opened a new $5 million facility in the industrial park. Even the business-savvy Jimmy Pattison wants a piece of the action. His company is exploring the possibility of building a waterpark-theme resort on Aspen Road.
To what degree this eruption of commerce has been facilitated by the members of this council, or whether they just happen to be in the right place at the right time, has yet to be determined.
Legend has it Marie Antoinette, the reigning Queen of France in the latter part of the 18th century, upon hearing her subjects were suffering from a widespread bread shortage, uttered the infamous “let them eat cake” quote. That segue brings us to this frisky question: Faced with the growing clamour for a new roof on the Brennan Park rec centre, did a majority voting bloc comprised of our mayor, Patricia Heintzman, councillors Blackman-Wulff, Chapelle and Prior respond with “let them paint the trees blue”?
