As Mark Twain famously quipped: "Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it."
After digging out of a few winter storms around the Christmas season, North Vancouver and West Vancouver residents polled by the North Shore News say better snow clearing isn't a priority if it means higher taxes.
The North Shore News polled 1,569 readers and asked the question: Would you be willing to pay higher taxes to have better snow clearing?
The poll ran from Dec. 20, 2022 to Jan. 4, 2023. Of the 1,569 votes, we can determine that 582 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:
Several readers took to Twitter to explain their rationale.
Some gave a ready endorsement for the level of service already offered by the municipalities when it comes to plowing, or said they were content with a bit of weather-related disruption.
No, I'm fine being at home. Also the 4WD with winter tires is quite capable to get around if I absolutely must.
— RimaMartinezWV (@RimaMartinez_WV) December 20, 2022
North Van City and District have done a fabulous job with the snow clearing!!! Drive around over town and see the difference!
— Joyce Griffiths (@jegriff) December 20, 2022
Dist of #NorthVan was down our street 2x Sun. They always do a great job of getting plows out when it snows. Y'all should have been around in the 60s & 70s. It use to snow like this every year. 😉
— AccreteWebSolutions (@accrete) December 20, 2022
Why would anyone pay more for something they need once or twice a year, and there is really no downside to not having it.
— petroman62 (@petroman62) December 20, 2022
Others were irked by the thought of higher taxes.
How about the city be more efficient in how it operates? Higher taxes should be the last option.
— Chris Dickens (@chrisTOFU) December 21, 2022
Absolutely NOT just need better management a new maintenance company that should go to other provinces and see how they do it
— Cathy Groves (@CathyGroves22) December 21, 2022
Still, some saw room for improvement.
The district should clear the sidewalks ! Makes no sense otherwise . We need to make sidewalks more accessible.
— Bozojanet (@Bozocup) December 20, 2022
Our @WestVanDistrict street has a base layer of solid ice, for two days and counting. Our neighbour’s elderly Mum has been without @VCHhealthcare Homecare. Lives are at risk because first responders can’t get where they need to be, and as quickly as we need them to be there.
— Michael Markwick (@ProfMarkwick) December 22, 2022
Results are based on an online study of adult North Shore News readers that are located in North Vancouver and West Vancouver. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 2.46%, 19 times out of 20.
North Shore News uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.
