BC: View Royal Kills Fire Hall Loan

Jordan Bateman  Posted: July 16, 2012 Taxpayers.com
 Vancouver Island city councils, take note: Islanders are tired of borrowing money for big capital projects. As the Times Colonist reported on the weekend, View Royal voters became the third Island municipality to overturn a borrowing bylaw in recent years:

The failed attempt to borrow $8 million for a new fire hall in View Royal has led to criticism of the method chosen to obtain approval for the loan.

About 1,300 people filed petitions to stop the municipality’s proposed loan, nearly double the 770 required. A common concern expressed to council was that the price was too high for a fire hall.

View Royal became the third municipality in the Capital Regional District to have a major initiative blocked by voters through an alternative approval process.

When municipalities want to borrow large amounts of money, they have to get approval from voters, either through a referendum or the alternative approval process. Under the alternative process, the spending can be stopped if 10 per cent of voters file petitions against the loan.

The system is designed to gauge public opinion for spending taxpayers’ money, and often goes unnoticed when projects, such as Langford’s new bowling alley, move ahead with wide support. But increasingly, people view the process as a tool used by politicians to keep projects under the radar.

As long as governments are willing to incur massive debts, taxpayers are going to use these processes. It would behoove mayors and councillors to be proactive and use referenda more often.