Regarding councillors wringing hands over parking increase decision.
Seriously council, you expect us to believe that you made a decision to increase city parking rates by 50 per cent to 80 per cent and did not think this would have an impact. When does a 80 per cent cost increase not cause an impact. No one believes the "bringing parking rates in line with comparable municipalities" excuse. The Citizen has helpfully reported that the comparable cities have rates that range from $29 to $90 - apparently our city staff have determined that all of our parking should be at the top end of that scale. The Core Services Review was supposed to find opportunities for change regarding expense reduction, revenue diversification and operational efficiency. I have not seen any expense reductions and the service levels have certainly not increased so I guess revenue diversification is the new favourite item on the agenda. Perhaps they should rename the Core Services Review to Revenue Generation from Taxpayers Review. Parking lot increases, the new dumping fees, storm utility taxes and business license fee for rental units as well as the every year (over inflation) increases to property taxes. I can certainly see why it cost $300,000 to come up with these creative ways to make more money. Maybe they need to come up with new revenue sources in time for the next city contract where staff will negotiate for another three per cent increase every year for five years. Hey, let's have a city wide 50/50 draw and use the proceeds to offset the city's rising labour costs. That is a much better use than funding pothole repairs (that is one of the suggestions from KPMG by the way - see what I mean by creative). Maybe it is time for council to stand up and take notice of what city staff is proposing instead of rubber stamping every suggestion. Someone needs to be there to protect the interests of the residents of this city because it is obvious that city staff is not.
Shelley Giese
Prince George
