Municipalities

Province’s bump in home owner grant threshold is not the good deal suggested, especially for Metro Vancouver home owners

Jan 6, 2016
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This week British Columbia’s provincial Finance Minister announced a $100,000 (9.1%) increase in the threshold for the province’s homeowner grant raising it to $1.2 million. There is more to this story than has been reported in the press release or the media. What looks like “tax relief” to homeowners has actually in recent years been… View Article

TransLink boss salary of $319,244+? Peanuts

Aug 5, 2015
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Lately, there has been quite a fuss about how much the top people at TransLink get paid to provide road and transit services in BC’s lower mainland. The Huffington Post describes the salary for a potential new Chief Executive Officer as “eye popping.” The job advertisement describes “a salary of $319,244 plus an annual bonus… View Article

Transit referendum: if no vote wins, what is Plan B?

Mar 20, 2015
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I got my plebiscite ballot today and of course voted yes. Whatever you think of TransLink management, its governance, the rough and largely undefined edges of the mayor’s plan, and the politically expedient but otherwise not particularly appropriate sales tax source of revenues, the simple fact remains that I and most residents of Greater Vancouver… View Article

The early and fatal undermining of TransLink

Feb 25, 2015
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Pete McMartin wrote an excellent column in the Vancouver Sun documenting the many ways that the provincial government has undermined TransLink. The upcoming referendum isn’t the first but rather the culmination of a two decade, tragically effective, bipartisan effort to prevent TransLink from doing what it was originally set up to do and what the region… View Article

What is the “right amount” for local governments to spend?

Oct 23, 2014
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Just how much money should a local government spend? If you ask the Fraser Institute, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) or the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) you will always get the same answer: they should spend less.  Oddly, taxpayers sometimes disagree. The Fraser Institute produced a report this week titled Comparing Municipal Government… View Article