Fiscal restraint forgotten

Reader seeks spending restraint from Central Saanich Council

As a taxpayer of Central Saanich I would like to see some fiscal restraint by this city council.There seems to be no end to the big expensive projects they are going to commit the city to.

First a fire hall that was not needed and they are going to keep the old one for a satellite, not retire it and sell it to cover costs of the new one. Central Saanich has a very low fire rating and very slow growth rate — two fire halls are not needed.

Now I get in the mail that this council wants a new city hall for a projected cost of $16 million. This makes no sense. The existing one is more than adequate, again the low growth rate of this district doesn’t justify such a major expense.

Central Saanich only has a population of 16 thousand, give or take, and does not have the tax base for these expensive projects. These two projects, $7 million for the fire hall and $16 million for the city hall, add $23 million to the debt. The argument put forth is the need to earthquake proof everything. An event may happen, and if a big enough event happens, nothing will withstand it.

This used to be a pay as you go district, now no project is too big to put on the taxpayers’ back.

I tried in the last election to select and talk to people that were for fiscal restraint. It seems that once elected, this was quickly forgotten.

Andy Caldwell

Central Saanich

 

Peninsula News Review