Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows taxpayers, like those in most small municipalities in Metro Vancouver, are getting ripped off, first by their own municipal councils, then by Metro Vancouver and its insatiable thirst for higher and higher regional levies.
To be fair to Metro Vancouver, the biggest rip-off of all is TransLink, the regional board which is responsible for roads, bridges and transit in the Metro region.
Increasingly over the past few decades, local councils have been talked into or forced to relinquish much of the control over their own official community plans to Metro.
At the same time, local councils were bullied into participating in TransLink, an organization which services larger population centres, such as Surrey and Vancouver, quite well.
Those of us living in the outlying areas are not served well or at all, but we pay the most.
According to TransLink, the target for user pay on transit services is a lofty 52 per cent, but currently languishes at less than 40 per cent.
Most of the difference is made up of various taxes and levies for which we all pay.
It leads me to wonder, what ever happened to the concept of user pay?
We are represented on the mayors’ council on TransLink by Mayor Ernie Daykin, who has distinguished himself in that capacity by accomplishing little or nothing on behalf of local commuters. Bus service to east Maple Ridge is a bad joke, and in Silver Valley it simply does not exist.
Vehicle use is an absolute must for most local commuters and they pay dearly for that through levies on petroleum sales.
And we have some of the worst commuting corridors in the region, another area largely ignored by TransLink.
At TransLink, Daykin displays a strong aversion to standing up to be counted on behalf of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows commuters. He seems quite content to collect his indemnity for attendance without really doing much to earn it.
Turning to other regional costs, according to my own property tax notices, the bills for Metro functions such as sanitary sewers and water have escalated by an alarming 30 per cent in the past five taxation years.
Our personal combined annual total for sewer and water now stands at $750 per year and we live in a very modest apartment. Most of that money is handed over to Metro Vancouver, but Maple Ridge retains a portion for its own costs of distribution and maintenance.
With Maple Ridge’s prevailing development philosophy of single-family urban, residential sprawl, the costs of installing and maintaining water, sewer, and transportation infrastructure is an out-of-control fiscal monster that will soon become devastating to anyone living on a fixed income.
The municipal portion of property taxes on our apartment has increased almost 22 per cent over the past five years, while the school district’s levy has dropped by just under nine per cent. It is difficult for me to understand how municipal council can justify the increases while maintaining tens of millions of dollars held in capital reserve funds for a ‘rainy day.’
For most senior citizens and anyone living on a fixed income, that rainy day is here and now.
Maple Ridge stands in dire need of strong leadership at the helm of council and on regional affairs, but it hasn’t been forthcoming.
If Mayor Daykin can’t fulfill that role, it might be time for a change.
Sandy Macdougall is a retired journalist and former district councillor.
