 | Friday, July 31, 2020
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | No councils for six weeks doesn't mean no anxiety | | |  | | | City councils are shutting down across Metro Vancouver for a month — but unlike the COVID-19 suspension in May and April, this one is planned.
Every year, there’s a break between the end of July and Labour Day for local government. It’s a time where mayors and councillors can take a vacation and prepare for the autumn session of council, full of budget planning and municipal conventions.
But like most British Columbians this summer, local politicians will spend their vacations slightly anxious and with one eye toward a host of concerning scenarios in the fall.
Many municipalities extended their property tax deadlines, meaning they’re still figuring out what their revenues will look like for the fiscal year. What infrastructure projects they delay or kill — and how much they choose to go in debt, as part of a one-time exemption to balanced budget rules created by the provincial government — comes in the fall.
What about TransLink? The aid provided by the federal government gives them several months of breathing room, but on Thursday, CEO Kevin Desmond told the mayors there’s plenty of uncertainty until they get a sense of what ridership could look like through the winter and spring, if there’s no vaccine. For all the talk of patios and facility closures and reopenings, the last four months for city governments have mostly been about avoiding a worst-case scenario in the short term, during a summer where people can be outside and case counts have been low.
We don’t know what will happen to B.C.’s enviably low case counts in the fall. And we don’t know how local governments will adapt.
And against this cavalcade of COVID uncertainty, there are plenty of other causes the public cares about.
Take policing.
This week, after hearing from hundreds of citizens over four days, council passed a motion called “decriminalizing poverty and supporting community-led safety initiatives.”
The motion doesn’t actually do that. It just calls on council to pressure the Vancouver Police Board to make the reforms asked for. The board’s next meeting? September 17.
Decisions are coming all over the place. But first comes an anxious six weeks. | | |  | | | 1. Vancouver | In addition to passing the motion lobbying the police department to make changes, council also spent two nights in public hearings to approve three rental buildings, all under four storeys in height. They also approved drinking in five public plazas — but as for parks, that continues to be delayed. Park Board!
Read more | | | | |  | | | 2. Byelections | Speaking of things that won’t happen until the fall, the B.C. government has provided the guidelines for how municipalities can hold byelections — significant because Victoria is without one councillor, Burnaby is without two, and both will provide interesting litmus tests of what voters think of their councils’ current direction.
Read more from the Tri-City News | | | |  | | | 3. Victoria | And speaking of the capital city! The municipal council and provincial government got into their latest spat this week, as Premier John Horgan criticized the city’s current stance in the long-standing dispute over what to do about people camping in Beacon Hill Park. Spoiler alert: both sides want the other to step up.
Read more in the Times Colonist | | | | | |  | | | 4. Surrey | While Vancouver takes multiple days to approve a single building, Surrey approves at the same speedy pace it has for most of this century. Council approved a 131-townhome project in Guildford, and a whopping 1,026 apartment units in three condos for the Surrey Central area. It’s not on pace to become B.C.’s biggest city for nothing.
Read more in the Daily Hive | | | |  | | | 5. Port Moody | Finally, the mother of all rezoning battles in Port Moody is one step closer, as the group of families and developers controlling much of the land around the Moody Centre SkyTrain Station put forward its formal proposal. Expect much gnashing of teeth before the actual public hearing and vote, likely to happen in — you guessed it — the fall.
Read more in the Tri-City News | | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
forwarded to you. | | | | That's it for us today — and for a few weeks! We'll be taking a break from the newsletter until councils return in September. But you can always check out the latest headlines at cbc.ca/bc and follow our municipal affairs reporter Justin McElroy on Twitter. And if you have any questions, you might want answered in a future mailbag, drop Justin a line at metromatters@cbc.ca. | | | |
