Victoria City Council passes bylaw to borrow $63million
It took them less than 5 minutes to pass 3 “readings” of a bylaw to borrow $63million – and this was done at nearly 1 a.m., with no press, no media in Council Chambers at the time. The only people there was a little band of die-hard policy watchers (including me).
I shot a video with my pocket camera. The visual quality is quite poor, but the audio is good. The dissenting/ questioning councilor is Geoffrey Young. Dean Fortin is in the mayor’s chair.
The video is available for viewing on Picasa here.
It’s about 14 1/2 minutes long, which makes it too long for Youtube right now. Will figure out how to get it on YT later.
I can’t believe council is pushing this through!! And it can’t just be to get the grant from the gov. . . couldn’t they use the infrastructure money for any improvement to our clogged highways?
Who is benefiting from the replacement of the blue bridge? A land owner whose property will be purchased?? A contractor?? The engineering firm?? If we follow the money, where does it lead?
Thanks for staying up to do this. I appreciate your effort.
Comment by Rebecca Kennel — August 28, 2009 #
All excellent questions – and I don’t have the answers. Last night’s meeting just threw me, it was unreal. We had to wait through over 3 hours of public hearing on Quadra Street’s Cascadia Liquor store application before there was a recess, after which the handful of us who had signed up to speak to the bridge issue got a chance to be heard. We were summarily brushed off by Mayor Fortin, who got incredibly stony-faced when hearing questions about the process he has initiated. Then, council discussed / worked on other business for almost another hour, before moving to Item J on the agenda, the introduction of bylaws, one of which was the borrowing bylaw for $63million. That, and the question period etc that followed is what I captured on video. It was almost 1 a.m. when the bylaw was introduced (took less than 5 minutes to pass 3 readings).
Please visit our website, http://johnsonstreetbridge.org and sign up – you’ll get email / newsletter info updates that way. Also check out the discussion on vibrantvictoria.ca/forum, in the “infrastructure” section.
Comment by Yule — August 28, 2009 #