Stewart lambastes arrogant city council

Backrooms column by Dan Hilborn
Published Oct. 1, 2005


Team Burnaby mayoralty candidate Andrew Stewart came out swinging Thursday night when he kicked off the election campaign by calling the current council "the most smug, arrogant and complacent power structure Burnaby has ever known."

Citing crime as the number 1 issue in the campaign, Stewart chastised Mayor Derek Corrigan and the Burnaby Citizens' Association for their slow response in hiring more police officers and for taking a high-handed attitude towards solving problems.

"They take too much for granted; they're complacent, they don't care and they have overstayed their welcome," Stewart told an estimated crowd of 350 people at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown hotel in a half-hour speech that included solid doses of both humour and rhetoric.

"It's easy to compare city hall to an auto wreck," said the neophyte politician, who is also managing director of Donn Dean Collision.

"Burnaby needs more police," said Stewart, who spoke about a city- imposed RCMP hiring freeze in 1998 that was only "grudgingly" lifted this year after "Victoria agreed to pay" for more officers.

While Stewart did not offer any numbers, he said Team Burnaby would "hire more police officers and keep hiring them to ensure that the safety of Burnaby residents is never ignored again."

Business and tax concerns were key topics in the speech. Stewart claimed the city has raised municipal property taxes by 52 per cent over the past 10 years and has plans to impose another 12 per cent tax hike over the next three years.

"This is more than excessive. It's right out of control," said Stewart, who also found reason to criticize a $200-million increase in the city's capital reserve funds over the past five years. "This isn't a tax-and-spend government. It's a tax-and-tax government."

But Stewart reserved some of his strongest language to lambaste Corrigan for making "personal attacks" on others who do not share his views.

"The loss of Burnaby's courthouse, the loss of Burnaby's seat on TransLink, the loss of New Westminster's agreement to jointly construct the Stormont connector and loss of goodwill with the RCMP over decentralization. These are all examples of Mayor Corrigan's bluster and belligerence hurting Burnaby," he said.

"And perhaps the best example of this behavior is the loss of Burnaby's Olympic speed-skating oval. It was supposed to be in Burnaby, at SFU, but thanks to Derek Corrigan and the BCA, Burnaby will not be participating in the greatest international event ever to come to B.C. - the 2010 Olympics."

He also claimed that Burnaby is developing a poor reputation as a place to do business and pointed to a Sept. 26 Canadian Business magazine report on "the best Canadian cities for business" - which ranked Burnaby 38th out of the 40 large cities reviewed.

"The results are startling and embarrassing for Burnaby," he said. "The second most expensive place to run a business in Canada: Burnaby. The fifth most expensive place to live in Canada: Burnaby. The fifth highest crime rate in Canada: Burnaby. In fact, the BCA can now proudly announce that after 18 years of their rule they have now made Burnaby the worst city in British Columbia to do business in and the third worst city in Canada. And a million people now know about it."

Contacted at his office in Toronto on Friday morning, the author of the report said his story was not intended to be an overall ranking of cities, but rather a look at the costs of running a medium-sized firm in the largest cities in the country.

Andy Holloway, the Canadian Business reporter who penned the 12- page feature article, said external factors probably have more to do with Burnaby's standing in the report than anything that might happen at city hall.

"I would say that cities are a lot less powerful than the average person thinks they are," Holloway said. "They are a lightning rod for discontent because they are so close to the action, but in reality, most of the things that affect a particular region in Canada occur for market reasons.

"Of all the factors in the report, city council can really only impact one element and that is property tax. If you really wanted to compare apples to apples, you'd compare regions."

TEAM CHANGES

There was a changing of the guard in the Team Burnaby ranks this week when rookie city council candidate Gary Bizzo stepped out of the race and was formally replaced by veteran civic politician Gary Begin.

Bizzo, a newlywed who recently started work as the director of the self-employment program for Chinese-language service provider Success, said he was simply unaware of the time commitment needed to fill the post when he initially agreed to run.

Begin, who has served eight years on city council plus another 15 on school, said he is happy to be back running for council, which was the job he wanted in the first place.

NANCY HARRIS RETURNS

Former city councillor Nancy Harris, who served one term on city council as a member of the now-defunct Burnaby Voters Non-Partisan Association, is coming back to run as an independent in 2005.

The single mother said she still has work she wants to accomplish in terms of bringing 'restorative justice' to the city, and she's bouyed by what she sees as the public's growing interest in independent candidates.

"I think maybe Canadians, British Columbians and the people of Burnaby are now ready to look at the integrity of the individual and not see the power of the slate or organized partisan politics," she said.

And she won't be seeking endorsements from any of her former colleagues.

CHINESE LANGUAGE FORUM

Almost 100 people showed up at former B.C. NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu's recent Chinese language forum at Bonsor rec centre to discuss the then-looming teacher's strike.

The event was noteworthy, if only by virtue of bringing B.C. Teachers Federation president Jinny Sims and Burnaby North MLA Richard Lee together in the same room.

Contacted afterwards, Lee said that even though he received a personal invitation to attend from a rival candidate, he did not realize the meeting was an NDP-sponsored affair.

And while the Liberal MLA did tell the audience that teachers should not be allowed to walk off the job, he was upset when he was unable to respond to comments about class sizes in the primary grades.

Lee noted that primary classes across B.C. have seen an increase of 0.6 students since the 2000/01 year, but that number is still lower than the 23.5 student per class average in 1995/96.

Lee also alleged that the meeting format alloted much more time to Sims than himself.

Yiu took the criticism in stride and noted that the parents who attended probably received a lot of information they might not have received anywhere else. And on the topic of the amount of time alloted to each speaker, Yiu said that Sims required the services of a chinese-language translator, which gave the appearance of her having more speaking time.

Not surprisingly, Yiu placed the blame for a looming teachers' strike on the B.C. Liberals. "My own opinion after listening to both side is that the Liberal government is actually responsible. I have a business with about 15 employees. If I was to tell them that they won't have any wage increase for the next four years, I would have a problem keeping all those people."

A former public affairs radio and TV host in Hong Kong, Yiu said he will likely continue to hold public meetings in Burnaby, and possible future topics include the provincial exams and the much- debated annual Fraser Institute report card on schools.

In the meantime, Yiu has turned down offers to run for Vancouver city council on the COPE ticket, and for the NDP in the expected spring federal election.

When asked if he still had provincial aspirations, Yiu replied: "Who can tell what will happen in four years?"

My guess is that Willingdon area NDP members shouldn't throw out those old Gabriel Yiu signs just yet.

SPEAKING UP FOR SOFTWOOD

When the House of Commons resumes sitting this week, Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian intends to hold the government's feet to the fire on four main topics - softwood lumber, a Seniors' Charter, gas prices and the misuse of taxpayer's money.

For starters, Julian wants the government to immediately halt talks with the U.S. government over plans for "deep integration" of our two nations' economies until the Americans abide by their earlier commitments on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"The Bush administration has ripped up the dispute resolution mechanism of NAFTA which was the advantage Canadians were supposed to have," said Julian, who notes that the change in process could force Canada to continue exporting "most of our energy resources" to the US, even if there was a national emergency or supply shortage.

"The key here is an appalling mixed message," Julian said. "On one hand our prime minister is pontificating that he's standing up to the Bush administration, and on the other hand they have not done one concrete thing to indicate their displeasure."

On gas prices, Julian pledged to fight for accountability and measures to protect the vulnerable, including possible changes to the act regulating the federal competition bureau.

Julian would also like to entrench the rights to a secure income, secure housing and access to health care for all Canadian seniors.

And finally, Julian will continue to press for greater powers in the Auditor General's office to help prevent the misuse of taxpayer's money such as when Pierre Pettigrew brought his chauffeur along on a government trips, or when Joe Volpe submitted bills for two different dinners that took place at the same time.