Ellen Woodsworth

December 11, 2009
Season’s Greetings Everyone

The Council meetings on Dec. 15 will be tackling issues such as the 2010 Winter Homelessness Response, Development of East Fraser Lands,  a motion on calling for a Public Inquiry into Vancouver’s missing women, Hastings Park/PNE Master Plan and, finally, the 2010 Budget.

There are many issues coming up before us this week as we wind up a very busy year. See www.vancouver.ca for the full Council agenda.

I would like to thank all of you who have come out and spoken on many issues but especially on the Budget. The overwhelming majority of you have called for a tax increase of about 4% for both business and residential. This increase,  combined with savings from rending the practise of “forgiving” parking tickets, VANOC covering the losses in parking revenue from street closures during the Olympics, ensuring the province pays the Olympic costs they have already committed to covering, sale of Olympic tickets, and a freeze on all hiring including management,  would mean the City of Vancouver would not have to make any cuts to services at libraries, the Parks Board, etc.

All the best,
Ellen Woodsworth

Last week was a busy one for Council and an important one for the citizens of Vancouver.

My motion challenging the Assistance to Shelter Act was passed at Council Dec. 3,  as well as a motion on snow removal.

The new COV 2010 Charter Bylaws was also passed addressing many of the concerns that I had fought for at Council such as ensuring that the bylaws applied only to commercial signs and not to newspapers and protest signs; time restricted to the Olympics; City Manager not allowed to bring in new bylaws during this time; covered by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and that they be brought back to Council for final approval. I did move some further amendments as recommended by the BC Civil Liberties Association but they were defeated.

The Council Chambers were packed with speakers about the City Budget. People were very opposed to cuts to the Vancouver Park Board and Library Board. They called for small tax increases to cover the entire $11.2 million in cuts. If we didn’t shift 1% of taxes from businesses to residential (meaning businesses pay no increase in taxes this year and add 2% to residential taxes) we could save $10 million dollars which would almost cover all the cuts. You can still sign up to speak by emailing mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca

Cheers,
Ellen