Homeless in Abbotsford, BC

Greed Season opens with Death.

It is the Friday following American Thanksgiving, official opening day of the Greed Season.

Before dawn Friday a ravaging horde, maddened by their greed at the promise of bargains, literally trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death. A man was being trampled to death and the crowd kept stampeding into the store and shopping, going so far as to push the police, who were there to try to save the life of the trampled employee, out of the way of shoppers run riot in their panic at the thought of missing a bargain.

The world economy is in meltdown and the root cause of this meltdown is greed. 

Not just the greed of those in the financial system, although their insatiable greed and quest for multi-million dollar bonuses triggered the current economic implosion which has us teetering on the brink of disaster. 

The greed was spread far and wide. The greed of shareholders who demanded faster, higher rising stock prices; the greed of executives for the multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses that came with delivering higher and higher stock prices; the greed of workers focused on wages and benefits; the greed of financiers for large fees and interest charges in financing these companies - whether they were viable or not; greed of politicians for the political contributions generated by all this greed; greed by the public that bought into the impossible political promises of lower taxes and wealth for all; greed that reprehensible acquisitiveness, that insatiable desire for wealth. 

A house of paper built on the foundation of greed, an empty house collapsing in on itself as if it were of no more substance than a house built out of playing cards.

The price we will pay in correcting the economic mess that building on a foundation of greed is going to be painful, perhaps extremely painful. Unfortunately this pain will fall most heavily on the most vulnerable in our society, those least deserving or able to bear the price. 

I strongly advocate that we consider the wisdom of using the virtue of charity as the foundation and as the building blocks with which we rebuild.  
 
Not just the more restricted modern use of the word charity in its meaning of benevolent giving, but charity in the fullness of its older meaning as an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.

As a result of our greed over the past two decades our food banks are inundated with those who depend on them for the food to sustain life. As a result of the fallout from our greed our food banks are currently being swamped by new clients in need. As a result of focusing on ourselves, donations at our food banks are falling at the very time they need to be rising. 

What is needed is a generous outpouring of loving-kindness for others that results in a tidal wave of donations to our food banks (and Christmas Bureaus) assuring that anyone in need will find sustenance.

Let us turn our back on greed and embrace charity in its full meaning of unlimited loving-kindness toward all others and not focus on worrying about our own future economic situation. Rather than worrying about the future, focus on those in need now.

Instead of buying another dust-catcher for that hard to buy for someone on your Christmas gift list, make a donation to you local food bank in their name. Or perhaps rather than an exchange of gifts, you can exchange donations. 

Offices often have those $10 gift exchange games. Why not everyone throw the $10 into an envelope for donation to the local food bank? I have complete faith that another game can be found to give people a chance to laugh at our own and others foibles.

We need to be creative and generous in meeting the demands placed on our local food banks by increasing hunger and need in our communities.

It is time and past time that rather than trampling others underfoot, we extent our hand to help up those in need of such help.

Better stick to Arts reporting.

Reading Kevin Mills opinion on the Abbotsford election results makes one thing clear – why he is not reporting on financial matters.

“Council also stated that any overruns would be paid for through reserves.” No council swore up and down that the $85 million was all the projects would cost and that the contracts would be written to guarantee that the cost did not go over $85 million.

It was not until council was caught playing fast and loose with costs they were aware of but concealed that talk turned to those costs and any overruns (despite council swearing there would be no such overruns) being covered out of reserves.

Mr. Mills apparently shares the councillor’s view that reserves magically appear, as opposed to the financial reality that reserves also come out of taxpayer’s pockets.

Mr. Mills is certainly entitled to be happy with the fact we got no federal funding because council did not bother to ask the federal government for funding and that we did not get any provincial funds because they did not bother to contact our local MLAs and the province in a timely matter. 

However, Mr. Mills has no right to deny other taxpayers the right to be angry about the mismanagement and being stuck paying the extra $$$ tens of millions. 

Mr. Mills further demonstrates his lack of logic and attention to detail with his statement “I see a trend here!” in reference to Christine Caldwell not being re-elected because of writing a letter opposing Plan A. If, as Mr. Mills implies, voters were so supportive of Plan A as to be punishing those who were not mindless supporters, how was it that Mr. Gill who voted against the budget in opposing Plan A got re-elected?  
 
Mr. Mills crowning piece of illogic is his assertion that opposition to Plan A was a desire “… to move backwards instead of forwards…”. To anyone who takes the time to review the positions and statements made by myself and others who opposed Plan A it was not a matter of moving backwards but of how we move forwards. 

Mr. Mills evidently does not grasp the concepts that taxpayers should have control of the design of capital projects; of the need for priorities that include not just entertainment projects but the nitty-gritty capital projects such as sewer and water on which a big city runs; that good fiscal management of a big city includes making the effort to exhaust all funding possibilities to reduce the tax burden imposed on citizens; or that having become a big city capital projects should be part of a long term infrastructure development plan - not a rushed and hastily thrown together massive expenditure of taxpayers funds.

In extolling all these new and wonderful buildings Mr. Mills ignores the consequences that paying for these buildings are going to have on the city and taxpayers personally, especially in light of the harsh economic reality that is emerging around the world as the bill for years of living beyond our means on borrowed money comes due.  

The one point Mr. Mills was correct on is that, as is always the case, the future will reveal what the results and consequences of Plan A are and so enable us to judge what actions should (or should not) have been taken.

By Kevin Mills - Abbotsford News November 17

As I sat at my computer, waiting impatiently for the City of Abbotsford to post the results of Saturday night’s municipal election, I started to wonder if all those letter writers would be right.
Anyone who reads the letters to the editor on a regular basis will remember all the protests and gnashing of teeth surrounding the Plan A projects. It’s still going on.
Letter writers, who in a previous column I dubbed the vocal minority, yelled out that voters would make city council pay for these projects and tax hikes – that apparently nobody wanted.
Of course you have to ignore the fact that we, the voting public, said yes to the projects in a referendum. We agreed to let the city borrow $85 million for the projects. Council also stated that any overruns would be paid for through reserves. If you go to the museum archives and read the stories in The News, you may discover that the city has said that repeatedly.
But I digress.
Despite a vote in favour of Plan A, the vocal minority raised their voices in anguish and declared an ultimatum. Many stated, in print, that voters would make the council pay by getting rid of them and voting in new councillors. Yes, the public would have its revenge.
Late Saturday night, when the results finally came in, voters had re-elected six of the seven incumbent councillors who ran for office.
Let me say that in a simple way so no one misunderstands. The seven people who ran for office were already on council when Plan A was approved. 
Abbotsford voters re-elected six of them, giving them a vote of confidence for what they have been doing for the past three years.
I guess the vocal minority really showed them.
The only incumbent candidate who didn’t get re-elected was Christine Caldwell, who just before the final Plan A vote, before leaving on vacation, wrote a letter stating she had partially changed her mind on Plan A and was against the arena.
So voters got rid of a councillor who was against the largest part of Plan A.
I see a trend here!
Our new mayor, George Peary, has stated in The News that he believes council was correct for supporting and approving Plan A – and he won in a landslide.
It’s time for a reality check people. The city is changing and the majority of voters want an arts centre, they want a better recreation centre, they want a sports complex!
Abbotsford is a city on the grow and this election proves, that despite the naysayers, despite those who want to move backwards instead of forwards, despite the always vocal minority, we are a big city now.
Abbotsford’s future looks brighter than ever – a new hospital, a new university, an arts centre, a huge recreation centre and a soon-to-be-open sports complex. I can’t wait to see what the future brings.
Whatever it is, it will be nothing to complain about!

A Cautionary Tale

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker. 

I began to think alone - "to relax," I told myself. But I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time. 
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself. 

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?" 

Things weren't going so great at home either. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's. I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, "Skippy, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job." This gave me a lot to think about. 

I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..." 

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!" 

"But Honey, surely it's not that serious." 

"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking we won't have any money!" 

"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently, and she began to cry. I'd had enough. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door. 

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche, with NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors... they didn't open. The library was closed. 

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.
 
As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker's Anonymous poster. 

Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. 

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.

Druthers.

Three more years of not asking and for citizens to have to pay for, deal with or just live with the consequences of council’s conduct.

I am not speaking of the $$$ millions Abbotsford taxpayers are out of pocket because city council could not bather to ask our federal MP Ed Fast to get federal funds to lower the cost to taxpayers of Plan A. Nor the $$$ millions more taxpayers were forced to shell out because city council could not be bothered to listen to those who opposed Plan A and secure provincial funding before finalizing full funding for Plan A.

Obviously citizens approve paying the higher costs and property taxes associated with these council actions since they endorsed them in the city’s recent municipal election. 

Similarly the tens of $millions$ of dollars of cost overruns were signed off on and stamped approved by the vote. As was the continuation of council’s profligate spending and the resulting large tax increases or the deferment of needed infrastructure and maintenance.

Clearly citizen’s claims of concern with crime and safety issues were overstated. Why else would they choose to elect a retired school principal rather than an experienced police officer who retired from the local police force?

I do find citizens endorsement of council’s doing nothing to endeavor to address the afflictions of homelessness, addiction, mental illness, the growing numbers depending on the food bank for their daily food and survival, poverty and affordable housing hypocritical in light claim to being Christian.

Still they have the right to choose harsh indifference over compassion; to stamp their approval on the theft/confiscation of the meager belongings of the homeless and the leaving them facing the task of surviving the night and the weather with only the clothes on their backs.

Nonetheless it would have been nice if council would have bothered to ask the library for their input before locating their pond in front of the library’s downstairs/basement entrance - much nicer for the current and future children of Abbotsford. 

With the grassy swale and large old shade trees that use to be outside the exterior entrance to the downstairs it had been the plan to move the current upstairs children’s area to more spacious and open accommodations downstairs.

That plan is now gone since the librarians are responsible people and will not be locating a children’s area downstairs with the presence of an unfenced pond and bridges just outside the door.

Unfortunate loss for the children of Abbotsford, but this kind of can of worms is business as usual for city council. On the other hand perhaps it is best that the children of Abbotsford learn early that they will long be paying for the choices their parents and grandparents made.

www.jameswbreckenridge.ca

Vote James W. Breckenridge for council because:

Over the past twenty years I have lived in Abbotsford as a Chartered Accountant living in a condo and as a homeless person struggling to find mental health, recovery and wellness living on the streets of Abbotsford.

With a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Saskatchewan, having been a Chartered Accountant in public practice and business I have 25 years of solid business experience. One of the driving reasons I am seeking a council seat is that the way Abbotsford misconducts its financial affairs. Having audited cities and rural municipalities I know what a well run municipality looks like and the professional manner in which it conducts its business.

Having lived homeless, done the hard work and had the luck to find recovery while homeless on Abbotsford’s streets; struggled to get back into housing; working with the homeless, addicted and mentally unwell; working in the field of mental health; advocating for the homeless, addicted, mentally unwell, hungry and poor; I have gained a knowledge, expertise and understanding of these social issues and the related crime that has shown/taught me what we need to start doing to address these issues as opposed to just letting them grow and worsen.

I campaigned against Plan A and have been actively writing about and opposing city councils bad management practices, wasteful spending, lack of fiscal responsible behaviour, and unacceptable priorities (defer needed waste treatment infrastructure to 2010, but build an unneeded arena?). I was one of the founding board members of the Abbotsford Ratepayers Association.

I have been engaged and informed on the issues the city faces and on the way the city has behaved in recent years. 

I am opposed to the veil of secrecy city council and city hall has put in place to prevent citizens from knowing the actual ways taxpayer dollars are spent and on what these dollars are/were spent. I will work to put an end to doing the cities business behind closed doors.

As a writer I plan to blog about the actions of council and the issues the city is. I want citizens to be involved and share ideas with me – I have never met a good idea I was not willing to steal or use.

As an active volunteer, someone actively engaged in the community, someone who uses the recreational facilities and is out and about people have been able to find and speak to me on numerous topics and about the behaviour of city council.

I believe that I would represent the interests of citizens, address the important issues facing Abbotsford and make an excellent and effective councillor.

Please vote for James W Breckenridge for city council. 

I AM change.

I am James W. Breckenridge and I am change.

If you are happy with the way things are in our city, with the increasing social problems such as homelessness, with increasing crime and taxes increasing in leaps and bounds – then you have a fine selection of current councillors you can re-elect.

If like me you want something done about our social problems and about crime and want the city to get its financial house in order; want common sense back in city hall and want to know what city hall is doing and have a say in what it is doing and how it spends your money - then you will vote for me.

But don’t be mistaken – I am not about paying lip service to change or using all the right buzz words – I AM Change.

You will not find any fancy printed signs urging you to elect James W. Breckenridge to council. You can find a few signs I have run off my computer or that friends have made or printed off their computers.
I don’t have signs, not because I could not raise funds for signs, I said no to an offer of funds tonight. 

WHY then no signs? The food bank needs a new location to meet the growing demand; donations are down as a result of the economy. Knowing that and all the other pressing needs in Abbotsford how could I with any integrity or in good conscience raise funds to waste on political signs and other political trappings?

Some have said to me that “You need signs to get elected and think of all the good you can do on council”. You can always find excuses. But in doing that it has become about you, not the people you want to serve or the goals you want to accomplish.

I want to be on city council to provide leadership and bring about change – not to be or become a politician.

You will find my works and thoughts at www.jameswbreckenridge.ca

As an aside let me say that in my opinion that given we know nothing about the type of housing or who will be housed with the funds from BC Housing, and will not know anything concrete until the proposals come in November 20th (after the election) it is irresponsible for any candidate to be judgments and decisions on this matter before they have facts to base a decision on.

Lip service only to social issues?

Reading the statements from city council about the BC Housing projects it is clear that the back pedalling has already begun on the issue of addressing the social issues facing the city; raising questions of whether city council really has/had any interest or intention of addressing the social issues this city is mired in or if their only interest in these social problems was to be seen to be taking action for purposes of re-election.

Let us contrast their actions, or more correctly lack of actions, on addressing homelessness, addiction, mental illness, poverty and associated crime – versus – their actions on something they WANTED to do, Plan A.

Plan A squeaked through a city wide referendum with narrow approval ranging from the low of 52% for the arena to 56% for the cultural center. When shortly after the referendum the millions of dollars of costs that council was aware of but kept from the public during the referendum came to light and people who had voted yes demanded a new vote because they had been mislead by council what happened? 

Council ploughed ahead ignoring the calls for a vote based upon all the information council knew about but had withheld from the public and ignoring the strong 48% to 44% city wide opposition to these projects.

When the total costs associated with Plan A soared from the advertised, sworn to and promised $85 million and are closing in on $120 million mark what did council do? Other than hiding the true costs of Plan A from the public that is? 

City council ploughed ahead pouring whatever funds were required to pay for Plan A into Plan A while they deferred waste treatment infrastructure needs to 2010 because they had no money to pay for it after paying for Plan A.

City council wanted to build Plan A and the fact that citizens were almost split on Plan A didn’t matter; council poured whatever funds were required to build Plan A into Plan A deferring other city needs; council paid the cost premiums required to make sure that the cultural centre and ARC expansion opened before the election.

Council wanted to build Plan A and whatever it took to do that they did.

Contrast that with council action, or rather inaction, on the social issues facing this city. Ever since the BC Housing agreement was announced and council could point to it as evidence of their addressing the social issues of those who are homeless, addicted, mentally ill or in poverty council has been backing away.

We have no idea what kind of housing or who the people who would be occupying these buildings are. For all we know seniors may be part of the mix of tenants in the building.

We have no idea and won’t have any idea until the proposals come as to who will be building, who will be supplying the support services or who will be living in the buildings as tenants.

So knowing nothing of the nature of this housing council was able to determine that it was inappropriate for this (these) location(s) and is seeking other alternatives. One can only wonder how long it will be before, having already spoken of how sad it would be to have to send the money back to Victoria, council will, if they have achieved re-election, concludes there is no suitable location and regretfully has to decline to build any social housing?

Is it any wonder that the two recent, very successful and safe for the tenants, housing projects of this nature were in Chilliwack and Mission? Indeed the building in Mission has improved the neighbourhood. Abbotsford city council is well aware that the organization that brought about the Mission project intends to put in a proposal for one of the BC Housing funded projects in Abbotsford. 

So, when city council wants to build something it rides roughshod over any and all opposition, ignoring citizens and doing or spending whatever is required to build what they want.

How can one not question council’s commitment to addressing social issues given their spineless, self-defeating behaviour on this housing, especially as we currently have nothing to base decisions on – despite council being willing to make decisions based on knowing nothing , of having no facts? Particularly in contrast to their behaviour and actions on Plan A projects they wanted to build.

When councillor John Smith seeks to avoid the question of their behaviour on this manner by citing the Abbotsford Social Development Committee and all that this committee has accomplished, ask if he and this committee have added even 1 unit of housing or even 1 bed to the housing stock in Abbotsford.

They have not. Despite all the lip service paid to housing not even a single bed has been added in Abbotsford. In Chilliwack and Mission buildings have been added to the supported affordable housing stock. I am sure council and councillors will be able to make many excuses.

City council and councillors are very good at making excuses when they do not want to do something; stark contrast to the lengths they will go to build what they want to build at any cost.

You can understand why one may wonder if current council and councillors have any intention of ever building any housing or ever addressing the issues of homelessness, addiction, mental illness, poverty and associated crime. 

Recovery on the streets.

It was extremely difficult to focus on and accomplish what I needed to do to attain mental health while homeless on the streets of Abbotsford. In retrospect stubbornness, a lot of luck and my PDA were the essential ingredients in my recovery and wellness.

My PDA (Palm pilot) was instrumental in my getting to the appointments and other meetings that I needed to achieve recovery and wellness. The PDA was set not only to remind and nag me (by beeping) to get to where I needed to be but to have me heading out early enough to be on time.

At a time when days and time ran together the ability of the PDA to keep track of time, date and where I needed to be was critical to my pursuit of recovery.

Still, without Luck I would not have had places I needed to go to. When I needed a program to continue my journey of recovery I was not only able to find it, there was a spot open in the program I could get into and thus access the services.

Experience has taught and/or shown me that finding the right program, no matter how difficult it was to find, can be the easy part – that getting access to programs and services often finds you looking at 6 week to six month or longer waiting lists.

I have seen the harmful consequences that befall those who cannot access the needed programs and services in a timely fashion. It is painful to witness.

Stubbornness was the glue holding my quest for recovery and wellness together. It kept me plodding ahead when the weariness of the struggle for simple survival sapped the will to continue. It was stubbornness that forced me out of a warm, dry library into the wind, wet and cold to get to an outpatient group at MSA Hospital. It was stubbornness that kept me seeking recovery instead of giving up and merely existing.

Stubbornness kept me plugging along against a system that seems more interested in beating you down and putting up barriers than it is in helping you get back onto your feet.

A PDA, luck and stubbornness; one’s life, a persons future should not depend on a PDA, luck and stubbornness.

When I look back I can only shake my head and be extremely thankful I am sitting writing this at my computer in my own living quarters on a day that the rain has been pounding down.

I know the truth is that when people speak of people choosing to live homeless, addicted, mentally ill or in poverty that it is most often not the choice of those who are homeless, addicted, mentally ill or in poverty but the choice of a society that has abandoned them to that state of being rather than give them the help we know will help them reclaim their lives.

As a community, a society, we can always find or make excuses for not acting or for doing nothing; the question is whether we can find the will, the heart and the compassion to do what needs be done to help our fellow human beings who need our help to reclaim their lives.

Where’s the Signs?

I have had several people ask me about where my signs are and have found myself explaining why I will not raise money for signs.

I will not be raising or asking for money for signs, cards, pamphlets, campaign offices etc. Not because I could not raise funds, turns out I have a lot of friends on this matter, but because I know so many better uses for monies raised than to spend them on politicking.

The demand on our local food bank is growing while at the same time the economy has resulted in decreased donations for the food banks. Compounding this is that we are heading into the Christmas season when demand soars, followed by the bleak days for donations of January and February 2009. 

People are going cold, wet and hungry - how could I raise money and spend it on politics? 

People have said “think of all the good you could do if elected”. You start justifying you actions or thinking like that and it has become about you and you have decided to be a politician rather than a leader.

I have written several times over the past months to remind people to remember the food banks (thanks to the local papers for printing those letters). How could I not follow my own pleas and remember the food bank?

Being on council is also about priorities and leadership and I believe that if getting on council is your overriding priority, your priorities are wrong. A thought echoed by one homeless gentleman who felt he had to come up and urge me to not become a politician but to remain true to my self and remember the people.

So I cannot, will not raise money for signs.

Besides I do have a few.

A decal sign from a friend who had his brother cut decals for his vehicle and my car as well as some legal size signs I printed off of my computer. Some friends are threatening to paint up some signs which is fine, I can only hope they get the spelling right. One or two friends are insisting I need at least a few signs and insisting on getting at least some put up. Then there are those who are printing up their own signs from their computer as did I.

As my homeless acquaintance said I have to remain true to my self … which brings me to the question of whether you have remembered the food bank recently?  

An Oxymoron

One candidate complains about the pollution in the Fraser Valley saying we need definitely need to take action on this matter. 

He goes on to reveal that it interferes with his enjoyment and view while flying his plane.

Might I suggest that the first thing to do about air pollution is – stop flying a plane spewing carbon and other pollutants into the atmosphere?

...and he's still running?

The longest sitting current council member speaks of people saying to him they want:

1) Keep my city safe

2) Spend my money wisely

3) Keep taxes as low as possible

4) Keep things transparent.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Property crime is rampant, people are gunned down, gangs operate in the city … doesn’t sound as if this city has been kept safe.

According to Rob Isaac, manager of wastewater, $21.5 million of needed infrastructure had to be deferred until after 2010 because of lack of funds. Council built an unneeded arena and deferred needed sewer infrastructure. That is not spending money wisely.

Plan A, the friendship garden complete with six foot fence - doesn’t sound to friendly, the Centennial Pool tank fiasco, etc. Council spends money as if taxpayers have bottomless pockets with the result that Abbotsford not only ranks #1 in the lower mainland for the highest taxes, but is the highest by several percentage points. This is not keeping taxes as low as possible.

Novembers Abbotsford Today speaks of the costs of Plan A having risen over $120 million, quite different than councils claims. Abbotsford Today could not be more specific since the city refuses to say how much they have spent to date or the bills still outstanding. A Freedom of Information request was needed to find out the monies spent promoting Plan A. This is not transparency.
 
- did not keep the city safe
- did not spend wisely
- did not keep taxes as low as possible
- did not provide transparency, but did work to keep information from the public.

At 0 – 4 after decades on council one must admire his gall, but not the disrespect, in running again after failing term after term to deliver on a single point people have stated are important. 

Lucky Opening Day was Sunny.

I had to laugh, to avoid crying as I walked into ARC through the new addition for the first time Friday. 

With an all-candidates meeting on Friday night I had to swim early, before Yale high school was out, and found myself parking beneath the new extension.

After walking up the fire escape stairs because the elevator was out-of-service due to malfunction, I turned to head down the ramp to head into the old building and the pool and found myself walking around the bucket set out to catch the water leaking into our new recreation facility through its brand new roof.

I also had to step carefully so as not to slip in the two rivulets of water that ran down the ramp.

It was very lucky for our current council that their rushed pre-election grand opening was on a dry non-rainy day. The public would probably have been considerably less impressed if it had been raining and they had to walk around or carefully to avoid the leaks in their expensive new roof.

Transit priorities - handiDART

I was at a transit committee meeting to support the presentation of a citizen who was having trouble getting handiDART service for the two young men in his care who needed this service to get out.

Staff was instructed to prepare a report on this matter for the committee. Later during the committee meeting it was stated the committee was in the process of drawing up a new 5 year plan.

Of concern to me was that for both the staff report and the new 5 year plan no mention was made of consulting the wider community of handiDART users.

I made inquiries and was troubled but not surprised to find a lack of consultation with handiDART users on what the current and future needs of the system are.

I found that the problems the gentleman making the presentation had been having were not unusual or isolated. There were reports of a multitude of problems being experienced with handiDART services.

Perhaps the most disgraceful comment was that after having residents spending hours on the handiDART bus, missing classes/outings, arriving halfway through the activity they were attending or having to leave halfway through their activity they had fundraised to buy a wheelchair transport van.

These are people who depend on handiDART for transportation and as their way to get out of their homes.

We need to do a better job to meet these needs. 

To begin this process we need to ask the users what the current status of handiDART is, what current needs of users the system are not meeting and what the future demand/need for handiDART will be. 

Financial Statement Audits vs. Operational Audits

Don’t worry – the financial statements are audited.

When asked about an operational audit a current member of city council said citizens should not worry, the city’s financial statements were audited.

Enron’s financial statements were also edited – and we all know just how much those audited financial statements protected Enron’s shareholders and creditors. 

As a Chartered Accountant I audited and often prepared Financial Statements and know the limitations involved in financial audits, which is why audited financial statements contain disclaimers from the accountant(s) preparing the financial statements.

The important point to remember is that Financial Statements involve totals, that they do not provide detail. The details are always in the accounts and working papers of the client (City of Abbotsford) and the auditors working paper file.

Knowing city council spent the budget money does not really tell citizens anything useful. What citizens need to know is how and on what the money was spent, compared to how the money was budgeted to be spent and explanations for variances. 

That way we can evaluate our budgeting process and inquire about monies not spent as budgeted. 

Financial Statements do not provide the detail for citizens to understand how the city actually spent its money. The budget is council reporting to citizens how they are going to spend taxpayers dollars. Taxpayers in Abbotsford currently have no solid understanding of how their tax dollars are spent. 

Abbotsford needs to make available to the public details of the budget, a comparison of budget to the actual amounts spent and explanations for variances. In that way citizens can gain knowledge of how the money is actually being spent, evaluate the budgeting process and get explanations for why it was not spent as budgeted. 

Currently there is the distinct possibility of council budgeting money to be spent in one manner and spending it on different projects and operations.

We need financial transparency to evaluate the financial performance and stewardship of council and city management.

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The original question asked was about operational audits which are different from financial statement audits. Actually since we are speaking of a municipality the correct term is performance audit since operational audits refer to business operations.

Making the switch away from the question of an operational audit to financial statement audits is hardly a surprising action from current council and its cloak of secrecy. It allowed the councillor to avoid the question of the effectiveness or the efficiency of the way the City of Abbotsford operates and airily suggest to taxpayers – don’t worry, be happy we have audited financial statements.

Here are definitions for both operational and performance auditing:  

Operational Audit is a structured review of the systems and procedures of an organization in order to evaluate whether they are being conducted efficiently and effectively. An operational audit involves establishing performance objectives, agreeing the standards and criteria for assessment, and evaluating actual performance against targeted performance.

Performance audits are the public sector version of "Operational Audits" that are conducted to determine if an entity's operations, programs, or projects are run effectively and efficiently. 

An objective and systematic examination of evidence for the purpose of providing an independent assessment of the performance of a government organization, program, activity, or function in order to provide information to improve public accountability and facilitate decision-making by parties with responsibility to oversee or initiate corrective action.

A performance audit has two parts: (1) an economy and efficiency review, and (2) a program review. The economy and efficiency review determines if resources have been used efficiently. The program review, on the other hand, determines whether the resources were used effectively, that is, for the purpose intended by the grantor of resources. Thus, the two reviews complement each other in providing a complete picture of an agency's performance.

It is no wonder city council wants to avoid the topic of performance audits with their value for money facet.

Take the Centennial Pool tank fiasco. A performance review of whether the money was spent efficiently and whether the money used effectively would require looking at what the total actual costs were (a piece of information currently denied the citizens) and the fact and effect of the pool opening three months behind schedule.

What do you think a performance audit would have to say about Plan A?

No, it is hardly surprising that city council wants to avoid performance audits in light of their performance. 

Lock them up? Where? At what cost?

It sounds so easy and makes for great political sound-bites: all we need to do to solve our crime is get tough on the criminals and lock them up. 

The questions are where are we supposed to lock them up and what price are we willing to pay?

 Go on line as I did and you will find that our prisons are full, many of them overfull. There is no place to lock all the criminals in our country up.

The reason that the criminals who are stealing our stuff are not locked up for long sentences is that it is judged more important to focus on locking up those criminals who were a threat to do bodily harm to us, rather than to focus on those criminals who were threat to our stuff.

Personally I would rather have the criminals taking my stuff and the stuff of others rather than inflicting bodily harm on myself and others. Stuff can be replaced, people can’t.

If you want to start tossing property criminals in jail tomorrow – which murders, rapists etc, do you propose to leave or put on the streets, just so you stuff is safe?

Building more prisons will require years and billions of dollars, not to mention operating costs.

It seems far more sensible and a far better use of our taxpayer dollars to address the core of the problem, rather than allowing the problems to continue to fester and grow while we build more prisons and throw an ever increasing number of people into prison.

Much of the property crime is fuelled by the need to buy drugs. You eliminate the need to purchase drugs by getting people into recovery and wellness, you eliminate the associated property crime.

We can spend our billions locking people up, until they get out and go back to criminal activities. Or we could invest our billions in housing and the support services required to bring about rehab, recovery and wellness. We can accomplish rehab, recovery and wellness because it is being done in jurisdictions that want to get off the merry-go-round of increasing crime and who have chosen to decrease crime by addressing the core of the problems and issues.

This approached does not make for good sound-bites; it is not simple and fast or neat and tidy or what people want to hear; but it is the approach that that will work, that will in fact reduce not only property crime but the overall cost to taxpayers.  

Demonstrated Ignorance on homelessness and housing.

A frightening level of ignorance (and you can take ignorance both ways for meaning) was demonstrated at Monday night’s all candidates meeting at UFV about the social problems of homelessness, addiction, mental health, recovery and wellness, poverty, affordable housing and to a degree crime.

“We cannot build 50 units of housing in one place, we have to break them up into smaller units, spread them all out and check to make sure the police can handle, have plans to handle, all the extra crime that will occur because of these houses/people being located in the area.”

Statements along these lines made clear the failure of those making these and similar statements to have become informed on the reality and extent of the affordable housing crisis and other social problems in our city, displaying a woeful lack of basic awareness and knowledge on these issues.

The statements also demonstrate an unacceptable level of blind prejudice.

Admittedly my reaction is influenced by the insult given to myself and many others I know in those sweeping, ignorant statements. 

Let me say again that I have been in and may find myself again, given my precarious one financial hiccup from homelessness situation, in need of this type of affordable, supportive housing. Supportive since falling out of your home is a traumatic experience.

I am also dismayed at the willingness to make judgments and sweeping demeaning, prejudicial statements concerning housing when nobody knows what kind of housing or tenants we are speaking of. Bad enough to fail to inform yourself on what are major issues facing the city, but to be unable to recognize a situation where there is no information at this time to make a decision on…. 

I have been involved in housing and other social issues in this city for years; indeed I have personal experience with the affordable housing issues having been scrambling at this time last year to find safe, healthy affordable housing.
With my experience and expertise I have no clue what type of housing we are talking about building with the BC Housing money or what organization (or organizations) will be involved in building and running the housing.

We won’t know until proposals are submitted to the city about what will be built and who will be the tenants.

I believe that as a member of city council I should know what I am making a decision about and what the facts are before I make a judgment and decide what course of action to pursue. 

I just find that decisions I make tend to work out much better when I am informed about the issue or matter at hand and actually know what I am talking about.

The only part of this matter on which we can speak is about the monies that are or will be attached to each of the projects for supportive services. 

While I am far healthier mentally and as a person than I have ever been in my life and so cannot regret the journey that brought me to this state of health and wellness I faced far more of a struggle to achieve that wellness than I needed to or should have faced. Indeed I admit that luck was a factor in my journey to balance and wellness. Luck should not be the factor that determines recovery or whether you have a high quality of life.

Far to many people are going to suffer because the support they need to prosper and be housed does not exist. The BC Housing buildings come with funding for this needed support.

The type of support needed is the same in a 50 unit building or a 5 unit building. The difference is that building 10 smaller 5 unit buildings will result in a cost 10 times as much to provide the needed level of support services for each building. Where do they suggest we get the extra $5,850,000 per year for the next 30 years?

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Then there was the mayoralty candidate who stated they were against building any more housing for the homeless, that we already had too much homeless housing.

This will certainly be news to the hundreds of people who are currently homeless on the streets of Abbotsford. I am sure they will be as surprised as I was to hear that rather than a shortage of safe, healthy affordable housing Abbotsford has to much of that type of housing.

I am sure this surplus will be a relief to the increasing numbers of seniors, families, women and children finding themselves homeless because they cannot afford the cost of housing, of living in Abbotsford.

Or was the real meaning of the statement about no more housing that they wanted to ignore these people and leave them suffering homelessness? 

We all know how well ignoring these social issues and problems worked out to this point.

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As much as we all may want the statement made by one of the candidates that “these are complex problems but the solution is simple” to be true, it is not. The reason that these problems have grow year after year is that governments were searching for a simple solution that did not exist, rather than facing reality and doing what was necessary to begin addressing and reducing these social problems and their related societal costs (e.g. property crime).

The only thing that chasing a nonexistent simple solution will do is waste time and money, while allowing these social ills to continue to grow and worsen.

Alternate financial reality?

The thought of an alternate financial reality that exists only for our current city councillors crossed my mind at the UFV all-candidates meeting.

First it was one current councillor telling me I did not need to spend any money on filing Freedom of Information requests to find out what the actual costs of Plan A are. I could save my money because he could tell me the total cost for Plan A and that was $85 million. City Hall has already admitted to additional costs of $23 million for Plan A. Information leaking out of City Hall indicates that the costs have soared beyond the admitted to cost over budget.

Sorry, I still want to know the actual monies spent on Plan A since clearly, by the city’s own admission, the costs exceed $85 million. What does it say about the openness and veracity of financial claims by councillors that one is still sticking to the original $85 million claimed cost – even when we know it is at a minimum $23 million higher and have realistic reasons to believe it is higher than that?

Just as an aside: what does it say that citizen’s best hope for accurate and timely financial information is leaks and rumours?

Then there was the councillor insisting that Abbotsford’s property taxes are 4th lowest in BC and waving a piece of paper as proof of this. My typing “the moon is made on green cheese” and waving it around does not make the moon made of green cheese.

I say this because when I go to the websites cited by Vince Dimanno president of the ratepayers association (Provincial Government, InvestBC, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and numbers created by the City Finance Manager from the Township of Langley) I find that the numbers show Abbotsford having not only the highest taxes in the region but the highest by to many percentage points.

Obviously there is evidence which raises reasonable doubt about the claim by council concerning how Abbotsford compares to other communities in the region.

Given this kind of behaviour and record when it comes to the accuracy of statements made on financial matters by council and/or councillors is it any reason so many have no trust for statements and claims made by council? 

How could any reasonable citizen, given this type of behaviour, not be demanding more transparency, openness, information and input on financial matters?

Citizens have the need and the right to be given a detailed report on how their money was budgeted to be spent compared to how it was spent. That way citizens can clearly determine what effect large unbudgeted expenditures such as the $500,000+ on the cement puddle at the library aka friendship garden have on other city services. In choosing to spend that $500,000+ on the cement puddle what did not get done that was suppose to be done in order to build the cement puddle.

Another aside: does anyone else find it a little strange to be building a 6 foot high fence around something called a “friendship garden”? Still I suppose the wall will provide privacy for the homeless who can certainly us a tub (pond) and shower (artificial waterfall) to improve personal hygiene.

As to costs associated with determining this information for a Freedom of Information request it should be $0.

The city should know what it has spent to date on Plan A and when finished should what the total expenditures were.

The city should know, should be keeping track of, how the money it has spent to date or the totals of monies spent in the fiscal year compare to how it was budgeted to be spent. 

If the city does not know these basic facts about how it is spending or has spent taxpayers money then we as taxpayers have a serious problem and need to undertake a thorough housecleaning and hire competent financial people.

Further taxpayers should not have to be filing Freedom of Information requests to get this information. Taxpayers are paying the bills, they have the right to know how their money is being spent or how it is being misspent.