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                                                                       An Oak Bay Watch Perspective 
   
To sum up the last several Council meetings 

Special Council Meeting May 8th, 2017. Bowker /Cadboro Bay Development 

• The Majority of Council by a 4-3 vote approved a Big Condo Development Deal loaded with a whole range of likely problems for residents. Negotiations for the deal while only providing $100,000 in community benefits, is worth millions of dollars to the Developer (in addition to real estate and speculator profits).

 
Council Meeting May 8th, 2017. Annual Budget Bylaw Readings

• Mayor Jenson and Council Members Croft, Ney and Kirby transferred $200,000 from the 2017 Budget to an infrastructure reserve account to make it appear there would be less of a property tax burden. The reality is they spent the Community’s infrastructure savings on their development and staffing agenda. Our roads water, and sewer lines are near the end of their years of service (Official Community Plan statement). Funds have been put aside for upgrading - so what was the four Council members first step? Use infrastructure savings for a non-priority item (suite densification) that will intensify this problem. Then at later date borrow to address our critical infrastructure situation? This is exactly what Oak Bay Council has done and has planned as our future.    

 
    Special Council Meeting May 11th, 2017 Annual Budget Approval

• The Mayor cast the deciding vote to allocate (over-spend) $300,000 for premium consultant costs to implement basement suite legislation and also to pay for expensive new staffing. Opposing Councillors explained it makes no sense to introduce basement suite legalization at this point without a comprehensive Housing Strategy that would include how to handle and pay for all the inherent negative impacts. The suite decision is also in contradiction to our staff’s intended multi-year Infrastructure Overhaul Work Plan, as more densification removes much of our Urban Forest asset and thereby, as indicated, places so much additional stress on our ageing roads, sewers and storm drains.

 
    Council Strategic Proprieties May 2017: Undertake the regulation of secondary suites

• The publicly available data show very little increased regulation when basement suite

         businesses are legalized. However, impacts include more population that provide inadequate tax revenue; more uncontrolled noise and nuisance for existing            residents; higher taxes to cover increased enforcement costs; more parking issues and more traffic to, from and in the municipality. Some Councillors have              indicated the present enforcement controls are adequate enough - so leave well enough alone. Land use changes have a way of backfiring as demonstrated            by the Mayor’s recommended 2007 zoning change that didn't work out all that well for us. We are still experiencing the many over-builds that cause many              holes in the ground and perfectly good homes being carted away.
 
         These poorly thought-out Council (slim majority) decisions also apply to their addition of new staff. Council’s rationale for recently adding many new                        administrative staff has yet to materialize in the much exulted and “promised efficiencies”: these are still nowhere in sight. Also significant staff and resource          sharing with other municipalities is now a rhetorical, distant election promise and any implementation is noticeable by its absence. What is noticeable                   however is that our (annually compounded) tax bills keep increasing by leaps and bounds.
 
It’s now confirmed half of Council realize how much the Community is at risk and our Staff understand that our infrastructure improvement and our identity and character must come first.  On the other side of the ledger the Mayor and his three Councillors know they have a one-vote majority and do not have to listen to residents or half of Council. Unfortunately for us they have no idea where their irresponsible decisions will lead or how they are putting our Community at risk.
 
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