An open letter to Oak Bay – Gordon Head MLA Andrew Weaver. As my MLA, I can request services of office to represent my interest in matters that affect my person and family. However, many issues are common to all residents of not just your constituency but of our Capital Region.
Consider the daily traffic impasses that delay my trip to VGH or to the airport. Yet, the two municipalities whose residents create the daily traffic flow refuse to contribute to or to participate in regional transportation service planning. Similarly they refuse to participate in regional economic development initiatives that generate investment and economic opportunities.
Preparation for emergencies whether a fire, flood, chemical spill or earthquake does not respect municipal boundaries. The experience of Fort McMurray or Kelowna confirm the need for a regional scale response. Yet, in this region, we have several communities who in the event of an emergency must cry for ‘mutual’ aid. I, and residents of Victoria and Saanich, are unfairly expected to fund such professional service response. Residents of Sidney, Colwood and Metchosin are serviced by police forces subsidized by the province while I fully fund the cost of my Fire and Police services.
Similarly, through tax exemptions, I provide to numerous social, charitable community services to all residents. Why shouldn’t residents of other than Saanich and Victoria contribute to these services?
Consider my daughter and husband who struggle to find affordable housing. Yet, most OCPs for each individual municipality provide a complex and disjointed maze of administrative regulations and by-laws that discourage new housing and add extra costs. Surely, zoning and building standards can be simplified across the region. Provincial standards are required.
Clearly, some of the above are the purview of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and there is little that you, as an individual MLA, can do to resolve these. But, by fortunate circumstances, we have seven local MLAs who support our new provincial government. These include two party leaders, the premier, and three cabinet ministers. Collectively, as a caucus, you have the opportunity to provide leadership, to shape provincial policies and priorities, and to find resolutions to these issues that plague me and my family. Surely, it must be evident that provincial, social and economic objectives are being negated under current circumstances.
At a time when both provincial and federal governments offer support for community-based infrastructure projects, who decides our regional priorities, rather than competing municipal applications. We need a new harbour terminal, major road improvements to provide alternate arterial routes and improve safety at, at least, three major intersections. We need your support to secure funding for these.
I need your help to end this needless duplication of services, endless tax increases and municipal officials who are not accountable. Please help make it better.
I expect to hear that you and your colleagues will provide a regional voice that both recognizes the needs of our provincial capital and that represent your constituents’ needs and concerns.
James D. Anderson
Saanich