City Infrastructure

A report is going to City Council detailing two important infrastructure projects for the City - the Crystal Pool and Fire Station #1.   The details and analysis of the report is available via Open Victoria.  I will not go into the details raised there, I have a few other questions:

1. Why are pages missing from the report?   There a full page of discussion that missing from the Crystal Pool section, what is it saying?
2. Why was nothing actively being done about the pool ten years ago?   If the City had budgeted only 2% of revenues for Crystal Pool replacement over the last ten years, we would be sitting on about half the money needed to replace the building.
3. I look the City of Victoria "What's New Page" and there is nothing on there about the pool of fire station, actually there is nothing important about anything on the page other than the list candidates for council in the last three months.
4. How can the current capital plan for the City, which runs to 2030, not include any of the budgeting for either the First Station of the Crystal Pool.  The report outlines a $6.5 to $16.5 million cost for the Fire Station and a $58 million (?) cost of the Crystal Pool that are not in the capital plan.  How can a 20 year plan have no mention of either?  I have to admit the table is not written in a way to make the information easy to understand by the public.
5. Why have the citizens not been involved in determining the future of the Crystal Pool?
6. How sustainable are the City finances?

I am more and more worried that the City of Victoria is not sustainable financially in its current form.  

Paul Brown and Open Victoria have been focusing on these issues.



Yes I am working on Paul's campaign and I am working with Aaron Hall, Linda McGrew and Suhki Lalli on the Open Victoria slate, but they are not the only ones concerned.
Lisa Helps also specifically addresses the pool and the process she would like to see on how address teh future of the pool but I think it may too late.