LETTER – City council shouldn’t just rubber stamp everything from staff

I attended the  city council public hearing for the new subdivision in Dufferin area.  There were so many question by council members that were unanswered by staff that I question why any council member would vote yes to this city spawling housing proposal.

So, I was astonished to hear Councillor Karpuk say yesterday that council member should have supported the city staff experts recommendation to allow the housing subdivision. Are these the same experts that recommended the Alternate Approval Process or, AAP for  the $150,000,000 for the Performance Arts Centre which has ballooned to $211,000,000.  Seems they forgot about the fibre optic cables that require nearly a million dollars to move and other construction difficulties.  Or the city experts that recommended siting the Dufferin multiplex ice rinks over a  Coquihalla land fill site requiring million of dollars to excavate before construction can begin.

Or city experts that recommended through another AAP to  tear down rather than repurposing the current RCMP building worth millions of dollars with demolition costs of millions of dollars.  To construct another building for hundreds of million dollars on the demolition site.  When a new RCMP building could be built on another lot.

Mr. Karpuk seems to believe city council members should rubber stamp every recommendation from this spend and tax city administration.  Our representative democracy requires city council members to question the city’s so called experts to arrive at the true picture and spend taxpayers dollars wisely.

City council chose thoughtfully  in voting No.