Election 2013 My Platform

Below are some of the issues and positions I will take over the next four years. If there is something I have not addressed that concerns you please contact me. 

Election 2013   Vote for Dean Ward  X

Heading into the final week of the election every candidate should provide the taxpayers the opportunity to see where they stand on the issues important to the community

Below is my platform for 2013-2017 if you have a concern that I have not addressed please contact me at 563-4128 or deanward4@msn.com.

Seniors: I fully understand that seniors are the backbone of this community, the people that worked hard for many years, paid their taxes, raised their families and made this community what it is today.

Recognizing this, a number of years back council passed a motion to put $100,000 a year aside for future upgrades of the York Creek Lodge, this year council choose not to do that, they took that money to balance their books. For the next four years, I will support this important commitment to our seniors. Suddenly the Mayor talks about doing “more” for our seniors at the Mayor’s forum.

Town Rounder: This is a very important service for our seniors, I will commit to supporting, maintaining and if the dollars can be found expanding this service.

Recreation: I understand the importance of recreation, for six years I strongly supported the ski hill, and the creation and implementation of the walking trail program that many of us now enjoy. We must look at enhancing the present recreation programs we have and where possible find and develop new initiatives.   

Taxes: We have been told that our taxes have increased very little over the last few years that sounds good until we find out that an additional $400,000 a year is being taken out of our pockets in the form of Franchise Fees. I will not vote for a tax, franchise fee, or any other municipal tax grab that exceeds the Canadian cost of living.

Franchise Fees

2010-$295,551

2011-$374,288

2012-$569,749

2013-S682,000

Volunteers:  We all know what as happened over the last three year’s, we must stop throwing volunteers out on the street. We must recognize the efforts of all volunteers who build so much of what we have in this community not just the present volunteers  but also the past and the future.   

Respect: We all need to respect each other more, that starts at the top, Mayor, Council and administration must lead by example. The days of calling taxpayer’s names in the municipal newsletter must come to an end.

Labor Relations: A recent study conducted jointly by the Municipality and our CUPE local indicates that morale is at an all time low we are now seeing the worse relationship ever between management and our employees. The new Council should direct the CAO to deal with this issue quickly and effectively, these are the people that provide us with essential services that we all enjoy and need.

Administration: The Crowsnest Pass now as the largest administration it as ever had, this is not sustainable without increasing taxes or cutting programs. The CAO is bringing to the next council an immediate request for an HR administrator this position as not been budgeted for in the 2014 budget. Next council must determine its priorities as far as administration to reduce the costs involved. Yes that means finding the dollars in the present administration budget for the much needed HR person, administration cost will not increase.

Development:  We must determine why developers are not building in the Crowsnest Pass; Council should sit down with developers and builders and get their input as to what the municipality can do to make the Crowsnest Pass a more attractive choice for new development.  

Change: The number one issue that as been raised with me during my election campaign is “Change” the Crowsnest Pass will change, there is no doubt. As long as the vast majority of people feel that they have had “change” rammed down their throat they will not embrace it and become a part of it. Moving forward the public needs to be informed of change, the consequences of change and most importantly are provided the opportunity to be a part of change.   

Choices: We all get to make a choice on Oct 21; I know people will think long and hard about the various candidates. Please remember one thing the provincial government made very clear during the Municipal Inspection that this community will have to live with the choices it makes for the next four years.

Annexation: As been handled terribly, all we have done is upset our neighbors; the Mayor stated at the forum that what upset Ranchlands was that one of the previous two councils from the Pass. Made a threat to dissolve the Pass and force Ranchlands to take us over. Well first of all I sat in several meeting with Ranchlands and I never heard that threat made, second of all that would be such a dumb threat nobody can dissolve the Crowsnest Pass except the Minister of Municipal Affairs, and like wise nobody but that same Minister can force a municipality to absorb another community. The reality is the Mayor and his actions upset our neighbors in typical desperate fashion he is looking for somebody to blame.    

My name is Dean Ward, I am committed to working hard to make the Crowsnest Pass successful and maintain a community that we can all afford to live in.

On Oct 21 Vote for Dean Ward 

The price of silence.

Now taxpayers of the Crowsnest Pass is the time to speak up.


It’s a very simple process. Speak and you may be heard, say nothing and you definitely will not.

Right now as you are reading this post, administration is gathering information from its various departments, from the various groups that are subsidized by your tax dollars.

Administration is taking that information to prepare a three year budget, that’s right a three year budget another change. We could debate all day long the merits of longer term budgeting, but in my opinion the greater concern with a budget of that length is the opportunity for input is taken away.

The one the most important area that politicians try to avoid input from is you the taxpayers, there is nothing more politicians love than “Silence” they will tell you different, they may well offer you opportunities such as open houses, surveys, etc. Deep down what they really long for is “Silence”. Especially with a three year budget, get through this process there will be eighteen months to the next election, by then everybody will have settled down and they won’t have to worry about this issue one year into the next term.

One of the advantages of an annual budget is that by the time the last one is passed by a council, the bills are received by the taxpayers its only four months to the next election. The whole process is fresh on the mind of taxpayers, the issues, the debates, the justifications for councils actions, politicians don’t want you to have a fresh recollections of that process.

This is a small community in my six years I watched councilors flip flop on issues because special interest groups put pressure on them. The most important group of all needs to speak up you the taxpayers.

How do you do that? these members of council live in this community most people know them, tell them how you feel, call them their phone numbers are available at the municipal office 403-562- 8833. Write letters to the editor, vote on surveys right now the Pass Herald is asking for opinions on the Franchise fee increases. http://www.passherald.ca/

Why the fear now? Just last week Council approved increases in Franchise Fees during that debate the acting CAO referred to a need to bring in an additional $550,000 next year (the equivalent of an 8% tax increase) to satisfy the goals and objectives of councils strategic plan.

I understand many people in this community are desperate for change. The strategic plan is going to be the tool used to drive the need for additional taxes. What ever became of doing more by becoming more efficient? On October 13,2010 Councilor Saindon stated the following “My many years of experience in operations within large corporations reveals to me that we have a huge opportunity to take these cost reductions and use them to keep our tax increases at or near 0%”.

The Crowsnest Pass according to the 2006 census is the oldest community in the province our average age is almost 50, we have the largest percentage of seniors living on a fixed income in the province. Who can afford an 8% increase?

If this or any other council wishes to get creative and do new and wonderful things then they need to get creative and find ways to do more with the same, find those cost reductions Councilor Saindon referred to.

This issue makes me think about Councilor Gallants vision, his platform I quote “As a councilor, I will not vote for any increase to property taxes for any reason - period! It is time to take a hard look at the services we have and the way business is conducted by the municipality. We must set realistic boundaries and be firm about not crossing them. There is money out there, we just have to stop wasting what we have and start tapping into sources we have ignored. As a businessman, I believe very strongly in efficiency. When I discover that my business is doing something that is unnecessarily costing us money, I do not wait a year or two to start investigating it - I put the people or plans in place to solve it right away. The municipal council needs to have that same commitment and drive; it is our duty to the taxpayers of our town. Once we have learned to be more diligent, we should then go further and reduce our property taxes”

Only one year later administration is talking about tax increases? contact your councilors remind them what they said a year ago. Tell them how you really feel about tax increases remind them that their first budget we were going to see zero increases and it really ended up being 2%.

Speak up now let the members of council hear where you sit before they pass a three year budget not after. Take a moment read the list down the right hand side and decide is this the change you are willing to pay more and more for. Pick a cost reduction that as saved the municipality one dollar from that list.

Is the last sentence of Councilor Gallant's quote in the Strategic Plan “Once we have learned to be more diligent, we should then go further and reduce our property taxes”

I and a lot of other people in the Pass sure hope so.

Remember more than anything “Silence” will cost you.

2011 Tax Increase, Surprising twist

Well taxes are not going up as much as we were led to believe at the first reading of the 2011 millrate.

As I pointed out in a previous post there was an avenue available to council to decrease the impact of the ASFF and the Seniors requisition.
http://crowsnestpasshome.blogspot.com/2011/03/tax-increase-maybe-not.html

The new positions that this Council felt were very necessary and saw fit to approve, based on the fact that none of those positions have been filled yet it produced some spare dollars in the budget. Which I had argued should be used to offset the additional taxation burdens placed on our residents.
On Tuesday night the majority of council partially agreed by using those budgetted dollars to offset the increased requirements of the senior board.
Councilor Saindon brought forth a motion to have the $100,000 capital requisition for the York Creek lodge and the $18,454 taken out of the operational budget, instead of increasing the tax burden on the residents.
He  used my same arguement that there should be dollars available in the budget from the jobs not being filled yet.
Surprisingly despite there being no disagreement to that statement by administration or any of council, three members of council voted against it (Mayor Decoux, Councilors Londsbury and Mitchell) the question that only they can answer is why?

   

Municipal Taxation and the impact of ASFF and Seniors Funding.

One of my readers send the following question to me via email. "Dean I am sitting here trying to read last year's mill rate bylaw, I can't figure it out. Can you explain to me what the Municipality actually collects of the taxpayers and where it goes. Also if I am understanding the news right, the municipality is stating that the budget did not go up this year, so does that mean my taxes will not rise?"

Answer:

If you grab last years Mill rate Bylaw #794 (available on the municipal site).

You will see under the third whereas it states that $6,432,821 is to be raised by general municipal taxation.

Then the next whereas refers to the Alberta School Foundation Fund which was $2,366,925.

Under that you will see Seniors Foundation which was $184,542.

So what the municipality does then is collects on your tax bills the total of the three sums above
$8,984,288.
It then keeps the $6,432,821 for itself and sends the ASFF portion $2,366,925 to the province and the $184,542 to the York Creek Lodge.

Now will taxes not rise because the municipality did not increase its budget? that's not so simple.

If you take the amount above $6,432,821 and go look back at the Mill rate Bylaw for 2009 (#777) you will see that the municipality collected $6,360,015 by general municipal taxation so the increase between the two years was $72,806 which only worked out to a 1.1% increase but your taxes went up 3.2% why?

Well if you look at the ASFF portion for 2010 was $2,366,925 in 2009 it was $2,234,452 so that went up by $132,473 a jump of 5.9%.

Then you look at the Seniors foundation it when from $167,766 in 2009 to $184,542 in 2010 a jump of $16,776 or 10%.

So if you take the total dollars that those three numbers increased from 2009 to 2010, it was $222,055 of which less than one third $72,806 was dictated by the municipality.

So looking a head the only way to guarantee that taxes will not go up is if all three parties to the mill rate do not raise their dollar amounts, what's the chance of that? slim to none.

The municipality as said they will hold their portion to zero, the other two parties the seniors foundation always raises their amount by 10% ($18,454) which they are allowed to do based on the MGA, the province is indicating that it's going to be a tough provincial budget on Feb 24th. Which usually means they down load costs on the municipalities ie. ASFF.

Despite all of that there still is a way for taxes to be kept at zero.

For example if the Seniors take there 10% $18,454 and the ASFF increases $180,000 for a total of almost $200,000 all the municipality as to do is slash three of those new positions which would drop their dollars by $200,000 (or any other means they see fit) then there truly would be no tax increase.

I hope this answered the question.

Time will tell

Crowsnest Pass Forum Questions and Answers!

Question. Security Deposits on Developments?

The lack of security on the River Run project was a huge mistake on the part of council. This can never be allowed to happen again, we put in place a policy now that development can not start without having sufficient security in place (All of council was in favour of this except the Mayor). Hopefully in the future when a real developer comes in to develop this particular site the council at the time will make sure there is an adequate development agreement in place to clean it up.

Question. How do we attract people to the community?

We continue to build on the initiatives we have put in place, ie walking trails, mountain bike trails, cleaning up the community to make it more appealing. This is one of the most beautiful places in the world there is no logical reason that with some hard work and creative solutions we can't bring more people here.

Question. Marketing of the Community?

Similar question to above, this must become a priority and an area where council must work together with Community Futures, Chamber of Commerce and spend some money. Our marketing budget since I have been on council is $20,000 per year that's a joke. To spend that amount of money is a waste, if we provide a decent budget, and work with those other groups to attain grants we can do a far better job.
The mountain bike project is a good example of that in partnership with the Community Futures the municipality put in $10,000 that eventually gained us in excess of $200,000 to develop Mountain Bike Trails.

Question. Unsightly Premises Bylaw?

This is an effort by the present council to clean up the municipality, (supported by all of council except Councillor Taje). The only goal is to make the community look better more attractive for both the people living here and coming into our area. Nobody as the expectation that every lawn is going to be manicured, that every yard will be a pristine piece of the rocky mountains.
Can we do better than we are? of course.
The bylaw is not perfect and should be reviewed by the next council with the benefit of some experience. For information so far our Bylaw Officer as written two (2) tickets related to this bylaw, he as done a very good job of working with people to give them the opportunity to work within the bylaw.

Question. Highway 3?

Everybody that runs for council says they are going to lobby the province on this issue, going back to the early seventies. We have done that for the last three years, like it or not it will not happen for some time. Over the next few years you will see some minor widening of roads in Frank, and west Coleman, and traffic lights at the Kananaskis and the West end of Blairmore.
If anybody from the Crowsnest Pass tells you that they are going to push the Province in to doing anything more than that, they are dreaming. Keep in mind the road to Ft McMurray will not be completely four landed until 2014.
One good point that a speaker raised is as far as getting people into our town do we really want to push them through the Pass at a 100KM a hour?

Question. Affordable Housing?

The study that was done on affordable housing clearly shows that long term we need it. We have to follow the leadership of other communities in this area and find "credible" developers that will partner with us to access Federal/Provincial Grants and move in this direction.
The municipality does have land available for this.


Question. How does the Municipality support small business?

The municipality needs to talk to the business community (Chamber etc) and find areas where we can assist them, if its a problem with regulations, paperwork, bylaws that are impeding them then we need to address those issues. The municipality purchasing its goods locally as far as I am concerned as long as a local supplier is competitive and can supply a quality product then that's automatic.

Question. What happens with the Crowsnest Centre?

Last council meeting we directed administration to come back with a cost on taking the building down. It will be expensive, but if we want commercial business to come here we have no other place to put it. To attract anybody especially larger companies you have to have property that does not require a lot of work to make it flat, it must be serviced and it must be accessible to the highway. There are 12000 vehicles a day going by this site imagine if we could pull just 5% of them off the highway.


Question. What will we use as a disaster centre during emergencies?

Many communities experience emergency type situations, not many have an old hospital to put people up in. What we do have available, is the following: the present hospital, three existing schools, two arenas, the MDM facility, Elks Hall, Polish Hall, Seniors halls, hundreds of hotel beds and what a lot of people did in years past, is take people in to their homes.

Question. Looking for Bridge Builders on Council?

This is where it is so important to have a strong Mayor on council, one who does not believe that the only agenda to be promoted is his, one who can work with a diverse group of individuals, people that want to move the community forward, and govern it in an effective manner.
You can read the Cuff report and the other corporate review yourself on the municipal web site.
This Mayor did not do a very good job of team building and leading, this Mayor did not provide a willingness to look at change, the spilt in council was created by the steadfast refusal to consider change and in fact put up every road block available to maintain the status Quo.
Being a bridge builder means that you have to be a leader, willing to look at different ideas even when you don't agree and willing to work with other people that don't just show up at meeting and vote your way because they fell they should.

Question. Helping Seniors

This council as committed to support the renovation and expansion of the York Creek Lodge, with 40% of our population being seniors this is so important. We have our seniors living in 280 square foot rooms. We must do a better job for them and I will support whatever we have to do to improve the lodge.