Sam Williams writes a complementary investigative report in the same number of FOCUS using FOI information that is shocking: Dr. Joost Meyboom, an engineer who worked for Delcan recommended rehab in 2008 for $8,600,000.

‘This spring, under Dr. Meyboom’s leadership, several engineering firms subcontracted by MMM developed a strategy for rebuilding the current bridge which led to the current $80 million price tag,’ writes Williams.

Now the irony is that the same man is now employed by MMM, which in turn is beholden by a contract to the City, and is not answering Sam Williams’ queries as to why the huge discrepancy exists.

The Mayor, the City engineers and all of these other characters under Meyboom’s sway have a lot to answer for…

Frankly, I would say that their professional reputations are going to take a beating for this obvious corruption.

http://www.focusonline.ca/

However, Councillor Young also sits as the Chariman of the Capital Regional District, I believe, and in that capacity has not exhibited a similar concern for fiscal responsibilty on the sewage file, instead sheepishly capitulating to the draconian ultimatum of the Liberal Environment Minister Penner who has ordered the sewage system upgrade without the approbation or direct endorsement of same by a binding regional public referendum.

No taxation without representation is a basic principle of democracy.

By imposing the new sewage system on the people of the region through the non-accountable agency of the Capital Regional District, the Liberals do an end-run around the representative taxation principle, and CRD Chairman Geoff Young doesn’t bat an eye.

Mr. Young’s laudable performance on the bridge is certainly commendable, but his capitulation to the Liberal minister’s dictates on sewage in the CRD makes voting for him highly problematic in November 2011.

Between January 2011, when socialist Mayor Dean Fortin intends to start work on the new bridge, and November of that same year, is the crucial time when that futile and costly activity has to be delayed.

The only way to delay and and perhaps kill both the new bridge and the environmentally reckless and cost-prohibitive sewage projects it is to seek a court injunction to have these matters postponed pending a binding referendum on both the bridge and sewage, in conjunction with the municipal election of November 2011.

That way, those Councillors who support the new bridge and the new sewage system can seek to have their seats, new bridge and new sewage system endorsed at the same time, or be replaced by a new, more fiscally responsible lot who have different more reasonable, less environmentally damaging and less costly alternatives.

I believe that after the recent decision of B. C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman in the matter of the anti-HST petition, a legal precedent has been set, which is that governments cannot ignore legal populist petitions or the results of binding referendums.

The application to seek an injunction to halt work at the Johnson Street Bridge can and should be conjoined with the sewage issue, and both projects put on hold, pending the November 2011 election-referendum.

The upcoming referendum and bi-election in November 2010 will be a foretaste of what will happen in 2011.

I predict that should the people of Victoria in their wisdom reject Dean Fortin’s plans, and someone like Barry Hobbis get himself elected, that should give the Mayor and Council a good clue of what way to proceed.

Should the socialist mayor and his sheepish Council disregard the NO vote this fall, and raise residential and commercial property taxes to pay for the new bridge anyway, would be a very serious error of judgement that he will certainly regret.

The application for an injunction would have a good likelihood of being granted by a savvy judge in tune with the zeitgeist if Mayor Fortin tried such a trick, thanks to Justice Bauman’s powerful democracy-enhancing ruling for William Vander Zalm, et al.

Timing is of the essence in all these matters, of course.

With the economy still not up to speed, it would be unwise to reach further into the pockets of wary votors.

That is the position of Bruce Carter, writing in his column ‘Chamber Examiner,’ in the free Black Press publication, Business Examiner (www.businessexaminer.net) for September 2010 on page 11.

Socialist Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin has a strange bedfellow in Mr. Carter, the CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce.

The latter has become an enthusiastic cheerleader for the reckless borrowing proposed by the Mayor, threatening, like Mr. Fortin, that the ‘City has clearly stated that they intend to go ahead with the work of the bridge even if the borrowing is not approved.’

The contempt of both of these individuals for the results of the citizen-initiated alternative approval process (‘counterpetition’) is evident, and lamentable.

The citizens who signed the petition did so in good faith that democracy is still accountable in Victoria, calling for a binding referendum, the results of which they assumed would direct the Council one way or another.

If the Mayor is now saying in advance that the referendum results will only be honoured if Victorians favour his scheme, but certainly not honoured if the citizenry in its wisdom rejects the teardown of the heritage bascule, democracy is under attack by this Mayor and most of the Council that support him.

According to Mr. Carter, ‘the City announced that there will be no tax increases specifically required to pay back the loan.’

It is frankly an insult to voters’ intelligence to be told that taxes will not go up if the proposed borrowing bylaw is approved, but will go ‘in the double digits’ up if it is not.

For someone who purports to represent the business community, Mr. Carter argues for a type of fiscal blackmail that his Chamber associates will surely regret: ‘with the decision before taxpayers, to borrow or have significant tax increases or bridge closure, the best and cheapest option is to support the referendum,’ he writes in the Examiner.

Really, Mr. Carter?

I find Councillor Geoff Young’s position and that apparently still held by aspiring Councillor and Victoria Harbour Ferry owner Barry Hobbis more realistic and fiscally responsible: an ongoing prudent programme of basic regular maintenance to be commenced immediately and undertaken until safety, mechanical, electrical and aesthetic deficiencies are addressed.

This work, spread out over a number of years, would surely be less expensive than the grandiose plans of this irresponsible Council, and it would keep the Johnson Street Bridge open and working for many more years to come.

http://www.atv.ca/victoria/4994_73577.aspx

http://www.tourismvictoria.com/eventDetail.aspx?eID=8011

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/victorianews/community/101389994.html

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/victorianews/news/100571624.html

I referred to it in another comment, but gave the wrong date of publication… sorry!

No wonder Yule Heibel couldn’t find it!

Anyway, this is the article that quotes Ross Crockford saying that he doesn’t want to be MR. NO.

In another article in a more recent number of the same give-away rag, there is a report on a Johnson Street Bridge street party- cum fledgling annual street festival this weekend with all kinds of silly gimmicks to get people down there.

Business is slow this year, but this first annual Johnson Street Festival just might hold the key to future of the Johnson Street Bridge.

I bet if one did a real scientific poll of the adjacent businesses, you would find that the majority favour rehab.

The pro-ppp cohort that showed up for the Victoria Chamber of Commerce’s staged event for replacement apparently only attracted 40 or so opponents to rehab.

The history books will record that all but one of our Victoria City Councillors voted for replacement of our unique heritage Strauss bascule lift bridge that they have systematically neglected for a number of years, without apology or explanation.

Councillor Geoff Young stood in lonely defiance of the mob mentality, and is to be commended for his courage in doing so.

Councillors Luton, Hunter and particularly Madoff made real fools of themselves, and the latter’s credentials as an architectural heritage advocate are shot.

I hope that you are wrong about the cost of the new replacement bridge running between $150,000,000 – $200,000,000, although I wouldn’t put it past Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin to try to raise taxes in the sure event that his loan bylaw will be defeated in the fall referendum.

He is so determined to ram this through that he has already effectively alerted all Victorians that in the event that they deny him the loan, he will raise taxes anyway.

So much for Dean Fortin’s ideas about democracy.

I believe that if he decides to defy a NO vote by trying to raise our our already unsustainable residential property taxes, he could face a lawsuit, but will say no more at this point.

The Focus FOI is an eye-opener in terms of showing Victorians the paltry number of actual hours of ongoing maintenance on the Johnson Street Bridge undertaken by a negligent City of Victoria Public Works Department, particularly in the last five years.

These Councillors should be punished in the next 2011 election for this neglectful dereliction of duty, and their attendant dereliction of duty in not solving the homelessness problem which they all said during the last election campaign was their highest priority.

As for why other commentators are silent here again, that is another of Victoria’s mysteries.

I don’t like sending in three or four comments in a row, but then again, we do need to keep the issue in the public’s short attention span, and a steady stream of information flowing back and forth by a number of commentators on this topic surely must be preferable to seeing it go into a black hole?