Dear Editor:
Re: City hall moves forward with plan, The Record, July 13
What is Mayor Wayne Wright and this labourendorsed council thinking? Expecting overtaxed citizens to support a commercial office tower which has been declined by a very successful office developer who has done his homework?
I ran for city council last election on a platform of bringing a business balance to council and to represent the business and residential taxpayers, the only true stakeholders in this city. Not unions, staff or other special interest groups.
The way this process is being put out to the public is no different than the backroom attempt at relocating the Windsor Pub to 12th Street. You can't drop a bomb such as this and take off on vacation to avoid the fallout. There has been no discussion on a business plan regarding how they will attract retail or commercial tenants with the unfriendly (to business and consumers), but friendly to unions "fair living wage policy."
I have no problem with fair wages which can be supported by business revenues. I do have a problem with a municipal government entrenched in unions, dictating a wage which ends up being subsidized by taxpayers. I applied to the leasing agent to set up a shop in this facility and was advised I would be required to pay a fair, living wage. Far in excess of what my competition would pay across the street. How is this council going to overcome this and attract business? As a lifelong business person, I am disgusted that Mayor Wright would allow this policy to pass, which tells me he has little control over his council. I have said so in an email. I have received no response. The fact that the city knew Uptown Property Group was no longer interested prior to the last election is very concerning to me. Where was debate leading up to the election? Why was it hushed? Where was the trust in open dialogue? Voter support may have been different if the truths were known. Our MPs and MLA endorsed this NDP majority council along with the District Labour Council, which invested thousands in having their candidates re-elected. What do they say now that their constituents could be taxed out of their homes to cover this debt and huge finance charges over the next 20 years?
This flawed exercise sounds like another big labour Adrian Dix caper and the NDP ferry fiasco. If you want to see what B.C. will look like under NDP reign in 2013, take a snapshot of New Westminster as it starts its slippery slope into the hole at Begbie and Columbia. Oppose this loan before it's too late! The plan to push this through has a timeline of Aug. 7. Get your forms from city hall at 511 Royal Ave. The civic centre, OK! The business centre, not OK, not by this anti-business bunch. They have no place interfering in free enterprise at our risk.
John Ashdown, New Westminster
