Category: Democracy

TransLink wants to year from you

10/24/2015

We have received this from TransLink:

TransLink is undertaking a major transit network consultation and would like your input and feedback:
"Starting on Tuesday, October 13, TransLink is inviting customers and neighbours across the region to have their say on potential changes to the transit network across Metro Vancouver. An online survey will be available until November 6.
We're considering more than 85 proposed changes and asking for feedback now, as we plan for the future.
Proposed transit network changes across the network aim to:
• Deliver on our plans
• Integrate bus service to better connect to the Evergreen Extension
• Decrease travel time on busy routes
• Extend service to areas with high commuter demand
• Take advantage of road and infrastructure changes
• Make our system more efficient
Get Involved
We invite you to take the survey from October 13 – November 6 and have your say on transit in your community. Your feedback will help inform future transit changes.
Stay up-to-date on the progress of this project by signing up for our General TransLink Updates Newsletter.

Please forward this email to any friends, family, or contacts in your organization who would like to have their say on the proposed service changes. Let us know if you’d like to receive hard copy information about where people can find the Transit Network Consultation survey.
Contact TransLink
If you have any questions regarding the Transit Network Consultation please feel free to email, or call. Angela Madaski, Community Relations Coordinator, tnc@translink.ca, 778.375.7587
www.translink.ca/tnc"

July Community Forum: Larry Beasley

7/8/2015

Neighbourhoods & Neighbourhood Power

Larry Beasley led a very instructive and inspiring conversation about neighbourhoods and the planning process in Vancouver and elsewhere. He has co-authored a book which is available from Island Press. Barnett and Beasley show how ecodesign helps adapt the design of our built environment to both a changing climate and a rapidly growing world, creating more desirable places in the process. In six comprehensively illustrated chapters, the authors explain ways to:
·         Preserve and restore natural systems while also adapting to climate change;
·         Minimize congestion on highways and at airports by balancing the transportation system with transit, particularly BRT and improved passenger rail, by making it easier and safer to walk and cycle, and by making places more compact;
·         Craft and manage regulations to create more desirable places and full-fill consumer preferences, while meeting economic constraints and creating development incentives;
·         Make an inviting and environmentally responsible public realm from parks to streets to forgotten spaces; and - most importantly -
·         The authors then explain, in their final chapter, how to implement these concepts.

Ecodesign for Cities and Suburbs
By Jonathan Barnett and Larry Beasley
Paperback and E-book
304 pages | Price: $45.00
ISBN: 9781610913423
Publication Date: June 23, 2015
www.islandpress.org/ecodesign-for-cities-and-suburbs
Feel free to include the discount code, 4ECOD.

We hope to hold several meetings in July/August to clarify issues and deepen our understanding of the affordability crisis & housing, CACs & pro forma development and building massing & density. Stay tuned for details! Look for a review of Citizens' Assembly recommendations for our September meeting and a federal election forum in early October.

MLA Shane Simpson's request to Council to assure community consultation on the Citizens' Assembly report recommendations

6/23/2015

Shane Simpson, MLA, writing to Vancouver Cirty Council
File Size:	128 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Local Elections Expense Limits

4/13/2015

The following is a letter sent on behalf of Grandview-Woodland Area Council to the Provincial Legislative Committee studying limiting contributions/expenses during local elections. Many felt after our recent City elections that too much money was contributed by corporations and unions, leading potentially to undue influence over planning and other decisions by Council, School Board and Parks Board. Submissions are welcomed by this committee and can be sent via the green link below. For more information about the committee, you can link to:    http://www.leg.bc.ca/cmt/leel/

Special Committee on Local Elections Expense Limits                                   April 13, 2015
Room 224, Parliament Buildings
Victoria, B.C., V8V 1X4

Submitted electronically at: https://www.leg.bc.ca/cmt/leel/submission.asp

Dear Committee Members

This letter is a submission on local elections expense limits on behalf of the Grandview-Woodland Area Council (GWAC), which is a residents’ association that strives to represent the interests of this Vancouver neighbourhood, to inform and activate its residents, and to advocate for the protection and enrichment of our community.

We write to urge you to recommend and pursue the implementation of expense limits for local governments in British Columbia, and especially for the City of Vancouver. It is our view that limits on allowable campaign expenses should be low enough to promote fair participation by all parties in local government elections, and should be strict enough to prevent circumventing expense limits. The use of third party organizations to promote an individual, a party, or a ‘slate’ in a local election is an example of a means of circumventing expense limits placed on local government candidates, slates or parties, and expense limits should be structured to prevent such tactics. Similarly limits on campaign donations should be strict enough to prevent schemes to, for example, channel donations through other persons or entities once an individual or organization has reached the maximum allowable donation.

In the 2014 Vancouver civic election, there were approximately 422, 000 registered voters in the City of Vancouver and the University Endowment Lands, combined. Of those 422,000 voters, approximately 182,000 actually cast ballots, for a voter turnout of about 43 percent. Reported spending by the 3 major parties was as follows:

Vision Vancouver                    $3,313,450
Non Partisan Association    $2,021,090
Green Party of Vancouver    $88,388

[Notes:
1.      source: ElectionsBC – Parties financial disclosure statements; vision Vancouver figures do not include separate statement for School Board Election.
2.      The Green Party of Vancouver does not permit donations from developers and fossil fuel companies, and caps eligible contributions at $5,000 per donor.]

Based on the above figures, the three parties spending per registered voter, and per vote cast, was as follows:

Party                Spending per reg. voter    Spending per vote cast

Vision Vancouver                    $7.85                $18.21
Non Partisan Association     $4.79              $11.10
Green Party of Vancouver    $0.21                $0.49
[Rounded to the nearest $0.01]

The Vancouver Sun, the Globe and Mail, and the Georgia Strait, all reported on very large donations by development companies and other business or business owners, and by unions. As the Vancouver Sun said in a sub-head to an on-line feature on the top ten municipal campaign contributors: “ Unions, corporations and real estate developers dominate the list of the top ten political donors to city halls across Metro Vancouver.”

The lack of expense limits of local government elections has a corrosive effect on democracy. If elections are not seen to be fair, the faith placed in the motives and actions of elected officials is quickly eroded and replaced by cynicism and skepticism. We have seen this in our own neighbourhood.

Vancouver is currently consulting with residents and businesses in Grandview-Woodland with the goal of developing a neighbourhood plan. A key focus of this plan is land use and zoning within the neighbourhood.   At several of the meetings and workshops GWAC members have attended they have heard people express the view that the City will simply approve a plan that gives developers what they want. Whether true or not, this is an example of the corrosive effect that large campaign donations from those who may be perceived to benefit from future city council decisions, can create.

Toronto limits campaign expenses to roughly $0.85 per elector per candidate. It limits campaign contributions to $2,500 for mayoralty candidates and $750 for councilor or trustee candidates, and corporate and union donations are banned. If the Toronto limit was adopted for Vancouver it would be $358,700 per candidate or, if applied to a full slate of candidates in Vancouver (27), the total limit would be $9.6 million, if the approach suggested by the Committee’s December 15, 2014 report of “…no separate additional expense limit for elector organizations…” is adopted. Consequently, the Toronto example is far too high. However, the Toronto expense limit is coupled with a limit on contributions, which provides a functional limit on the ability of candidates to raise money for expenses from large contributors. For these reasons, the Toronto example, if taken for campaign expense limits only, is much too high and should be discarded.

Montreal limited 2013 spending for a municipal party running a full slate of candidates for its 103 council and borough positions to $1.65 million or $1.50 per voter. The limit for individual contributions was reduced in 2013 to $300 per individual contribution. If the Montreal limit was adopted for Vancouver, then based on the number of voters, the total allowable expenditure limit would be about $633,000.   This provides a more reasonable example of a campaign expense limits, but only if coupled with stringent campaign contribution limits, including a ban on corporate and union donations. Without stringent limits on campaign contributions, the limits on campaign expenses is arguably still too high and should be in the range of $0.75 to $1.00 per voter.

Yours Sincerely,
On behalf of Grandview-Woodland Area Council Directors:

Dorothy Barkely
Jim Fraser
Garth Mullins
Vicki Scully
Rasmus Storjohann
Micah Waskow

TransLink wants to year from you

July Community Forum: Larry Beasley

Neighbourhoods & Neighbourhood Power

MLA Shane Simpson's request to Council to assure community consultation on the Citizens' Assembly report recommendations

Local Elections Expense Limits

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