Archive for 2012

“When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about how much he spends and how he spends it…when a man spends someone else’s money on someone else, he doesn’t care how much he spends or what he spends it on. And that’s government for you.” Milton Friedman…

A year ago, Abbotsford voters decidedly defeated the proposed Stave Lake project. Although there are many reasons for the defeat, one of them was discontent with increased water rates and the tiered water rate structure. Residential water rates increased between 2007 and 2011 by 77% at the lowest of the 3 tiered rate structure. Consumption…

In my August 15, 2012 Blog posting, I noted that finding a new water source wasn’t the real challenge facing our water system. Instead, the real issue was Hydraulic Capacity, i.e., the City’s water delivery system is not adequately sized to deliver all of the water that is currently available from various existing sources. Now…

In my last blog post, I explained why I’m concerned with the water rates charged to residents. These rates appear to be excessive, unjustified, and unsustainable and collectively represent many millions of dollars. This post explains what the City did with the money that was collected from residents. The surplus funds have been used to…

Many residents were upset to learn that their water bills were projected to rise from an average of $349 per year to $550 per year – a 58% increase – if the Stave Lake Project was approved. This was on top of unprecedented increases over the previous 5 years. In 2007, residential water rates were…

With each passing year, I hear more and more people expressing their dissatisfaction, disengagement and disillusionment with government. The effects of this are clear; voter turnout has been on a downward trend for twenty plus years. The reasons given for this decline are often attributed to a public that is uninterested, apathetic or just plain…

Last fall, the City of Abbotsford promoted the development of a new water source from Stave Lake and the “yes” response to a referendum. An aggressive, $320,000 advertising campaign was launched to support this initiative. Many voters were not pleased with the tone and style of this campaign and, more importantly, had serious concerns about…

During the referendum, we were told that the most critical concern was a new water supply source and that Stave Lake was the only viable, long-term solution. Of course, I disputed that conclusion based on the evidence I had available at the time. Since being elected, I spent countless hours reviewing the Water Master Plan,…

The transition from private business to the very public world of politics has been both interesting and more challenging than I had envisaged. Based on my first seven months in office, the most challenging issue facing our City is financial sustainability. As I have reflected on this issue, I have concluded that two things may…

Milton Friedman, one of America’s most respected economist, statistician and the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, wisely observed that we spend our own money on ourselves very carefully. We spend other people’s money less carefully. As a young teen-ager, I worked on a poultry farm, catching chickens from midnight until dawn.…