Email from Jane Devonshire, Re: Letter to council re: # of councilors
Resident proposal to put the council size issue to a referendum and prioritize climate crisis action.
Letter to council re: # of councilors
From: Jane Devonshire
Sent: January 12, 2022 9:18 PM
To: Info Address info@viewroyal.ca
Subject: Letter to council re: # of councilors
Dear Mayor and Council,
Re: Whether to increase council size from 4 to 6 councilors or not
After much deliberation, having spoken to various people, attended the Open House, listened in at the council meeting in December and read the letters submitted to that council meeting, I decided that I would personally like to see this issue put to a referendum during the October 2022 municipal elections.
As the last Satisfaction Survey for the Town showed, the people of VR seem generally happy with the way things are in View Royal. I know we are growing but as one letter writer pointed out, Saanich has one councilor for every 10,000 residents. So, at this point in time, I do not think we should rush the process. There are more pressing issues at hand.
We are facing a huge annual hit with E-Comm 911 and we are also in a climate crisis. Sidney will be putting aside $90,000/year to tackle climate change. What will we be doing?
I feel our time, energy and money would be better spent on mitigating and adapting to what we are facing, the harsh realities of more frequent heat domes, drought, fires, atmospheric rivers, floods (including pending Sea Level Rise) and cold snaps than spending it on increasing council size and renovating the meeting chamber. I would even be amenable to a modest salary increase to the current council to compensate for having fewer councilors.
We need to be looking at everything through the lens of climate change and fighting hard for our future. At the local level there is so much we can do to make an impact as cities produce over 60% of our GHG emissions. The cost of not doing so now will cost us so much more in the long run. How many billions did severe weather events cost us in 2021?
As you all well know, my passion is for taking stronger climate action and protecting our environment. We now have only 8 years or roughly 3000 days left to get things right to stay on track for keeping below 1.5 degrees before we start irreversible loops of climate chaos.
What we need right now are more staff to stay on top of and implement what needs to be done. I would have liked the Town to hire a Climate Action Coordinator but I am glad that the Town can at least liaise with the CRD and their Climate Action Coordinator for support. If you are needing more voices and perspectives, I think you have enough engaged citizens from the community that you can draw upon: your 2 advisory committees and the VRCC for starters. I would still like to see a Citizens Climate Action Task Force to bring forward recommendations on areas they see as urgent, what needs to be done now and how we can achieve it.
At the last COW meeting in December, I must say I was very encouraged to see the recommendation that council set definitive dates and targets for GHG emissions. I was also encouraged by the recommendation to establish a mechanism for regular reporting and assessment of the Town’s progress.
In closing here is a link to a list of Climate Action Items where I think our taxpayer dollars should be directed instead of on 2 more councilors at this critical moment in time.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_aOlXv6ickNzaPINnJvUKOs5XPGT-ovJYfygPWJZ6Wc/edit?usp=sharing
Respectfully yours,
Jane Devonshire