Thursday, May 08, 2008

Are you better off today than you were five years ago?



The Mayor has penned his weekly contribution to the Northern View, his version of the fireside chat to cheer on the locals about the issues of the day.

This week’s edition brings to mind the campaign for President of the eighties by Ronald Reagan, who once asked Americans if they were better today than they were four years ago. It was part of his closing commments during the 1980 election debate and spelled the end of the Carter presidency.
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While the Mayor didn’t form his update in the style of a question, he did go forward to make his case that the times are better.

With a tip to the real estate industry which has benefited from the speculative bubble nature of the housing supply from last years container Port opening, the mayor pointed to the rising value of houses (as artificial as it may be) as an indication that things are now quite a bit better on the North coast these days.

He espoused “the hundreds of jobs that didn’t exist five years ago, many of them high paying and family supporting,” as another indicator of the turning tide, though he was a little short on the details as to where all those hundreds of jobs may be.

He recounts in his opinion of the hard decisions of the past three years, mentioning deep spending cuts several years ago and how the city has aggressively been pursuing new investment (though again there’s not a lot of proof in the pudding of the city’s luring of new investment other than the gaming centre)

The Mayor walks streets and reports that the car dealerships, furniture stores and building supply stores are all reporting strong sales figures, yet there is no mention of the blocks of empty store fronts along third avenue that tell a different economic story.

The focus of his ruminations on the changing times of Podunk was in effect to help sell the planned five per cent tax increase, that after being defeated at the special session on Monday, will once again appear in front council next week for another shot at being passed.

From that pending tax increase the mayor highlighted the plan to hire one more RCMP officer (leaving us still seven short of a full complement), while local groups dependant on funding from the city were also trotted out as examples of why the increase is important to the city.

Likewise plans to work on the roads, raise the pay of the city workers and keep the recreation facilities in operation were all pointed to as indicative of a healthier city, which will spend the tax money in a pro active way we guess.

The mayor pointed to Terrace as a place that is in the midst of its own economic concerns, suggesting that their path of the moment is not sustainable, we suspect that the folks in Terrace might say very much the same about the “Prince Rupert way”, not to mention that they might add that those who live in glass houses, may not wish to start throwing the stones.
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Like former President Reagan, the Mayor is indeed a great communicator, the question is will the voters of Prince Rupert accept his vision of the state of the economy and do they feel better off some five years later.

The full presentation of promise is found in the Wednesday Northern View and on the papers website.

Looking at just how far we have come in five short years
By Herb Pond
The Northern View
May 06, 2008
Page six

It’s interesting (and perhaps important) to reflect on just how far we’ve come in five short years.
Just a few years ago there were people in Prince Rupert who quite literally were having a hard time giving their homes away. It’s difficult to believe for those who weren’t here to see it first hand, but most of us know of houses that sold for $25,000 and less. Indeed less than five years ago, people were leaving the community in droves, and there were no new faces popping up to replace them. There were no new jobs, and little hope of any.

And five years ago the City’s spending exceeded it’s actual revenues by millions of dollars each year, which is what makes this year’s otherwise unremarkable budget so significant. How significant? By comparison, our neighbours in Terrace even with a projected tax increase of four per cent are drawing down previous years surpluses by 1.4 million dollars. Translation: they are spending more than the make, and while that’s undoubtedly the right decision for them, it’s clearly not sustainable.

That’s why Prince Rupert City’s budget this year is so significant. The one two punch of deep spending cuts several years ago and aggressively pursuing new investment have landed us where we can at least hold the line. It’s like reaching a wide ledge while climbing a rock face. We may still be a long way from where we want to be, but for the first time in a long time we are sustainable. We’ve hammered out a five year deal with our biggest labour group. We’re adding back a police officer (up from 28 to 29, but still well below the 36 of several years ago.) Our recreation facilities are in full operation. We’ll spend over two million dollars on roads, and we’ll even pay down some debt.

Groups like the Lester Center, the Library and the Museum may not be getting everything they asked for, but they will get what they need. In fact, that’s really been the theme song of this year’s budget (with apologies to Mick Jagger); you may not get what you want, but work with us and we’ll find a way to give you what you need.

Even as I write this, Council is agonizing over the last few dollars that will determine the size of tax increase required, but whatever is decided we are demanding that cash in equals cash out. And no matter what Council’s final decision, the combined increases of the last five years have been substantially less than most cities in the province. That may be hard for some to believe, but it’s a fact. Amongst B.C. cities with more than 10,000 residents , the total charges on the average Prince Rupert residence has moved from five years ago being in the highest 30 per cent to falling well below the average last year. That’s because in rising real estate markets, Council has been much quicker to lower the tax rates.

We continue to be very conservative in our forecasting, recognizing that the economy hasn’t taken off as quickly as some may have hoped (it takes a while to replace a pulp mill). But just the same, it’s worth noting that there are literally hundreds of jobs that didn’t exist five years ago, many of them high paying and family supporting.

Even as our small business sector, fishing and forestry industries struggle to re-invent themselves, there are many success stories. The car dealerships, furniture stores, and building supply retailers report strong activity. The same is true for much of our service sector with many realtors and restaurants enjoying healthy activity . We even have one hotel constructing an expansion.

Five years ago I likened our situation to being dead in the water in a sinking and storm-tossed ship. We’ve survived the storm, we’ve repaired the hull and engines, and we are underway. Yes we may still be fragile, and we may not be quite capable of full speed just yet, but as a community we have achieved a great thing. And as we work together, we know our best days are in front of us.

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