by The Honourable A. Brian Peckford
April 7, 2025
Sometimes There Is Wisdom In The Crowd —61% Said No In Referendum In My Regional District—
It is the Regional District of Nanaimo requesting to borrow up to $30million to expand the Regional Swimming Pool facility in Qualicum Beach.
The people get it .
This is no time for public entities to be borrowing more money.
A couple of days before the vote it was revealed that this Province, British Columbia , just had its credit rating downgraded by two of the largest credit rating agencies, Moody’s and Standard and Poor.
Under the country’s constitution all Municipalities in Canada are creatures of the Province . Hence the Province is ultimately responsible for the debt of its municipalities.
Given the way most public capital projects have been going these days they seldom ever come in on time or on budget. The example of the catastrophe of the budget overrun of the Vancouver Metro Sewer Treatment Project is a dramatic case in point—-original $700 million grows to $3 billion.
And it’s the taxpayers , not the politicians who have to pay the extra.
The Provincial Government and the Federal Government are both , to use an appropriate word , swimming, in billions of dollars of deficit and debt and rising every hour .
One hopes the Regional District gets the message . And no fancy manoeuvres to circumvent the will of the people.
