The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has released its 2016 BC Taxpayers’ Naughty and Nice List, and Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps is on it - but not on the side she'd probably like. Helps is second on the naughty side.
CTF's BC Director Jordan Bateman says with taxpayers facing another year of property tax hikes and a big sewage treatment plant bill, Helps still frittered away money by spending $144,000 for two artists-in-residence, and another $7,250 for two poet laureates in Victoria. He also notes despite marketing and so-called "improved fiscal management" the McPherson Theatre went from losing $30 per ticket sold to losing $27 per ticket. Bateman says “When you don’t take care of the little things, they add up,” adding “residents and businesses are stretched thin financially in Victoria, but their mayor doesn’t seem to understand that.”
Also on the naughty list this year Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson for going "tax mad" and doubling the number of employees at City Hall making over $100-thousand a year; BC Transit for wasting millions on wasting millions on Sunday premiums, idle drivers, bonuses and car allowances for executives, and more; and Penticton's Mayor and Council for among other things adding 10 city managers at a time the city's population only grew by 411 people.
On the nice side -- Irvin Leroux of Prince George who took on the Canada Revenue Agency and won, BC Finance Minister Mike De Jong for keeping BC on track financially, the NDP's David Eby for grabbing onto an issue until the government fixes it, and Education Minister Mike Bernier for showing true grit firing the Vancouver School Board for years of disfunction and disobeying balanced budget rules.