Langley Township is to be commended for seeking public opinion on its planned expenditures in an innovative way this year. Instead of just having the usual budget open house and attracting a small number of people, the Township sent out a flyer asking for input from taxpayers on a series of specific questions — and received a very healthy response.
A total of 818 responses were received — about one-third of the number of people who actually voted in the recent board of education byelection. Considering the time it took to fill out such a survey, that is very impressive. It is also impressive that about two-thirds of those responding did so via computer, with one-third filling out a paper response and turning it in.
The survey results are not considered scientific, as in a poll where care is taken to produce a truly random sample. The people who responded did so because they have an interest in the subject matter. But their opinions were decidedly mixed in a number of areas.
While almost all respondents favour a strong emphasis on protective services (police and fire) when it comes to municipal spending, people are much more ambivalent when it comes to spending on parks and recreation, libraries and the museum. Some would even cut spending on roads and recycling.
Many people (38 per cent) favour continued spending in these areas, and are willing to pay extra taxes each year to keep services at the current level — but almost as many (34 per cent) want reduced services and taxes at the current level. I believe some of this is due to a frustration that the Township has been on a steady diet of tax increases for most of the past decade, and there has been no significant attempt to halt the rate of tax increases.
It is important to put this into context. There have been two main reasons for the ongoing tax increases — the decision to turn the fire department into a mainly professional, full-time department, and steady wage increases for Township employees, thanks to a generous contract signed in 2007 which gave employees healthy wage boosts each year, including this year. This contract was signed at a time when the economy was doing much better, and to ensure that there were no labour disruptions during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Judging from the responses, the Township decision to bring in full-time firefighters isn’t too big a deal to most taxpayers. They appreciate a better level of service, and there is no doubt that full-time firefighters, whose main jobs these days are as first responders to an emergency call (often a medical emergency) get to the scene faster than paid-call firefighters, who are not usually at the fire hall when the call comes in.
The wage increases will likely come to an end this year — if the Township and other municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Labour Relations Bureau stick together and insist on a wage freeze. This may or may not happen. Some councils are dominated by union-friendly members (notably Burnaby) and will almost certainly push for wage increases. Both the City and Township will have to go along with what is agreed to.
However, if there is to be an easing of the steady tax increases, labour costs must be held steady — as is the case with most private-sector employers these days.