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Letter: Burnaby trip to Japan an 'egregious waste of taxpayer money'

The trip to Japan will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Burnaby and Kushiro.
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Burnaby officials will take an international “friendship” trip to Japan later this year, despite a previous council decision to cancel a longer Asia trip due to cost concerns.YayaErnst/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

Dear Editor,

Re: Burnaby agrees to Japan trip despite concerns over 'exorbitant' costs

I think this is a particularly egregious waste of taxpayer money during an economic crisis (also amidst years of above-inflation property tax increases, which contribute to more than 50% of Burnaby's operating budget, and a massive overstep of city council's aims as a municipal government). 

The stated and publicly available goals of Burnaby’s mayor and city council (and most municipal governments) is and should continue to be primarily focused on local issues directly affecting the community. The vast majority of Burnaby residents will never be otherwise impacted by this city's existence. This frivolous spending does not directly or even indirectly support Burnaby’s ambitious policies or programs to improve the community and municipality. It is not Burnaby city council's role to engage in global relations (alongside our federal government) and this is a substantial overstep.
 
Kushiro is a small city more than 300 kilometres away from the nearest major city (Sapporo). It is primarily engaged in light industry and was the country's largest coal mining town, and still retains Japan's last remaining operational underground coal mine. There seem to be no obvious trade opportunities here between Burnaby and Kushiro (nor is that the purpose of the visit).

The council has not published the size of the delegation, though given it includes the following bodies: Tourism Burnaby, SFU, BCIT, Board of Trade, member(s) of the vaguely defined "business community," and the Burnaby Board of Education, and including potentially members of council. The sponsoring member did not outline a full budget for this trip, but a reasonable estimate given the number of delegates is likely well over $100,000. 

Particularly shocking was that during the debate, Coun. Sav Dhaliwal argued that this was “not taxpayer money” as it came from the gaming reserve. I believe it is well understood by the council (and anyone with an understanding of fund or non-profit accounting), that whether it comes from the general revenue fund or a separate (gaming) fund is frankly irrelevant.

Every dollar spent from any fund or area represents another dollar that needs to be made up in the largest revenue source (property taxes), or which could otherwise represent a tax decrease, or be used for any other worthy city initiative, for which there is a long list.

The sister city concept is outdated and has no impact on local residents. 

I would implore city council to better consider the needs of local residents rather than fluffy goodwill trips which make good photo opps but have no impact locally.

— Jon Tingling, Burnaby