Five TEAM Burnaby candidates have signed the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Contract with Taxpayers 2011.
TEAM candidate Lee Rankin confirmed he had signed the contract in a recent interview.
"Spending is completely out of control," Rankin said during the interview, which was primarily regarding the recent Canadian Federation of Independent Business' report on municipal spending.
"Burnaby is tailor-made for the principles of the pledge," he said.
The five TEAM candidates were the only Burnaby candidates to sign the Contract with Taxpayers.
The signatories were mayoral candidate Tom Tao, Jeffrey Chiu, Jim Favaro, June Jeffries and Rankin.
TEAM would work to rein in new program costs in the city if elected, Rankin said, pointing out the city had recently spent a lot of money on its new website and internal SAP system.
"We would ask, what was the tangible benefit?" he said.
"There's no business or (other level of) government that would allow a decade of runaway spending," Rankin added.
Burnaby ranked low in the municipal spending report overall, but the city's real operating spending growth increased by 38 per cent between 2000 and 2009, according to the report.
Mayor Derek Corrigan mentioned the Taxpayers Federation contract at the Nov. 9 all-candidates meeting at Stride Elementary, saying TEAM had signed an agreement with the federation to put no money towards social services.
The statement was in regards to one of the principles in the contract: "I will not vote to take on or fund services that are the proper jurisdiction of federal, provincial or regional governments."
The other principles were:
? I will not vote to raise property taxes beyond the provincial rate of inflation (unless I get approval from taxpayers in a referendum) and will diligently try to get increases lower than that;
? I will move our municipality toward fee for service for as many functions as possible;
? I will push my municipality to investigate partnerships with other governments, non-profit organizations and businesses to reduce costs of service delivery;
? Infrastructure and public safety will be my top budgetary priorities;
? Taxpayers' personal property rights will be respected and upheld;
? Under my watch, citizens will receive complete, accurate and timely information from their municipal government. I will ensure taxpayers have the opportunity to participate in open dialogue with the mayor and council;
? I will publicly disclose and publish copies of all receipts I charge to my municipal expense account;
? I will support measure that improve transparency and accountability;
? I will support the introduction of a taxpayer production bylaw that financially punishes any mayor and council for raising taxes above the rate of inflation with a one-year 15 per cent pay cut.
It wouldn't even be possible for a candidate to fulfill the contract, for a number of reasons, Corrigan said in a phone interview Tuesday.
When asked why he didn't sign it, he said, "I'm not going to make promises I don't know I can keep."
TEAM candidates have also said they would have approved the supplemental funding for TransLink if they were in Corrigan's position and have also said they would find funding for affordable housing, he said, which would not be possible under the contract.
"You can't have it both ways," he said.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business put out a taxpayer pledge of its own in conjunction with its municipal spending watch report.
The pledge commits to three principles: property tax fairness, spending restraint and municipal accountability.
TEAM candidate Jeffries was the only Burnaby candidate to sign it by Nov. 16.
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