Dear Editor:
Re: Taxes to jump 3.9%, Burnaby NOW, May 9. I cannot wait any longer for the province to begin its audit of municipalities. When do we start to hear how cost savings have been implemented?
I am getting tired of hearing how difficult it is to bring in lower numbers. I have been lowering my numbers for three years now.
Here's one that has been bugging me for years now. If you drive by the Burnaby Lake dredging pile west of Kensington Avenue, you will notice the Modu-Loc fence, which has been there for quite a while. While the contractor was dumping the lake tailings, it made sense to have the fence up. That project has been over for at least 12 months, so why is the fence still up? Are we now protecting open fields in Burnaby?
I called Modu-Loc, and they charge $1 per foot one-time installation and 35 cents per foot monthly rental. I roughly calculated 2,000 feet of fencing. That means a $2,000 one-time expense plus $700 per month rental. Which means $10,400 in year one and $8,400/year going forward for rental. It's a small sum, but how many of these expenses need to be exposed with an audit?
It all adds up, Mr. Corrigan, and it's time to do some trimming of our city budget. Maybe a trip to our sister city in Arizona is required as they may have some ideas, and you can take a delegation down for golf and a conference. You have, of course, said that those junkets bear fruit to benefit Burnaby. Can you please list all those benefits in an editorial to the public of Burnaby?
Curtis Evans, Burnaby
