Thank You Index

Your 2008-2011 City Council was sworn in on December 1st, an occasion which I had to miss due to family matters in the Netherlands that required my presence.

I was sworn in on December 8, 2008 at 1:50pm by Ian Howat, Director of Legislative Services, a scant ten minutes before the new Council’s first “in camera” meeting, which dealt with the ongoing debacle of the convention centre hotel which is to be built by Millennium/Suro.

As you now know, notice of a 30 day so-called “cure” period was served on Millennium which has given them until January 19, 2009 to make corrections to the default of the contract situation they have found themselves in since the end of last May.

The ball is now clearly in Millennium’s court and your Council will have to consider the next step if no “cure” is presented by Millennium before the prescribed deadline.

Click to let me know how you think the hotel issue should be dealt with

Mayor Ruttan has appointed me to a variety of committees and commissions which means that, besides my regular Council work, I will be on Nanaimo’s Parks, Recreation & Culture Commission, the Parcel Tax Review Panel, co-chair with Councillor Unger of the Safer Nanaimo Working Group and I will be an alternate on both the Nanaimo Airport Commission and the Vancouver Island Regional Library Board. I look forward to working on these committies and commissions during the next year, which is the length of the term the Mayor has applied to all his appointments.

I am particularly pleased with my appointment to the Safer Nanaimo Working Group, a committee comprised of highly professional individuals drawn from the RCMP, the Vancouver Island Health Authority as well as the City’s Social Planning and Bylaw Enforcement departments.

This working group can be called into action on short notice in order to deal with any and all decisions which have to be made in connection with just about any aspect of trying to achieve an orderly and safe downtown.(Though the group’s jurisdiction is not restricted to just this area)

My first meeting with this committee dealt with the controversial move of the Harris House Health Clinic from Cavan Street to their new address of 375 Franklyn Street. The City’s involvement with this issue is limited since the zoning involved permits this kind of use and VIHA, as an arm of the senior Provincial Government, seems to have done their due diligence in selecting this site over others. Residents and business owners, however, are not pleased with the new clinic in their neighbourhood and so it becomes very important for the City to be doing what it is well-equipped to do, which is to observe and moderate as well as making sure that a Good Neighbour Agreement is agreed upon between all parties concerned in as short a period of time as possible and I intend to work towards that goal.

Click here to provide me with your comments about the Health Clinic

You can well imagine that the recent snowfall has stretched the City’s ability to deal with this to the very limit. Not a day passes without citizens contacting Public Works or expressing their legitimate concerns to Mayor and Council; we all are extremely aware of some of the serious consequences this situation can bring with it and I want you to know that all that can be done, short of buying many new and expensive snow ploughs, is being done.

So here you have a short description of this rookie Councillor’s first twenty-four days in office……there has been a tsunami of information to be absorbed since day one but I am coping quite nicely.

Come to think about it, this is the best training I could have in order to prepare myself for the many difficult issues we will face in the months to come.

I sincerely hope that you, by way of this website, will let me know of your ideas about, and solutions to, City-related issues which need attention; working together we can make a difference.

Please be in touch!