Boatlaunchfeesbeingboostedby60%

MARIO BARTEL mbartel@tricitynews.com

Boaters who use the launch at Port Moody’s Rocky Point Park should prepare to pay a lot more next year

Last Tuesday (July 18), council’s finance committee voted to implement a new fee structure for users of the ramp beginning next year

According to a staff report, those fees will have to increase by 60 per cent to help the city recover its costs for operating and maintaining the facility.

Fees for subsequent years through 2027 would go up another five to 13 per cent.

That means a boater from out of town will pay $500 next year for an annual pass to use the ramp up from $311.80 this year while Port Moody residents, who currently pay $177.75, will be charged $285. The fees include parking for a vehicle and trailer in the adjacent lot

The cost for day passes will also increase from $25 to $40 next year and then go up by $5 increments annually to $55 in 2027

Commercial users of the ramp will see their annual fee rise to

$850 from the current $539.30 and then increase to $900 in subsequent years

The review of fees charged to boaters to use the public launch was sparked by a massive increase in costs to the city to dredge the navigation channel from the ramp into Burrrard Inlet, as well as prevent damage to the adjacent dock and pier. This year the work cost

$750,000 triple the amount originally budgeted because industrial pollutants detected in the sediment to be removed meant it had to be transported to specialized facilities on land and couldn’t just be dumped in deeper waters The dredging needs to be done every five or six years

Port Moody’s deputy chief financial officer and manager of financial planning, Tyson Ganske, said the fee increase will generate $194,240 in revenue for the city next year, increasing to $251,375 by 2027

In 2021, the city earned $109,000 from launch fees

While Coun Callan Morrison said it’s time the ramp users who aren’t from Port Moody pay more of their share for its upkeep, Coun. Samantha Agtarap cautioned a “me-first attitude” could backfire.

“There are a lot of regional amenities that we all share,” she said.

Coun Kyla Knowles said the fee boost is “a necessary evil at this time”

According to staff, 30 of the 80 annual passes sold this year were to non-residents of Port Moody

Ganske said the new fees will be reviewed annually.

Port Moody’s general manager of finance and technology, Paul Rockwood, said it would be an opportune time to rescind an agreement from 1984 that allows boaters from Burnaby to pay the same fees as Port Moody residents after that city helped pay some of the costs of building the ramp.

“Staff feels the commitment to Burnaby for money it contributed to build the boat launch has been fulfilled,” he said “It has been 40 years”

But Mayor Meghan Lahti said it’s only fair the city give a heads up to its neighbour

“We need to give them notice,” she said “I don’t think it’s worth getting into some kind of wrangle.”

One of the key pieces of legislation to be introduced in the fall legislature sitting (or perhaps the next spring session) will be amendments to the province’s Police Act that will ensure we never repeat the debacle that occurred when Surrey tried to transition to a new police force.

The attempt by Surrey to first move away from the RCMP and towards creating its own municipal police force, and then bizarrely try to move back to the RCMP was at times comedic, error-prone and costly, both in terms of real dollars as well as political capital

Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth finally put an end to months of wrangling and arguing by using his powers under the Police Act to order Surrey to continue transitioning to the new Surrey Police Services.

It was a welcome move, and it has implications for other jurisdictions as well.

The RCMP is clearly at a crossroads as an organization and other municipalities may begin exploring their options for policing in the years ahead.

Farnworth has indicated the changes to the Police Act will better clarify that process they will, among other things, give the provincial government a closer role in any transition should it be used in the future

As well,the changes will not allow any municipality embarking on a transition to its own police force to then “pull a

Surrey” and try to reverse course down the road.

Surrey council’s decision to shift back to the RCMP was unprecedented and led to great confusion and uncertainty.

To create a brand-new force employing hundreds of people and then attempt to get rid of it by transitioning back to a police force that was experiencing chronic and seemingly unsolvable staffing issues was, to say the very least, ill-advised.

Surrey Police Services Chief Constable Norm Lepinski estimates the full transition to his force could take up to three years

But he thinks it will take less than a year for the SPS to exceed the RCMP in terms of front-line staff, and thus become the jurisdictional police force in Surrey. Police reform is clearly in the air. The Toronto Star recently reported the federal government and senior RCMP officials want to turn the storied force into a “FBI of the North” kind of organization. Such a force would be responsible for things like investigating terrorism, cybercrime and organized crime. It would no longer be involved in daily policing in cities.

It seems inevitable that such a shift will occur in the years ahead (an all-party B C legislature committee has recommended moving to a provincial police force, but that seems well down the road)

Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC

The Editor:

It’s great to see some budget allocated to improve bike infrastructure in the city.

However, I have a few words to say on the implementation in this particular case

I’ve been riding Guilford on my commute to work almost every single weekday from February to October for the last 10 years and together with another fella we swap legend status on Strava on a given segment. I suppose that allows me to compare the old bike path and the newly built one.

Here are my observations:

• New construction made car lanes narrower, which I’m sure is appreciated by the truck drivers

• Cyclists now have to literally ride through bus stops scaring people away and it’s an accident waiting to happen

• The bike path itself, even for reasonably experienced riders, it takes some efforts to pass each other.

Any newbie will ride in the middle of the path, making passing challenging and dangerous for both.

• Most cycling accidents happen in intersections. The new concrete dividers with those poles make it harder for cars to see the cyclists

• The quality of the build around the bus stop is very questionable Asphalt is uneven, which again raises a question about safety.

• It’s close to impossible to clean up the new bike path now.

What was the thought behind winter and spring maintenance?

So, will somebody from the city be brave enough to comment on my questions:

• How much city taxpayers’ money was spent on this project?

• Who was consulted on the implementation plan and was any cycling body involved in the review of the project (HUB, Cycling BC, etc) ?

• Was there even a public feedback on the construction? I haven’t seen a single poll on the project.

Dmitry Khrisanov Coquitlam