This year I have been fortunate to attend the FCM conference in Whistler BC. FCM stand for Federation of Canadian Municipalities. This conference is attended by most of the major centers of Canada. Each day we hear from different party leaders and meet to discuss issues that effect us at the national level.
On Friday we heard Stockwell Day who represented our Prime Minister who was in France at the 65th D-Day events. An interesting speaker who shared what was happening in Ottawa and what we could do as an association that has been mandated to be an advocacy group to issues that effect our communities.
Part of the conference that I enjoy is the exposition where we meet the different businesses that provide our community with everything from lighting to garbage trucks to infacstructure programs. It is good get ideas regarding many different programs and products that might be useful to Steinbach.
Part of the conference is about networking with those around us. Speaking with and sharing concerns of same sized communities and how they have addressed issues.
What I have found is that most communities have the same issues, but what is different is the solution to those issues.
At some of our sessions I have heard amazing success stories of how communities turned negative situations into positive ones by putting uniquie solutions into place.
We have two days to go and the weather has been very warm (+30 C ) each but all meetings are in the air conditioned comfort.
More when I get home.

The question on the issue of visual signage  was brought to council May 5th meeting.  It was put on the agenda to provide clarification on the topic of bike symbol placement on our city streets.
In the past we have had different ways of implementing the term “Active Transportation Routes” while it is often seen as a bike path it can be any mode including but not limited to walking, running, jogging, roller blading, skateboarding and cycling or any other form that describes the word active.  While we have many bike path ways and sidewalks we need to make more room for our cyclists on our streets.

Direction from this council is to include visual signage in the form of bike symbols on designated bike paths and active transportation routes. These bike symbols are to be painted on the streets to indicate where bicycles are to travel sharing the roadway with other motorists within our community..

Marking bike lanes in important as it will educate bicyclists where to ride on a shared roadway and the motorists will be educated as they will see the signage that they are expected to share the road. We need to have a combination of marked bike lanes along with a public awareness/education program so that everyone on our streets feels safe.

Reviewing different information regarding bike lanes signage we could potentially use at least two different symbols. One symbol is designated as a bike lane allowing no vehicle traffic and limited parking on the street. One example is the Hespeler from #52 to Loewen Blvd be painted with such a symbol. Another example is Loewen Blvd, Mackenzie to be painted with a shared bike symbol indicating a bike and parked cars share the space.

Information is available thru the Bike Lane Design Guide developed by the City of Chicago in 1999. They have successfully put bike lanes on to narrow streets with a width of 44 feet.

In the case of the law a bicyclist have the same rights and responsibilities as motorists when traveling on the streets. In Steinbach it we have many bike riders on our sidewalks, especially Main Street. This is not only illegal but dangerous and we need to educate and provide the cyclists a safe place to ride. In most cases the street is the safest place for bicyclists to ride. Ride on the sidewalk, especially in the wrong direction, is a significant contributor to car/bike collisions because the motorist is not looking for a relatively fast moving bicycle on the sidewalk.

Bike lanes encourage bicyclists to use the street as opposed to the sidewalk, which eases congestion and improves safety on the sidewalks.

Bike lanes need to be put in so that street parking is not effected. At intersections we need to make sure that a minimum of 20 feet back of the stop sign is no parking so that bike traffic has a stopping and starting point.

Bike lanes encourage the safe interaction of bicycles and motor vehicles. Bike lanes don’t solve all the problems on the road, but that can make it safer for both motorist and the cyclist alike.

Recommendation

1. Use the Official Community Plan as a guideline using Reference Map 3, named Active Transportation Network & Community Facilities

2. Use a combination of paint and road signs, with the first step painting bike lane signs indicating either shared bike/car lane or designated bikelane.

3. I didn’t review our specification book for signage but international sign this purpose are available as stensils to be used.

4. I would suggest that for 2009 start with Mckenzie, Hespeler, Loewen Blvd, bike path

5. lastly for administration to present a 2 year plan by fall study session to paint other streets with signage or solid lines indicating bikelane location as indicated in our Community Plan so that if required we can budget for expenditures.

I feel this will be a good start as we develop a plan moving forward.  Of course the first step was getting this thru council, which they agreed to unanimously.

We are at the same cross roads as we are each year at this time, do we increase the taxes or do we hold the line or even lower the municipal taxes we levy against our residential and commercial landowners.
The taxes each year are a discussion that is built around discussions of “millrate” charged. The discussion regarding what a millrate is will be a topic in another segment in the future.
My issue is around the taxes that we as a city require for our community benefit and those that the Hanover School Division levy as part of their needs.
Over the past three years I have voted to hold the taxes to a 0 increase and will do so again this year.
In my term as councillor the city raised the taxes by 1 mill last year from 15.80 mills to 16.80 mills. That increase puts about $350,000 into the city budget for projects.
The Hanover School Division has raised the mill rate from 23.30 to 24.24 for this year. Looking back to 2000 and each successive year the HSD has raised the mill rate from 13.30 in 2000 to 24.243 in 2009 an 82% increase. The City of Steinbach over the same period has acutally decreased the millrate by 7%.
But lets look at the dollars involved. in 2000 the HSD levy paid by the City with taxes that the City collects on behalf of the HSD was $2,443,880, in 2009 the bill will be $8,797,583 a 260% increase.
But we are a growing region as our population has seen tremendous growth, HSD levy per student in 2000 was 399.65 in 2009 it is 194% higher at $1,174.48. The number of students served in 2000 was 6115 and in 2009 was 7497 a 23% increase.
Now all of this is just numbers that we can shuffle and adjust to make our own assesments and comments as we choose. As anyone knows it is numbers that can be twisted and made to look or read as one chooses.
The system of having a local municpality collect tax dollars for the local school division needs to change. Just because one has the power to tax doesn’t mean good managment of those tax dollars.
Being able to increase revenue at will, through tax increases, does not make them accountable for those increases. Especially in our current system of having the local municpality collect it for them. Over the last years the tax bill is indicating what portion of the tax bill belongs to whom. In 2009 59.07% of your municipal tax bill will go to the HSD.
But what is the HSD to do? Currently the only form of revenue it has is to tax thru the millrate.  The same province that holds them to funding formulas that are the same for school divisions that have an increase in student enrollments are the same as those that are stuggling with reduced students enrollments. 
Manitoba is now the last province to allow school divisions to set mill rates at levels of there own choosing. Recently the second last province to eliminate this system was Saskatchewan where they established a province-wide millrate so all property owners pay the same rate of taxation. Any shortfalls would come from general revenues.
In this year where many are struggling with our economic realities, deferring retirement plans and anxious about job layoffs it just seems wrong of the school divisions to again raise taxes when everyone else is holding the line.
Each of us as taxpayers need to make sure we are educated to why we pay the taxes we do to where ever they go, then hold those elected to make those decisions accountable for there actions.
As a city councillor I struggle with our current reality of collecting the HSD taxes without being able to respond in anyway to the taxes being charged. At some point our Province needs to get on board and deal with this situation.
You as a taxpayer need to hold your elected more accountable every year not just at election time.

The City of Steinbach Grants Program that we go through each year is an area that I struggle with.  The process, while complicated, does offer a process that gives us more information regarding who, what, where of the applicants.

The opinions offered here are all mine not those of council.

We provide grant funding each year to community groups who fill out the grant application form.  this last year we set the dollar limit to $450,000 in total funding.  We overspent, providing approx $500,000 to community groups.  What that means is, that difference in money of $50,000, needs to be found elsewhere in the budget.

Some of my struggles with the process are in how we hold or don’t hold the community groups accountable to the funding received.  At no point do we ask nor receive an explanation of how those dollars where spent.  The granting application form does ask for that information from previous years but at no point are those groups held accountable.

Some organizations like YFC Back Stage, Helping Hands, Arts Council, Library and others do have measureable ways that we can hold them accountable.  We do get regular reports from the Library board as we have representation on that board. 

One of our largest grants we provided was to the Steinbach Chamber of Commerce of $117,000.  My issue here is that in my opinion we have no way to hold them accountable to the funding that they receive.  I have not understood how to hold them accountable nor do we get a report of how they spent those dollars.

Like in many other things it comes down to putting a set of expectations in to place so that everyone understands.

Like for example we could

1. except for City programs like the Library where by law we have a commitment no organization can recieve more than 20% of it’s operation budget (a $100,000 operating budget can’t be granted more than $20,000)
2. any organization can ask for additional funding for special programs or events that involve the city as a whole, but no funding to be more than 50% of that program or event
3. within one calander year of receiving grant funding a report must be submitted to council regarding the success of the program or event

These are just some of the ideas that might make some sense in trying to come to grips with how we fund different organizations and community events.

The study session weekend was a good time for us as council to get together and share our vision for Steinbach. Each of us spoke with passion on different issues that effect each of us differently. The budget, while sounding huge, because of all the discussion of millions of dollars, when it is broken down we manage on a small portion of it.
Some good news is that it is the intent of council to leave the property tax rate as is this year again. I have been part of company downsizing because of the economic crisis in North America and believe that we will be affected here in 2009. But then Manitoba, especially Southeastern Manitoba, has not felt the bust and boom of other provinces.
We did manage to find dollars to increase our RCMP force by one starting in July. Hopefully they can recuit in a timely fashion so we can meet that promise. We don’t have much say in what they do but I would like to see the RCMP more visible in our community. Specificly this position should be a community resource person to help with the DARE program, COP and other education programs. Maybe even get the RCMP to get back to showing up at the SRSS and re-open the office they had located in the school.
We are adding a sidewalk on Maplewood from Loewen Blvd to Penfeld, then Penfeld to #12 hwy. As part of the plan other streets where added but I would like to relook the plan and remove some of the sidewalks like Penfeld to the drain, the Valerie Lane and the backlane sidewalks. Council will be reviewing that plan in the next month.
We did set our priorities for seeking funding on our 3 major projects. They are in order the Lagoon, Landfill and Library.
Well 2009 will be an exciting year and I look forward to working with council on all the issues.

With the Steinbach city council study session happening shortly we received our reading package.  Again a thick, busy read as one gets there mind around all the different issues.

A large portion of our discussions will focus on what is next.  We have man dollar issues as costs continue to rise, much of it due to our exponential growth over the last 10 years.  Our infrastructure, while in good shape, needs constant upgrade and additions to ensure we stay on top of it.

Three large expansion projects (the 3 L’s) loom in the near future, the Library, Lagoon and Landfill.  Each is a part of our growth.  

The Library is the busiest in the province just consider these numbers, since 2001 our number of books has increased by 42%, our memberships by 71%, our revenue increase of 39% and operating expenses by 24%.  Provincially the numbers continue to show us as the busiest in the Manitoba.  The MB Public Library Stats show

• Steinbach ranked 13th on the Municipal Levy per cap @ $15.19 the Prov ave is $22.65. 
• Our circulation (percent of books out) is tops at 22.1% with the Prov ave at 8.6%
• our book turnover rate is 2.96 (number of books our members take our each year) with the Prov ave at 2.4
• our gate count was at 118,700 last year ranking third in the prov where the ave stands at 19,623

Our Lagoon is a concern.  We recently applied for a 2/3rds grant to cover the approximate cost of 10.4 million dollar expansion.  Playing into this is that our lagoon capacity, at current new construction rates, will by too small by 2011.  Then add on that the community of Mitchell wants to add on the life span of our facility is closer than 2011.  If we don’t expand the lagoon we will be in the same position as other municipalities in the Province that haven’t expanded, no new construction. 

Our landfill requires an additional cell as it too requires expanding.  The facility currently has a lifespan of approx 20 years.  One positive is that the landfill brings in additional revenues as we are a Regional facility.

The three L’s are our largest dollar wise.  But the discussion will focus on our capital improvements we need to make as part of ongoing upkeep to our water & sewer, streets, sidewalks and drainage programs.

It will be interesting!

Well 2009 has started and we have had our first council meeting and our winter study session is coming up at the end of January.  It will be a good session as we debate the different issues effecting Steinbach.  I haven’t received our package yet but I would assume some of the debate will be around the following issues.

• residential taxes, to increase the mill rate or hold, my opinion is that we need to hold off on a tax rate increase.  The economic situation is strong in the southeast and Manitoba but it will catch us as we all tighten our purse strings because of what is happening around the world
• business tax increase from .5% to .75%, anyway one looks at this it is a tax increase.  We have had busniness sign a petition thru the Chamber of Commerce to increase the tax by a 1/4% as long as the total amount is forwarded to the Chamber.  My opinion is it is still a tax increase and at this point would vote against it
• capital projects, while there are many on the list it is tough to prioritize the list so it best serves our community and it’s growth, the biggest ticket items are the landfill and lagoon
• somewhere on the horizon is the multiplex including a curling club, performing arts centre, arena and conference centre
• should all make for an interesting weekend

I am excited that we have applied for the 2012 Manitoba Summer Games, the last time we applied was in the early 1990’s and lost out to Morden - Winkler.  Our community is due for this type of event.

Speaking of community events the Allan Cup is only a couple of months away and it is the best hockey in Canada at the Senior level. 

The Library expansion had an $800,000 debenture approved at our last meeting.  This moves the project forward as we now wait to hear from the Provincial and Federal levels if they support our expansion project as well.

Man I hope it starts to warm up soon.

I know that this can be a stressful time of year but it is important to step back and remember why we stop to celebrate the birth of a child that happened a long time ago.

At this time of year we need our families and friends to support us through our different adventures as we get together to laugh, cry, tell stories and just spend time.

We are fortunate to have our daughter home for Christmas and will be spending our first with our new grandson.  Yup life sure looks good!

Council too has taken a break, and I look forward to addressing all the issues in the new year.

Stay warm.

Jac

At the December 2nd council meeting we accepted a petition forwarded by our MLA Kelvin Goertzen regarding the need for more policing in Steinbach.  I support the petition but do have issues that need addressing as part of adding RCMP to our detachment.

Here are some of my comments I made at council

·        Generally a petition of this nature is presented to council by it’s author or author’s, interesting that it was simply forwarded through our MLA, it means that we can’t ask questions to confirm statements made

·        It should be noted that policing in Steinbach is a City responsibility which choose to contract to the RCMP, in the past we have had a private police force but changed to RCMP contract sometime in the 70’s

·        approximately 20% of the individuals who signed are not Steinbach residence

·        the comment that Stbh has less police officers per capita than other similar sized cities is interesting as few people know that or understand that statement, both Portage and Thompson our closest in size have demographic and geographic issues they need to deal with that are not at issue in Stbh, that is one way to measure the requirements, other ways include by case load or overtime requirements

·        I too am concerned about the increase in the drug situation and property crimes in Stbh, and have meet with various citizens to understand this issue

·        The D.A.R.E. program is a program initiated by the RCMP, it is a good program that should be continued, at issue is that it requires a member to volunteer and then needs to be trained to deliver the program, and is one of D divisions priorities

·        A question that should be asked as part of the petition and seldom is should Steinbach Taxes go up to support an increase in RCMP staffing

Further

·        September 2^nd council meeting the Staff Sergeant of our local detachment appeared before council for his 6 month report, and this report is available on the City of Steinbach web site

·        Two issues where addressed in his report, more vandalism was reported at the skate park and someone had exposed themselves

·        staffing was not addressed in his report

·        During questioning we were told that the new officer was in place since April bringing our complement to 11 officers

·        We were told that the RCMP were running with 4 surplus staff between the rural and municipal detachments, meaning that Steinbach actually was very fortunate because we enjoyed an increase of 2 or 3 officers over the last 6 months to a year

·        He spoke of the COPP (Citizen’s on Patrol Program) that was just starting to get underway with it’s first public meeting and the Reader program that we approved at the July 2^nd meeting had yet to began.

·        When asked about the crime rate in Steinbach, the response was that it is similar to past years, with the majority of crimes being of a minor nature

·        So what has changed so suddenly that this needs to be addressed through a petition instead of using existing processes

o       we are a growing community and as part of our growth we need to provide an adequate police presence

o       My understanding is that last year we agreed to review the policing issue on a year to year basis, and that hasn’t changed. The policing discussion is part of our winter planning session, and I look forward to that discussion

o       We can add more officers, even 3 as suggested, but further questions need to be answered, can our detachment handle 3 more officers within current building space and vehicle use or is this a further cost that needs to be looked at 

o       How can we, as a community, hold our local detachment more accountable so we have an understanding of what their constraints are

o       Bottom line is with the increase in growth over the years we do need to provide adequate policing in our community

o       As with other organizations that Steinbach is funding, it would be appropriate for council to review a monthly summary report provided to our city manager by our staff sergeant so we can bring more awareness to council and further our community

While those were my comments at council a report from our City Manager filed at that council meeting did provide more details.  The cost of one officer is approximately $88,000/year so three officers would cost us an additional $264,000/yr.  It will be an interesting debate at our winter study session.

After hearing the Mayor’s “state of the union” address at the Chamber of Commerce AGM I found it interesting how many things had been accomplished in the last year.  So stealing with pride, here are some of the comments from our Mayor, Chris Goertzen.

Housing starts

• 2008 has been a banner year in housing starts, 416 new residents

Catching the attention of the Provincial Government

• recieved an infrastructure grant for industrial park extension
• supported the Regional Health Authority to secure a funding commitment for the ER expansion at Bethesda Hospital
• transportation Minister allocated of $3 million to Clearspring road intersection
• supported the Hanover School Division in we are getting a new middle school
• we have become Manitoba’s 3rd city, behind Winnipeg and Brandon

Our infrastructure programs

• street renewal program, like Loewen Blvd repaving
• water pump house renewal, needed as it was over 50 years old
• active transportation, thru plan for more cycling, walking pathways
• a plan for replacement of older equipment
• renovated firehall, now rated as one of the best in the province
• water spray park at the pool complex

next couple of years

• one of the most diversified economy’s in Manitoba
• the most diversified city outside of Winnipeg
• lowest millrate in Manitoba

next decade

• adopted an official community plan (used to be called development plan)
• conceptual secondary plans for the eastern, western and southern city quadrants
• we have a goal to keep taxes stable and predictable

what is ahead for next year

• library expansion plans
• lagoon expansion plans
• landfill expansion plans
• plans to see the continuation of transportation programs

But we can not forget about our other needs like the recreation facilities that are part of our essential social infrastructure including; 

• curling rink
• TG Smith arena complex
• large hosting facility for community events
• performance center

The process is clear.  Mayor and council want to see our basic infrastructure taken care of by 2010, then with that foundation we will be a good position to tackle the essential elements of our community.

After these infrastructure programs are complete we will have the basic infrastructure to take us to a city of 20,000 people.  We will be ready for the growth that lies ahead.

As Mayor and council feel very confident about the state of our city.  We have plans in place for our basic infrastructure for the next few years.  We have dreams and ideas for the next 10 years.  Both the business community as well as your city council is striving for a city of excellence ans working together we can achieve it.

-Mayor Chris Goertzen