Mayors and councillors packed a session at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention yesterday to hear more about the growing problem of local industries telling small resource towns that they’re not going to pay their tax bills or that they need to have their taxes lowered. (My story in the Globe here.) It’s obviously a […]

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While debates rage about Vancouver’s budget shortfall elsewhere, we pause for a station break here to look at something completely different. Here’s a story I wrote for the Globe’s business section on how different municipalities handled planning for development along the Canada Line and how. In Vancouver, as I mention in the story and as […]

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The city’s big review of how to make operations more efficient has come in, accompanied by the news that Vancouver is facing a possible $60-million shortfall for next year. Groups have been getting brief all day at council about this. Here’s my Globe story and I’ll post a bit more later on, plus I’d love […]

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The news should start trickling out soon tomorrow morning about exactly what the news is when it comes to the city’s much anticipated/dreaded shared-services review. It’s being presented internally over the next two days, though I can’t imagine the news will stay internal for long. As I’ve reported previously, the city is looking at having […]

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I just got off the phone with recently dismissed Vancouver Board of Variance member Ray Tomlin to try to understand the events leading up to this week, when city manager Penny Ballem essentially fired him (following a council vote to do so, after getting a request from board chair Tony Tang to look at the […]

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I’m posting here three documents from former Board of Variance member (as of extremely recently) Ray Tomlin about his removal from said board. I haven’t had a chance to call anyone on this yet, but the documents include a memo and letter from city manager Penny Ballem stating her case, so I’ll count on you, […]

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Okay, I know I should post something really serious about some terrible scandal involving the infringement of someone’s liberties, but really — hasn’t it been beautiful in Vancouver the last couple days. Sometimes this city makes me so tired (fractious, smug, whiny, insular, balkanized) and other days I think, really, how nice is this. Last […]

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I haven’t had the time to do any independent reporting on the kerfuffle going on at park board (general manager resigns, general manager appears to have leaked an email sent to her by city manager Penny Ballem saying she should hold off on the process to hire her replacement, as city manager wants a role […]

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Okay, me and about five people in the world care about this, but that’s what blogs are for, right? Anyway, I just have to comment on the interesting little changes that have been happening on the city’s website. First, someone started changing the picture according to the weather so if it was snowy, there’d be […]

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Lost in the news yesterday with all the questions about the provincial government’s new homeless-to-shelters law was the news item that the province and city had come to agreement about the Little Mountain social housing site, to wit: Provincial government gets its demolition permit; the remaining 10 families there get to stay on in one […]

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