Hi Friends,
It’s sad but true: there will have to be fewer trees if there is to be more money.
What started all this hoopla about money & trees you ask?
Well, according to a recent article in the Vancouver Sun, the City of Vancouver is currently dealing with a $61 million dollar “operating budget shortfall” and so in an effort to keep property taxes from increasing by more than the targeted 2% they are asking public departments, city-wide to make deep, potentially lamentable program cuts.
For the Parks board, those cuts have to dance to the tune of $2.8 million, which ultimately means significant funding reductions for community services and the beloved tree-planting program.
This article also touches on two additional points worth addressing here that highlight the confounding & disappointing nature of the situation: the first is a simple quantitative consideration that I think a lot of homeowners really need to ponder-a-bit before jumping on the “I DON’T WANT MY TAXES TO INCREASE” bandwagon, and that is, for an average-priced Vancouver home the difference between a 2% tax increase and a 5% tax increase “is minimal and works out to about $62 a year…”.
Which begs the question, what would you be willing to pay for better air, water, soil, & scenery per year?
And the second point speaks to how the decision to cut tree-planting programs directly conflicts with the Mayor’s recent announcement & accompanying action plan to make Vancouver the GREENest city in the world by 2020.
I smell a PR mess brewing!
Have a read (link below) & share your thoughts–if you could write a letter to the mayor, the parks board or to the Vancouver Sun, what would you say?
Will Vancouver treeplanting program get the axe??!!
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/City+tree+planting+program+facing/2258120/story.html
Andrew G
