Further to the article about the Inn at Westview [“Council to debate Inn at Westview demolition,” March 8], the people of Powell River are owed an explanation by their council.
The bill to tear it down could be up to $1 million. Now council is, by the look of it, going to ask taxpayers whether the city should pick up the tab. Isn’t this why we elect people to council: to make these decisions?
Obviously this and previous councils were not up to the task. The mayor says in the article “be careful what you ask for, because you just may get it on this one.”
So now it’s down to blackmailing residents of this community into making some sort of decision, something council has been unable to do for the last two years or more.
This is evidence, even though the bylaws and Community Charter provide remedies for council to deal with these types of problems, that council dropped the ball. Now we are at a phase in the issue where the cost has become untenable.
What we are really saying here is that Seaboard Hotels is not willing to pay to have its building demolished because it may bankrupt them. My question to the owner of Seaboard Hotels is: where were you going to get the money from in the future to tear the building down when the time came to do something with the property? Being a skeptic, I believe this is a setup for the taxpayers to foot the bill and always has been.
So here we are, which was inevitable, potentially a $1-million bill that council is perhaps going to ask us to decide on. There needs to be some consequences over this. If the taxpayers agree to foot this bill, then at the very least the owner of Seaboard should be asked to come up with at least half of this amount, or $500,000.
As well, those at the staff level at city hall who had overall responsibility to advise council on this issue, and did nothing, need to be let go. If this was a private company and an employee who had responsibility for this type of issue did nothing and cost the company upwards of $1 million, I am sure they would have been shown the door.
Taxpayers elect councillors and mayors to manage their tax dollars wisely and with trust. They expect staff is competent and can carry out administration of bylaws and other tasks.
This is the last thing I am writing on this subject, and I am sure council will be glad to hear that. To the people of Powell River, I say demand more of your elected officials and an inquiry by an independent entity into the background of this issue. That is the only way to find out if the decision to have taxpayers pay for the demolition is really warranted, or could have been averted a long time ago.
Allan Drummond is a resident of Powell River.
