Courtenay challengers finally clam up about city finances

A fter watching the City of Courtenay all-candidates event on Oct. 1, one thought kept rattling my already rattled brain: Who are these people?

They didn’t sound like the same 17 council challengers who have been wailing on and on about property taxes, capital spending and the city’s debt for months before the municipal election campaign began two weeks ago.

Granted, these challengers and their sometimes manic followers did most of their wailing on the local Facebook politics pages, where everybody wails. It’s a thing. I wailed just having to read through all that wailing.

Anyway, those wailing people seem to have gone missing. My hearing gets worse every year, but I swear that nobody wailed about ‘out-of-control-spending’’ when they got to a public forum. Wailing is apparently easier to do while alone typing on computer keyboard.

Yes, there were a few rough and misinformed allusions to financial matters. Candidate Kam Singhania, for example, stood up to wave some papers around and wailed about “deficits,” apparently not knowing that Courtenay has never run a deficit because, by provincial law, it is forbidden to do so.

John Dacombe, who talks about finances a lot and promises to lower your property taxes, said he could save $1-$3 million by speeding up the installation of water meters, a plan the city had already considered and found to be more expensive.

Dick Clancy once again offered up some muddled math about compounding interest rates that I didn’t understand and that a finance industry person told me later didn’t make sense.

Dave Mellin wailed quixotically about spending $32 million on the outdoor pool at Lewis Park, even though the incumbent council members have made it clear the project is a no-go for the city, unless the whole region agrees to help pick up the tab.

Mayoral candidate Manno Theos seemed to have forgotten all about his criticism of the Sixth Street “bridge to nowhere.” He never mentioned it. Maybe he changed his mind. Again.

Where were the City Council challengers who have been so critical of Courtenay’s financial management? We expected them to show up with lock-down plans to reduce expenses, spend less and lower taxes.

Instead, what I heard from the challengers were proposals for even more wildly expensive projects.

Both former council member Erik Eriksson and first-time hopeful Dick Clancy proposed building a dam on the Cruikshank River to create another water reservoir. That may be a good idea, but it sent my financial advisor’s eyeballs spinning dollar signs like a slot machine.

Another candidate wailed about unhoused people littering the downtown and proposed expanding the city’s contract with the RCMP to dispatch officers 24/7 to the city’s streets. To do what, he didn’t specify. But as policing costs are already one of the city’s largest single expenses, this would potentially double or triple those costs.

Mayoral candidate Manno Theos must really love bridges. In 2019, he enthusiastically pumped council to build the Sixth Street bridge. In 2026, he decided attacking the bridge would help his campaign , hoping everybody had forgotten about 2019. Wrong!

On Thursday, he pumped for yet another bridge: twining the 17th St. bridge, or “at least start taking a look at it,” he beamed, without a hint of irony in his voice.

‘Start taking a look?’ The council and city staff have looked at how to improve traffic on the bridge for years, but they keep bumping into a rather large problem: The province owns it. The City of Courtenay has no authority or responsibility over that bridge.

But if Manno could build it, just imagine what that would cost. 

Later, mayoral candidate Bob Wells pointed out that twinning a drawbridge would be so expensive that a grant request for it had already been turned down by a federal government willing to spend $43 billion to twin a pipeline across British Columbia.

Aside from these lowlights, all of the candidates responded with good answers to the Chamber of Commerce’s questions. Many of them did well enough to increase their chances of finishing at the top in a crowded 19-horse race.

But what happened to the candidates who for months had wailed without evidence about the city’s sky high property taxes, out-of-control spending, unsustainable debt and overall terrible financial management? Where did they go?

I have no idea. But I sure don’t miss ‘em.