On September 18, 2024, the City will conduct its 3rd AAP (Alternative Approval Process) after two prior failed AAPs to adopt a borrowing bylaw for 90 million dollars for a new Public Works Yard formally referred to as the “Nanaimo Operations Centre”.
The failed AAPs resulted from the City conducting the process in non-compliance with the Community Charter (laws).
The money is now targeted to build a new Public Works Yard in a “one and done” project. The last two failed AAPs were for a first instalment of 50 million dollars toward a 4-phased bylaw loan, totalling approximately 163 million dollars. In the previous two failed AAPs, Council admitted they couldn’t specify an exact loan amount for two reasons:
- The loan is for a 5-year term, and they could not predict the interest rates by the end of the term.
- Construction costs are fluctuating dramatically in this economic climate.
At best, the total loan amount was a “crap shoot,” according to Councillor Sheryl Armstrong.
We view the use of the AAP process inappropriate and undemocratic for the following reasons:
- Did you know that proper and effective notice of prior AAPs has yet to be provided by the City, leaving most citizens in the dark about when APPs are being conducted and what the bylaw loans are for? For example, our City ran an AAP to adopt a bylaw to borrow approximately 17 million dollars to build the new Firehall downtown. *View the image below for Previous AAPs and opposition numbers. The average 1-2 oppositions clearly show that citizens are poorly informed!
- Did you know the AAP process is like a negative billing scheme whereby all voters (approximately 80,000) are deemed to have approved the bylaw to borrow money unless 8,000 citizens, or 10% of the eligible voters, submit opposition forms by the deadline?
- Did you know the borrowing cost on a loan of 90 million dollars over a 20-year term is approximately 60 million dollars?
- Did you know that neither the costs to construct the new Public Works Yard nor the loan’s interest rate are set in stone and will fluctuate?
- Did you know the project is a mix of wants and needs? All wants, contentious and projects of significant scope and size should be run under a separate referendum according to best business practices.
Why AAPs Fail Our Citizens and How Your Opposition Can Force a Democratic Referendum
We suggest you oppose the AAP for the sole reason taxpayers are responsible for paying back the loans; citizens like you, whose permission is needed to adopt the borrowing bylaw, do not receive proper and effective notice, so they have no idea they are being deemed a “yes for their approval of the bylaw loan” all without their knowledge. It’s a terrible injustice.
How to Oppose the AAP:
- Print off the Opposition Form here OR pick up at Bartlett and Company Law Office at 225 Vancouver Ave, Nanaimo, BC V9R 6S3, (250) 741-0007 sometime in early to mid September.
- Return the form by hand or by mail to the Legislative Office in City Hall by the deadline of the end of business day on October 31, 2024.
- There is talk of the City allowing Opposition Forms to be submitted via email, but we still need to confirm…
OR
Return the form to Bartlett and Company by the deadline of October 31, 2024, before NOON, where they will count, scan and deliver your form to the City before the deadline.
*Please join our community so we can keep you updated on other AAPs the City puts out because, as Mayor Krog stated at the December 4, 2023, council meeting, “Other projects are coming“…
