Langford City Council Special Meeting on a
Federal Bailout for Bear Mountain Projects
by Zoe Blunt
 Turns out Mayor Stew Young's statement at the South Skirt Mountain public hearing was true -- Langford is lining up to demand a taxpayer bailout for its debt-ridden interchange and controversial South Skirt Mountain development plan. A special meeting of Langford City Council is set for tomorrow, Thursday, March 12 at 5:30 pm. Council will consider a proposal for the Building Canada Fund, the infrastructure grant money from Ottawa.
It takes a special kind of hypocrisy to brag (loudly and constantly) that this interchange will be 100% paid for by developers, and then turn around and beg for a federal grant. Of course, the grant would have to be matched by municipal revenue, meaning taxpayers get soaked twice for a bridge to nowhere. That would be enough for most public officials, but here Langford ups the ante and demands millions more for a parkway to service a half-built, half-abandoned golf resort. That takes real gall.
Here's a thought: why not ask the taxpayers what projects deserve a federal grant? Or how about considering what projects would benefit the most people? Hint: most people don't own property on Skirt Mountain, and don't stand to make $1.7 billion in profit from an "investment" of millions in public money.
The notion is absurd. The language in the proposal is also really strange.
Here's how it appears in the agenda for tomorrow's meeting, annotated with my commentary.
1. Local Roads : Completion 1 of the Langford North Connector road 2 that extends north from the current Spencer Interchange 3 to established communities 4 on Bear Mountain. 5 This project will include completion of ramps 6 located in the southwest quardant 7 of that intersection.
Notes:
1 "Completion?" That implies that most of the work has already been done on this road, when in fact it's a muddy track.
2 The actual name of the road is "Bear Mountain Parkway." I don’t know why Langford Council names roads after Bear Mountain Resort and then changes them before the road is even built. Maybe trying to avoid a public perception that Bear Mountain Resort was supposed to profit enormously from all this "infrastructure?"
3 "Current?" Oops, wait, the interchange isn't finished yet either. They're only a year behind schedule. And didn't it used to be called the "Bear Mountain Interchange?" (See note above.)
4 By "established communities," they mean a few mountaintop dwellers and a whole lot of empty condos, all of which can be accessed from Millstream Ave. By the way, those condos are getting the "liquidation auction" treatment later this month, according to Dale Sproule. (He calls it "Bear Market Pricing" and promises "out of this world prices" to be announced by March 18.) Too bad the Arabs passed up the opportunity to buy Bear Mountain for $500 million, because it looks like it's going bankrupt.
5 It's actually called Skirt Mountain. Maybe council is renaming it? If so, they should consider calling it "Langford North Connector Mountain."
6 Building two new ramps will require cutting down the rest of the forest west of Leigh Road and south of the highway, including the veteran old-growth firs and cedars near the cave site. The ramps are designated as part of "Phase Two" of the Bear Mountain Interchange. Along with the rest of the interchange project, they were supposed to be paid for by developers, not by taxpayers.
7 I, for one, would donate five bucks to a special fund to buy Langford a spell check program, if only to reduce the number of embarrassing mistakes in every single public notice. Who's with me?
Link to agenda package (large pdf - grab it while it's online, it will be gone by Thursday night) http://www.cityoflangford.ca/documents/agendas/Special_Council09-03-12%20Special%20Council%20Mtg.%20Agenda.pdf
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