What the referendum is really about

Four weeks from today, Prince George residents will vote whether they are in favour or not of building a replacement for Fire Hall #1 and the Four Seasons Pool.

Except that’s a somewhat misleading statement.

There are two separate referendum questions, so voters can actually vote one of four different ways – reject both the pool and the fire hall, support both, and vote for one but not the other.

It’s also misleading because residents could strongly support the construction of both facilities but vote against both of them at the ballot box.

That’s because the questions don’t ask whether building a new pool and/or a new fire hall is a good idea. Instead, the specific questions that will face voters when they step into the ballot box is whether they approve the city borrowing the money to pay for the new facilities and paying off that loan over as long as 20 years.

So all this discussion about the proposed location for the new pool and fire hall is somewhat irrelevant. Once approved, city council could decide the pool belongs in College Heights and the fire hall should stay downtown and not be moved to the corner of Massey Drive and Carney Street.

City council would also have the authority to build a smaller replacement fire hall and renovate the existing building to serve as a standalone dispatch centre.

In other words, the referendum is only about the money. All of the other details – like buying the Days Inn building and demolishing it to make room for the new pool and what will happen in the space currently occupied by the current facilities – will be decided by mayor and council.

And even the money part isn’t really up to voters.

The referendum questions ask for approval to borrow up to $35 million for the pool and up to $15 million for the fire hall. Nothing is binding mayor and council to build as much pool as possible for as close to $35 million as possible. After approval, city council could decide, for example, to build a smaller, basic pool – one without a waterslide and beach entry and all of those other luxuries – for significantly less. Same goes for the fire hall. While it’s unlikely this current mayor and council would make such a radical departure, there is a municipal election next fall. While the projects will likely be put out to tender and contractors may even be chosen by then, a new mayor and council could still revisit the pool and fire hall projects, undoing as much of this council’s work as it liked. Even if construction is underway, a new mayor and council could decide to slam on the brakes and review the whole thing, in the same way the NDP government is revisiting building the Site C dam.

Over the next month, the current mayor and council will be fanning out across the city in their now annual Talktober community engagement events, focusing this year on the referendum.

City council and administration tipped their hand last week at the online information sessions at city hall about how they will market the facilities, particularly the pool.

The fire hall message is straightforward. A new facility will be able to properly house modern fire trucks and the dispatch centre at a location that will improve response times across much of the Bowl. In essence, that’s what taxpayers are buying with their $15 million.

The pool is being sold as a seniors facility, a place for an aging population to go to stay active and healthy, to recover from their hip and knee replacements and to grudgingly join aquafit classes after their doctor tells them to get off their butts to help deal with hypertension and heart disease.

Of course, it will be a family pool, perfect for young families, except there are far more voters in the older demographic who are far more likely to vote.

The 50-plus crowd – particularly retirees on pensions – need to be sold on what’s in it for them when their city taxes go up to pay for the pool.

While it’s fine for city council and administration to address what kind of pool can be built for $35 million and what kind of fire hall the city would get for $15 million, resi- dents shouldn’t take talk of fancy, state-ofthe-art amenities too seriously. Those will be the first things cut to keep the projects on budget.

Furthermore, they have nothing to do with the real impact taxpayers will feel for up to 20 years on their annual taxes. And even those details are sketchy. The city estimates the pool will add $8.45 per year per $100,000 of assessed value for the fire hall and $19.71 per year per $100,000 of assessed value for the pool. Of course, these are estimates – not fixed costs – based on paying off the loans in 20 years at three per cent interest.

If interest rates go up, if assessed values go up or if mayor and council decide to pay off the facilities sooner, taxpayers will pay more.

In the end, this referendum is about what all referendums are about, whether they are at the local, provincial or federal level. A year before residents will cast their ballots for mayor and city councillors, residents will deliver their verdict on the first three years of work by Mayor Lyn Hall and the eight current city councillors. Written between the lines of the referendum questions is this simple query: do you trust this mayor and council?

For many voters, trust is the only question on every ballot. The rest is just details.

— Neil Godbout, Editor-in-Chief