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EDITORIAL: Procrastination District

Three months before an election is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.
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Three months before an election is always too late or too early for anything you want to do. At least, that seemed to be the prevailing opinion Monday as a majority of District of North Vancouver council shoved the massive Maplewood Innovation District to the next council, turning today’s quandary into tomorrow’s conundrum.

We understand that even a bold politician might grow timid at the prospect of approving 900 housing units and 1.4 million square feet of business space in Maplewood and then defending that decision on doorsteps from Deep Cove and Grousewoods.

But making tough decisions isn’t part of council’s job – it is their job.

Instead of doing that job council pled for more time and information, leaving a monumental decision to  a council that – without Mayor Richard Walton and Coun. Doug MacKay-Dunn – will likely be no more informed than this one.

The delay may also drain some of the project’s affordability as the developer grapples with U.S. steel tariffs.

There are strong arguments for approving and for rejecting the Maplewood project. But we can think of no defence for council’s attempt to procrastinate their way to consensus – an abdication of duty that will turn the 2018 municipal election into a one-issue referendum.

It’s easy to say that divisive issues should be decided at the ballot box. We’d guess that the 37 families displaced by council’s approval of Emery Village last month would have sighed with relief if council had decreed that project too controversial.

Controversy is here to stay. This council, we remind voters, doesn’t have to be.