"BE IT RESOLVED that city council invite the North Vancouver school board, the District of North Vancouver council, the North Vancouver Recreation Commission and the North Shore Board of Health along with their respective staff to a meeting in early January 2012 to discuss the 12 identified properties that are surplus to the school district's needs."
Coun. Rod Clark, Dec. 12, 2011
THE motion tabled by North Vancouver City Coun. Rod Clark seemed innocuous enough; business as usual for the re-elected and newly elected members of council.
Alas, it was not to be.
The first pounce jumped on Clark's use of the outdated term Board of Health - a board he served on and off for almost 10 years - instead of Vancouver Coastal Health.
The important stuff out of the way, and after taking pains to affirm its belief in co-operation, council decided the time for inclusion was not yet ripe. In particular, that applied to the inclusion of District of North Vancouver council and the public.
Up the drawbridge!
After all, went the rationale, the former would have little interest in the four city-based parcels - the largest of which is the 13-acre Lucas Centre site - and the latter wouldn't understand all the issues until later in the process.
Instead, council booted the issue over to staff for a report on their discussions with the school board.
The Dec. 12 discussion did, however, give former North Vancouver school district trustee and new councillor Linda Buchanan an opportunity to provide a useful background to school lands issues and alert council to the school board's website.
But if Buchanan believes Clark's motion would have been redundant had he seen the website, it would not.
But here I must jog down a side road:
Has something gone awry at North Vancouver city hall?
When the testiness around the council table escalated in early November, it could have been written off as end-ofterm fatigue or pre-campaign jousting for re-election.
Yet if the campaign was the cause, the often bitter outbursts would surely have died down by now; they haven't.
Indeed meetings of both the former and newly elected councils suggest that the shameful 78.8 per cent of voters who couldn't be bothered to cast a ballot in the city may live to regret their apathy.
One of the worse-kept secrets of the November election was that after months of jockeying behind the scenes, an aggressive campaign aimed at electing Mayor Darrell Mussatto's preferences for a reliable 4: 3 majority fell short.
Score one for democracy. Citizens are not well served when four or more members of a seven-person council form a clique that consistently votes as a group.
In fact, given the nature of slates, Clark's idea of nominating a slate of "independents" to counteract council group-think is not likely to improve the situation.
Whether union, developer or sports-oriented in origin, when less than 25 per cent of voters cast a ballot in small communities such as ours, it is too easy for lobby-groups to muster votes enough to distort election results.
But the Dec. 12 meeting did more than hint that this term of council may not be a smooth ride for Mussatto. It also highlighted North Shorewide concerns that beg the question: Who really decides the outcome of local council discussions? Is it regional districts and boards; Port Metro; the province - or all of the above?
Co-ordination of services is laudable; but when decisions are imposed by extra-municipal entities, local democracy disappears and municipal budgets are driven against the wall.
Most insidious of all, is that the ill-disguised purpose of Crown corporations and regional agencies - including health and school districts - is to march to Victoria's drum and to shield that government from the people.
So let's retrace our steps to the point at which Buchanan gave us an important clue as to the process underway at the North Vancouver school district.
Apparently, the board has discussed its plans with education minister George Abbott, who not only said there is no provincial moratorium on the sale of school district lands, but is "encouraging the board to move forward with its plans for certain properties. . . ."
As Coun. Pam Bookham said, ". . . (that) does not surprise me in the least, given what we hear about the state of our provincial finances."
What residents need now are some straight answers. Who initiated those discussions? How mature are board plans for the Lucas Centre? And what does city staff know that has not yet been relayed to council?
Because, as Clark made plain from the outset, the municipality has jurisdiction over zoning and land use; and, "First and foremost, the public has a right to know what plans are afoot."
That means before, not after, the fact.
