The new plan includes a myriad of recommendations, calls for higher fees, and warns of "significant financial investments," yet provides no cost analysis. The plan is all but guaranteed to be a financial disaster; in fact, it explicitly aims to increase the cost of living in a city which is already among the least affordable in the world. Among its statements: "[green policy must] affect people’s finances in positive and negative ways"; "energy is too cheap" and City hall must lobby for increased energy prices and the creation of "pay-as-you-drive insurance premiums" and "road and/or congestion pricing." And you thought the HST was bad. If this plan is allowed to proceed, expect to pay more for water, home heating, gas, electricity, insurance, parking, and roads. And that's just the beginning. Robertson also wants to drastically reduce the amount of street parking, and to eliminate parking in apartment buildings.
"If you're going to go out there and spend hundreds of thousands if not millions or tens of millions of dollars trying to retool the public service of Vancouver around some fanciful green dream, then you're going to have to go out there and try to explain to voters why they don't want to let them know what the cost of it is." -- NPA Coun. Mike Klassen.
Meanwhile, Coun. Anton said she sees "whole new layers of city bureaucracy, more wacky green projects, and more taxpayer-funded consultants."
Robertson is known for forcing other costly "green" initiatives on Vancouver, such as the ridiculous and mostly unused bike lanes in the middle of the downtown core. If he is reelected in November and retains a majority, he will have at least three more years to institute his latest plan.
Read the entire plan here (PDF).
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