True which is why you need to find communities like terrace and smithers and Salmon arm that have recreational facilities etc. I don’t believe the phone company employees are in this count. Are museum employees city employees? Whether it was cost effective to have Fulton Street done internally is an open question. In many cases outside contractors who specialize in this work full time can bid very competitively.
In my (very little) experience, I’ve found that other towns that are small like ours, but which are better maintained have a much higher tax bracket. (ie, Parksville and Qualicum) People here are complaining about a home owner’s tax hike (which is a justifiable complaint), when, in theory, the extra money will hopefully help to beautify and update this city.
[quote=“Princess of Power”]
other towns that are small like ours, but which are better maintained have a much higher tax bracket. (ie, Parksville and Qualicum) [/quote]
I wish it was so. But according to the Union of BC Municipalities the 2007 figures show differently;
[ltr]
NamePrince RupertParksvilleQualicum BeachTypeCityCityTownFull time employees161 49Survey not returnedPart time permanent81Survey not returnedSeasonal Employees724Survey not returnedResidential Tax Rate10.404624.41713.288Major Industry Tax Rate35.687859.206611.1792Light Industry Tax Rate34.959529.206611.1792Business Tax Rate36.5202211.8410.918Residential Tax Bill home assessed at 200k$2,080.92$883.42$657.60Business Tax Bill onProperty assessed at 200k$7,304.04$2,368.00$2,183.60[/ltr]
As you can see home owners in Prince Rupert pay more than double than their counterparts in Parksville or Qualicum and business Owners pay almost triple here. My opinion is that we have tolerated a culture of incompetence and feather bedding for far too long in our municipal government. Regrettably this starts from the top and it’s not the workers to blame but our elected officials and management at city hall.
Those numbers are suspicious. I know for a fact there are more than 8 Part-Time Permanent employees working for the City of Prince Rupert.
So, I guess this begs the question-who filled out the survey? Either they were given the wrong figures or did they interpret them wrong? If there are more than eight part-timers, does that mean the overall number of employees will actually go up some more?
The figures are compiled by City Management each year and forwarded to UBCM for input. As for the City’s workforce, it seems to me that there are far too many managers, and not enough of the real people that needs to do the job to improve our water, sewer and streets…
That’s a fair point, but you can’t really know what it takes to manage the City until you’ve had to do it. Maybe come November I’ll see your name on a ballot. 
True enough but I think the link between our high taxes and the number of employees at the City is there. Parksville manages on 1/3 of the reported staff it takes to run the city of Prince Rupert. While being a bit smaller in population (2k), this is hardly sufficient to explain the difference. As pointed out, UBCM only reports what the city management report to them on an annual basis.
My opinion remains that management and our elected officials at city hall are incompetent and have fostered a culture of incompetence, featherbedding and entitlement.
November is coming. Democracy is a wonderful thing.
I’ve been reading commentary about how Rupert is faring for a while now and being married to a person who is high level civic management,it’s been…interesting. Every community has it’s good and bad points but if things at the top are perceived to be in a state of disarray or are being poorly managed (or hitting a wall when it comes to worker-management interactions), the trickle-down effect tends to make things bad for the community as a whole. Admittedly being pretty much broke doesn’t help things much but I guess it’s up to the voters to look back at how decisions were made and the results of those on the city and where the money was spent and how much the city as a whole benefitted from them. Mind you, getting good candidates in there who will actually work hard at helping things get turned around and helping the citizens feel proud again of their city is no cakewalk either. Even if you do get a good and workable council in place, it’s going to be a while before some of the problems get fixed anyhow,depending on how council interacts with your current management team…
Rupert is my home town and I love that it is. I hate that it seems to be going further down the hole. But ppl in rupert need to protest things make it happen. Why would city counsel change if the citizens arent speaking up. Get ppls signatures march down there with ppl who want change. (dont go for a fight) Go and say this is what we NEED and WANT done. Get media on the side of the ppl. I miss lots of things but one thing I don’t is how most ppl arent up to date with all the politics going on.
As for them uping the cost of garbage. Thats just stupid. I live in Powell River and here they don’t charge you a certain amount per year they charge you per bag you can go to just about any store and get a garbage sticker. Your garbage only gets picked up if it has a sticker on the bag. It helps with the amount of garbage going to the dump more and more ppl are recycling here because of it. You also have the option of going to the dump and getting weighed.
Does rupert even have the recycling bins around town??
I spotted another “perk” for city employee’s tonight when I was at my parents place. Personal use of city vehicles. Their neighbor holds poker nights from time to time. I can always tell when they happen because I have to park way down the street. So I drive up tonight and what’s parked right next to my parents driveway on the street? A city of Prince Rupert truck. When I go inside the first thing my dad says to me is: “Did you spot who is playing poker tonight?”.
Now that I think about it, maybe it’s Herb there trying to win some money for the city budget…lol
Ah but poker is a team building exercise, I’m sure it’s covered under the city/union agreement under educational opportunities… 
Just at Overwaitea and Safeway for plastic jug and news papers…