NANAIMO PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY COMMENTS

The following is a list of comments on the Voice of Nanaimo public opinion survey. The survey when first posted did not require any sign in which led to what clearly was a case of someone pro-city trying to skew the survey by repeatedly posting the highest rating possible. As soon as a sign in was required that stopped.

This makes the satisfaction rating useless, but the following comments give a clear example of the opinions of the majority of participants commenting.

• I do not feel we are getting any value from our taxes paid.. my taxes did not go up as much this year as last few years but I know with all the borrowing this council is planning to do, I worry I cannot afford to live here.. They need to opt out of the PCP program too. We cannot afford to do this especially on top of all the projects they wish to do.. Also they do too many at once and they all take forever to do.
• Keep up the good work
• I support the boat house
• More roads
• Go back to the core services and quit taking on other levels of government responsibility
• How is it that my property taxes increased when my property value decreased? And just stop it with the bike lanes already.
• Embarrassed to call Nanaimo my home town
• Spending must be related to what benefits the majority of citizens the most NOW. Building for what might or might not happen decades into the future is irresponsible. Council needs to curb their spending today. Stop with narrowing streets, erecting mega street secured sign posts & bike lanes.
• Stop requiring every subdivision to have a lot for public park.
• Wreckless passing of bylaws recommended by ADMIN - but Sheila Currie is married to the Pres of local CUPE - a direct conflict of interest!!!!!
• Stop trying to take away everything from low income seniors.
• What do boat houses have to do with the survey. Indigenous take over of tax paying property needs to stop. End the tax free reserves and tax free businesses on reserves. ALL equal under the law, ALL communities paying taxes.
• N\A
• Housing is a complex issue, but it is front of mind
• Reduce your out of touch spending. Stop looking after drug induced people and look after seniors first.
• Stop with your “pet” projects. Get back to basics of what needs to be to be done, stop wasting our tax dollars on ridiculous things. And stop giving our city away to developers! If they want to develop here they should be paying top + dollar. Also stop expanding and developing so quickly…. This city has become so over crowded in the last 10 years. Maybe attract some real business to the city.. ( not the communist party of china ones ) .
• The city of Nanaimo staff are way ahead regarding monitoring assets and preparing funds for replacement compared to other municipalities. I would like to see senior staff in planning and recreation stop with their own pet projects that are and should be regional projects, as well as health services and crime. We need to start putting more pressure on the province instead of taking on issues that aren’t ours. It’s the same with the RDN, the city councillors on this board need to reign in the spending. Nanaimo already supports the majority of RDN residents with our amenities and subsidizes their property taxes. My parents in extension (RDN) pay only $900 after the grant and have used the cities amenities for years, and they also don’t get the crime or other issues. They should be contributing to this regional issue. There should also be some accountability about the outrageous spending from the library in past years and how they are going to mitigate this going forward. Finally, the monies collected on behalf of VIHA and their increases deserve a letter from councillors on behalf of their citizens. They have $0 accountability and their money wasted on their capital projects is insanity (for a fact - as I’ve reviewed their projects as a project manager on those projects).
• N/a
• Stop lining your pockets and do your job
• The city should be more open and transparent
• Time for a new council working for the citizens of Nanaimo
• Less unnecessary spending on things like boat houses and more on infrastructure we actually need
• Taxes in recent years have gone totally out of control. This is more than I can afford on my penison.
• Y'all need to quit
• Needed transparency & terminate incompetency
• This lack of Transparency, unnecessary spending, large increases in taxes, "Donut city theory" (aka control of all citizens travel- dictatorship), censorship of our newspaper- Bulletin ( gag orders?) and very high crime (catch and release) due to poor management is driving our citizens and economy into chaos. It is a disgraceful corruption of power to grant themselves raises and also the ability to spend millions$$$ without residents VETO powers. Nanaimo has become the dumping ground for undesirable drug addicted criminals from all over BC. Promised temporary 3yr Contract with Terminal and Labeiux (Who is paying the $1million/yr for each to run.) should never have been renewed! Who allowed this??? They should be dismantled as they are now only storage for stolen goods and drugs. All but Sheryl Armstrong should be fired. His eminence with questionable moral standards Mayor Grog must go.
• The city’s biggest problem is efficiency, I have been observing from place to place, like construction spot, worker are so inefficient, many city services should be done via online or digital, but we have ppl sitting there without too much outcome, too many managers from our city, whom doing nothing but create burden to taxpayers. We can’t afford it, it’s not sustainable.
• Start working for the actual citizens instead of a woke agenda
• Your building inspectors need to understand they are wasting peoples money by there incompetence. To put holds on permits because they don’t like a particular builder are petty. Ever city that I have talked to home builders doesn’t have the issues that the Nanaimo building inspectors put homeowners through.
• Stop the opioid and drug addiction industry
• School taxes are going up and senior citizen rebate is frozen.
• Be more transparent with the public
• A few people @ city haul do NOT want & / or care to listen concerning road safety.
• Stop spending dollars chasing an idealogical goal called climate and get back delivering core services cost effectively.
• Stop spending money unnecessarily
• More roadwork please
• Clean up our city. Prioritize community members, not drug addicts.
• Stop the agendas-no smart city infrastructure, no complete community /15 mins city’s. No more street narrowing, no more bike lines. No more drop in centers or supportive houses for drug addicts, only dry recovery housing support.
• Look after the citizens of Nanaimo and quit foolishly spending our tax dollars.
• Very hard to access downtown business. Even before this year of construction pay parking downtown made it difficult to and expensive to just pop in for a look.
• get your crap together man
• ...cant wait to vote you out of office! DB's!
• Stay in your lane
• I just moved over from West Vancouver last summer. I find there aren’t a lot of bike, friendly trails and roadways, etc.
• More housing
• Nope
• There is way too much red tape for construction permits need to be fast tracked by any means
• Stop enabling the unhoused and work towards care and ongoing treatment to end the drug addiction plaguing our community! Also stop wasting our taxpayer dollars on bike lanes and rainbow cross walks. Be realistic with the spending and remember the people have the voice listen to us!
• Is staff not capable of establishing and managing a budget for core for core services?
• Stop wasting money on stupid things like Long Lake
• You wouldn't need to borrow money for projects if you stopped spending on frivolous items! We don't need more bike lanes and narrowed streets or politically correct spending. We, as tax prayers, need to spend within our budget. You should be doing the same.
• Stop with the bike lanes, ridiculous art like the Nanaimo sign and rainbow crosswalks, also the large speed bumps and making congestion worse by adding more lights and changing intersections and deal with the drug problem and crime. Quit raising our taxes for your projects that very few want and address the bigger needs and priorities. Cannot wait for most of the council to be gone. Thank you Sheryl Armstrong, only sane one in there.
• Stop wasting money on bike lanes, Art, Pride crosswalks, DEI initiatives, etc.etc
• Taxation WITHOUT Representation!!
• Stop wasting our tax dollars on non-essentials like bike lanes. Stop trying to solve issues that are a provincial jurisdiction and focus on accountability to the tax payers whose money you are spending!
• I would like to see more transparency eg. why no recorded city hall meetings allowed? How are spending priorities arrived at? eg money spent for a small % of population for fancy bike paths while potholes are getting worse everywhere
• Be responsive to taxpayer questions and stop spending so much money on the street addicts because all that is doing is encouraging more to come here and increasing crime. Pressure the other levels of government to step up. With the tax increases more hard working, contributing members of society are going to end up on the street.

Note this is a direct copy and paste from the comments left on the survey, I have done no editing whatsoever.