But MANAGERS AND CITY COUNCIL HATES THEM
Nanaimo Needs a Full Core Services Review Before Asking Taxpayers for More, Nanaimo Taxpayers Are Not an ATM: It’s Time for a Full Core Services Review
Nanaimo taxpayers are being pushed too far, and City Hall keeps acting like there is only one answer to every budget problem: take more.
More taxes. More staff. More operating costs. More pressure on the people who actually pay the bills.
At some point, residents are entitled to ask a very basic question: when does City Hall start looking in the mirror instead of reaching deeper into taxpayers’ pockets?
That is why Nanaimo needs a full Core Services Review.
Not a token exercise. Not a staff-controlled box-checking exercise. A real review — one that examines every department, every service, every staffing increase, every administrative layer, and every spending priority to determine what is truly essential, what is producing real value, and what is simply part of an ever-expanding municipal machine.
Because right now, the pattern is obvious. Costs rise. Staff numbers rise. Taxes rise. And taxpayers are told this is normal, necessary, and somehow unavoidable. Funny how the only thing that never seems to get reviewed is whether City Hall itself has become too bloated, too comfortable, and too disconnected from the financial reality facing ordinary people.
Nanaimo residents are not living in a world of automatic income increases. They are dealing with soaring housing costs, food prices, utilities, fuel, insurance, and interest rates. Seniors on fixed incomes are squeezed. Families are squeezed. Small businesses are squeezed. Renters are squeezed too, because higher property taxes ripple through the economy and show up in higher rents and higher prices.
So why does the City behave as though taxpayer capacity is infinite?
A Core Services Review would force council to confront the questions it should already be asking. Are staffing levels justified by measurable service improvements? Has administration grown faster than frontline service? Are taxpayers funding duplication, low-priority programs, or internal inefficiencies that would never survive real scrutiny? Are there things the City is doing simply because it has always done them, not because they are core or cost-effective?
These are not unfair questions. They are overdue questions.
Too often, municipal budgeting works like a ratchet. Spending goes up year after year, and each year’s higher spending becomes the new floor. From there, departments come forward with more requests, more positions, more “pressures,” and more reasons taxpayers should just accept the increase. Multiply that across the organization, and you get a budget culture that treats growth as the default and restraint as the exception.
That is not financial stewardship. That is drift.
And drift is expensive.
A serious Core Services Review would do what annual budget debates rarely do: separate wants from needs. It would identify what services must be protected, what can be delivered more efficiently, and what may no longer justify the cost. It would tell residents whether they are paying for real service delivery or for bureaucratic expansion. Most importantly, it would send a clear message that council understands who it works for.
Because taxpayers do not exist to fund a city government’s every ambition. City government exists to deliver essential services efficiently, affordably, and accountably.
That means roads, water, sewer, public safety, basic infrastructure, and core community maintenance come first. It means measurable results matter more than internal rationalizations. It means the burden of proof belongs to those asking for more money, not to the taxpayers struggling to keep up.
Predictably, some will say a Core Services Review is “anti-staff” or “anti-service.” That is nonsense. Demanding accountability is not anti-anyone. It is pro-taxpayer. It is pro-affordability. It is pro-good government.
In fact, a properly run review could strengthen public trust in legitimate spending. Residents are far more likely to support paying for real essentials when they can see that waste, duplication, and low-value spending are being challenged instead of protected.
What Nanaimo cannot afford is the status quo: rising costs, rising staff complements, rising taxes, and the same tired claim that there is no alternative.
There is an alternative.
Review everything. Justify everything. Prioritize core services. Cut what does not deliver. Control overhead. Respect taxpayers.
Nanaimo residents are not an ATM for City Hall.
The time for excuses is over. The time for a full Core Services Review is now.
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