TUESDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2014
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BURGER PLEADS FOR INFRASTRUCTURE CASH
Mayor wants better voice ‘I’m just not feeling like we’re getting any attention’ JOHN HARDING
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Parksville Mayor Chris Burger says Vancouver Islanders are getting a raw deal from senior governments and he wants a group of his colleagues to make some noise about it. Burger was the guest speaker at a chamber of commerce dinner Thursday night at The Beach Club. “We need to assert ourselves,” said Burger. “I’m just not feeling like we’re getting any attention. We don’t have an effective voice, someone to pull us all together.” Burger told the gathering of 100 business people he would like to see a caucus of mayors representing the Island’s 750,000 residents be the group that lobbies both Ottawa and Victoria to bring more tax dollars back to the Island in the form of infrastructure money. He said he was reading a federal government They are putting $600 document about billions of dollars in million into the subway infrastructure projects being funded in Toronto. What are they nationwide and a search of the docuputting into projects here? ment using the key words “VancouMAYOR CHRIS BURGER ver Island” returned no results. “They are putting $600 million into the subway in Toronto,” said Burger, who received a standing ovation from the crowd at the end of his address. “What are they putting into projects here?” Earlier the same day of Burger’s speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper provided some details of a $14-billion, 10-year infrastructure fund that will take effect on April 1. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford told reporters he believes much of that money should go to his city. “We’re the largest city in Canada, and I think we deserve a lion’s share of the money because we have unique needs that other cities don’t,” said Ford, according to The Globe and Mail. Thursday night at The Beach Club, Burger said the rail lines on Vancouver Island would be a good place to start for infrastructure money from senior levels of government. “We need our single and only rail line up and running here,” said the mayor. “We need to bring industry back to this Island.” See ‘WE NEED INDUSTRY BACK’, page A4
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In a speech Thursday at The Beach Club that received a standing ovation from 100 members of the Parksville and District Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Chris Burger said he wants Vancouver Island mayors to form a caucus that will lobby for infrastructure money from both Victoria and Ottawa.
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