Carol Day Richmond City Council

Erase Bullying Day is Feb 24th, you can make a change by telling your story. Here is my story . As the smallest five year old student at Blundell elementary I was taunted after school as I walked home everyday by a boy twice my size named Jerry. Day after day he followed me, stole my hat and verbally abused me. Being from Denmark I wore my Danish clogs, one day I had eneogh and I kicked Jerry in the shin with my wooden clogs and ran home crying in fear. Jerry dropped like a... stone to the ground screaming in pain. I told my parents and my Dad went over and talked to Jerry's Grand parents., he never came near me ever again. Looking back, why was Jerry living with his Grandparents, what pain was he suffering ? Maybe if he had some more support he would not have been such a bully ? Talk to each other and hear each other and together we can erase bullying.

I feel I need to correct the inaccuracies of Mr. Andy Hobbs letter of Dec 17th because I feel his statements don't accurately reflect the work we are doing at city hall and the citizens of Richmond do not need more stress during this pandemic . Comments like "2021 is not the time to burden the residents of Richmond with a tax increase. " are really not helpful. City Council has worked very hard to lessen the burden of property taxes where we can, such as eliminating the 1... % to reserves and lowering the original tax increase by 2.01 %.Council also voted for a corporate reset which reduced the budget permanently by 1.50% and we reduced the 1% funding for community facilities in 2019 to 0.50 %. City council cannot however control the increases that we get from Metro Vancouver for water and sewer so there will be a very small tax increase but through fiscal management we have lessened the burden on citizens. Our Financial Resiliency plan has been successful in eliminating or deferring expenses. Some of the steps that city council has taken include deferring large remittances to other agencies, deferring quarterly metered utility deadlines, deferring development cost charges, deferring the consolidated fee bylaw, delaying the property tax penalty, we withheld enforcement of unpaid business license and established rent relief for city owned facilities. Council and staff have also been working to inform citizens about the property tax deferment program through the Province of BC. I am proud of the work that council and staff have done during these most troubling times and want the people of Richmond to know that we are doing everything in our power to support you and the needs of the city. City Councillor Carol Day

Real Estate prices and affordability are not new issues in Richmond but finally there is some relief. As of Nov 30, 2020 foreign buyers must now register with the Provincial Land Owner Transparency Registry. The owners and can no longer hide behind numbered companies known as beneficial ownership, this practice allowed for domestic and international tax evasion and money laundering. Maybe now residential real estate can be about owning your own home. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/.../article-foreign.../ I made a motion Feb 11, 2019 to write to the Federal and Provincial government and UBCM to " create transparency around beneficial ownership of corporations and land. " So glad they are listening... Do you want to become a Bee Ambassador ? See below.....

The Massey tunnel enhancement project is getting closer to becoming a reality soon the province will decide, I sure hope it is a twinned tunnel. The silty sandy soil conditions are a key factor and that is why the original tunnel was built 50 years ago. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020TRAN0177-002095

Thanks so the Dupuis Langen group for sending me this mask so I could promote their $ 10,000 potential donation to the Richmond Food Bank. Please support this amazing initiative #dl12daysofgiving for every tag and hashtag they will donate $ 50.00 !