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Page 6 West Vancouver Historical Society June 2000 By: Anne Vernon FEATURE PRESENTATION REPORT West Vancouver in the Year 2000 We had two speakers at our AGM in April - Elspeth Bradbury, a well-known West Vancouver Landscape Architect, who is also a member of the Heritage Advisory Commission, and David Stuart, the newly appointed Municipal Manager for West Vancouver. Between them they gave us a very interesting picture of what is happening behind the scenes in our community. Elspeth Bradbury our first speaker, described to us how her project - a record of the important trees in West Vancouver - has grown and developed as work on it progressed, until it is now intended to be a fully-fledged book which will record how West Vancouver's parks, gardens and trees became such an established part of life in our community. Because of professional commitments, Elspeth's time for working on her "trees" is limited to the winter months. This means it may be some time before the manuscript will be completed. However, we are sure the end result will be well worth waiting for. Elspeth is always delighted to receive any information or photographs which might extend the information she has already collected. David Stuart, our new Municipal Manager followed Elspeth at the microphone. David, who came to us after serving other communities in the Lower Mainland, is highly qualified in municipal matters. The title of his talk was "Community Renewal for a Bright Future" - West Vancouver's new clarion call. He spoke clearly and concisely and easily brought his interested audience up-to-date on municipal matters. Like other municipalities in the Lower Mainland, West Vancouver's usually shining face has become a little tired in recent years. Money is, as always, a scarce commodity and, especially for our community which does not have an industrial base, taxes inevitably creep upwards. Well aware of these difficulties, our Mayors and Councillors have fought many battles on our behalf trying to keep taxes under control. In David Stuart they have obviously found an able ally. To begin with David gave us statistics about our Municipality. You will already be familiar with some of the information quoted, but not necessarily all. So here is David Stuart's Profile of West Vancouver. We cover 90 square kilometers, have a population of 42,600, which has grown by 1% each year between 1991 and 1996; our total taxable assessment value is $9.2 billion, with 95% of the tax base being residential; our Operating Budget for the year 2000 is $66 million, which includes Transit and Utilities; we have 534 full-time employees comprising of 98 Police, 95 Fire, 56 Public Works, 92 Parks & Recreation and 193 others who are employed in the Municipal Hall, in Transit and the Library, as well as 60+ seasonal workers. We are a well-served community. {Ed note: These figures cannot, of course, include hundreds of volunteers who contribute so much to the Library, Ferry Building and Silk Purse as well as to the Museum & Archives.).We are a well-served community! As David says, we employ a fair number of staff for a municipality of this size, but this is due largely to the fact that we have well used recreation services as well as having our own Police and Transit departments. West Vancouver, like the other Lower Mainland municipalities, does not operate independently. The Provincial Government and the Greater Vancouver Regional District, as well as the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority, all have their input into what local communities can do. Our blue buses, for example, must be run under the auspices of the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority, but I am sure we would not want to be without them. Our new Manager has lots of ideas and a good grasp of reality - he sees that small changes, at small cost, can make a difference to our wellbeing. Plans for the future are exciting and changes are being made in the way the various departments are organised. David stressed how impressed he is with the sense of teamwork displayed by staff and council and we, the citizens of West Vancouver, will have the comfort of knowing that our views and needs will be heard and considered. .David operates out of City Hall and is always ready to listen if you wish to call him.