Council, and your Mayor, are the custodians of your tax dollars, and the leaders of evolution in our community. We are responsible for ensuring your family is safe, your utilities are delivered the services delivered meet your needs.  Our role is to ensure that the city is moving in the direction the residents wish, and protecting the investment in city assets. Council's role is to set policy and goals based on residents desires, and to ensure that city staff are moving towards meeting those goals and implementing those policies.

Mayor and council should be held to account for the decisions we make. Decisions should not be made 'in camera' or secretly unless they need to be for legal or financial reasons. And in those cases, those decisions should be released to the public as soon as they can be.

Mayor and council should be held to account for their decisions, both locally and regionally - we need to avoid 'offloading' decisions to GVRD, where decisions are made in relative isolation. Residents complain that these are decisions being made by unelected and unaccountable people - but they are not - these are Mayors and Councillors from each municipality and they should be accoutable for all of their policies, whether they are made locally in council chambers, or in Burnaby !

As Mayor, I have led initiatives to 'open up' your municipal government.  Live web broadcasting of Council meetings and committee meetings, town hall meetings, open houses, Council cafe's, smart phone apps, myPortMoody online portal, use of social media platforms, and more.   Open government ensures accountability and I will continue to challenge staff and council to ensure all decisions are made publicly, and all information is made available to residents PRIOR to those decisions being made. I will also continue to challenge GVRD and member municipalities to ensure that regional decisions are being made at the appropriate location, and by the appropriate parties, with the general public fully informed and involved.  

I know you work hard for your money and you demand value from your city.  I take that responsibility seriously and continue to ensure there is full accountability.