Visitors White Rock's famous pier They’ll notice the new additions as soon as they step onto the planks.
The city has set up an electronic donation box at the start of the pier so that everyone can donate to improve the pier.
A storm in December 2018 caused extensive damage to the pier.
Winds gusting to 91 kilometres per hour caused the sailboat to crash into a bridge pier, breaking the span in the middle and forcing police to call in a helicopter to rescue a man trapped on the other side of the bridge.
The pier has been rebuilt, but now the city wants to improve it to withstand future natural disasters and earthquakes.
The city has allocated $3.1 million but says repairs will cost about $15 million more.
Karpel Bilim, who was walking on the pier on Tuesday, told Global News he would be happy to donate to help rebuild it.
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“If the public can contribute, there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said.
Resident Mignon Deleeuw said she would also donate.
“I think it’s a good idea, but I think there needs to be more education about what exactly needs to be done,” she said. “I think the entire area needs to be seismically updated.”
However, DeLeeuw does not think raising taxes to cover the costs is the best approach.
“My feeling is that the taxes are beyond what can be sustained,” she added.
Resident Jan Miller said she has paid taxes in White Rock for 15 years and that donations should not be sought from the public.
“They’ve got enough grants to fix it up,” she said. “They’ve got enough taxes. Our parking lot alone would pay for it, but we don’t see any of that money.”
Miller said everyone she knows is putting off paying taxes because they can't afford to live.
“Everyone my age, in their 70s and 80s, and all my neighbors, are deferring their taxes. There's no other way. They're going to get our house eventually and they're going to pay the taxes.”
Amy Webb, owner of Maya's Ice Cream, agreed with Miller.
“As a business owner, the taxes we have to pay are very high,” she said. “I’m a resident of White Rock as well, and I pay very high taxes. They need to spend money on a lot of other things. I don’t actually think the pier needs updating. When we had the storm, they only fixed up the front half. Does it really need to be upgraded?”
The new section includes steel tubes and a concrete deck with wooden planks, the city of Shiraishi said in a statement.
“White Rock has a very small tax base,” the statement read. “For example, raising $300,000 from taxpayers would require a 1% tax increase. Given the amount of funding required, a project of the size of the pier is not feasible in the short term. The council has been actively setting aside funds in the reserve fund, which currently stands at $3.1 million, while the required funds are $15 million.”
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