The Town of Gibsons is finalizing its annual budget with a five per cent tax increase, but road works and depleted reserves are a major concern.
“Quite frankly we have very minimal reserves,” said Mayor Wayne Rowe. “There’s not much of a well to go to if we have any serious expenses that come along unexpectedly.”
The boil water advisory last September left the Town without much in the bank. Three per cent of the tax increase will be going to replenishing the Town’s reserves, with two per cent left over for inflation costs. However, according to Gibsons director of finance Ian Poole, that three per cent only amounts to about $75,000 annually.
“Which really is not a lot of money,” Poole told Coast Reporter.
Looking at the value of assets as well as the replacement value of those assets, Poole said that the numbers are shocking.
“One thing [the budget] does not include is any additional roadworks for 2015,” Poole said. “At this stage we do not have the financial capability to do any improvements to our road works without incurring additional debt. Council is just not willing to go in that direction.”
The additional debt of keeping Gibsons roads maintained is estimated at a little over half a million dollars annually. While that figure is too high for the Town, both Poole and Rowe identified Gower Point Road as a pressing concern.
“We’re certainly not going to be able to leave it indefinitely without some attention,” Rowe said. “One of the decisions that council is going to have to look at — hopefully in discussion with the community — is what is the level of service that we’re prepared to accept in terms of what we’re prepared to pay for. I think that’s a discussion that is going to have to be front and centre.”
In addition to the five per cent tax increase, water rates will also be going up by 11 per cent across the board. Businesses will see the highest increases to their water rates while multi-family dwellings, like strata communities, will see the lowest increases.
“With the fact that everybody is on a water meter — both residential and commercial — your bill will vary depending on your level of consumption,” Poole said. “Your bill may go down if you consume less than the previous year.”
Sewer rates are increasing by eight per cent. This is to cover operational costs as well as to build reserves for future asset replacement.
“This is the reason why we’ve embarked on — at least our water and sewer plans — with a plan to make those services self sustaining” Rowe said. “But it’s going to take us probably a good decade to get to that point, and that’s assuming that we don’t have any significant interruptions.”
Parts of the seawalk will be getting upgrades. This project started two years ago, but is set to be completed later this year.
The Sunshine Coast Regional District requisition is up to about $2 million this year. Which is about a 10 per cent increase from the previous year. This is due to increased costs in transit, solid waste disposal and recreation.
