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Sechelt Briefs

Council

Holding tank fees

Sechelt council’s finance, culture and economic development committee is recommending property owners using sewage holding tanks instead of septic systems or municipal sewer hookups get a refund on disposal fees.

The recommendation follows an earlier decision to hold off on a plan for a large increase in the fees.

The committee voted Oct. 11 to ask staff to write a bylaw amendment that removes the holding tank disposal fee and that provides an initial refund of the general septage fees of 18.9 cents per imperial gallon (4.16 cents per litre) to property owners with current holding tanks permitted or “acknowledged” by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).

In their background report, district staff said, “There are only three approved holding tanks on the Sunshine Coast – two owned by the district and one private tank.”

Mayor Bruce Milne credited Coun. Darnelda Siegers for flagging the issue back in September. “We were headed for a decision that would not have made good public policy sense,” Milne said.

But Siegers did not vote for the refund proposal, saying it puts onus on VCH and makes extra work for district staff. “We’re shifting where the work gets done, when what we’re trying to address is what are they actually dumping,” she said. 

Coun. Doug Wright, however, said he wanted the fee structure to spur people to get away from using holding tanks or letting existing septic systems fall into disrepair and treat the septic tanks as holding tanks.

“If I make the decision to put a holding tank in, and not deal with my sewage on my own property, then I guess I should pay the price to get it looked after,” he said.

In the end, he agreed to support it as long is it was subject to annual reviews.

The proposed rebate would reduce the net cost of the disposal for holding tank customers to the same rate as the previous holding tank charges – 1.1 cents per imperial gallon (0.24 cents per litre)

RCMP building

The finance, culture and economic development committee is also recommending council approve a five-year renewal of the occupancy agreement with the RCMP.

The current agreement for the Sunshine Coast Detachment HQ at 5800 Teredo St. ends Dec. 31. The renewal will take the agreement to the end of 2022, when the loan used to finance the construction of the building will be paid off.

Mayor Bruce Milne said at that point Sechelt can start looking at the building as a revenue source. “In five years when the initial building is fully paid for, and the MFA [Municipal Finance Authority] loan is retired, it’ll be a different kind of negotiation, because it will be a negotiation at market rates,” he said.

“We’ll still be obligated to provide [a building], but we’ll be getting a net revenue then, as opposed to what we’re getting now.”

As of December, the district’s original loan of $2.84 million from 2002 will have a balance of $990,114.02.