A motion brought forward by Mayor John Henderson asking staff to provide staffing information, including salaries and productivity from year to year, by Aug. 15, was deemed “some DOGE level crap,” by Coun. Alton Toth at a July 16, regular meeting of council.
“DOGE,” is an acronym for Department of Government Efficiency, which was introduced by Elon Musk earlier this year under U.S. President Donald Trump, as a way to drastically make cuts to government services.
“When we talked about $2 million last time, your motion was not about trying to get the province to cough up $2 million bucks for services that we provide that we shouldn't. It was about cutting $2 million from the District to Sechelt’s operating budget, and that's 20 to 25 staff, or, you know, 10-ish RCMP officers,” Toth said. “I think if we're going to look at cuts to staffing or service levels or whatever, that's on us to make motions. I am not okay with us asking our staff, ‘Tell us where you think we should gut your organization.’ That's not appropriate.”
Part one of the motion asked staff for a breakdown by department — identifying headcounts and total salaries — separately for exempt and non-exempt staff, for each of the last five years, a detailed explanation of senior management’s methodology for measuring productivity from year-to-year, and deciding when a [full time equivalent] increase or decrease is warranted. As well, the motion asks staff to determine which services are considered core, mandatory items and which are more discretionary and why. Also requested, any other information the chief administration officer and his staff feel will be useful to council in assessing the options for moving forward with early budget considerations.
Meanwhile, part two of the motion asks staff to provide an itemized list of all services provided including, but not limited to, policing, public works, parks, bylaw enforcement, and administration, for services which are the responsibility of another government or agency including details of the estimated hours spent in providing these services, and details of the costs for time and other resources (use of equipment, overheads and administration, etc.).
“I mean technically, the District of Sechelt doesn't need to be a district municipality. We could be unincorporated and give it all back to the Regional District,” Toth said in response to the second part of the motion. “Everything that we do as a government is because our citizens wanted it. Our citizens elect people to sit at this table to make decisions on service levels and on enhancements to make this a better community. And I think that this is, honestly, I think this is some DOGE-level, crap. And so, I can't support any part of this motion.”
Henderson introduced the motion calling it a “reflection of the economic times we live in.”
“It's a reflection of our duty to make sure we are delivering the best services and the most necessary services that we can, as a community, afford,” said Henderson. “So, you've all seen the media, whether it's the federal government with their spending and their debt capacity, the provincial government and indeed, other municipalities.”
Henderson noted one of the goals of his motion was to have staff provide council with ideas to find ways to continue to deliver services, while keeping tax increases to a minimum. He added, while reducing staff or services is not a given, he’s concerned there is an expectation the district can continue to implement tax increases somewhere between four and six per cent over the next five years. In May, council approved an 8.62 per cent tax increase for 2025.
Henderson noted several months ago, he sought council’s support in asking staff to provide options to reduce spending by $2 million, in response to services he says are being downloaded to municipalities by other levels of government, including policing, supports around the homeless, addiction and mental health, crime and safety and more.
Toth was not the only councillor who appeared offended by the motion, which did not make it to a vote after Henderson withdrew it at the end of discussion, though Coun. Adam Shepherd said he is also concerned about the tax rate increases of the past several years.
“Just in the last week, I've heard from two people with diametrically opposite views of how the district should be run, and yet they both agree that the tax increases have been too high or unsustainable,” said Shepherd, who added Coun. Brenda Rowe suggested a special meeting be held this June or July to discuss that very topic. “And then this comes sort of out of left field. So, I think it's a bit unusual. I think it should be handled within our 2026 tax budget review process.”
Shepherd said Henderson had previously made reference to “cutting things by $2 million. It's $2 million, that means cutting staff.”
“If there are proposals on cutting staff, let's be transparent and say we should cut this number of positions to meet that $2 million,” said Shepherd. “I would rather deal with it up front, rather than sort of asking staff to go into all of this work when the mayor is very experienced… So, I'm not supportive of this. I'm supportive of the idea that we really have to tackle the tax increase issue, but I can't support this measure in particular.”
