Budget
Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors wrapped up their first round of budget deliberations on Feb. 10.
Heading into Round 2, the overall residential tax increases/change is -1.04 per cent, based on a total preliminary increase of 0.81 per cent.
The SCRD said so far $129,000 in new expenditures were approved in Round 1. The projects getting funding included improvements in the Regional, North and South Pender water systems, solid waste management, ports, recreation facilities, community parks, and the Gibsons Public Library Building.
There’s only one day scheduled for Round 2 – March 8. The meeting is at the SCRD Field Road office, starting at 9:30 a.m.
Correction: In an earlier story about the Chapman Lake project that’s included in this year’s budget we quoted the estimated cost for construction of an expanded access to allow the SCRD system to draw more water as roughly $500,000. The actual figure in the 2016 budget is $4,225,000.
Solid waste
Directors will take a little extra time to look at the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities’ (AVICC) long-term strategy for solid waste management.
The SCRD is one of the nine regional districts on a special AVICC committee that’s been trying to create a unified approach to extending the life of their landfills. Area F director Ian Winn is the SCRD’s representative.
Edwin Grieve of AVICC appeared before the SCRD infrastructure services committee on Feb. 11 to outline the group’s work so far, and a list of long and short-term goals involving harmonizing regulations, and getting an accurate picture of future solid waste disposal needs.
Grieve said one thing stands out for him – the need for regional districts to have full control over the waste stream.
Gibsons director Silas White said he’s uncomfortable with the strategy’s mention of waste-to-energy in the long-term objectives.
“Our council is very, very concerned about the prospect of incineration,” he said.
Port Mellon was short-listed as a site for Metro Vancouver’s new waste-to-energy facility; however, the Metro board put the plan on hold last December.
The AVICC group has set a deadline of Feb. 22 for participating regional districts to adopt the solid waste strategy and goals, before its March 18 meeting.
Tax for transit
SCRD directors are looking for a little more wiggle room when it comes to raising taxes for Sunshine Coast Transit.
In part because of a reduction in funding from BC Transit that created a $129,477 deficit for 2015, the SCRD is coming near to the limit of $0.28/$1,000 in property value under bylaw 1073.
Finance department staff told the Feb. 11 board meeting they’ve estimated there is only about $22,000 in extra taxes they could raise without increasing the limit, which hasn’t been changed since 2007.
The board voted unanimously on three readings of a bylaw amendment that would raise the maximum to $0.35/$1000 in property value.
AVICC resolutions
SCRD directors have approved a trio of resolutions they’ll present at the upcoming AVICC AGM.
They cover climate change, derelict and abandoned vessels and bicycle lanes.
The SCRD will be asking AVICC delegates to back a call for the province to implement all 32 policy action recommendations set out in a report from its climate leadership team.
On derelict and abandoned vessels, the proposed resolution calls for delegates to, once again, strongly encourage the provincial and federal governments to take action in implementing a solution.
And, on bicycle lanes, the SCRD is going to put forward a resolution calling on the province to review the BC on the Move Transportation Plan, and give priority to building bicycle lanes “in regional districts limited by a single highway and where bicycle usage is a prominent form of transportation and economic driver for tourism.”
