Budget
Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) has adopted the 2017 budget.
The overall tax increase is 3.5 per cent, and large increases in property assessments mean a large portion of that will fall on residential property owners. The average value of a residential property in the SCRD, including the municipalities, rose 23.75 per cent to $525,615.
Area A is an exception this year, with a 0.26 per cent drop in residential property taxes. The average increase in residential taxes in the other areas will be: 2.25 per cent in Area B, 7.04 per cent in Area D, 6.87 per cent in Area E, 3.39 per cent in Area F, and 1.27 per cent in the Sechelt Indian Government District.
Residents of Gibsons and Sechelt will see double-digit increases in the SCRD portion of their tax bills: 10.49 per cent in Sechelt and 13.37 per cent in Gibsons.
“In an effort to align the budget process with the board’s strategic goals, staff developed a set of criteria to assist with prioritizing the various project proposals to provide a corporate perspective,” said chair Garry Nohr in a post-budget release.
Major projects that received funding include a transit expansion, preventive maintenance for various SCRD buildings, several projects for regional solid waste, and port repairs at Keats Landing, Gambier Harbour, Halfmoon Bay, Vaucroft, West Bay, Port Graves, Halkett Bay, and Eastbourne (partially funded by a federal Canada 150 grant).
Other projects include upgrades to the Gibsons and District Public Library building, and a roof replacement for the Frank West Hall - Cliff Mahlman Fire Station building.
Fire Service Review
West Howe Sound director Ian Winn is welcoming the start of work on a Fire Service Boundary Review.
Winn proposed the review after an August 2016 fire in Port Mellon that destroyed a home. Port Mellon is outside the SCRD fire protection area.
“It is much more involved than it would look from the surface,” said Winn, after receiving a report from staff at the March 23 corporate and administrative services committee meeting.
The report, which outlined the current process for dealing with calls from outside the fire protection areas, recommended that SCRD volunteer fire departments start the review by undertaking a Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS) and completing a Fire Department Inspection and Audit Checklist. The last FUS was done in 1999.
Winn said he was hoping for a firm date for the next report, but SCRD staff said because each fire department has different resources, the reports would likely be staggered with the first coming in the third quarter of this year.
