Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors will vote on adoption of their 2017 budget March 23, triggering an overall tax increase estimated at 3.5 per cent.
That 3.5 per cent figure, though still preliminary, is up about one per cent from the first round of budget decisions, largely because of the approval of a transit expansion plan at the round two budget meeting on March 7.
Directors also had to decide on several requests for funding from the SCRD’s “partners and stakeholders” at that meeting.
SCRD chair, and Halfmoon Bay director, Garry Nohr said many on the board were concerned about “holding the line” after approving the significant increase for transit and were reluctant to vote for increases to partner and stakeholder funding. “We were all a little bit concerned about the transit costs and where that was going to go,” he said.
The biggest item up for approval in the partners and stakeholders category during round two was the $583,636 for the Gibsons and District Public Library, which included $155,000 to deal with building maintenance issues.
Another large request that was approved was the $118,040.39 for the Pender Harbour Health Centre – an increase of $8,000 over the funding it received last year.
During a presentation to the SCRD last October, health centre society president Randy Picketts explained that they’ve been running an operating deficit and covering it through the money coming in from rents and donations, which leaves less for programs. He estimated the shortfall at around $152,000 since 2010.
Sunshine Coast Tourism’s request for $20,000 was also approved. The tourism organization is starting to benefit from the accommodation tax, and Nohr told Coast Reporter that the SCRD wants to clarify whether it needs to continue providing money to Sunshine Coast Tourism as part of the agreement with the province for the tax. “We’re still looking at that for next year – if it’s mandatory or not; staff are still investigating that,” he said.
Funding for various youth programs was also up for consideration at round two. Budget requests for youth drop-in, restorative justice, youth outreach, youth centres, etc., totaled $203,490 for 2017 – an increase of around $8,000 over 2016.
When an advance report on youth program funding was presented to the Feb. 23 corporate and administrative services committee, Roberts Creek director Mark Lebbell noted that the 2017 requests were actually lower than 2014 and ’15 and that the SCRD’s goal of “finding viable options and support mechanisms to ensure the continuity of valuable youth programs” was worth continuing.
Nohr said this week that he hopes whichever party forms the provincial government after May 9 looks at making more money available for those groups so they don’t have to rely on the SCRD. “Those [community group] requests are not part of the mandate of the regional district, but we try to do whatever we can, because one of our priorities is youth. We can’t keep going up each year and adding funds to it … Provincial ministry funding should be going to that.”
The preliminary area-by-area breakdown following round two was: Pender Harbour -1.55 per cent, Halfmoon Bay 1.21 per cent, Roberts Creek five per cent, Elphinstone 8.57 per cent, and West Howe Sound -0.83 per cent. For the SCRD share of taxes in the municipalities, it works out to -6.76 per cent for the Sechelt Indian Government District, 8.76 per cent for the District of Sechelt and 6.96 per cent for the Town of Gibsons.
That includes all property classes. The final tax impact on residential properties won’t be known until the assessment roll is confirmed by BC Assessment and the SCRD board adopts the budget.
