Taxation is going up in the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) and it’s more than directors originally thought.
After the first round of budget deliberations, residents were looking at average tax increases anywhere from 2.9 per cent to just over nine per cent, but round two upped those numbers considerably.
Although the budget was set to be adopted after Coast Reporter deadline this week and was subject to change, at press time residents were facing average increases from around five to 10.5 per cent.
Different SCRD areas pay different amounts depending on what services each is involved in. The average change in taxation was listed on Wednesday as: 6.66 per cent for Pender Harbour/Egmont, 7.13 per cent for Halfmoon Bay, 6.94 per cent for Roberts Creek, 5.82 per cent for Elphinstone, 10.32 per cent for West Howe Sound, 5.11 per cent for the Sechelt Indian Government District, 6.68 per cent for the District of Sechelt and 10.53 per cent for the Town of Gibsons.
Originally SCRD chair Garry Nohr expected those numbers to be much lower, but he said needed increases in public transit, ports and recreation drove the numbers up, as well as essential investments in safety.
In the area of recreation, Nohr said the budget rose $340,000 over 2014 due to needed repairs to the Sechelt Aquatic Centre’s dehumidifier and refurbishing of a hot tub at the Gibsons pool. A total of $153,093 also had to be set aside for ongoing legal fees pertaining to the building deficiencies at the Sechelt Aquatic Centre.
Another big area of expenditure was in ports and wharves.
“We’ve run out of all the money the government gave us when we first took them over, so now about $190,000 in capital reserves has been spent and because we’ve got to get the money ourselves now, for those people who are in the ports function, there’s an 88 per cent increase to maintain the docks,” Nohr said.
A total of $100,000 will have to come through taxation for ports this year.
Taxation for public transit rose by about $100,000 as well with $65,000 going to increase the base budget for transit and $32,000 to pay for a new part-time person. The investments will help improve service, Nohr said.
And spending in the area of safety also impacted the budget.
“In the Gibsons fire area, they hired a training officer, so you’re looking at about $80,000 there plus training for all the fire departments because the provincial government brought in this book called a Playbook. It’s new training requirements for all of our fire departments, and they don’t send money with it,” Nohr said, noting funding was also put into new 9-1-1 towers that will allow two people to talk at the same time, “so that’s going to be helpful for safety on the Coast.”
In order to raise $177,000 in the budget, taxation must be increased by one per cent, so these big budget items impacted taxation levels greatly, Nohr said.
“I see this budget going through, but I think each of the directors has expressed concern about how high it got,” Nohr said, before the board was set to vote on the budget Thursday night.
“I know I will be going in with the idea next year that anything over two or three per cent is way out of whack, and I will be holding the line.”
