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Engineer position dropped, library funding confirmed as Sechelt budget talks continue

Sechelt councillors were expected get another chance to make some reductions in the projected tax increase at the March 27 committee of the whole meeting.
Sechelt Library

Sechelt councillors were expected get another chance to make some reductions in the projected tax increase at the March 27 committee of the whole meeting.

A written report from director of finance Doug Stewart says, “After further review of its staffing levels, the Public Works and Engineering Department is prepared to withdraw its request for a development engineer.”

The $127,353 cost of that new position was to be covered through a mix of taxation and drawing from reserves.

“By restructuring the department and re-assigning job duties staff believe they can maintain the current levels of service,” Stewart’s report says. “There is still concern that the Municipal Engineer’s workload is not manageable by one person, but staff believe this can be overcome by supplementing his efforts with targeted professional engineering contract support. Should these efforts fail to produce the desired results a new proposal will be brought forward for Council’s consideration in a future year.”

Dropping the development engineer from this year’s budget reduces the proposed property tax increase by 0.37 per cent, which means heading into the March 27 meeting, which was after Coast Reporter’s deadline, the projected tax increase is 5.45 per cent for operations and three per cent for capital for a total of 8.45 per cent.

In an earlier budget-related decision, council voted March 20 to approve the full funding increase it earmarked for the Sechelt Public Library earlier this year, even though the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) did not approve the library’s full request.

On Feb. 6 council approved a total of $544,555 for 2019, which included an increase in Sechelt’s share of the base funding of around $53,000 and a total increase of $148,016 with $50,680 coming from reserves.

Stewart told council that because of the SCRD’s decisions Sechelt would have to boost its share of library funding to 65 per cent to honour the Feb. 6 commitment.

Under the funding agreement that expired at the end of 2018, Sechelt had been contributing 63 per cent.

Council voted unanimously to stick to the funding amount promised on Feb. 6, and “remove any specific restrictions on how the funds are to be used.”

Stewart said removing the restrictions would allow the library to decide how best to adjust its budget to deal with the $25,539 shortfall it will still face.

Sechelt, the SCRD, and the Sechelt Indian Government District are continuing discussions on a new multi-year funding agreement, and Sechelt councillors have already indicated they want to see a funding formula based on population.

Coun. Matt McLean said he’d also like to see the new agreement remove any restrictions on how the funding is used.

Mayor Darnelda Siegers, one of the district’s two representatives on the SCRD board, said that could be complicated because current SCRD bylaws do not allow funding of capital expenses for the library of over $5,000. “If we’re looking at replacing computers and replacing furniture, which is what the library’s looking at now, they can’t actually use the funding from the regional district to do that,” she said.