Councillors in Sechelt got a start on drafting the 2020 budget earlier this week – and potential sewer fee increases and finding money for repairs and upgrades to sewer infrastructure are already emerging as challenges.
Director of finance David Douglas gave councillors at the Dec. 11 committee of the whole meeting a timeline for working through the budget leading to adoption by May 15, 2020.
The committee then had its first look at the operating and capital budgets for the sewer system.
Among the biggest budget requests being put forward by staff is $87,000 to fund the addition of a full-time operator for the Water Resource Centre (WRC).
There are also more than $100,000 in parts and maintenance items for the WRC and significant expenditures needed to upgrade or repair lift stations.
“[The WRC] is currently five years old and some of the operating equipment is in need of being replaced, or requires major maintenance,” Douglas said. “The overall maintenance level, as we’re finding out as we run this plant longer, needs to be elevated to be able to extend the life of the working assets that are in there.”
Douglas said the current projections, if all $453,588 in requests are approved, show an operating deficit of $373,290, which would need a $128 increase in the annual user fee to cover.
Mayor Darnelda Siegers asked whether parcel taxes could also be used, and Douglas said although the practice has been to use that revenue for paying down the debt on the WRC, which is due to be retired in 2025, the bylaw allows the money “to pay for debt or pay for the cost of common services within the sewer operating fund.”
The current annual sewer user fee is $371 and the annual parcel tax is $274.
The other area where council is likely to be eyeing an increase is in the fee charged to dump septage at the Dusty Road facility, which is the only collection point for the material pumped from the septic systems across the Coast.
Coun. Tom Lamb said the receiving station should be a revenue generator for the district, and Sechelt should be charging enough to cover operating costs and future maintenance and upgrades.
“The Dusty Road facility is an opportunity for the district to actually make some money, without impacting the taxpayers,” he said. “We have to look to the future and to the fact that we’re going to need a new septage receiving area and a new space and we have to start putting money aside for that.”
Douglas said staff feel there’s room to at least double the current fee of 23 cents per gallon (4.5 litres). “There are some municipalities that are charging triple our rate for septage,” he said.
Most of the proposed capital spending would be covered through reserves, but Douglas said two projects, a chemical storage facility at the WRC and repair or replacement of the effluent outfall, would require loans of $350,000 and $500,000 respectively. Servicing both of those debts would add a total of 12 per cent to sewer fees.
“We also have to have some conversations with the regional district that could take us in a different direction,” Siegers said about the outfall project, a reference to a recent Sunshine Coast Regional District motion to “engage with District of Sechelt staff regarding the feasibility of using reclaimed water from the Water Resource Centre to augment the environmental flow needs in Chapman Creek.”
Siegers also questioned staff on moving “reclaimed water treatment and distribution,” a budget line item of $1.5 million to be covered by grants and contributions, out to 2023.
“The federal government is starting to put grants forward for reclaimed water, and one of the things that we talked about last year was that we would do the prep work that’s required in order to be ready for when those grants are available,” she said.
Chief administrative officer Andrew Yeates predicted the district’s water resources select committee could have an answer by mid-2020.
“Today was really to deliver a message, and I think everybody’s got the message – we’re struggling with regards to the sewer operating fund,” Douglas said in summing up his presentation.
