Councillors on Sechelt’s committee of the whole are recommending the first steps toward potential changes to the district’s sewer service area, but not any changes to the billing structure.
A June 12 report from director of finance Doug Stewart suggested four options for future billing models: switching to a user fee only; a combined user few and parcel tax; a user few with a tax based on assessment for properties in the sewer service area; or a user fee with a district-wide “environmental tax” based on assessed values.
Several councillors made the argument that until plans for the future of the sewer system itself are clearer there’s no sense in changing the billing method, which is currently user fees and parcel taxes with the user fee largely covering operating costs and the parcel tax funding infrastructure.
Coun. Alton Toth said he felt a district-wide tax would likely be a hard sell.
“For people who know they’re never going to be able to connect to sewer, or very, very unlikely that they’re ever going be able to connect to sewer, paying that environmental tax is probably going to be pretty hard to ask of them,” Toth said.
Coun. Matt McLean said the focus should be on having the “fundamental pieces” of the sewer system plan in place. “Without those [plans] I don’t think we should be making drastic changes to how we are charging for it... Once we know where we’re heading, then we can change the fees.”
The committee did, however, vote to recommend authorizing staff to prepare a report on possible changes to the sewer service area, which defines the properties that can be charged the sewer parcel tax, including expanding it to take in East Porpoise Bay, Selma Park, Davis Bay and part of Wilson Creek.
That report is likely to come back to council in the fall.
