Alarm bells are going off lately on the Coast about the need to raise more money to cover the cost of replacing our aging infrastructure.
Just this past week Sechelt council at its committee of the whole meeting heard from chief financial officer Victor Mema about the need to create a new infrastructure renewal levy. Right now the amount the numbers man is talking about is $182 per property, but — and it’s a big but — that figure is based on a 2010 asset condition assessment report.
It’s a fair guess that $182 estimate will go up to meet the needs for road and storm drain infrastructure.
No one wants to pay more taxes. However, it’s the ugly new reality.
As Mayor John Henderson said at the meeting, it’s time (some would say long past time) to confront the cost of replacing infrastructure. He’s right when he said that every municipality in Canada is facing the same cash crunch.
For many years politicians have ignored the need to shore up the replacement reserves for unsexy items like sewer, water pipes and roads. Add to that aging recreation facilities and you have a recipe for financial disaster.
Further down the road in the Town of Gibsons, the same scenario is playing out.
At a meeting in late February, Gibsons Mayor Wayne Rowe stressed the need to raise water revenues to pay for the necessary infrastructure. He said the cost to replace the water works is pegged at $18 million. Right now the replacement fund has $2.6 million of debt and $145,000 in reserves and development cost charges of around $40,000. It doesn’t take a financial genius to realize there are too many negative numbers floating in the water account. It’s essentially pay now for the bullet that could come later.
Coun. Charlene SanJenko, at that same meeting, urged Gibsons’ taxpayers to read a report tendered by J.P. Joly of Econics Consulting that recommends water use revenue hikes over the next five years. SanJenko advised people that it’s necessary to reinvest in their Town. The increases in costs aren’t pretty but they beat the alternative — turning on your tap and having nothing come out.
Sewer infrastructure replacement in the Town is another drain on the pitifully gathered resources to date. To update the pipes and plant put in place in the 1970s, Gibsons is looking at a bill of about $37 million. Right now the account shows debt of $1.5 million and reserves of approximately $745,000 and development cost charges of about $60,000. You better be sitting on your toilet when the ramifications of those numbers sink in.
It’s never easy to raise taxes, particularly in an election year, but the time to do so is now. When the infrastructure caves in around our ears, it will be far too late. We need to pay before we’re swamped.
