Editor:
On Wednesday, Feb. 14, Sechelt council held a meeting to review new and existing budget requests from the finance department. Feb. 20 was a community town hall meeting to hear the views of the public – a disappointing total of five residents attended. Mayor Milne was absent from both meetings.
The proposed 2018 residential tax increase is 7.7 per cent following last year’s increase of a whopping 10 per cent. Residential property taxes make up 85 per cent of the District of Sechelt’s property tax base. When asked if this mayor and council currently have an economic strategy to diversify the tax base to take the load off citizens in the community, the answer was that all the local governments fund a group called the Sunshine Coast Regional Economic Development Group (SCREDO) and rely completely on this group to advertise the benefits of attracting new business to the Sunshine Coast. The idea to form SCREDO dates back to 2014 but was only funded in 2017 to the tune of $300,000. SCREDO indeed looks to be an interesting and progressive group and over time will surely help.
However, coming back to the proposed hike in property taxes and the budget, until any new business development policy and strategy bears fruit, this council needs to live within its means and actually focus on sweeping cutbacks and fund only the most urgent proposed new expenses.
Joe Sawer, Sechelt
