Editor:
Our 2017 taxes were recently payable, and my tax increase of 14.45 per cent in the District of Sechelt is unacceptable and financially unsustainable. A disproportionate amount of the increase was due to general municipal taxes and sewer-related increases. And the long-term financial impact for sewer charges and fees is not positive.
Sechelt council reallocated a large and to-date unsubstantiated amount of administrative costs from general government to sewer users, to be applied every year henceforth. Concurrently, it severely reduced potential revenues from the development community and siphoned off $150,000 in sewer reserves collected from Sechelt Village, West Sechelt and West Porpoise Bay for capital improvements to fund a “Sewer Functional Plan” for Selma Park and Davis Bay.
Administrative costs reallocated to sewer users in 2017 total $338,617. The mayor in his message column has stated that this includes portions of “centralized Finance, Human Resources and Administrative Resources.” This amount appears excessive as it represents a surcharge of 71 per cent on salaries and benefits for four staff out of a total of 57. My request in March for a written detailed explanation of these costs remains unanswered.
Development cost charges (DCCs) for sewer infrastructure collected from new development have been $2,658 per dwelling unit toward the central treatment plant. On Feb. 1, they were reduced to an overall charge of $844 for both collection infrastructure and the treatment plant – an amount imposed 25 years ago to pay off the debt on the old treatment plant.
There is a debt owing ($894,945 with interest per annum) on the new treatment plant. The province’s Best Management Practices recognize that wastewater treatment facilities are built while development is continuing to occur and that DCCs can continue to apply to a debt including interest. This council has chosen to do otherwise.
Judy Skogstad, West Sechelt
