Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors confronted the reality of COVID-19 and a backlog of projects they were forced to defer at the onset of the pandemic in two marathon pre-budget meetings last week.
At the start of the Nov. 5 and 6 meetings the tally of new projects stood at 104, on top of 115 initiatives from previous years already in the work plan – and that doesn’t include operating projects such as the SCRD’s COVID-19 safety planning.
The size of this year’s budget wasn’t lost on staff.
Typically, new projects would be in the neighbourhood of 60, said chief financial officer Tina Perreault. “We’ve got two years in a row now where we have over 100 new projects proposed.”
Those proposed projects totalled about $13 million, to be paid for through a mix of taxes, user fees, reserves, grants and other funding sources.
Directors also responded to the scale before debating which to shave off to avoid an outsized tax hike.
Roberts Creek director Andreas Tize asked about staff’s capacity to tackle the proposed workload.
“These are hard,” responded CAO Dean McKinley, adding there weren’t many “filler projects” to easily scrap.
“A lot of this is related to the incredibly important initiatives we absolutely have to do.”
That includes projects cut from the budget last March as the pandemic took hold, to save taxpayers about $1.65 million.
Heading into pre-budget discussions directors were confronted with a baseline property tax increase of about eight per cent – but it’s almost certainly set to rise, since it doesn’t take into account projected deficits and new projects.
User fees for water are also expected to climb significantly again this year – as high as about 37 per cent for North Pender, 18 per cent for South Pender and 14 per cent for regional water system users – but these figures are also very preliminary, said Perreault, describing the overview as a “snapshot” that doesn’t include parcel taxes.
More accurate tax and user fee estimates – including for users of the SCRD’s 15 small wastewater systems – are expected early next year as part of Round 1 and 2 budget deliberations.
The size of the work plan also forced the issue of employment – a sticking point for directors last year when a record increase was proposed. About five new positions were deferred in March due to COVID-19 and staff urged directors to re-introduce them and move ahead with the hiring process in advance of budget adoption in March 2021.
“If these positions are approved for the start of 2021, unless we have them posted, like right now, our ability to recruit and get people into these roles is challenged already, quite frankly,” said human resources senior manager Gerry Parker. “The work that is underway, there’s a need to get the staff in place to help support those efforts.”
Those roles include a position in sustainability services, a strategic planning coordinator, strategic planning technician, infrastructure services assistant and a planning technician.
Another nine full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions have been requested in the budget for 2021, putting the total FTE count at 220. An additional three have been requested for 2022.
Possible changes to wages and benefits are also an unknown, since a collective agreement between the SCRD and Unifor still has to be ratified after the process was delayed due to COVID-19.
Directors voted unanimously to move ahead with the hires.
Prior to the vote, West Howe Sound director Mark Hiltz said, “This is where I put the trust in the staff that are running the SCRD.”
Over the two days, directors removed a number of projects from the work plan, including:
• A Keats Landing lateral load study worth $20,000, funded by taxes.
• An economic and design study of boat ramps worth $30,000, funded by taxes.
• An upgrade of the Gibsons recreation centre’s audio system worth $21,500, funded by taxes.
• An “investment attraction” study for the Hillside Industrial Park worth $60,000.
• Construction of a connector trail between Lower Road and Ocean Beach Esplanade worth $20,000.
Projects deferred to 2022 include:
• Water supply plans for North and South Pender Harbour water systems at $75,000 apiece, in addition to public consultation and technical analysis of the services.
• A base budget operating increase and staff hire for the Church Road well field, since the project is delayed due to a slower-than-expected water licensing approval process.
Aside from internal projects, directors also sorted through about 18 requests from institutions like the Coast’s libraries. All told, the SCRD received approximately $1.5 million in funding requests from community groups.
Round 1 budget deliberations are set to kick off in February, when directors will be faced with finalizing decisions on major projects related to water infrastructure, waste services and the Sechelt landfill, as well as finalizing community requests.
One silver lining in this year’s budget came by way of a letter from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs: the regional district gets $521,000 in joint provincial-federal Safe Restart funding.
