Councillors in Gibsons have trimmed their 2018 capital projects list in anticipation of a tight budget year with an expected tax increase of 4.5 per cent.
Director of finance David Douglas told council’s committee of the whole March 6 that the operating budget is expected to generate a surplus of only $11,023 – a drop of 96 per cent, or more than $250,000, from 2017.
Douglas said in his report that most of the drop came from the loss of rental income of more than $121,000. The Town lost a major tenant when Vancouver Coastal Health moved the Gibsons Health Unit to a new location on Gibsons Way.
The yearly operating surplus is typically used to help fund capital projects.
Heading into the meeting, taxes were already set to go up 1.5 per cent to cover inflation, and an additional one per cent for the annual cost of asset replacement.
Douglas estimated that with the new properties on the tax rolls, every one per cent in taxation in 2018 will bring in $28,481.
Mayor Wayne Rowe said he wanted to hold the overall increase to under five per cent, and that constraint meant that some projects needing tax money either had to be put off or funded another way.
One of the biggest projects bumped from the 2018 list was $47,000 for a new master plan for the Town-owned geothermal utility that serves the Parkland neighbourhood.
Coun. Stafford Lumley said he didn’t see the point of a new master plan, given the work still to be done to get the utility back on track after a major breakdown last winter.
“I think once you get to the point where you can sit here and say, ‘This thing’s working, we’ve got it under control,’ then you can start spending money or start making plans for expanding,” he said. “Until I hear that, I certainly don’t want to spend any money on geothermal.”
The committee also voted to drop the $6,000 in repairs and upgrades to the Visitor Information Centre in the Landing because it’s still possible it may have to be demolished, and $9,000 for a rainbow crosswalk.
Director of infrastructure services Dave Newman said his department added a $548,000 Gibsons Way eastbound (downhill) bike lane to the list to give council “an idea of the order of magnitude” of the money the Town would need to find if they ever wanted to go ahead with it.
The committee eventually brought the taxation requirement for capital projects down to $66,000.
“We will be recommending a four-and-a-half per cent increase to property taxation. That will be used to fund part of this [capital projects list] and whatever else is necessary will come from reserves,” Rowe said in summing up the committee’s direction for Douglas, who will bring back a full budget for consideration later this month.
Notable initiatives in the Town’s 2018 capital plan that don’t need funding through taxation or are already underway include the $1.6 million worth of work on Gibsons Way, the purchase of electric vehicles to replace older vehicles in the fleet at $40,000 each, and the $45,000 Heritage Playhouse roof replacement.
Contracts for two other major projects were approved at the regular council meeting that evening:
• Kerr Wood Leidal (KWL) Consulting Engineers was awarded the contract for $447,000 in upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant and Prowse Road Lift Station.
• A $43,000 contract to build new washrooms at Armours Beach and $75,000 for “construction of terracing, major grading, and earthworks” were awarded to Longman Developments. Longman, along with the Gibsons Rotary Club, has also made donations to help fund the $202,000 Armours Beach improvement project.
Other components of the work, including road upgrades on Marine Drive, will be handled by KWL and a company still to be chosen.
