Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors recommended water parcel tax and user fees hikes in 2025 for North and South Pender systems, as proposed by staff at a Nov. 21 finance committee meeting. Recommended increases of 8.9 per cent for the North and 12.13 per cent for the South system are set for board review on Nov. 28.
Request for a five per cent increase option for Chapman
Elected officials weren’t willing to support proposed cost increases totalling 9.87 per cent for the 11,800 connections on their Chapman water system at committee and they tasked staff with expediting a further report on options for smaller increases. That document is to be ready for committee consideration on Nov. 28, with the committee’s decision then set to proceed to board later that day.
“Our fees for this [Chapman water] service have increased 70 per cent over the last four years. I can’t support a 10 per cent increase at this time on top of that… I am just not happy with it... I would prefer to see an option at five per cent," was the committee meeting debate opening statement from Elphinstone area director Donna McMahon. Her opposition to the staff suggestion that the combination of taxes and fees needed to rise about 10 per cent to help build “healthy” reserve levels for future capital projects was reiterated by Sechelt area director Darren Inkster, director Kelly Backs from Roberts Creek and Halfmoon Bay’s director Justine Gabias
Director Alton Toth, who also represents Sechelt cautioned his committee counterparts that future system upgrading, including meeting fire flow requirements could quickly drain capital accumulations. He referred to a staff report on the meeting’s agenda which stated, “Based on information included in the draft Capital Plan for this service it can be concluded that a healthy reserve balance for this service would be in excess of $15 million." Toth pointed out the staff-recommended increases (per the report) would bring the capital reserve to $8.47 million, or “about halfway there."
McMahon argued that some of the capital plan proposals, including the Lower Crown reservoir, aren’t guaranteed to proceed.
The lone vote in opposition to successful motion to re-examine proposals for Chapman system rate increases was Area A (Pender Harbour) director Lenoard Lee.
Amounts in the new rate proposals
Lee followed that vote by introducing motions to move the staff-recommended changes for the two regional water systems in his area, stating he was “not at all happy with the increase” but acknowledging they were needed to fund infrastructure repairs and improvements for the systems. Those rate changes were supported by the committee.
According to material on the meeting agenda, in the past four years, the combination of North Pender's water taxes and fees also increased by 70 per cent. The increase for South Pender over that period was about 47 per cent.
Should the board endorse those recommendations, residential customers in North Pender (which has 580 billable users) will see the combination of parcel taxes and fees for water bounce up by $124.96 next year to $1,530. That would be made up of annual user fees of $1,000 and a parcel tax of $530.
For South Pender, which has 1,030 user accounts, next year’s total water billing for residential users is proposed to rise by $165.03, to $1,525. That would be comprised of $925 in user fees and $600 in parcel taxes.
If the just under 10 per cent staff proposed rise in the combo of fees and taxes for Chapman water customers had been supported, that would have meant a $115.01 uptick in annual water bills, bringing 2025’s total for residential users to $1,280.
Next steps
The 2025 adjustments to water rate bylaws are required to be adopted before the end of 2024. With this year’s final meeting of the SCRD board scheduled for Dec. 11, pressure is on staff to produce a report analyzing what reducing the percentage increase for Chapman would mean before Nov. 28. A committee vote on that matter on that date could then accompany the recommendations already made for the Pender system to board also on Nov. 28.
Then staff will translate any board-endorsed changes into bylaw amendments, with those pieces of legislation up for board consideration on Dec. 11.
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
