Discussions about the 2021 Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) budget have finally come to an end, as directors adopted the financial plan on March 25.
Directors thanked the chief financial officer and staff for their work. Elphinstone director Donna McMahon, in a corporate and administrative services (CAS) committee meeting earlier that day, said the budget “looks like good news” for her area. She said she’s happy, since the proposed 9.7 per cent residential tax increase is lower than it appeared earlier in the process.
Residential property taxes will be increasing by 24.3 per cent in Area A (Pender Harbour-Egmont), 12.3 per cent in Area B (Halfmoon Bay), 8.9 per cent in Area B Islands, 8.8 per cent in Area D (Roberts Creek), 9.7 per cent in Area E (Elphinstone) 8.8 per cent in Area F (West Howe Sound), and 4.8 per cent in Area F Islands, according to the March 25 CAS agenda.
The SCRD portion of residential property taxes will also go up for the local municipalities, with an increase of 10.3 per cent for the District of Sechelt, 10.8 per cent for the Sechelt Indian Government District and 11 per cent in the Town of Gibsons.
At the CAS committee meeting, Gibsons director Bill Beamish asked chief financial officer Tina Perreault if 12.65 full-time equivalent positions were being hired in the budget, as reported by local media. Perreault confirmed that number of new hires, explaining that 3.96 of those positions were carry-overs and previously approved in 2020. She said a summary of positions will become publicly available.
Beamish said he would appreciate the public clarification as he said they are “having trouble here in Gibsons getting approval for a position without having an organizational review, and we’re managing to pull through 12 positions, and that’s what the public is seeing in the media.”
As for the new COVID restart funds announced earlier in the week, staff told the board the $241,000 won’t be included in the 2021 budget, but held for the 2022 budget process.
While CAO Dean McKinley said the funds were welcome, he added, “yet we would note that it still pales in comparison to what several municipalities got, but that’s OK. I think that we’re well positioned with our use of COVID restart funds as part of the 2021 budget process, and this provides us with quite a bit of flexibility as we go into the 2022 budget process.”
Directors also said they were happy to see the funding, but would like more. They decided to send a thank you to the senior governments for the additional funds. Sechelt director Darnelda Siegers suggested messaging along the lines of, “We appreciate that you heard the concerns from the regional districts, and … should additional funds become available, we would gratefully accept them.”
Following the budget adoption, the bill for utility rates is expected to be served at the end of April. After a rate increase between 28 and 50 per cent in 2020, rates will go up once again. For residential dwellings in North Pender Harbour, rates are increasing by $208.31. Those paying the regional rates (not including North or South Pender Harbour or the Town of Gibsons) will see their bills go up by $57.52. For South Pender Harbour, the rates will increase by $84.66.
At an earlier meeting on March 25, the board also adopted the final financial plan for the regional hospital district for 2021. The projected operating deficit of $1,119,670 is offset by reserves to fund future projects, debt repayments and previous budget surplus, all creating a balanced budget, according to the staff report. This year’s estimated residential tax rate decreased by 2.15 per cent from 2020, and is now expected to be $8.97 per $100,000 of assessment. In 2020, the rate was $9.16.
