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Sechelt council briefs: Sewer ballast, permissive tax exemptions and UBCM

Permissive tax exemptions granted for 2024, Wharf Avenue grant recalculated, private sewage pumps approved, UBCM resolutions endorsed.
Bronwyn Beairsto, Editor
Bronwyn Beairsto, Editor
Sechelt Municipal Hall 2
District of Sechelt municipal hall file photo. Sophie Woodrooffe

The following are briefs from the Oct. 4 District of Sechelt regular council meeting. 

Sewer ballast

Sechelt allocated just under $300,000 to replace ballast weights holding the Trail Bay sanitary sewer outfall to the sea floor. Council awarded the contract to Fraser Burrard Diving Ltd., which is tasked with replacing the existing weighted pipe segment with a new pipe with integrated weights. While the contract was initially awarded to Can-Dive Construction in July, the company “failed to complete the required legal agreement within the contractual timeframe due to an unforeseen change in the company’s legal structure,” said the staff report. Fraser Burrard Diving Ltd. was the second lowest compliant bid. The price difference is $7,411.50 + GST and the company has confirmed they have the capacity to complete the project in the winter Department of Fisheries and Oceans's construction window, said the report.  The outfall pipe extends 400 metres into the ocean. 

Taxing relief

Council passed three readings of its permissive tax exemptions bylaw for 2024. The exemptions are the same as the bylaw's last iteration, granted starting in 2020, staff said. While exemptions can be granted for up to 10 years, this year's bylaw grants just one year to give council time to review its policy and come up with a three-year exemption bylaw for 2025, 2026 and 2027. The four categories eligible for exemption are places of worship (for which there were 10 applications), community services (26 applications), recreational facilities (nine applications) and municipal properties (four applications). 

The report said the total value in municipal taxes for the exemptions is $255,083 and the total value for all tax authorities (including school, regional district and such taxes) is $596,752  

Wharf Ave grant recalculated

Sechelt will fund a $117,318 shortfall from last year’s Wharf Avenue upgrades (among them the change from angle parking to parallel parking) from its gas tax funds. The project was funded through a BC Active Transportation Infrastructure Grant Program grant and a subsequent Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICET) grant. Under the provincial grant, the amount awarded could be recalculated should third-party funding be received (which happened). The $205,503 that ICET awarded Sechelt was originally slated to come from the Canada Community-Building Fund (gas tax).

Private pumping

Council granted a variance to Sewage Pumping Bylaw No. 307, to allow use of private sewer pumps to service a two-lot subdivision on the to-be-created Lupin Lane off of Marine Way. 

Because of challenges on the property, the applicants are proposing private pumps (instead of a gravity sewer connection) connected to an existing private sewer main that services several properties. That main has a gravity connection to the district’s system.

The district does not have responsibility for the infrastructure beyond its public sewer connection, said a staff report. Staff said there are a few subdivisions on the Coast that have private sewer pumps and in other jurisdictions, it’s not unusual to see them. “We have an old bylaw that basically says no to these anywhere, and it hasn’t kept up with modern technologies,” said the staff member. 

Coun. Darren Inkster and Coun. Dianne McLauchlan voted against the variance, Inkster voicing qualms with privatization, McLauchlan citing natural hazard concerns (steep, bare rock). 

What UBCM resolved

Councillors gave reports on their time at the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention, which all of council save Mayor John Henderson attended. All Sechelt and Sunshine Coast Regional District resolutions that were admitted for debate were endorsed, said Coun. Alton Toth’s report. 

Those included (paraphrased) calls for UBCM to:

  •  advocate to the province to share property tax revenue with local governments for infrastructure expansion and renewal;
  •  advocate to the province to increase its Archaeology Branch resources for processing site alteration permits and that the province provide local government funding to offset archaeological costs;
  • urge the province to provide a rolling five-year funding commitment to BC Transit;
  •  advocate to the province to substantially increase resources for the processing of water licence applications and prioritize applications based on health and safety;
  •  urge the provincial and federal governments to reconsider the funding formulas for Community Works Fund and Community Growth Fund (gas tax) to consider the relative services delivered by local governments rather than just population;
  •  advocate to the province to expand the property tax deferment program to include all local government parcel taxes and utility bills;
  •  urge the province to provide more flexible and innovative transit models for smaller and rural communities where conventional transit may not work as well (ex. transit on demand).

Toth said that the meetings with provincial ministers “felt more productive than in previous years” and that they “felt heard in most of them, with commitments to work with us where appropriate.”