The Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) staff and board of directors say they plan a round of public online forums in late February and early March to help explain the regional district’s 2021 budget, which likely will bring considerable increases in taxes and user fees.
After the first budget round, preliminary estimated tax hikes would range from 17.43 to 23.44 per cent in rural areas.
The information sessions with residents will be held “to ensure that they are informed about decisions being made in relation to projects and the resulting tax increases,” SCRD spokesman Aidan Buckley told Coast Reporter. “Further information in relation to how to take part in these sessions will be available on the SCRD website,” Buckley added.
Directors will have a lot to try to explain in those engagement efforts. In three days of meetings between Feb. 1 and Feb. 5, the board completed Round 1 of a three-round budget process which ends with adoption of the final financial plan on March 25. What directors heard during Round 1 from chief administrative officer Dean McKinley and chief financial officer Tina Perrault was daunting.
Last year’s budget was approved in early March, and at that time, McKinley said, the board “moved forward on well in excess of 100 key projects and initiatives.” However, he said, the COVID pandemic would soon create “a constantly shifting landscape of emerging priorities” and “an unprecedented level of challenge to our service delivery and revenue generation.”
Perrault noted that by March 31, 2020, the board amended its financial plan bylaw, which deferred several projects planned for that year. “We also did some one-time reserve reductions, which means that we used operating reserves to reduce taxation [and] deferred those particular [reserve] contributions for that year.” Perreault added that, “we have not realized those large deficits that in the summertime we anticipated coming into the year end, which is a good news story.”
The other side of the story, however, is that the SCRD will have to take on more debt on a series of new expenditures, including the development of groundwater wells, water metering, solid waste projects, and dealing with wastewater treatment plant issues, fire department and ports requirements, along with other emerging items. “We already have 109 carry-forward and 117 new projects to go over,” said Perrault. “So that totals up funding for an additional $14 million coming into our budget for this year.”
Staff have also recommended hiring nine new employees, which would bring the total to the equivalent of 215 full-time staff members.
If all items and projects in the currently estimated budget moved forward, the percentage increases for properties in Area A (Pender Harbour-Egmont) would total 23.44; in Area B (Halfmoon Bay), 17.43; in Area D (Roberts Creek), 18.74; in Area E (Elphinstone), 18.35; and in Area F (West Howe Sound), 17.6.
SCRD taxes make up only a portion of the municipal tax bills. The preliminary percentage increases for the SCRD portion would be 16.39 in the Sechelt Indian Government District, 17.53 in the District of Sechelt, and 15.08 in the Town of Gibsons.
However, there are usually cuts as the budget discussions continue, so the tax-increase figures presented by Perrault could be higher than will be in the final budget.
Higher utility fees are also coming for 2021. Water fees are to increase 14 per cent on most of the Coast, but 50 per cent in North Pender. User and frontage fees are also jumping for many residents using the regional district’s 15 neighbourhood wastewater treatment plants, although in a few cases there is no increase or even a drop in user fees.
Garbage and food-waste fees for residential dwellings will rise nine per cent to $191.68.
In addition to the community engagement sessions, the SCRD is making the 2021 financial plan available online. And as property tax increases will vary among the regional district’s electoral areas, and the SCRD said it had uploaded more precise estimates for each area on its website. The information can be found at www.scrd.ca/budget.
Round 2 discussions are to be held March 4 and 5.
