Taxpayers should be alerted to the March 1, Oak Bay News article Municipal services set to recoup costs.
A staff report provides a rationale for a proposed bylaw amendment, “portions of the bylaws that set the fees that propertyowners must pay to connect to municipal services do not reflect current actual costs. The gap between the fees currentlycharged and the actual cost to perform the work is significant.”
The staff report provides examples of work completed in 2015 where the actual cost to carry out the work exceeded the feescharged by $109,737. Although, the report did not provide the actual dollar discrepancy for 2016, it did show that thedemand for services increased by 39 per cent, with some of the work carried over to 2017. Conceivably then the job cost toactual fees charged would be in a tax dollar discrepancy range of $250,000.
The article does not explain this private work subsidy has been going on for almost 10 years and no one seems to havenoticed the hundreds of thousands of dollar off-site services, shortfall till now. To their credit, the staff member who broughtthis to council’s attention is fairly new however, what is surprising is a quarter of a million dollars, in the last two years alone,is no small matter, particularly in the face of a 5.1 per cent tax hike in 2015. One councillor noted $100,000 represents a halfper cent annual tax increase and this is for only one portion of the municipal budget.
While council indicates a possible bylaw amendment correction, the concern is this is not a question of a review, or good governance, as the spin most likely will present. Earlier annual reports have flagged the increasing use of district staff forprivate ‘off-site’ work, along with warnings this was reducing the workforce for our aging infrastructure. Meanwhile, ourroads and sidewalks are visible evidence that the district is not keeping up and much more development is looming.
It was also pointed out by residents at council recently that $150 million in capital funding is required for repair/replacing ouraging infrastructure. Then why is general infrastructure maintenance not included as a council priority? Why is the majority of council spending so many tax dollars and energy, on infill densification and large developments before we have a well funded,well maintained infrastructure system in place to support them?
Who is managing and minding the store?
Anthony Mears
Oak Bay