qathet Regional District’s (qRD) finance committee has received the third draft of the 2023 to 2027 five-year financial plan.
At the January 11 finance committee meeting, manager of financial services Linda Greenan outlined a number of components of the budget in its third draft.
In the regional capital plan, $16,151,500 is the figure identified for various projects, including the resource-recovery centre, the waste-transfer station, a server and backup upgrade, a covered gazebo at Palm Beach, park accessibility upgrades and a mobile generator replacement. This is the capital plan paid for by the electoral areas and City of Powell River.
“A large part of that, of course, is the resource-recovery centre and the waste-transfer station,” said Greenan.
In terms of the capital expenditures for waste management, the budget shows $15,831,000 being allocated from revenue and funding sources. The budget also shows a grant of $2.2 million, other revenue of 900,000, two transfers from reserves of $500,000 and $970,000, and borrowing of $11,261,000.
The electoral area capital plan shows an expenditure of $4,122,592. This includes the Northside Recreation Centre upgrade and expansion, the Savary Island Volunteer Fire Department fire truck replacement, a generator at Northside Volunteer Fire Department, a water line upgrade for the Myrtle Pond water system, upgrades to the Lund sewer system, a gazebo at the Van Anda ball field and a tennis court resurfacing at Gillies Bay.
“A large part of that is the Northside Recreation Centre, which will go to public approval in early 2023,” said Greenan. “That is largely grant funded.”
Greenan outlined residential tax rates and the cost per average home. The change in requisition for the city from 2022 to 2023 is 11.52 per cent. In Electoral Area A it is 8.02 per cent, in Electoral Area B it is 6.4 per cent, in Electoral Area C it is 6.19 per cent and in Electoral Area D it is 5.99 per cent. The change in requisition for qRD from rounded figures of $9 million in 2022 to $9.8 million in 2023 amounts to $776,534 more, or 8.62 per cent.
Greenan said the average home value is still based on the 2022 figure of $516,654.95. The 2023 revised roll figure should be available for draft four of the financial plan in February.
Cost of regional district taxation for the average home in the city is $363.38, the average cost for Electoral Area A is $1,531.50, for Electoral Area B it is $897.87, for Electoral Area C it’s $1,035.63 and the average cost for Electoral Area D is $1,093.75.
Greenan performed a comparison of the qRD municipal tax rate comparison; in 2022, qRD rated 26th out of 45 municipalities polled for taxpayers in City of Powell River.
“We are in the lower range of charges to the municipality,” said Greenan.
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick asked about waste management and wondered why waste disposal is going up from $432,581 in 2022 to $750,356 in 2023.
Greenan said with the $432,581 actual figure from 2022, the regional district is behind on receiving invoices from the landfill operator in the United States.
“We are quite behind on our actuals, and the US exchange rate is applied at year-end, so that number will come up,” said Greenan. She said the expectation is that it will be closer to the $685,750 that was budgeted. She said there was also a significant increase in rate from the disposal company.
Electoral Area E director and finance committee chair Andrew Fall said the overall tax requisition increase for qRD is about 8.3 per cent and he wanted to mention that inflation is running at about six per cent, so in equal dollars the increase is much less, closer to 2.3 per cent.
The final draft of the five-year financial plan will be presented at the finance committee’s February 9 meeting and will be up for adoption at the February 22 board meeting.
