qathet Regional District’s (qRD) finance committee will recommend the regional board reduce the contribution to the regional parks reserve fund in 2022.
At the December 8 finance committee meeting, City of Powell River director and chair George Doubt introduced a motion that the annual requisition in appendix A of the financial plan draft two for the regional parks summary be amended and reduced by $183,000, and the transfer to reserve be suspended and reduced to $3,769 for the year 2022, to reduce the requisition for total regional services.
Doubt said he looked at the regional parks summary, which has a contribution to the statutory reserve for regional parks acquisition, and his recommendation was to suspend it for one year. He said suspending it would make a change in the requisition between $3 and $3.50 per $100,000 of assessed value on homes within the regional district.
“It would produce a significant reduction in the tax rate, which I think everyone around the table is looking at,” said Doubt. “My suggestion is that this is one way to do it without affecting a service. We still have a significant reserve there and we don’t yet have a parks and greenspace acquisition plan. This is a place, I think, where we can pause for a year and look at how we are going to work on this difficult tax situation.”
qRD Electoral Area C director Clay Brander said he would vote against the motion. He said the parkland acquisition fund has been a long time coming, being more than 10 years in the making, and has a lot of broad community support.
“To have the parkland acquisition fund would potentially give us the opportunity to purchase lands, should they become available to the regional district,” said Brander. “It would then allow us to protect the areas for future generations. If we do not have funds in place to purchase these properties, should they become available, we would miss out on opportunities that may be good for us.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he believes the statutory parkland acquisition reserve was started two years ago. He said he recalls expressing concerns that if the regional district was to run into a financially challenging situation, it is usually the parks that fall under the axe.
“It looks like that’s what’s happening here,” said Gisborne. “I’m a little hesitant to support this resolution because it appears the intent is to help reduce the tax requisition for this year.
“We do have big jumps in our tax requisition. The unfortunate part is that a lot of this money has already been spent. There’s not much to really axe other than the parkland acquisition fund. I am in favour of reducing it, but not to zero, and reducing it to an amount that will be consistent over the next three, four or five years.”
Gisborne said the high tax requisition has the attention of the public and he doesn’t see that as a bad thing. He said the board has approved all of the projects being considered in the budget, plus the parkland acquisition, and at the end of the day, the bills have to be paid.
Leishman struggles with lack of policy
City director CaroleAnn Leishman said she is in favour of the parkland acquisition fund, but the fact that the regional district has been paying into it for a couple of years and still doesn’t have a policy has her struggling with putting that amount of money into a reserve that doesn’t have a policy or a strategy to effectively acquire land if it becomes available.
“As a one-time thing, I think I would support it,” said Leishman. “Let’s get a policy in place and put it back up to where it should be next year.”
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick said she’d like savings to come from waste management, not parks. However, she proposed an amendment to Doubt’s motion to reduce the contribution amount to the parkland reserve fund by 50 per cent for one year.
“That is a compromise position,” said McCormick. She said she understands where Doubt is coming from and supports creating far more parks than what the regional district has now.
“A full reduction is too much,” said McCormick.
Brander said the reserve has been a long time in the making and the $183,000 was not arrived at lightly.
“It is my fear that should we reduce it or drop it down entirely, and bring it around again at a future date, it will make it that much more challenging to do,” said Brander. “I hate to see any reduction at this point.”
Gisborne asked if a park does become available and the regional district does not have sufficient funding in the reserve, could a loan be taken out to purchase the property? Manager of financial services Linda Greenan said that is an option.
McCormick’s amendment passed, with Brander and Electoral Area A and board chair Patrick Brabazon opposed.
The amended main motion was then considered and passed, with Brander, Brabazon and Electoral Area E director Andrew Fall opposed.
