The referendum in Shuswap
Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 at 8.00 AM in the CSRD office will start a referendum- advance voting, and Saturday, April 30, 2022, general voting in Sorrento Memorial Hall and Blind Bay Memorial Hall. The referendum will be about the proposed municipality of the District of Sorrento- Blind Bay located in Electoral Area C of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD). The referendum will be concerned with the following question:” Are you in favor of the incorporation of the municipality of the District of Sorrento- Blind Bay?”
The idea of incorporation started to be more actual back in February 2019, when the Minister of Municipal Affairs received and endorsed a request from the CSRD Board of Directors to commission an Incorporation Study for the Sorrento-Blind Bay portion of Electoral Area C. The study started at the end of the year 2019 when the CSRD Board of Directors established the Study Advisory Committee, which was created from a total of twelve residents, nine from Blind Bay, and three from Sorrento. John Smith from Blind Bay was elected as a Chair of the Committee by the full membership.
Photo source: digitaldean.com
Over two years of the work the Study Advisory Committee with the cooperation of Neilson Strategies {consulting company based in Kelowna} created the report, which was finalized in February 2022. The report contains details about the study, technical examination of the incorporation option, and its implications for residents in the proposed area, including the estimated budget. The report also contains the option if the process of incorporation fails.
Residents of the proposed area are most concerned about rising property taxes, to cover all expenses of the potential new municipal government. As a report shows:” A projected expenses spreadsheet, also presented in Appendix VIII, projects expenses in 2023 at $5,296,951. Included in this figure are all of the costs, itemized in the various Service Sheets, that the new Municipality would incur to provide municipal services. Total costs increase slightly over the first four years in response to known future events. Costs increase significantly, however, beginning in 2027 when, it is assumed, the new Municipality would be responsible for providing local policing. The revenues spreadsheet presents the total revenues from other sources — $1,762,410 in 2023 — against the projected expenses — $5,296,951 in 2023 — to determine the amount required to be raised in municipal property value taxes each year — $3,534,542 in 2023.”
Another big concern for residents is that more bureaucrats will be creating more rules and regulations, which will complicate the life of people living in the proposed area, and also will require more people to hire to control and applicate those regulations, such as bylaw officers, inspectors, etc., what will create additional cost and increased the taxes, sell the municipal asset or go deeper to the debt.
For comparison, the City of Salmon Arm for the year 2020 {2021 not reported yet} had total revenues of 38, 917, 911 CAD, including an unconditional grant of 3,6 million CAD Covid-19 Safe Restart Grant. From that amount revenues gained from property taxes was 18, 977, 526 CAD, which was 48,76% of total revenues. On the other side reconciliation of remuneration in total was 9, 513, 526 CAD, including remuneration and expenses for employees, council indemnity and expenses, employers CPP and EI, pension, workers compensation, employer health tax, and other expenses, what was 24,45% of total revenue.
There is one more thing to mention. The report from Study Advisory Committee did not mention, that if people will vote for incorporation and agenda for Sorrento- Blind Bay Municipality move from CSRD to a new municipal government, CSRD will keep the same amount of bureaucrats, but with less budget, because of missing revenue from Sorrento and Blind Bay. That means CSRD will need to increase the revenue somewhere else, the most by increasing the taxes or cutting the budget for planning projects.
Now is all in the hands of Sorrento and Blind Bay residents, because the referendum is the most democratic institute. The people have the opportunity to decide which way they want to go. More people will attend, the better. There are always pros and cons, so it’s very important to choose wisely. There are two things to remember, there are always lobbyists because of the potential personal benefits, and bureaucrats like the power and control.
________________________________________________________________________
DB
