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Pique'n'yer interest

Pause the madness…

There’s a good chance that our property taxes will go up next year as the municipality struggles to get a handle on rising costs and a budget that’s growing in leaps and bounds.

Municipal wages, which are tied to the Greater Vancouver Regional District, are going up after the recent City of Vancouver strike. Property tax revenues, as a result of the B.C. government’s decision to grandfather condo hotels in the Class 1/Class 6 debate, will probably go down.

But the biggest expense for the municipality is the rising cost of capital construction, largely due to the rising costs of materials and labour.

The library, once pegged at $5.7 million, is now $11 million and counting. The composting facility, once estimated at $6 million, is now $12 million.

The municipality is also on the hook to help build the $130 million athletes’ village and part of the $14 million medal plaza for the Olympics and Paralympics, as well as countless other projects big and small.

The wastewater treatment plant is also on the docket, at a projected cost of more than $30 million.

A planned addition to municipal hall was scrapped after the projected costs almost tripled what was in the budget. Now the municipality is on the hook for renovations that I don’t imagine will come cheap.

For some reason the municipality has also decided to build elaborate shelters for our recycling bins at Nesters that are nicer than anything in my home. That kind of craftsmanship doesn’t come cheap, and quite frankly looks out of place when contrasted against the propane tanks, electrical transformers and sheds surrounding the municipal works yard.

If and when the call comes down to raise property taxes next year, we’ll be reminded that council has kept property taxes pretty much frozen in recent years, with some adjustments for inflation, something few other municipalities have accomplished. We’ve already been told that’s because of shrewd budgeting by the municipality, although some credit should probably go to the growing number of multi-million dollar homes and condos chipping into the coffers. Those revenues allow us to dream bigger and do more than other towns our size.

We now have a greater share of the hotel tax, thanks to the province finally delivering the financial tools we were promised when we signed on to co-host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but a projected $6 million a year won’t dig us out of the hole we’re digging for ourselves anytime soon. That money is already spent for the next five years.

If I could ask just one question of council regarding various projects they’ve taken on it would be “why now?” Why build the compost plant? Why put money into a fund to build a centre for sustainability? While I support these projects, I question whether we need them right now.

There’s no question that Whistler has an unusually high number of capital commitments to finance, and that the due date for those projects is approaching too quickly to dither about designs and approaches.

But I would be cautious about raising property taxes for a few reasons. First, while a small increase of a few percentage points wouldn’t cause any real hardship for locals, it does send the message that our taxes are underwriting the Olympics — something we were assured would not happen. As much as we are told that our Olympic costs are covered by VANOC, there’s no question that hosting the Games has created a new urgency for other municipal projects. Essentially that forces us to build things at the worst possible time economically, when we otherwise might have been able to wait a few years for the cost of labour and materials to come down. Every project we undertake only creates more competition in the construction industry, which drives costs up even further.

Will the current skilled labour shortage last forever, even after all the Olympic venues and side projects like Highway 99 and the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre are built? Will the oil boom in Alberta continue to snap up skilled workers from across Canada as well as skilled immigrants? Will the global appetite for Canadian wood, steel and concrete level off as our dollar increases and other countries become more competitive? Boom times don’t last forever.

Second, I have to wonder whether any property tax increase would be permanent or a temporary measure until these projects were completed. If taxes do go up, I’d like to see a sunset clause because new taxes implemented in times of emergency seldom come down when the emergency is over. The government finds a new emergency, and new ways to spend the money.

Given the slate of projects underway and on the horizon, it would make more sense to prioritize projects than to raise taxes. If something is not absolutely crucial to meet our minimum obligations for hosting the Games, it should be put on pause until either prices come down or our main obligations are met. Now is not the time to build shelters for the recycling bins at our waste transfer stations, or centres for sustainability, or any other projects that can be considered optional.

There will always be demands for more facilities, more funding, more programs. Where are the demands for fiscal responsibility?