They are concerned that 90.5% of all funding from North Cariboo Recreation/Parks Service is going to centralized recreation services/assets in Quesnel while only 3.4% of funding goes to Bouchie Lake (Operating/Capital), 1.5% for Parkland (Operating/Capital) and 0.8% of funding goes to Barlow Creek Recreation (Operating/Capital)
Meanwhile - former CRD Area 'B' Director Heloise Dixon-Warren (2011-2014) left this comment on Facebook this morning as to this factsheet
IT IS TIME FOR CHANGE... Let's tell our local government that we want an increase in the services that we receive for Recreation that we pay for close to home and in our neighbourhoods...While we have a similiar type of recreation centralization here in Williams Lake/Central Cariboo - I hope to have a process in the long term to ensure that we can and should be investing in rural recreation assets while engaging the public around what that looks like...
Was is shocking about the numbers provided in the attached document is that of the $3.7 million collected through taxation to support North Cariboo Recreation in 2015, only 5.8% of these funds is returned to Bouchie Lake (3.4%), Barlow Creek (0.8%), and Parkland (1.6%) to support ALL THREE facilities.
In 2015, the CRD will be undertaking Strategic Planning of the Recreation Function ($75,000 allocated to this... 2.0% of the Taxes collected...)...
$160,000 (4.3%) is allocated every year to the City of Quesnel for the Riverfront Trail, Parks and Green Spaces (LeBourdais Park) and these do not have infrastructure.
As rural residents we pay the same taxation rate / $100,000 as City of Quesnel residents but we receive so little services and rely on volunteers to offer the services we do get. This is NOT equitable nor fair.
~SF
2 comments:
Short sighted and self serving attitudes drive me nuts. To expect to have relative facilities, or even relative funding, in rural areas makes zero sense. Services are centralized for a simple reason- economy of scale. The only way smaller communities can afford a pool or rink is by centralization...the ONLY WAY. Of course the rink and pool take almost all the money to run, they cost a ton! They are also an expectation of the majority of taxpayers and the only way they will happen is through centralization. Same deal for hospitals, schools, etc...
You choose where you live.....get over it.
Anonymous...in some part there has to be obvious logical agreement with your central point. Economies of scale matter. However, being that these facilities currently exist in the communities that are being taxed for them, and are not being allocated funds to properly maintain them, and the availability of these facilities can mean a much better communication within those communities, it's well worth funding them properly. Further, in our widely separated area, it's unreasonable for people to drive into town (if you could even find a room available for booking) for a community-focused meeting when there is a facility close by.
If you go back just 10 years there were local dances, festivals, and other events in facilities in these communities. Now (especially in my area, Barlow Creek) there is almost nothing. At the same time there are a lot of complaints about the state of our building facilities and the lack of maintenance of outdoor rural facilities. If there is going to be an intentional shutdown of those rural facilities, then it should be intentional and have them properly replaced with ones in town. As it is, it's a slow death by a thousand cuts (again, all while people pay taxes to the CRD hoping that something magically changes).
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