Council’s weekly column gives limited scope to fully discuss City issues and initiatives. That’s the only reason two aspects of the West Quesnel Land Stability project were not included in last week’s column: there simply wasn’t enough space to canvass the topics in a meaningful way.
Even explaining them in today’s column may be insufficient to answer some of the questions West Quesnel residents and property owners might have, that’s why the City is preparing a more detailed householder and planning a town hall meeting. Some things are better explained in face-to-face meetings where the full range of residents’ concerns can be canvassed.
The two topics that weren’t explored last week are the potential to use a parcel tax to support any future investments to expand dewatering infrastructure should that situation arise, and the possibility of financial compensation for the relatively small number of homeowners who have experienced significant structural damage to their houses.
Unfortunately, the past practice and past promises of previous Councils, particularly some of the individual members of those Councils, has created a situation where some West Quesnel residents may feel that the current Council is “abandoning” them. As was pointed out in last week’s column, that is not the case; the current Council is simply clarifying the situation and committing to implementing its policies consistently in the future.
With respect to any potential compensation for significantly impacted structures, City staff have sought clarity from both the federal and provincial governments about what forms of compensation, if any, might be made available through either the Province’s emergency management financing or the Federal Government’s disaster financial relief program. The definitive answer from both levels of government is that the West Quesnel slide does not qualify for financial relief from either program.
Rather than continue to give residents and ratepayers false hope that they might be compensated someday, Council is simply relaying the fact that there is no program in existence that would offer such compensation.
With respect to the potential use of a parcel tax for future dewatering infrastructure investments, once again social media is proving to be a tool for the spread of misinformation and disinformation.
First, no such investments are contemplated, so no incremental taxes are contemplated. Second, a parcel tax for a defined area of the city, like the West Quesnel landslide area, cannot be imposed by Council, it can only be implemented with elector approval that would require the approval of at least 50% of the properties (“parcels”) representing at least 50% of the total assessed value (land and improvements) of the defined area.
The principle behind the Local Services Policy is that the entire city should not pay for any incremental services or infrastructure that benefits only a portion of the city. The $8 million that the City has already invested in the $17 million West Quesnel dewatering project, a project which only benefits the properties in the slide area, was from general taxation. This means that other neighbourhoods in the city did not get investments they might otherwise have gotten and that they paid taxes toward.
Simply put, citywide taxation should be used for services and programs that benefit the entire city equally. Local area taxation (“parcel tax”) allows Council or local property owners to fund projects that benefit only their local area – again, only with the permission of the majority of the property owners who would have to pay the self-imposed tax.
Hopefully, the upcoming town hall meeting will allow us an opportunity to clarify any other outstanding questions about the West Quesnel landslide project.
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