The financial plan was developed after several months of review by the Board, regional district staff, committees, and a three week public consultation process. Open-ended feedback provided by survey respondents consistently raised road maintenance and property assessments as concerns, despite neither being the responsibility of regional districts. Rural water systems and taxation levels were other subject areas which were featured in the survey and online feedback.
“The Board, staff, and key stakeholders in our services have put a tremendous amount of work to keep taxes as low as possible with this budget, while funding essential services we provide,” said Jim Glassford, Director for Electoral Area I (West Fraser/Nazko) and Chair of the Finance-Budget Committee. “While we are being challenged by extraordinary inflation levels, I am thankful for the collective effort to ensure that we are being fiscally responsible and only taxing at levels that are necessary to fund the services we provide.”
The financial plan would see total spending increase by $1.47 million (3.5%) over 2022 levels after removing consideration of retained surplus, while total property tax revenues would increase by $1.17 million (4.1%) overall. The plan also authorizes a $851,119 drawdown from previous years’ surplus, from $16.02 million to $15.17 million. Services financed by the financial plan include solid waste management, emergency preparedness, fire protection, recreation facilities, regional libraries, and land use and development planning.
By law, the CRD Board must adopt its financial plan by March 31, 2023 to authorize funding for 125 regional, sub-regional, and local services. The Board will be considering the adoption of the financial plan at its March 24, 2023 regular meeting. Financial planning documents, background information, consultation results, and meeting agendas are available online at www.cariboord.ca/budget.
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