Recently - I ran into one individual who asked where does Williams Lake rank in the grand scheme of things, as far as long-term debt goes. So, after doing some research, this is what I discovered:
Communities around 11,000 population and their long-term debt levels:
1) Resort Municipality of Whister - $40,394,713.00
2) District of Summerland - $28,538,327.00
3) City of Dawson Creek - $25,378,984.00
4) City of Williams Lake - $17,600,000.00
5) District of Lake Country- $11,645,000.00
6) City of Quesnel - $9,803,395.00
7) District of Sooke - $8,553,650.00
8) City of Terrace - $4,236,391.00
9) District of Coldstream - $4,089,985.81
10) City of Parksville - $3,717,311.00
11) Town of Sidney - $2,651,113.00
Now - given we are #4 of 11 for highest long-term debt for communities with 11,000 population and also given we are looking at a Indoor Turf Facility and what to do with the current Recreation Centre (both of these projects would be possibly borrowed under the CRD but Williams Lake taxpayers' would share in those costs ranging in the tens of millions if both did go ahead, in the future) and given the state of the local economy and the fact we need to start planning for a mill closure in the next 5-10 years - long term borrowing should come to a halt, save any borrowing necessary for an emergency. We all need to look ourselves in the mirror and say to ourselves - Here is our wants and needs. Wants are nice but there are things we absolutely must have. Those "needs" would obviously include police/fire, garbage collection, water and sewer and finally basic recreation needs. Beyond that - residents need to decide, and let their politicians know for the 2012 Budget Year (CRD, City of Williams Lake, City of Quesnel, Districts of 100 Mile House/Wells) what matters more - holding the line on taxes or reducing them or having it all - even at a greater cost to local taxpayers
SBF
Showing posts with label Lake Country. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lake Country. Show all posts
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Thursday News Wrap - July 21st edition
In the Prince George Citizen:
They report that the Ulkatcho Band (Anahim Lake) and the Canoe Creek Indian Band (140 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake) will each receive $40,000 to study the following:
Ulkatcho - Feasibility study for a 5 Megawatt Biomass system
Canoe Creek - Assess/Enable the exploration of clean energy projects
The grants were announced earlier this week from Victoria's First Nations Clean Energy Business Fund.
In your Williams Lake Tribune:
* Fire at the local Recreation Complex - see here
* As part of Victoria's recently announced $10 million dollar health initiative to keep rural ER's open 24/7 - Williams Lake's ER may receive a part of this funding - see here
* Letter writer Doug Wilson expresses his relief that no one was killed in the recent rock slides affecting Highway #20, east of Bella Coola - see here
* On Tuesday, Micheal A. Jones of Williams Lake said that Scott Nelson left a mess when it came to crime for current WL Mayor Kerry Cook to clean up, however Brice O'Neill of Williams Lake in a letter to the editor disputes this , read the letter below:
In response to Michael A. Jones letter to the editor regarding crime in Williams Lake.
I’m sure that former councillors Ed Mead, Judy O’Neill, Jon Wolbers and Paul French, and current and then councillors Surinderpal Rathor and Tom Barr would take issue with you discrediting them and their hard work on crime which the current council inherited.
There is no question that the council you scorn actually laid the groundwork for the decrease in crime that you see today.
In other words, give credit where credit is due.
And then there was the small matter of who was at the helm … you guessed it, Scott Nelson.
Mead led the charge and, under his portfolio, the RCMP began the implementation of the Crime Target Team, hiring of a safer communities coordinator, lobbied for the Prolific Offender program, created a full time municipal drug investigator position, began crime mapping and many more tools which were used to help bring the crime statistics down (these initiatives are noted in the City’s 2001 Corporate Business Plan and Five-year Financial Plan).
And lowering crime stats does not happen overnight. It can take years.
Hurray that the current council continued to carry the torch, but please give credit where credit is due.
Under Mayor Nelson’s leadership and with the hard work and dedication of the council of the day, particularly Mead, the groundwork was laid.
And hopefully it will continue.
Finally - over at the District of Lake Country CAO's blog - Alberto DeFeo discusses water system and the bottled water industry. See here however WL City Council still uses bottled water at its' meetings including use at Advisory Committee meetings, like the Advisory Planning Commission, for instance and I believe the time has come to put our collective foot down and say that we are going to lead by example and prohibit the buying of bottled water and show that we believe in our local water system so much that the City will not longer buy bottled water. WL Council can do that today by passing a Resolution (motion) directing WL City Staff forthwith to no longer buy bottled water for meetings and to make tap water available
They report that the Ulkatcho Band (Anahim Lake) and the Canoe Creek Indian Band (140 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake) will each receive $40,000 to study the following:
Ulkatcho - Feasibility study for a 5 Megawatt Biomass system
Canoe Creek - Assess/Enable the exploration of clean energy projects
The grants were announced earlier this week from Victoria's First Nations Clean Energy Business Fund.
In your Williams Lake Tribune:
* Fire at the local Recreation Complex - see here
* As part of Victoria's recently announced $10 million dollar health initiative to keep rural ER's open 24/7 - Williams Lake's ER may receive a part of this funding - see here
* Letter writer Doug Wilson expresses his relief that no one was killed in the recent rock slides affecting Highway #20, east of Bella Coola - see here
* On Tuesday, Micheal A. Jones of Williams Lake said that Scott Nelson left a mess when it came to crime for current WL Mayor Kerry Cook to clean up, however Brice O'Neill of Williams Lake in a letter to the editor disputes this , read the letter below:
In response to Michael A. Jones letter to the editor regarding crime in Williams Lake.
I’m sure that former councillors Ed Mead, Judy O’Neill, Jon Wolbers and Paul French, and current and then councillors Surinderpal Rathor and Tom Barr would take issue with you discrediting them and their hard work on crime which the current council inherited.
There is no question that the council you scorn actually laid the groundwork for the decrease in crime that you see today.
In other words, give credit where credit is due.
And then there was the small matter of who was at the helm … you guessed it, Scott Nelson.
Mead led the charge and, under his portfolio, the RCMP began the implementation of the Crime Target Team, hiring of a safer communities coordinator, lobbied for the Prolific Offender program, created a full time municipal drug investigator position, began crime mapping and many more tools which were used to help bring the crime statistics down (these initiatives are noted in the City’s 2001 Corporate Business Plan and Five-year Financial Plan).
And lowering crime stats does not happen overnight. It can take years.
Hurray that the current council continued to carry the torch, but please give credit where credit is due.
Under Mayor Nelson’s leadership and with the hard work and dedication of the council of the day, particularly Mead, the groundwork was laid.
And hopefully it will continue.
Finally - over at the District of Lake Country CAO's blog - Alberto DeFeo discusses water system and the bottled water industry. See here however WL City Council still uses bottled water at its' meetings including use at Advisory Committee meetings, like the Advisory Planning Commission, for instance and I believe the time has come to put our collective foot down and say that we are going to lead by example and prohibit the buying of bottled water and show that we believe in our local water system so much that the City will not longer buy bottled water. WL Council can do that today by passing a Resolution (motion) directing WL City Staff forthwith to no longer buy bottled water for meetings and to make tap water available
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