Property Taxes 2025 sneak peek

Update: I have asked for some clarification from TQB on whether it is indeed 2 or 3 bylaw officers the town is proposing. It appears one position may have morphed into a different title adding some confusion. Our goal is to be as factual as we can and we will update the article when the clarification arrives.

Nothing is more certain than death and taxes. The town has released the condensed version of the 2025 budget reflecting a 9.6% property tax increase on the municipal portion of your tax bill. This is despite the 2024 financial bylaw that specifically stated that "the town will continue to review the portion of revenue received from user fees and charges to determine whether the user fee component could be increased to lessen the requirement for property taxation." In conjunction with this, the town initiated a policy that "the town will review all user fees and parcel taxes to ensure that they are adequately meeting the cost of the service. This will include cemetery, airport, licenses and permits and all other fees and charges." Based on the information released to date it is not evident that this action has been completed.

The cumulative amount of the proposed tax increase for 2025 is $1,174,080. Approximately two thirds will be directed to things that we have very little control over such as policing services, fair compensation for our union employees whose contract expires in mid 2025, and inflationary increases for supplies and materials. The remaining one third will be used to increase staffing levels.

Beyond increased operating expenses, the 2025 budget also envisions $11.9 million in asset replacement projects including $4.6 million airport infrastructure improvements, $1.5 million for the skateboard park replacement, $2.5 million for Seacrest Road stabilization. Beyond fixing/renewing what we already have the town has approved a further $1.8 million in new assets this year including a further $1 million for the bus garage site development and $250,000 for washrooms and food trucks at Saahtlam Park.

In reviewing the information released to date I make the following observations and comparisons with the town of Ladysmith which is proposing a 4.6% tax increase in 2025 for their population of 8990.

For the period 2022 to 2025, the Town of Qualicum Beach municipal property taxes have risen by 45% versus the Town of Ladysmith with a comparative increase of only 14.61%, for the same period.

Councillors may not have a lot of opportunity to reduce some of the upcoming cost increases identified above but they can certainly revisit some of their previous decisions that contribute to the current inflated starting point of our expenses.

For example, consider the Tree Protection Bylaw. During the first term of this council, the town added an additional bylaw compliance officer in 2023 at an ongoing cost of $100,000 per year. In this writers opinion, the tree bylaw is a poorly crafted concept that is overly bureaucratic in its approach. Consider the multitude of administrative steps involving site visits, permits from planning department, finance department administration of security deposits, bylaw enforcement, town arborist, resident inquiries, and ultimately town council as they deal with numerous appeals. The tree bylaw is a classic example of wanting to do the right thing but using a flawed approach and inconsistent application. The town proposes to spend a further $40,000 on a consultant led review in 2025, while allowing the current process to continue in the interim. My suggestion is to repeal the bylaw immediately, refund the security deposits not yet refunded under the current ad hoc appeal decision process. This action would result in a 1% reduction in the proposed 9.6% tax increase and a meaningful reduction in staff capacity across many departments allowing employees to focus on other aspects of their respective roles. Council can revisit a new tree bylaw at a later date that focuses on the trees on municipally owned land. By contrast, the Town of Ladysmith's tree bylaw is only 2 pages in length, and focuses on permits for cutting trees that are on public land ...no security deposits, no requirement for replacement trees and no additional tree bylaw enforcement required.

Another example is the additional planner position at $100,000 per annum. My understanding is that this position was originally approved to assist with strategic initiatives (presumably the tree bylaw) and then extended due to the workload impacts of the provincial Bill 44 housing initiative. Most of that work has been completed and what remains is in the realm of normal planning department workflows in a small town. The 2023 annual report shows 6 full time employees reporting to the director of planning. QB is not run off its feet with new buildings. As of October 31st 2024, the year to date permits for new housing include only 8 new single family homes, and 11 garages/ garden suites and 1 five suite larger building. Further in 2025, the planning department will be supported with a consultant at a cost of $112,500 . To allow the planning department to focus on the Official Community Plan (OCP) , council should defer any further work on both Saahtlam Park and the bus garage site as neither are urgent nor critical. Although it might be too late, the skateboard park and pickleball court projects should be put on hold until the user groups fulfill their respective fund raising commitments.

Another example of increased base expenses is staffing in general and the use of ongoing consultant contracts. The 2025 budget proposes an overall increase of permanent staff from 71.1 to 77.7 full time equivalent. Staff levels in the TQB have crept up by 30% over the past 4 years. Of note is the Human Resources budget, which has ballooned from $139,000 in 2021 to now $608,000 in 2025 which is 340%. The town is proposing to now have 3 full time employees in our human resources department along with 6 director level employees. The town is further proposing an increase of yet another bylaw officer bringing us to 3 full time staff in this area. By contrast Ladysmith is proposing to increase their lone part time bylaw officer into a single fulltime position in 2025. We cannot keep adding staff and need to focus on the core activities while reducing the distractions that use staff time for non essential work.

Another area receiving inadequate fiscal attention is the airport. The 2025 budget forecasts an operating loss of $235,000 for the year. Further airport expenses include $130,000 taken from TQB reserves for a runway survey/ tree management project and $145,000 from town reserves for capital projects not covered by grants. This totals $510,000 to be paid for by QB tax payers, or the equivalent of $1397 per day.

Total airport capital and equipment costs for 2025 are budgeted at $4,760,000.

Total resources used to fund the TQB airport this year are $5.125,000 taken from all sources. Take this in contrast to the $153,000 "users contribution"  which is comprised of lease payments, landing fees, airport improvement fees, and the profit paid on users fuel purchases. For every $1 that users pay, QB and Canadian tax payers are paying $33.50.

If we cannot reduce the airport related tax burden on QB tax payers by increasing user fees we need to lobby our regional partners to take on some of this responsibility. If that is not successful we need to explore alternative options for the land. QB is well serviced by three airports all within less than 1 hours drive. And yes we will still get emergency service such as medivac and fire protection...just like Cumberland, Ladysmith, Parksville and Lantzville all who do not have the tax burden of an under utilized airport.

Council can also refocus on those initiatives that are critical and urgent and defer those initiatives that are less important or clearly not in the municipal realm of responsibility. I suggest that the time has come for a critical review of how we undertake the significant town sponsored asset replacements and upgrades. We cannot continue to build "triple platinum" solutions for every public works project we undertake. Consider the beach creek viewing platform at the waterfront with a reported cost of over $3 million, only partially covered by grants of approximately $2 million. This project also has ongoing cost impacts to the parks department operating budget to maintain the new irrigated planting beds overlooking the culvert. I admit it is beautiful and built to the very highest standard possible. But did we really need this and did we need to spend this much money?

What are we going to do to ensure that future projects are indeed necessary and then built to an acceptable, rather than triple platinum standard.

In the budget overview document the town states that the town "faces difficulties in funding significant capital projects due to insufficient reserves. This financial constraint hinders timely maintenance and replacement of assets." Whether the amount being allocated to asset replacement reserves in 2025 is sufficient is not clear as we have not yet been provided with the reserve account balances that remain after the decisions within the budget are applied. Presumably this will be clarified in the Asset Replacement Strategy presentation scheduled for January 8th, 2025. Unfortunately this will be after the 2025 budget is finalized on December 11, 2024. Talk about putting the cart before the horse!

The town budget provides for a number of things that could be described as "nice to have". However, the town must first provide for those things that we "must have. ( For example water, sewer, fire, policing, and core asset replacement.) Only then should the town consider the "nice to have" things.

Marie Noel

Dec 2 2024

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