Qualicum Beach + RDN Combined Property Taxes

When you add it all up the combined Town of Qualicum Beach (TQB) and Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) proposed budgets for 2025 will lead to a significant increase in your property tax. The RDN portion is expected to rise by $13.5% and the TQB portion is expected to rise by 9.6%. Some lines on your tax bill are expected to rise as much as 28%.

Both the TQB and the RDN use what they call the "average assessment" to illustrate the impact. Unfortunately this average assessment can be significantly lower than many very average homes in the community. Staff compare the property tax bill to other household expenses such as your cable bill. However unlike my ability to switch providers or cancel my cable bill, I have no similar option when it comes to my property tax bill.

We live in a very average home within the town boundary...almost 20 years old, less than 2000 square feet with no view. Our road is a small one way lane full of pot holes, no sidewalk or curb and no street lights. I am asking myself where does the money go? I decided to pull out my historic tax bills and look at the trends and try to calculate what my tax bill will look like for 2025.

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025 est
School tax	1327	1485	1625	1699	1699	assume no chg.
General Municipal	2589	2834	3117	3427	3756	TQB 9.6%
RDN general	646	774	840	854	969	rdn 13.5%+
Regional Hospital	189	394	503	643	824	28.2% RDN hosp. website notes
BC Assessment	37	44	48	50	52	My est.
V.I. Library	143	153	174	202	230	My est, based on 2023
RDN Wastewater	487	570	641	713	809	Using RDN 13.5%
TQB Water parcel tax	180	200	220	240	260	My estimate
RDN Parks parcel tax	20	0	0	0	0
TQB sewer parcel tax	40	45	50	55	60	My estimate
total tax	5658	6499	7218	7883	8659
$increase Yr over Yr		841	719	665	776
% increase yr to yr		14.9	11.1	9.2	9.84

Observations

A) School taxes are set by the province and we shouldn't expect too much change in 2025.

B) TQB general municipal taxes have increased by 45% over the past 4 years.

C) RDN wastewater have increased from $457 to $809 which represents a 77% increase.

The French Creek Pollution Control Center annual report indicates that these fees are expected to double again by 2028 in order to fund ongoing operational improvements. With increased population this facility will need a major expansion in the very near future.

D) RDN plus Wastewater fees have increased by 57% over the 4 year period.

E) RDN hospital levy has increased by by 336% and is expected to continue to increase by 28.2% every year as they raise funds for the hospital expansion. (40% of the hospital capital funds are generated by property taxation and the remaining 60% is covered by the province.)

Conclusions

Cumulatively our property taxes, all in, have increased by 53% over the past 4 years. despite these increases the TQB and the RDN have not been prioritizing asset replacement reserves to ensure we have sufficient funding available to replace infrastructure currently in place. Instead we continue to add new infrastructure including waterfront parks, viewing platforms enlarged pool facilities, sports facilities and generally anything local interest groups demand.

Our elected officials and staff need to adopt a much more disciplined approach to ensure appropriate user fees are collected and that tax money is prioritized on core service infrastructure replacements. We need to avoid or divest of operations that operate at a loss and are clearly not part of the municipal mandate. Council needs to exercise discipline to focus staff on core service delivery and avoid distractions that consume staff time on non core activities. We are entering an era where we as tax payers need to choose our elected officials based on their ability to understand the complexities of fiscal management and their ability and willingness to have hard conversations with both staff and the electorate.

Marie Noel

December 1 2024

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You can email us at Qualicumbeachinsights@gmail.com