New Valley-Village Fire Service
I expect everyone has already seen the improvements to our Valley Fire Hall that have been made since the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) has taken over control of our fire department. We have approved the purchase of a new Search and Rescue truck which was badly needed, and we will continue to supply our amazing volunteer firefighters with all the up-to-date equipment they need.
Regarding the Kelsey Centre
The Village of Sayward’s CAO has been sending out flyers with false and misleading information and statistics concerning the Sayward Valley’s use of the Kelsey Centre pool. It appears that he does not understand the Strathcona Regional District’s Aug.15, 2024 Regional Recreation Feasibility Study Report. This report provides the results of a public survey conducted from October to November 2024, through the SRD’s website. The total population of the SRI) in 2021 was reported to be 44,671 people. A total of 1,033 responses were received, which is only 2% of the population. This report incorrectly states that Electoral Area A (Kyuquot/ Nootka-Sayward) had 9% of the total SRD population. That would equal 4,029 residents, which is ridiculous because in 2021 we only had 864 residents (2% of the SRD total). The report further says that 7% Of the 1,033 people who responded to the survey were from Area A. This number also seems highly suspect because if only 2% of the entire population, including Campbell River, responded to the survey, why would 7% of them be from Area A? Unfortunately, there is no way to correct the errors that the consultant wrote in this report. Anyway, hypothetically, even if it was 7%, that would only equal 72 people from Area A who responded to the survey. Of these same 72 respondents: 7 of them (10%) said they use the Kelsey Centre pool daily, 27 respondents (38%) said they use it once or twice a week.
23 respondents (32%) said they used it once or twice a month, and 15 respondents (21%) said they either never use it or else maybe once or twice a year. So, according to this report, 53% of the people who responded to the survey never use the pool, or else never use it more than twice a month. One of the big errors that the Village CAD makes, is his assumption that those few people who responded to the survey somehow represent the usage of the entire Sayward Valley.
As I have stated before, none of the SRD Board of Directors, including myself, will have any say whatsoever as to whether the Sayward Valley might contribute financially to the Kelsey Centre in the future. The only thing the Board can do is to force the Valley to hold a referendum to determine whether they consent to contribute, or not. The outcome of such a vote would be final. It appears that the Village is determined to pursue that route, although it is difficult to predict how far into the future such a vote might be held. For Valley voters, it is essential to understand that if we did agree to contribute financially to the Kelsey Centre, a Recreation Service most first be created. Once a service of this nature is in place, it is virtually impossible to ever rescind it. Furthermore, the Valley would never have any control at all over how much we would be forced to contribute, or how much our property taxes would be increased each year. This would be determined by the Village together with the other municipalities, who hold the majority vote at the SRD. Operating costs are relatively easy to predict, but future capital costs are not. Capital costs for both the known required upgrades, as well as the unexpected building maintenance, upgrades, and repairs, such as if there were a leak in the pool or the building’s roof, could easily require millions of dollars to remedy, which would send our property taxes soaring. These are the hidden costs that the Village is not disclosing. My responsibility as your director is to provide you with all the facts so that in the future you can make an informed decision.
New Arts and Culture Service
There are two main Board decisions required to create a new service. The first is to request a report on that initiative, and the second is to vote on the actual creation of that service once the report has been received. At our last Board meeting, Campbell River and other municipalities, supported by the Village of Sayward, passed that first step in order to create a Regional Arts and Culture Service, with the intent of forcing everyone in the SRD to pay for Campbell River’s Museum, Tidemark Theatre, Maritime Heritage complex. Art Gallery, and who knows what other Campbell River assets. Of course, this is designed to download the City of Campbell River’s budget onto all the other jurisdictions. I cannot understand why the Village of Sayward would support funding assets owned by Campbell River, when the Village cannot even afford to fund their own infrastructure.
New Tourism Service
Campbell River has their own in-house agency for promoting tourism. They now want every property taxpayer in the SRD to subsidize this organization. Therefore, at our last Board meeting, the municipalities with the Village of Sayward’s support passed a motion to initiate the first step in creating this service.
The Sayward Valley (Area A), Cortez Is. (Area B), and Quadra Is. (Area C) voted against the creation of all these new and expensive services.
Electoral Area Planning Service
This planning service is mandated for all electoral areas by the province; however, municipalities are permitted to join and pay their share of the costs. They cannot use this service for their own municipal planning, but if they joined. they could vote on all electoral area land use matters.
Therefore, their only interest in joining would be to take over total control of all the decisions electoral areas make on land development. So, once again, initiated by Campbell River and supported by the Village of Sayward, the municipalities voted to request a report to investigate Campbell River and any other interested municipalities joining the electoral area planning service.
2025 Property Taxes
Campbell River has the absolute majority vote on all financial matters. At the end of this year’s budget process they announced that they didn’t feel they were getting their money’s worth from their involvement with the SRD. This is because they had not been successful in getting all the new regional services they want. Therefore, they reduced their financial contribution by $1.3 Million which was then downloaded onto the electoral areas. This increased our (Area A) property taxes by $29.61 per average assessed property value. To offset this increase, I have approved an accounting maneuver to reduce our average garbage collection bill by $37.21 per home.
If you have any questions on these or any other issues, please do not hesitate to contact me. My door is always open.
Gerald Whalley
Regional Director (Area ‘A’)
Phone: 250-2f12-3787
gwhalley@srd.ca
