It’s good to know that all is going so well in Saanich that all that council had to talk about at their last meeting was the content and management of the mayor’s Facebook page.
Nearly a year has passed with a new mayor and council in office, and there have been little or no development proposals come forward whereas other municipalities are in a relatively robust building phase.
Under provincial legislation, municipalities cannot run a deficit so revenue is collected from senior government grants and subsidies, development cost charges and taxes from new development, and from residential property taxes and licences.
Without any commercial development taxes (which are nearly four times what residents pay) the shortfall has to be covered by residential property taxes.
Perhaps Saanich should be looking at creative ways in the budget process to alleviate the financial pain that residents will feel when their property taxes skyrocket, without even taking into account the sewage treatment charges which will inevitably come later.
And we have over three more years to go in this council term.
Paul Gerrard
Saanich