Plan calls for a $15-25 parcel tax to help pay for improved protection…

Note:
This is the news coverage of the presentation by SLIPP staff to the CSRD last week. A good article, but the title is a bit misleading, as the planning process is over and now the plan needs to be implemented (a better title would have been ‘Watershed Protection hinges on funds’). The ideal mechanism for implementation would be the proposed Watershed Council, but the province has no money or inclination to pay all the costs, so it is up to the people who live here to pay a nominal parcel tax ($15-25)/year. Cheers, Jim

Planning process hinges on funds

By Barb Brouwer
Shuswap Market News
Feb. 5, 2010

The plan is in place, but putting moving it forward is going to cost money; which raises the question of who’s going to pay?

Ian McGregor, Fish and Wildlife Science head in the Ministry of Environment’s Kamloops office, presented an update on the Shuswap Lake Integrated Planning Process Strategic Plan for Shuswap and Mara Lake to directors at a Columbia Shuswap Regional District board meeting last Thursday.

After providing a review of SLIPP’s past accomplishments and future challenges regarding lake protection, McGregor got down to the matter of governance.

He told directors a formal and inclusive governance framework is needed to expand the SLIPP process to include the entire Shuswap watershed, formalize group representation and establish a secure funding model.

“The reason we’re here, is that the CSRD is seen to be in a strong leadership position to take this (process) forward,” he told directors as he presented financing options.

McGregor said SLIPP needs to gain legal status and suggested the group consider three options, which he listed, along with their benefits and constraints.

Annual expenses to move SLIPP forward are anticipated to be $1.4 million, with income and in-kind resource support estimated at $695,000, leaving a funding shortfall of $705,000.

McGregor noted that MOE had contributed $130,000 in cold hard cash with another $150,000 in in-kind support such as staff, boats and other equipment.

He told directors that it seemed likely MOE and other agencies were moving to more in-kind support rather than financial, which drew Area C South Shuswap director Ted Bacigalupo to remind him that the regional district’s in-kind support through staff services should be taken into consideration.

“I hope the means to funding is not going to be the thing that sends the project down the drain,” he said.

In-kind support was a sore point with Electoral Area E director Rhona Martin and Salmon Arm director Kevin Flynn.

Martin pointed out how the province partnered with the regional district on milfoil harvesting in Shuswap Lake but has now pulled out leaving the CSRD to manage on their own.

“There’s a federal and provincial responsibility and there needs to be some kind of guarantee that there will be funds,” she said. “Local taxpayers cannot pay for everything. There are people living along the lake whose assessments have already skyrocketed.”

“I would suggest that in-kind support will go down over the years,” sadded Flynn, describing the provincial government actions as downloading. “Salmon Arm has always supported SLIPP but I’m concerned about who’s gonna pay.”

Under McGregor’s proposed funding model, the three regional districts in the Shuswap watershed would pick up the shortfall; CSRD with $322,000 or 54 per cent, the Thompson Regional District $171,000 or 24 per cent and the North Okanagan Regional District paying 22 per cent or $152,000.

McGregor said he had not included Salmon Arm or Area D Falkland-Ranchero because he did not have the necessary data.

Suggested methods of collecting the money were through a parcel tax to all land parcels, which would amount to about $24 per year, or a value-based tax on the assessed value of properties and at five cents per $1,000 of value would cost about $25 per year on a property worth $250,000.

Phil Hallinan, former manager of the Fraser Basin Council’s Thompson Region, said he thought the presentation to the board went as well as possible.

“It’s a bit of a work in progress, its been shown to them for the first time and they know something needs to be done for the lake but they’re protecting their taxpayers,” he said. “It’s a bit like being nibbled to death by ducks.”

But he reassured that the Fraser Basin Council will continue to fund SLIPP.

“We consider SLIPP to be the flagship program of the Thompson Region,” he said. “One of the keys to this is MLA George Abbott. If he continues to support SLIPP, future funding from the province will be committed.”