Proposed Five-Year Capital Plan
Public Forum – November 20, 2000
On November 20th Council hosted a public forum ( see summary notes ) to provide Belcarra residents an opportunity to understand and participate in the long-term financial planning priorities for our roads, drainage and fire protection capital projects. Like many other Lower Mainland municipalities, we face financial challenges and have important choices to make. In an environment of ever increasing financial demands, and rising maintenance costs for existing infrastructure, Council must continually re-assess spending priorities. When considering these challenges, we must recognise the importance of re-investing in our community infrastructure, and when planning for these capital expenditures we must take a long-term perspective.
The Guiding Principles by which the Village operates are based on a long-term (10-year) perspective, are focused on maintaining the existing infrastructure, service levels, and financial reserves, and adhere to a “pay-as-you-go” philosophy.
Currently the Village receives a $100,000 community protection grant from the province that accounts for approximately 20% of the annual budget. However, this grant has remained "frozen" for the past 10 years which equates to 20% "shrinkage" due to inflation. This grant is likely to remain "frozen" and could be cancelled by the Province at any time as has happened to the larger municipalities. In addition, provincial funding for secondary highways ended three years ago, assessed property values for the past few years have remained "flat", and inflation has increased into the 2.5% to 3.0% range which is not off-set by growth.
The Planning Objectives for the next five-years are to complete the fire protection works, continue with the safety improvements and rehabilitation of Bedwell Bay Road and, last but not least, to maintain the current financial reserves. The fire protection works have been a long-standing priority to increase protection of life and property that will also result in savings to homeowners in the range of $200 to $400 per year per household. To achieve these objectives, the municipality must sustain a minimum capital funding level of $150,000 per year.
Two projects are currently scheduled for 2001, namely, extension of the fire protection water main along Belcarra Bay Road, from Salish Road to Bedwell Bay Road, and asphalt restoration on Bedwell Bay Road between the entrance to the Village and Senkler Road (see chart below).
The proposed capital projects plan for the next five years (2001 – 2005) focuses on the phased installation of the fire protection water main and hydrants, as well as on-going refurbishing projects on Bedwell Bay Road (see chart below). A number of smaller projects have not been included in the capital plan at this time, but need to be considered none-the-less.
There are several ways to approach the funding of capital projects, but based on comments from the residents attending the public forum, it appears that most people feel that a combination of long-term project planning funded from the general property tax is the most acceptable mechanism.
The feedback from the November 20, 2000 public forum will be referred to Council in January 2001 for further consideration and subsequent amendment of the five-year financial plan. The five-year financial plan and annual budget for 2001 will then be brought forward to Council for discussion in open meetings and adoption by May 2001.
