This is one of those times when I have quite a bit of sympathy for the Cowichan Valley Regional District.
It remains to be seen if that sympathy lasts through the entire budget process, but right now, I think the CVRD is doing all the right things.
They’ve put together a core budget that includes all the essential community services.
Now they are taking to the public a list of supplementary budget items, ranked by urgency, that may or may not be added to that core budget.
To be perfectly clear, at this point, the CVRD has not agreed to add a single thing to the core budget. They are first taking the temperature of the electorate on these items, which range all the way from ongoing expenses like a new $100,000 salary for a records clerk, to replacing the worn suspension bridge at Bright Angel Park.
In the past, there was little chance for public input on these kinds of budget decisions. Oh, they’d debate some of them — I’ve sat at some of those meetings — and you could write in, but they did not solicit opinion nearly as openly as they are doing in 2017. So I think the CVRD really deserves some credit for putting this forward. I’m sure they’re well aware how much negative feedback they’re letting themselves in for. After all, it’s usually the folks who don’t want them to spend any money on anything that will form the majority of the respondents.
And some people in the community are really angry. I understand this reaction as well. Taxes never seem to go down, but nor does income seem to significantly go up, especially for seniors.
That said, I fall somewhere in the middle of the “no more expenditures” and “pay for everything now” spectrum. One time projects, for instance, that are maintaining the amenities that the community values can be good investments. We can’t just sit and wait for all of our infrastructure to fall down around our ears. That just leads to even greater expenses in the future.
But I would need to hear a pretty convincing argument as to why it’s necessary to add another $100,000-plus ongoing salary to the CVRD board offices.
Whether there are grants to pay for part of some of these expenses also figures in the mix, as not having to foot the entire bill as long as we do it now is certainly attractive.
This year and in the years to come the CVRD is going to have to pick and choose carefully as it walks the tightrope of keeping our communities affordable, while also keeping them desirable places to live.
editor@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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