Editorial: The horrors beneath our feet (and elsewhere)! The money it will cost to remedy them! Ack!
The image above is only one tiny sample of the ways some of our city’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair – because of many (probably most) successive previous Councils’ perceived need to keep taxes as low as possible and remain competitive with other communities, instead of paying for maintenance and repairs and replacements as needed. Kicking these actions down the road has resulted in a massive “infrastructure deficit” – the huge amount of money that it would cost to bring everything up to generally accepted standards. This has happened not just in Rossland, but in municipalities all over the country.
(Remember Osoyoos, and what happened there when their Council explained that it would take a 39% increase in property taxes for 2024 to begin fixing things? According to reports in the Penticton Herald and the Summerland Review, the property tax hit was eventually reduced to an 11% increase. But combined with increases to water and utilities fees, homeowners were still expected to face a total increase of nearly 24%. That reduction from the original 39% was achieved by canceling or deferring several large projects.)
Rossland City Council met on February 3, starting at 3:30 pm, to discuss the 2025 – 2029 Five-Year Financial Plan – that is, all these problems and how to address them.
It was not a comfortable meeting. Numbers had been crunched, and the facts they revealed were … downright scary for any city council to face. Here’s a brief (well, OK, not brief at all, though I tried to keep it down) summary of the nearly two-and-a-half-hour-long Committee-of-the-Whole meeting, where Council and Staff talked turkey about taxes and other rising expenses.
Present: Mayor Andy Morel, and Councillors Stewart Spooner, Craig Humpherys, Eliza Boyce (remote), Jeff Weaver (remote), and Lisa Kwiatkowski. Maya Provençal was unable to attend until 4:40 pm.
Staff: Chief Administrative Office Bryan Teasdale, Deputy Corporate Officer Cynthia Añonuevo, Chief Financial Officer Mike Kennedy, Financial Clerk II Justin Brogan, City Planner Stacey Lightbourne, Executive Assistant Rachel Newton, Manager of Operations and Infrastructure Scott Lamont and Deputy Operations Manager Josh Solman.
The proposed 2025 – 2029 Financial Plan
The first task in creating a financial plan is to calculate how much money the City must spend. the next step is to figure out how to raise that money, and how much of the money must be raised by property taxes.
Kennedy pointed out in the materials for this meeting that only about 55% — a little over half – of a property tax bill in Rossland is paid to the City; the rest goes to the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) — about 17%, School tax (about 23%), Police services (about 3%), and the Regional Hospital (about 2%).
The draft financial plan proposes an annual 10% increase in the Rossland portion of our tax bills for the next five years; our CFO also notes that the RDKB is planning to increase its requisition – that’s the amount that Rossland must pay to the RDKB — by about 28%.
The greatest percentage increase in RDKB cost is in “Administration and General Government.” That budget line has been increasing more than any other, year over year, for the past four years – it has gone from $58,151 in 2021, to $221,060 for 2025.
Humpherys commented that he found the 42% increase for Administration and General Government “ridiculous and unsustainable.” Morel said the RDKB was looking at new staff positions, and noted that they have been drawing on reserves for a while, which he said is not a sustainable practice for operating expenses. He also explained that the RDKB had hired a couple of new IT personnel recently, and that they were necessary hires for security.
Morel also commented that some RDKB expenses are a result of downloading by the province. He also mentioned that the RDKB had purchased a new ladder truck because of new multi-storey builds at RED – the old trucks could not reach high enough.
The biggest RDKB expense line is Fire Protection, at $1,102,640 for 2025.
Boyce commented that “we need to find a way to rein in spending” at the RDKB, and referred to the Administration and General Government budget line in particular. Morel said that “we are asking for master plans” for fire services and other areas.
Kennedy talked about the large cost of the sewage treatment upgrade, known as the Columbia Pollution Control Centre, and explained that Rossland has been building up a reserve fund in anticipation of this big financial hit; the fund now has about $700,000, which will be used to “smooth out” Rossland’s payments, probably over the next three years — but after that, we’ll be paying the full cost, and that there will be future large, additional but related expenses.
For the big picture, Kennedy points out that geopolitical uncertainty, including the threat of tariffs and potential disruption of supply chains, makes it very difficult to predict upcoming costs and the likely rate of inflation.
Kennedy said that the first two years of the plan can be fairly well-detailed, but beyond that, estimates become more speculative. Guesswork. Kennedy said, regarding the evolving (Ed.: devolving?) situation south of the border, that the City is adding larger contingency allowances to construction estimate but has no current plans to implement ACCs/DCCs.
Some other upcoming expenses:
Dam Safety Review: Manager of Operations and Infrastructure Scott Lamont explained that whent the Ophir Dam was built, it met the safety standards of the time; now, he says, “the goal posts have moved” and provincial requirements have changed so that Ophir is out of compliance. Public Works is hoping to rectify it without incurring any unnecessary expense.
Retaining walls: The ones at First Avenue and Queen Street, and along a portion of McLeod Avenue, need replacement. The Queen and First wall poses a “possible” risk of failure with “intolerable” consequences, and the McLeod wall has a “likely” risk of failure, also with intolerable consequences.
In response to expressions of shock at the likely cost of making the walls safe, Teasdale noted that the City is doing its due diligence on construction, and reminded Council that the figures in the DRAFT plan are rough, not “Class A,” estimates.
Louie Joe Access Road: The City needs to be able to access infrastructure in that area, but cannot determine the exact route until the snow is gone.
Manholes: (See the image above as just one example of letting maintenance slide … it’s always more expensive to do emergency repairs and lose service until they’re done than to do regular assessment and replacement of superannuated stuff.) Lamont noted that his department is now using “the lid of the manhole” as a replacement for “the tip of the iceberg” as there is so much going on unseen under so many of the manhole covers.
Some of the other items, listed without going into detail: Redstone Right-of-Way “revitalization;” Public works Shop; Arena Maintenance; Air Conditioning for Golden Bear (City-owned building); TRP – has jumped to $135,000 for 2025/26; Communication consultant; Protective Services, including wildfire protection programs; Community Support …
Discussion:
Kwiatkkowski said she is open reconsidering how much expense Rossland needs to incur for travel to and participation in expensive conferences.
Teasdale noted that Council will be discussing needs versus wants.
Kwiatkowski added that “people will freak out at a 10% increase in City taxes, yet that is not enough” to address the City’s needs for maintenance and repairs of City assets.
Boyce stated that she prefers higher taxes over borrowing money and paying interest on it for years, but Humpherys countered that if interest rates are low enough, borrowing can be helpful. Boyce added that many people in Rossland can afford somewhat higher taxes, and those who cannot, have the option of deferring them.
Spooner suggested that Council will need to make decisions about service levels.
Weaver stated that he thinks the proposals in this DRAFT plan – the 10% property tax increase yearly for five years – is the most reasonable approach, under all the circumstances.
The CoW meeting adjourned at 5:50 pm.