Bruce Jolliffe Director (Electoral Area ‘A’) Comox Valley Regional District confirms tax dollars collected for services stay within the service area.

It would be appropriate for the newly elected Union Bay Improvement District Trustee Ted Haraldson to correct the misinformation he spread during his campaign for trustee.

——– Forwarded Message ——–

Dear Susanna,

The statement:

“joining the CVRD would mean our additional CEC [Capital Expenditure Charges] credits (connection fees) created by our new development would NOT stay within our community.  Becoming a Municipality would mean we would keep them.”

is incorrect.

The tax dollars collected for a CVRD service stays within the service. This is mandated by the Local Government Act. Thus if a water service managed by the CVRD had a CEC for a new connections, the CEC for that new connection would be kept with that water service. The funds would be used for capital improvements for that water service. Those funds could not be used elsewhere.  Funds collected for a service stay within the service.

If UBID chose to convert their water service to a CVRD local water service area the CVRD would enact a bylaw to set up a new service area with the same boundaries as the existing UBID water service area. The UBID water service operating and capital funds would be transferred to this new local water service. Those funds would continue to stay with the new CVRD water service area.

The above paragraph captures the financial aspect of transitioning to a CVRD service. As has been discussed with your Board in joint UBID-CVRD meetings, if your Board has an interest in understanding implications of transitioning your services to the CVRD your Board needs to send a letter to CVRD with that request.  The CVRD would then identify funding to study the implications to your landowners for such a transition. Your Board could then use the results of this analysis to have an informed discussion amongst yourselves and your community on the pros and cons of transitioning your services to the CVRD.

I hope this helps.

Hello CVRD Chair Bruce Jolliffe and CAO Russell Dyson,

A number of landowners have questioned the veracity of the following written statement which blanketed Union Bay Improvement District recently;

“joining the CVRD would mean our additional CEC [Capital Expenditure Charges] credits (connection fees) created by our new development would NOT stay within our community.  Becoming a Municipality would mean we would keep them.”

I would appreciate a written response from both of you regarding the accuracy of this statement and a simple plain language explanation of what would happen to UBID’s CEC’s should it merge with the CVRD?  I want to ensure that the public is given factual, accurate information.

Thank you for responding to this unusual request for clarification.

Best regards,

Susanna Kaljur Landowner and UBID Trustee