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Prince Rupert Regional Information
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NATURESea, land, river PEOPLESCommunity
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Rupert water infrastructure set up
for Canneries etc --- but who pays?? |
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For my earlier
resume of the January 24th meeting (sans sewer fees) see here Alarm Bells ringing I see no one on Council ‘defending’ the
small guy --- though Jack did vote against --- more later |
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There is a common
problem here --- Airport Ferry costs us (PR taxpayers) almost a million
dollars a year subsidy --- I am dubious a road solution will happen – thus
should look for common ground with villages – combining all our services etc |
Time to rethink
our local government and its ‘cronies’ |
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Here
is a crew boat – presently Lax Kw’aalams in a bitter labour dispute – their
ferry crews want parity in wages with the PR airport ferry crews etc --- I
hear there was a meeting Monday to explain their requests to community --- |
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See Northern
View write up of the debate and Frank’s simplistic solution |
It looks like the Anchor Inn fellow is
carrying the day --- and no one on Council is taking the Residents’
perspective |
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In
fact Councillor Gordon Payne is wanting to give him his full argument ---
(unexamined) though her day job (the PR Regional Hospital) will end up paying
much more ---- But then her families Motel will save almost as much as Anchor
Inn will |
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Tourism
Revenue from Provincial
database |
Here is part
of the problem |
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Over
all, PR tourism peaked in 2007 and then recession hit in summer 2008 ---
which presumably had the owners scrambling to save $$, and the sewer- water
bill looked like a gross inequality to Frank Zdravlje --- now it appears
Council is agreeing (with 3 of 7 owning 3rd Ave businesses) |
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The January 24th Agenda
Package has a printout of numerous property rates etc |
Frank likes
to use ‘Water in, Water out’ as his rallying call --- and he wants ‘fairness’
now |
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But before we go
into his sometimes specious
argument –lets look at who will be hurt by the quick fix to help business
interests --- Biggest loser will be the hospital which (by tying its ‘water
in’ to ‘water out’) will be paying from 12-15T$ more per year --- but
Acropolis Manor too will see doubling or more of sewer bill --- ditto the
Court House etc But then the Yacht
Club will get hit too – as will Port Ed Harbour Authority etc --- these
latter examples illustrate the simplistic shortcomings of ‘water in = water
out’ formula --- But there is even a more profound weakness in the argument
--- Taxpayers already subsidize their ‘water in’
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Town water
system built to feed the canneries cheap water |
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We give the
canneries water at about half fee that a residential pays (0.41 versus 0.80)
--- using figures given, I calculate that canneries alone use equivalent of
about 1,500 ‘typical’ residential households (664,573 M3) |
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Taken from Frank’s
presentation to Council last meeting Of course the main
weakness in ‘debate’ over ratios etc for sewer to water fees is the fact that
homeowners already subsidize the water rates to commercial users --- Plus we
need to know implications of ‘Frank’s solution’ – I predict 75% residential
25% commercial) |
So much for
the ‘only’ 493 commercial users versus 3710 |
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The Crest is the
biggest user of water among the hotels --- and the manager apparently agrees
with the ‘water in = water out’ formula though he will be paying about 4T$
more for his sewer --- I further calculate Crest uses about same water in a
year as 51.5 ‘typical’ households |
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And while we are ‘rethinking’
Sewer rates --- and Airport Ferry etc --- I suggest we should be looking at
Fire and Police ---- a volunteer fire department? --- We need to have the
discussion --- 1M$ savings some suggest |
Water in =
water out |
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Before
one does the ‘easy’ calculations lets first compare apples to apples – Thus I
calculate that if the Crest were paying the same ‘rate’ for its water as the
Residential (I used 0.80 versus 0.61) – then the Crest’s water bill would be
about $4500 higher – and about $9500 more per year when city suggested 1.2078
multiplier used for sewer + water |
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As you can see this is not so
simple as Frank and his Hotel cronies would have us believe
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To debate we need
better info than left which actually shows water operating costs are going down between 2008-2010 – so much for
the 5% increase ‘logic’ (just say ‘cash grab’?) The ‘capital’ = un-built projects in
2010 More later |
Created by LG on
Feb 1, 2011
Last updated on Tuesday, February 01, 2011