Committee of the Whole Supports Boosts to Utility Rates
Prince George, B.C. – While the City of Priince George waits for what Councillor Dave Wilbur calls "The other partner in this dance" to "pony up cash", the City of Prince George is trying to deal with significant gap between what it is spending on infrastructure upgrades and what it shouldbe spending on infrastructure repairs and upgrades.
According to a report presented to the City’s Committee of the Whole, the City should be spending 16.87 million on roads, sewer and water , it is only spending 4.54 million and the proposed budget for next year would increase that amount, (6.22 million) but would still be $10.64 million short of what it should be spending.
If there is good news,according to the report, the water, sewer and solid waste services are able to pay for their day to day operations. The drawback is, sewer and water lines need repairs, and tipping fees at the Foothills facility are expected to increase,meaning rates will have to be increased to cover those repairs, increased tipping fees and replace the automated garbage collection trucks.
With that in mind, the Committee of the Whole has unanimously supported increasing the road rehabilitation levy, the sewer and water rates. That will now have to be finalized by Council.
The issue of crumbling infrastructure is not unique to Prince George, this week the Federation of Canadian Municipalities called on the Federal Government to come across with more money for infrastructure asking the Feds to boost it to $5.75 billion.
Comments
But we have money to travel to China
It truly amazes me that it has taken our city stewards this long to figure this out.
The other thing they need to realize is how much of the financial load can they dump on the home owners and taxpayers. They are not the only ones with their hands in our pockets.
The province and the feds want their share (Canada Revenue Agency)of every penny we earn and spend.
Last but not least are the bankers.The amount of interest we pay them each year is criminal. Especially with interest rates so low. Let me clarify for you.
$200,000 5 year closed mortgage amortized over 20 years. Payments for the first 5 years are $27,266 in Interest and $29,216 towards your debt. Would you believe 48.3% of your $56,450 was interest? 48.3% in only 5 years. But, you were distracted by the amazing 2.95%. Weren’t you?
And you wonder why you have a problem with an increase in your taxes? Ha, ask your banker?
Correction! That was a 25 year mortgage. Not a 20 year.
Cut three Of council and the savings will be accomplished!
City council wasted a total of 15 million dollars in laying underground pipe to utilize units of heat purchased from Lakeland mills. Installed a backup gas fired heating system for he same purpose only to find the heating cost 40% higher than what would be the case if each building had a stand alone heating system.
Purchase the PG hotel after the fact and ensure a private irm makes a 1/2 million on the flip.
Continues to purchase property in the downtown core at an alarming rate.
Would of add another 10 million for a dike if the citizens had not banded together to put a stop to it.
Blow another eight million on uneeded wnter games.
A 40 million dollar police station.
It should come as no surprise to anyone why there is no money for infrastructure improvements given the utter waste of taxpayer money by city hall.
18 months is far to long to wait to get rid of this incompetent group.
Comments for this article are closed.