Cluculz Taxpayers Remain Determined
Saturday, April 13, 2013 @ 10:21 PM
Prince George, B.C. – The court action by some Cluculz Lake property owners to overturn to the referendum result on payment of operating costs for a new aquatic centre in Vanderhoof has ended. But they are far from finished in their campaign for exclusion from that tax.
On February 16th voters in area “F” of the Bulkley-Nechako Regional District passed the referendum by a vote of 585 to 472. As a result, property owners face paying $1.08 for every $1000 of assessment annually toward operating costs at the pool. But soon after the vote some electors said the referendum was not conducted fairly, citing issues about mail-in ballots and notifications. A decision to challenge the result in court was reached and a fundraising drive for the court costs was mounted.
However, last week organizers of the court action had their lawyer file a notice of discontinuance in the case, and how the property owners have the reasons for that decision. Spokesperson Randy Holubosh says despite a fresh 18-inch snowfall overnight Friday, 150 to 160 people showed up at Saturday’s meeting at the Cluculz Community Hall. He says the reason for calling off the court case was not financial, as $46,186.26 had been raised in a very short time, more than enough to cover the legal costs.
“But what happened was once they started researching whether there was case law precedence in our favour it was clear there weren’t any cases where a challenge was successful. Our lawyers explained to us that even though we have a good case of unfair irregularities, the judge’s reluctance to rule against elected officials will probably make the case not successful, and he said quite a bit less than 50 percent. The Bulkley-Nechako Regional District hired a law firm out of Victoria and the lawyer said based on the reality of the judge’s reluctance to rule that way they felt we wouldn’t be spending our money wisely, and there’s other ways to get at this rather than go through the legal system.” Holubosh says he has no doubt they could have easily raised $100,000 for the court battle, “but if you’re not going to have a good chance of winning, you know we have to be responsible to the people that donated money.” Holubosh says a show of hands was taken and three people thought the court case should have proceeded “while the rest of the 150 or 60 thought we did the right thing. But we are not conceding that we should pay a 24% tax increase for a service we won’t use. And it was made very clear that in the referendum it was a 92% vote against, 271 No and 25 Yes in the Cluculz area.”
He says three avenues are available now. Firstly, defeating the area “F” representative who will be up for re-election no later than 2014. “It’s been acclamation for three years, and there’s no way that’s going to happen again, we’re going to run someone in that area.” The second option is incorporating, “but only 10 to 15% of the people wanted that. Thirdly, to get what’s called a benefit area exclusion, which would see the referendum amended to exclude a certain portion from the referendum result.” Holubush says that exclusion is the preferred option “and basically if we get the exclusion we’re going to include the Bobtail Lake residents because they were probably treated worse in the ballot than we were.”
Holubosh says no one needs to rush into formulating a plan of action. “There’s not going to be a tax assessment until they break ground and start digging (at the pool site in Vanderhoof) so that’s a two-year window for sure. Even (Vanderhoof Mayor) Gerry Thiessen has acknowledged that, so we’ve got some time to work on it although we’re not going to stretch it out for five years.”
Now, steps are being taken to return the money donated for the court fight to the rightful owners. There’s going to be a one-month period in which contributors are being asked to get their Direct Deposit Receipts to the organizers. They have copies of all the receipts they issued at the meeting, “but with direct deposits you just know money went in, you don’t know who put it in.” The information can be e-mailed to: cluculzd@hotmail.com or rfholubosh@telus.net or faxed to 250-441-3356.
Holubosh says the legal bill incurred will be determined and everyone pays their share toward that, with the rest of their donation returned to them.
Comments
Many of the people of Cluculz have children that attend school in Vanderhoof. The children at the school will obviously have access to the pool. Will everyone else be able to vote to stop paying taxes to bus the Cluculz lake students to school? No new taxes will be paid until the District raises the rest of the money required. Seems like a lot of wasted energy here.
Thank you Don for that very good report.
handlebars making a comment like that you should have actual numbers 92% of the Cluculz Lake property owners voted against this because they live else where and there kids go to school else where or they have grown up children. Property owners of every district pay school taxes on every piece of property they own which no one is complaining about and that money is used to pay for schools in Vanderhoof and operating, and bus costs. The residents of Fraser Lake, Ft St James, Fort Fraser and their area D and C will all have access to this pool through school programs and at any time they choose to go there and they will not pay any additional taxes. The operating cost of the pool to repay dept and operate is going to be in excess of One Million dollars a year and projected to generate around $165000.00 from paying customers. The rest is going to be paid by taxes and of that portion Area F is going to pay 28% of the cost and Cluculz Lake residents are going to pay 1/3 of that cost for 30 years. That will not end because that pool will need replaced and history proves TAXES never end.
PG is a big economic looser once this pool goes through. Most families I know West of PG come to town so the kids can use the local pools, and then as a side do some shopping while in town. Once Vanderhoof has their pool all those shopping dollars would be better spent in Vanderhoof, rather than paying a high cost of fuel just to shop in PG.
Cluculz Lake property owners are not allowed to vote for the Vanderhoof Mayor and 6 Councillors. We are not part of the Vanderhoof Municipality. We belong to the Regional District.Therefore should not have to pay for the new pool.
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