Gotta pay for the cop shop and PAC somehow.

I imagine we will be charged a tax rate for tree leaves next

I guess city council has determined grass and trees no longer absorb water. Ground water no longer occurs. Evaporation is out the window.
Will precipitation be measured and the tax rate variable based on the precipitation changes from year to year.
Snowfall in the form of precipitation must have certainly decreased in the last 2 years given the decrease in snow removal and plowing of the streets.
City council is so quick to compare PG to Kamloops, Kelowna, etc, when it comes to parking rates, or user fees. Do those cities have a rainfall tax or is it a sunshine tax.
42 million and counting for a PAC but no money for infrastructure repair or replacement.

This is just another thing our esteemed (choke, cough) city council has dreamed up to charge us for. I wonder what it will be next? Sort of like the “creative” bookkeeping idea. If they want to be that “creative”, maybe we could be too. Now if we just laid a bit of plastic on the grates and a bag of sand on top, we wouldn’t be using the system, would we? Then we wouldn’t have to pay the additional tax for upkeep. See, we can get creative too. Or maybe we could get rid of the present city council? Just see how much money that would save!

Stupidity!!

I’m curious how this will apply to areas that are within city limits but do not have storm water systems maintained by the City such as: North Nechako, haldi, areas of the hart for example. Are we to pay a utility on a service that we don’t currently receive?

That survey was flawed from the start! No where did it give you the option to pick no tax at all.

who? wants to know if North Nechako and Haldi will have to pay for the storm sewer utility. You bet!

I agree with NoWay. There should have been an option to pick no tax at all.

The survey is much like the options you had during the Spanish Inquisition, ie; if you admitted to heresy, they would strangle you and then burn you. If you did not admit, then they burned you alive.

This survey appears to assume that the tax is a done deal, and all that is required is how we will pay.

Hopefully this is not yet a dead issue.

So, if I put in a rainwater collection system which will percolate the collected water into the ground through a rock pit and retention pond, and get that certified by an engineer ……. do I still have to pay?

I suppose it is something like having your own sewage disposal system while the City has a sewer pipe adjacent to your property but you are not hooked up and still having to pay the sewer charges.

I wonder if one could take that to court and win? Maybe a class action.

What a way to make the sheeple think they have a choice. A kick in the #### is still a kick, no matter what they are wearing on their feet.

Gus of course you will still have to pay as you will have to pay for “City run off” from the streets and blvds. I have a rainwater collection system but they say I still have to pay for keep my street from flooding in rains storms and snow melt. If they go by frontage I will have to pay 5x what my neighbours will as we live on a curve and I have the property just before the inside and the other two have the pie points. The same for snow clearing and yet they spend 6x longer on the pie points and dump all the snow on my frontage.

From one of the SMART cities, the great city of Surrey, comes this “how to” page to the SMART residents of Surrey.

https://www.surrey.ca/city-services/3646.aspx

That is the way the City should be altering its storm drainage system and some landowners might want to do the same.

I do not believe any single family residences are connected to storm water drains other than indirectly through catch basins nearby.

The catch basin near our house is located in a high spot, so the water collects in the curb/gutter and eventually evaporates …. and I am supposed to pay for that lousy system?

Why did we build the storm sewer system in the first place? Nobody seems to admit to using it. Either that, or they don’t want to pay for it.

Time for a recall of the mayor and city council . As I understand it all it takes is a signature from 40% of registered voters . This council has to go before they completely run this city into the ground and the next council and Mayor have to dish out loads of money to reverse all the damage being done by the current members .

The only way out from this “New TAX” is, moving away from the City to a Rural Property ,you may have to pay 10000 plus for a Well and more Money for a 3 Cell Sewage Lagoon but free you will be from the never ending Demands of City Hall! It is your Choice, just think of all that clean Air.

I don’t have a storm sewer. Is the city gonna put a water meter in my ditch? Vote them in again, ya ninnies.

must be all that liberal blood coming thru to the surface pay,pay,pay.

I love it , I love it, I love it

keep voting lieberals and remember dust the mothballs out of your wallets and cry, cry, cry, pay, pay, pay!!!

The provincal and federal governemnts told the city in regards to funding the PAC that aging infrastructure is a “priority”..

Enough said..

So I live within city limits, have my own well and septic, no curb, no gutter, no city services. I have a ditch and a culvert that runs into another ditch and I imagine into the river. My storm water runs down the ditch (what doesn’t get soaked up by the soil and grass)and never sees any infrastructure that is owned, operated or maintained by the city. Why would I need to pay a tax on the storm water run-off? If we were part of the infrastructure of storm drains, pipes etc. I can see paying. This is a rip off and another reason why the city is out of control..

PGguy1234 “So I live within city limits, have my own well and septic, no curb, no gutter, no city services.”

and was apparently promised city services loong ago…waiting!

Why should I pay?
I agree This is a rip off and another reason why the city is out of control..

Not only will all residents pay but this new tax like all others will keep increasing every year. The city council has no respect for what it’s residents want and as mentioned in previous post, there was no box against the tax. I for one will be out of this city before the tax is applied, thank god. Hello Beaverly.

Maybe mayor Green can check with the Chinese city she is so fond of visiting and trying to twin with and see if they have a rain water tax. Next an umbrella tax. Gum boot tax. Rain suit tax.

Toronto and Rob Ford have nothing on PG’s city council.

Maybe a tax for breathing the particulate matter in the air. Should be a real money maker as PG ranks second to none on the air pollution scale.

We are already taxed for storm run off through general taxation. If the City puts in a utility tax then they are double dipping. Whats new??

Everyone will pay a set price, and they will say its the same as schools, you pay whether you have children on not.

If you keep in mind that this is nothing more than a **tax grab**, then you don’t have to waste your time assuming that there is some rhyme or reason to this decision.

Its very simple. We are being royally screwed by the City once again.

We need to ensure that all these **tax grabs** by the City are brought up, time and time again during the next election. Those who were involved in dreaming up the various schemes to increase our taxes need to have their lunches wrapped in a road map.

I don’t think we need to recall the whole council. There are some great people on there. Recall our mayor; she’s the one who sets the tone.

It’s not this counsel who screwed up by avoiding the required maintenance of the storm water system. That can be past to every previous counsel(s) and mayor(s) that looked after the people of Prince George. So we do have an issue however taxing every residential home for counsels stupidity is absurd. Let just look at the structures that don’t have proper drainage on there property. Commercial properties being the biggest contributors to the storm system. Tax them for the flat roof and all paved parking lots with catch basins that drain into the storm drains.

I would hazard a guess that 75% ~ 85% of residential properties have the drain spouts discharging onto lawns within the property lines. Those who live in areas where there is no city water or sewer system service but are paying taxes to the city for non received services, need to start a class action suit against the city for breach of contract. And considering they are not receiving “these” services they are exempt from the storm drain tax. Residents that have the storm water draining onto there lawns are also exempt from this storm drain tax.

Counsel needs to wake up, they can’t just run off blowing money on the “nice things” and not look after what they are charged to by being elected into office. The system is broken and they need to “work with what they have”, cause honestly my wallet is done paying for everyone else’s stupidity.

Palopu: “We are already taxed for storm run off through general taxation.”

Are we? How much of that money has been allocated to maintaining storm sewer infrastructure? I would guess very little if none. Any money that would have gone to the storm system would have gone to emergency repairs as opposed to maintenance.

It’s probably more correct to say that we ‘should’ be getting taxed for run off through general taxation, but I suspect that’s not the case… hence the proposed levy.

This is reflective of bad management, not only by the current bunch, but several councils before this one.

Where is the allocation to waste money JB! If they didn’t waste money on stupid things they might have enough.

If the new PAC has this tax, who’s gonna pay it? Hmmm?

NoWay: “Where is the allocation to waste money JB! If they didn’t waste money on stupid things they might have enough.”

Who gets to decide what is stupid or not? You? Good luck with that.

If any of these jokes of a city council and mayor try to push the PAC and the storm tax through they will all be looking for new jobs come vote time!

JohnnyBelt. As far as I know they allocate about $800,000.00 per year to Storm Water Run off.

I suspect if you asked them what area’s require repair or upgrading they would give you a stupid grin.

This is a tax grab, and has little or nothing to do with storm drains. In fact it is being used to keep the tax from the Winter Games, and allow the $800,000.00 to remain in general revenue for other exotic uses.