Barry Janyk: “I’m mad as hell. In past 7 years, our taxes have doubled but no wealth has been created”
(By News Desk)
Five Gibsons residents including former mayor Barry Janyk and former councillor Lee Ann Johnson have asked the Town of Gibsons to explain its plan to borrow $1.76 million for upgrades to the Prowse Road lift station, saying the town should not incur more taxpayer debt to assist the developer of The George.
The other three signatories on the letter are Suzanne Senger, president of the Gibsons Alliance of Business and Community Society, Judith Bonkoff, director of the Gibsons Waterfront Defense Association, and concerned citizen Michael Storr.
The George developer is paying $144,695.10 for the retrofit of the lift station, which moves 40 per cent of Gibsons’ wastewater on its way to the wastewater-treatment plant.
According to the letter-writers, the development can’t be built until the lift station is upgraded, and they want the developer to pay his fair share.
In 2014, engineering firm Kerr Wood Leidal (KWL) wrote in a report to council, paid for by the developer, that “the Prowse Road pump station requires upgrades to accommodate additional loads from a proposed new development”.
The town says the lift station needed an upgrade anyway. “The primary goal of the planned retrofit is to address the condition of the pump station, not to increase its capacity,” the town’s website says.
The letter-writers quote two studies commissioned by the town, and a report by the town’s director of engineering saying that an upgrade of the lift station is needed because of The George, and that the developer should pay at least $593,000.
The five have sent copies of their letter to council to the auditor general for local government, the Municipal Insurance Association, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the attorney general and the RCMP.
Charging the developer $144,695.10 for the upgrade to the lift station is “a blatant violation of municipal law,” they charge. “The Community Charter explicitly prohibits local governments from ‘providing a benefit, advantage or any assistance to a business’.”
The letter-writers wonder why the town needs to borrow $1.76 million for a project that was estimated to cost about one-third of that amount five years ago. “In 2014, the Prowse Road lift station and wastewater treatment plant upgrade project cost was estimated at approximately $600,000, to be paid for by the developer. Yet, the upgrade budget has inexplicably grown by nearly 300 per cent to $1,727,000 in 2019,” they wrote.
New information on the town’s website describes the proposed work as more extensive than mentioned in the 2014 documents.
The letter-writers and the town agree that the lift station will have to be completely rebuilt within 10 to 15 years. The loan for the retrofit will be paid off in 20 years.
To borrow $1.76 million, the town will use an Alternate Approval Process (AAP). If 10 per cent or more of the eligible electors sign forms in opposition to the $1.76 million loan, the local government can hold a referendum. A referendum about the loan would cost taxpayers an estimated $30,000.
A “no” vote would have consequences, the town’s website says: “As the town does not have the funds required available in its reserves, the most likely option would be to administer a levy of approximately $700 against each property and continue applying for funding grants.”
According to the O’Shea/Oceanmount Community Association, the loan will cost the town approximately $112,800 per year in payments and about $550,000 in interest over a 20-year period, a $37-per-year property increase of water/sewer bills for each property.
“During the last seven years, our taxes have doubled, and what have we seen for it?” says Janyk, Gibsons mayor from 1999 to 2011. “I’m mad as hell. I want some answers. There has been no wealth created for all those tax increases. Instead, we’re borrowing more.
“Mark my words: this is just another step in more tax increases. All to accommodate massive development — The George, Eagleview Heights, Gospel Rock. And what do they contribute? It is just costing us money.”
Mayor Bill Beamish sees it differently: “Notwithstanding The George project, the proposed work [on the lift station] should have been completed several years ago at lower costs. If it does not get done, The George can still proceed but we continue to be at risk of a breakdown of critical infrastructure which, if it occurs, will cost more than the proposed fix,” he wrote in an email to a Gibsons resident.
“The George is the ongoing focus of a lot of people, but the problems at Prowse Road existed before it was even planned, and they should have been fixed.
“Unfortunately, many cannot see beyond The George as the cause of all of the town’s problems,” he added.
The town is holding two public information sessions about the upgrade of the lift station. Staff will be on hand to answer questions.
The sessions will be held on Tuesday, June 4, from 1:30 until 3:30 pm, and 5:30 until 6:30, in town hall.
Electoral response forms to ask the town for a referendum can be obtained a town hall or by email from Lindsey Grist at lgrist@gibsons.ca.
The AAP closes on June 12 and 376 completed forms are needed for a referendum. Members of the Gibsons Waterfront Defense Association will drive people to town hall to complete the form, and back home. Phone Judy Bonkoff at 604-740-2774.
As I read the town’s website, this project has been delayed and bounced around and recast again and again, and it’s hard to get a read on when and why and exactly what the work is. It’s a can of worms, and mix in Gibsons’ favourite proposed condo development project and all the goodies that developer has been accustomed to wrangling out of the Town, and you have a colossal mess. We need a new perspective at town hall.
The aquifer has in my experience always bled out in that area. I can remember in 1973 being able to drink the water as it welled out of the ground. It was delicious and we never had any trouble with it.
Good on Barry et al. The fiasco continues.You only go to the taxpayer so many times before it runs dry. And I feel the drought about to start.