Water Meeting with Consultants !!

Good afternoon,

This is a notice of the upcoming special Committee of the Whole meeting on June 1, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. in the Council Chambers.

For more information please refer to the website: http://tofino.ca/event/special-committee-whole

Regards,

You are receiving this message because you have subscribed to the District of Tofino’s email notifications. If you would like to unsubscribe, please contact me at the information below.

I can't believe it !! More consultants !! This time for water rates !! This has gone beyond a joke !!

Bylaw Attacks Small Businesses !!

The District is cracking down on bylaw infractions.Are they going after illegal vacation rentals or illegal hippie campsites known for thefts and fires ?? No ! They are attacking small businesses !!
I like the little stores that have sandwich boards.They give the town some diversity.
The only advice I can give is to make all signs in the shape of a resort water meter and then they won't be read by the District of Tofino ..........

click on image to enlarge

Negativity

           http://www.andysinger.com/

May 25 Tofino Council Agenda

Please find below links to the following agenda packages:

·        May 25, 2015 COW Agenda - PDF

·        May 25, 2015 COW Agenda - Splitscreen

 (*Please be advised that there are large documents in this package. The Splitscreen may open faster than the PDF version)

·        May 26, 2015 Regular Council Agenda - PDF

·        May 26, 2015 Regular Council Agenda - Splitscreen

2016-2019 Budget Items

2016-2019 Budget Items

Taxes !!

Here is a good example of why taxes are going up. Study after study,consultant after consultant about housing issues.This is not rocket science.If you want to run a logging camp you need somewhere for the loggers to sleep and eat. If you want to have a business in Tofino you need to budget for staff accommodation in your business plan.The District of Tofino has spent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on useless initiatives for affordable housing.How about an initiative to reduce taxes and water rates for those that are already here?????  A 22 percent tax hike over 5 years flies in the face of affordable housing as  it makes it unaffordable for those on fixed or lower incomes.Expect rents for long term residents to go up and expect even more people turning units into vacation rentals to make ends meet.

The Affordable Housing Study is listed as a $42,000 expense in the 2015 budget. this accounts for almost 2 % of the 8% tax hike. A feasibility study for an indoor sports facility is another $25,000 . Each percentage point in the tax hike represents about $29,000....have a look at budget items in the link below

Click here for 2015 Budget Items

These Two Choice Comments on Taxes and Watermetergate

22% over 5 years, are they totally insane? We can barely manage the property taxes now. Instead of wasting money on fancy beautification projects, salary increases, endless consulting that makes me wonder if anybody at the district does anything themselves anymore, please concentrate on the essentials. Make the big businesses pay their share and their true water bills. Instead of focusing on tourism focus on the residents of Tofino for a change who pay your salaries! Please keep the costs down!

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It is very sad when people who lived here for many years and consider Tofino their home have to leave because the taxes and living expenses have simply become unaffordable. When only a few rich and famous pop in once in a while I wonder how that will sustain this place and who is going to do the work around here?

BTW, the people who so royally messed up the water bills definitely do not deserve a raise! It is a scandal that the taxpayer has to make up for the resorts not paying for their water usage. I remember Jacqueline Windt telling us a few years ago that we were subsidizing the resorts with our high water bills but nobody listened then. Why did nobody at the district take her serious at the time?

more watermetergate

Click on bill for larger image

For some reason there is a note on the water bill for Long Beach Lodge showing that only 1/5th of the actual consumption was captured.When you compare it to the water bill for Tin Wis you will see quite a difference for a similar sized operation.For some reason the meter at Long Beach Lodge didn't get changed until April 1,2014. So it was obvious the somebody knew there were problems back as 2006

Watermetergate Scandal Analysis

Click on bills for larger image

For some reason in July of 2011 the District of Tofino estimated the water bill for Pacific Sands rather than reading the meter.On January 19,2012 the water meter was changed.This would indicate that somebody knew there was a problem.Apparently nobody bothered to check if the new meter was working correctly as the water bill for July to September of 2012 was only $3630.97 but after the water meter was changed again on April 1 2014 the billing was significantly higher.As a matter of fact it rose to $32,166.50 for the period of July-September 2014.So somebody on staff knew of the problem a long time before the Watermetergate scandal became public.Let's hope somebody is held accountable.Again this is only one example from one resort;the problem is much more widespread.Are the new meters accurate ?? Who knows ?? I would advise anyone with larger water consumption to install their own accurate meters so they can check the District's numbers.

Watermetergate Update

It is hard for me to understand that for years nobody in the District of Tofino wondered why Ocean Village Beach Resort was getting a water bill over three times larger than Pacific Sands Beach Resort which is a much larger operation. I could understand one billing error but this has been going on for at least five years if not a decade !!
I've just used these bills as one example.....the problem is far greater than I imagined.

Massive Tax Increases and Watermetergate updates

Sorry for the lack of updates....I have received some information requested from the District regarding the Watermetergate Scandal....will have a post up soon....in the meantime here some hefty tax increases for you to ponder.....
One commenter suggested that the result of the Watermetergate Scandal would be raises for those managers involved. This is exactly what has happened !! It was confirmed to me at the budget meeting that all District of Tofino managers will get a raise this year !!
While the District talks about Affordable Housing they are doing their best to tax the poor and those on fixed incomes right out of town !!

2015-2019 Financial Plan Bylaw
The 2015- 2019 financial plan includes the following property taxation increases:


2015

8%

2016

8%

2017

2%

2018


2%

2019


2%

22% over a five year span.

Public Works Scandal in Hamilton

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/culture-of-low-expectations-led-to-public-works-scandal-report-1.3058005