Funny thing happened to me today. Let me share. Two days ago I made an appointment with the Director of Financial Administration of Coldstream to discuss issues relating to the water devolution (the issues arising from the City of Vernon's decision to pull out of water distribution). Today my appointment was canceled. Reason? No candidate should have more information than the rest of them.
Of course, there are five incumbents in the race for Council. How are we taking the information they already have away from them? Don't they have a tremendous advantage over the rest of us by having all sorts of in-camera information not shared with the rest of us?
Obviously, the consequences of the devolution are significant for Coldstream and the Electoral Areas with respect to cost sharing of infrastructure construction and possible differential water rates.
Had we followed the time tested route of financing infrastructure through taxation, there would be no problem. All jurisdictions would continue contributing their share of financing through taxation and each jurisdiction would decide how much they should charge for water based on the treatment and delivery to the customers. The problems arising from combining infrastructure costs into water rates just hit home with this problem.
When we examine how we constructed the fire halls, the Multiplex, the Theatre, and even the sewer extension from McClounie to Aberdeen Road using taxation one wonders why this method was not used for the water infrastructure.
The main beneficiaries of the water infrastructure to date are the new developments on the Rise, Turtle Mountain and others. Yet, they are contributing almost nothing to this new infrastructure as the empty (but expensive) lots do not use water. Had we used taxation based financing they would also contribute to the burden. Incidentally, since we only borrowed $13 million to date our taxes would be relatively insignificant and only would have started in 2005 (see taxation).
Even though my appointment was canceled the Director agreed that had we used taxation financing our problems would be greatly reduced (with regards to the resolution of the devolution).
Now, since I have this extra knowledge through due diligence I am sharing the information with the rest of the candidates (if they care to read it) so I would have no undue advantage in the race. Thank you for your interest.
Gyula
Of course, there are five incumbents in the race for Council. How are we taking the information they already have away from them? Don't they have a tremendous advantage over the rest of us by having all sorts of in-camera information not shared with the rest of us?
Obviously, the consequences of the devolution are significant for Coldstream and the Electoral Areas with respect to cost sharing of infrastructure construction and possible differential water rates.
Had we followed the time tested route of financing infrastructure through taxation, there would be no problem. All jurisdictions would continue contributing their share of financing through taxation and each jurisdiction would decide how much they should charge for water based on the treatment and delivery to the customers. The problems arising from combining infrastructure costs into water rates just hit home with this problem.
When we examine how we constructed the fire halls, the Multiplex, the Theatre, and even the sewer extension from McClounie to Aberdeen Road using taxation one wonders why this method was not used for the water infrastructure.
The main beneficiaries of the water infrastructure to date are the new developments on the Rise, Turtle Mountain and others. Yet, they are contributing almost nothing to this new infrastructure as the empty (but expensive) lots do not use water. Had we used taxation based financing they would also contribute to the burden. Incidentally, since we only borrowed $13 million to date our taxes would be relatively insignificant and only would have started in 2005 (see taxation).
Even though my appointment was canceled the Director agreed that had we used taxation financing our problems would be greatly reduced (with regards to the resolution of the devolution).
Now, since I have this extra knowledge through due diligence I am sharing the information with the rest of the candidates (if they care to read it) so I would have no undue advantage in the race. Thank you for your interest.
Gyula
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