A Vernon politician believes the city is being short-changed by developers and other levels of government.
Coun. Barry Beardsell claims there are a number of outstanding payments from developers and the provincial government on various matters, and Coldstream is not contributing financially for the Ogogrow fertilizer plant.
“What efforts have been made to collect that money?” he asked his colleagues Monday.
“The financial aspects of this city have not been well looked after over the last few years.”
Beardsell believes the provincial government hasn’t provided $50,000 in grants in lieu of fire department property taxes between 2005 and 2007.
He also says that there’s no evidence that Coldstream, which has a sewer agreement with the city, has provided any assistance for the Ogogrow biosolids facility since 2006.
“Coldstream would owe us $230,000,” he said based on the $2.3 million cost of the plant.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there’s something wrong here.”
But city staff says the city only has an agreement with Coldstream over sewer services, and not the biosolids facility, and the agreement is being followed correctly.
“We haven’t seen any evidence that we have charged Coldstream incorrectly,” said Leon Gous, chief administrative officer.
In terms of grants in lieu of taxes, Gous says the provincial government only pays direct property taxes and not to specified areas, which the fire department is funded through.
“What we can do is change how we charge for fire taxes,” he said.
Beardsell also suggested that $348,000 is owing for extending the reclaimed water line to a developmet, but Gous insists that matter is being looked after.
“We won’t let (development) securities go until accounts are squared off,” said Gous.
Council instructed staff and the finance committee to look at the issues raised by Beardsell.
“Clearly there is a lot of work to be done to get these answers,” said Coun. Patrick Nicol.
“We should begin to whittle these down at the finance committee.”
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Mr Gous is right. The original sewer agreement of the 1970's acknowledged Coldstream as a partner in the sewer system.
The present agreement considers Coldstream to be a customer. We are charged a fee for every cubic meter of sewage flowing to the treatment plant. That fee includes treatment and disposal of the treated product (spray irrigation and the Ogogrow stuff.
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