Friday February 7, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Last week 10 south Vancouver Island municipal mayors demanded prompt action of BC’s public safety minister to avert the downloading of 911 service delivery fees onto their municipalities.
But buckle up, taxpayers! Another ‘unavoidable’ tax increase is coming in 2025 for property owners in Colwood, Duncan, Ladysmith, Langford, Metchosin, North Cowichan, North Saanich, Sidney, Sooke and View Royal.
Mayors gave it a shot:
The mayors sent a joint letter to Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Garry Begg and on January 30 stood on the front steps of the BC Parliament Buildings to visibly protest what would be a significant property tax increase for their residents.
This week, the municipalities were represented by mayors and senior staff at a meeting on February 4 with Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Garry Begg. The meeting lasted about 90 minutes, according to one municipal CAO who attended.
Points of view were heard by Minister Begg and his staff. But some of the municipal leaders who attended the meeting are today saying that they’re not expecting any extension of the three-year transition funding from the Province that ends March 31, 2025.
They’re coming to terms with the reality of a further tax burden on property owners in their jurisdictions.
Minister’s statement:
“We had a productive discussion on the transition to E-Comm, while also listening to their concerns. We’ve offered to follow up with them to address any further questions and share more details as needed,” said Begg in a statement to Island Social Trends on Tuesday after the meeting.
“We all share a commitment to ensuring we have a reliable and dependable 911 service delivery system in British Columbia. This is a priority for our government, and we remain committed to working closely with these communities through the transition,” said Minister Begg.
Timeline:
“If the decision has already been made (by the provincial government) then this is news to us,” said North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas today in a message to Island Social Trends.
But it appears the January 30 protest was as much a “not our fault” heads up for local taxpayers as it was for getting the attention of the Minister.
Meanwhile, it is realistic to assume that the 10 impacted municipalities are now expecting to have to deal with unavoidable tax increases in the range of two and six percent in order to keep the 911 service by EComm running.
In fact, one municipal councillor in Sooke, Tony St Pierre, is already preparing a motion for the next Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention to bring a suggestion forward for municipalities to arrange for a 911 service fee to be levied on people’s cell phone bills (e.g. through Bell, TELUS. Rogers). The next UBCM convention is in September of this year.
Tax impact 2025, 2026 and beyond:
The tax impact will be for nine months in 2025 (April to December) then even higher in the full taxation year after that (i.e. 2026).
The Province’s approach seems to be that the 10 municipalities (Colwood, Duncan, Ladysmith, Langford, Metchosin, North Cowichan, North Saanich, Sidney, Sooke and View Royal) had three years to plan for this shift.
The municipalities tried. District of Sooke Mayor says the municipalities did speak up a few years ago, which resulted in the three-year transitional funding assistance that is now expiring. But economic strain being what it currently is (tariff threat, potential recession) the Provincial government announced weeks ago that they are taking a new look at all aspects of the upcoming Budget 2025.
Political realities:
Minister Begg is a new MLA and new as a cabinet minister. Given all the disarray of the provincial election aftermath, mandate letters were not issued until January 16, 2025.
This hasn’t provided a lot of time for complex issues to be handled by many of the cabinet ministers and it’s realistic to assume that the government has ‘bigger fish to fry’ given the Canada-USA issues that have big impact for BC as well.
Changing the policing provider:
A further option for these municipalities that are served by the RCMP for their policing is to shift to having their own local police services instead of using RCMP.
That would be a massive undertaking (City of Surrey experience being a case in point) for which the 10 impacted mayors show no appetite.
Colwood, Langford, View Royal and Metchosin are currently served by West Shore RCMP. Sooke is served by Sooke RCMP (which also serves the Juan de Fuca area up to Port Renfrew). North Cowichan, Duncan and Ladysmith are served by North Cowichan Duncan RCMP. North Saanich and Sidney are served by Sidney-North Saanich RCMP.
The cost for RCMP protective services in municipal budgets goes up as city populations increase, based on a ‘cop-to’pop’ ratio.
===== RELATED:
- Public Safety minister meets with south Vancouver Island mayors about 911 service fees (February 6, 2025)
- South Vancouver Island mayors want 9-1-1 cost equity & fees shifted to cell phone bills (February 4, 2025)
- City of Langford 2025 Budget Survey online to Feb 9 (January 21, 2025)
- City of Langford gets early start on Budget 2025 (January 20, 2025)
- NEWS SECTIONS: LANGFORD | VANCOUVER ISLAND | POLITICS
