EDITORIAL – Do Kamloops council and staff have a failure to communicate?

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

AT ITS TUESDAY MEETING, Kamloops council will have three options in front of it for an increase to water rates.

One is the 25 per cent hike council first approved, then rescinded — in the face of stiff public resistance — when Coun. Dale Bass switched her vote.

We should be clear that what’s being called a 25-per-cent increase is actually much more. It would be followed in succeeding years with increases of 15 per cent, five per cent, five per cent and five per cent for a total of 55 per cent.

But that 55 per cent doesn’t account for compounding, so add another 10 per cent to that. No wonder it wasn’t a popular move.

So staff have come up with a couple of other choices. One includes a rate increase plus borrowing for a water treatment centre project, which would end up costing more in the long run due to borrowing costs.

The third option is a combination of rate increases and deferral of a Westsyde water main upgrade but staff recommends against that one so it may as well not even have been included.

I’m curious about why this situation would have come as a surprise to anyone. The main reasons for the big water-rate increase are given as changes to the assist factor on water-related DCCs, and the costs of decommissioning the Noble Creek Irrigation System.

One might think staff would have presented options in the first place. One might think council would have asked for options right away instead of just going for the requested increase, then having to backtrack.

But, really, the questions should have been raised weeks ago during the never-ending Noble Creek discussion. In fact, the coming decision arises out of a very lengthy debate about that system at council’s last meeting.

Does anyone at the horseshoe ever ask the question, “how are we going to pay for this”?

Is there a failure to communicate?

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.