The 20 October 2018 Municipal Elections featured two Referendum questions placed on the ballot by the Cowichan Valley Regional District. The two questions asked voters whether they approved CVRD Bylaw 4201 and Bylaw 4202.
Both these Bylaws passed in the Referendum. DuncanTaxpayers.ca was opposed to both both Bylaw 4201 and 4202.
But now that both Bylaw 4201 and 4202 have passed by referendum, we think it is important to monitor developments on both continually. Both Bylaw 4201 and 4202 authorized new CVRD taxes and we believe the use of these taxpayers funds needs to watched very closely.
Here is what CVRD Bylaw 4201 said:
CVRD Bylaw No. 4201 – Service Establishment
“CVRD Bylaw No. 4201 – Cowichan Housing Association Annual Financial Contribution Service Establishment Bylaw, 2018″, will allow the CVRD to annually requisition up to the greater of $765,000 or an amount equal to the amount that could be raised by a property value tax of $0.04584 per $1,000 of net taxable value of land and improvements within the service area to assist the Cowichan Housing Association with costs associated with providing programs and services related to affordable housing and homelessness prevention in the Cowichan Valley.”
Note that amount raised from taxpayers “to assist the Cowichan Housing Association with costs associated with providing programs and services related to affordable housing and homelessness prevention in the Cowichan Valley” can be “up to the greater of $765,000 or an amount equal to the amount that could be raised by a property value tax of $0.04584 per $1,000 of net taxable value of land and improvements…”
So it could be $765,000/year, or it could be more than $765,000/year, paid annually to the Cowichan Housing Association by taxpayers.
Note also that the “programs and services related to affordable housing and homelessness prevention in the Cowichan Valley” are not defined in the Bylaw. This is one of the primary reasons we voted No on this referendum question. We did not deem it prudent to vote Yes without specific details of the program being provided to voters beforehand.
Here is the Cowichan Housing Association Attainable Housing Strategy for 2018-2019. Note that no plans have yet been formulated by the Cowichan Housing Association despite the Cowichan Housing Association now having been given $765,000, or more, per year in taxpayer funding raised by new CVRD taxation.
We will monitoring the CVRD and the Cowichan Housing Association use of these taxpayer funds very closely in the upcoming years. There will be more posts about this in future