It seems it’s always easier to think that things would be better on the other side of the hill when quite often that isn’t necessarily true.
In truth it depends what your definition of better really is. Take the case for incorporation of Christina Lake.
It seems fairly often that I hear someone say, “If only we were incorporated, we would have street lights,” or “If only we were incorporated we would get more money back from the feds,” and numerous other such statements including, “Grace is against incorporation.”
Actually I am not against incorporation, I just happen to have been on the last Incorporation Review Committee, so I was privy to the issues surrounding it.
I think it is really important that a community understand the pros and cons of both sides of a discussion and for that reason I will be offering an evening information and discussion session on incorporation.
To my knowledge, Christina Lake has had three looks at the possibility of incorporation; it was on the last committee, as I said, that I was a member.
When it came down to asking the province for the money to do the study, the province replied that it couldn’t see any change from the last couple of times so refused the request.
The time previous to that one, the Christina Lake citizens walked out of the community hall when presented with the increased cost of taxation that incorporation would bring.
The study of the road systems alone was so extensive that the consultant hired to do the report said they had never seen anything like it.
This then pointed the way for those at the committee level to realize they would need to limit what area they incorporated. Once that discussion started many realized that if we were only to incorporate one small area, like the south end of the lake, this would in turn leave out the community watershed and “The Lake’s” large homes who pay a good chunk of the taxation because there is no industry at Christina Lake.
Then there is the reality that along with incorporation comes a city hall, administration, mayor, councillors, public works yard, city workers, policing, fire department, sewage system, water works, road equipment and on and on.
I’m sure you can see where this is going and of course one heavy snow fall winter can put your community in budget deficit for a very long time. The voices are very rarely of one accord. From some, I hear “We want street lights” from others I hear, “We moved here to be able to see the night sky,” from many I hear “We came here for the lifestyle.”
What’s the bottom line? You can have whatever you want, even if you are a regional district – you only have to pay for it. Is the message then if you are a municipality you don’t have to pay for it? I doubt that.
So if we really want to understand incorporation we need to understand taxation including taxation of municipalities, provincial taxation, federal taxation and dollars transferred to the province and regional district taxation.
I invite anyone interested to join John MacLean, CAO of Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, special guest speaker Alan Nielson Welch, consultant for NWCI, Margaret Maximenko, past area director and member of one of the incorporation committees, and I at the Christina Lake Community Hall on June 27 at 6:30 p.m. and let’s have a look together.
–Grace McGregor is Area C director for the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary