COMMUNITY 11
Kids make their own bobsleds
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Your top 7 for the weekend ENTERTAINMENT 25
THURSDAY MARCH 7, 2019
Blues artists to raise money
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LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
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THE FINISH LINE: Gage
Whitfield, 8, looks stoked as the kids’ team took on Acting Mayor Patrick Johnstone’s team Sunday in a challenge race at the Anvil Centre that was part of the YEET! Youth Festival during Innovation Week. Teams used Little Bits snap-together technology to make moving vehicles. The kids won the race. PHOTO JENNIFER GAUTHIER
TAXES
City cutting back capital levy for 2019 Theresa McManus tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
A year after introducing an annual one-per-cent capital levy to help finance future projects, council has scaled it back for 2019. Last year, council directed staff to implement an annual one-per-cent capital levy, with the funding helping to address the challenge of replacing infrastructure, buildings and equipment and investing in new services and infrastructure to
meet the needs of a growing community.With a largerthan-normal tax hike being contemplated in New Westminster this year, in part because of a provincially imposed Employer Health Tax that adds a 1.8 per cent increase to the budget, staff included a 0.5 per cent capital levy in 2019 to lessen the impact on taxpayers. Some council members were comfortable reducing the levy to 0.5 per cent in 2019, but others preferred to keep it the same.
Coun. Patrick Johnstone supported continuation of a one-per-cent capital levy, noting it was introduced to help fund the city’s “very ambitious” capital plan. “Financing those (capital projects) is really going to be the number 1 challenge in our budget in the next five years going forward,” he said. “We have seen the numbers about where our debt is going and where our reserves are going, and I think we made a good decision last year to have that
specific one-per-cent capital levy every year so that we could put a little bit of money aside to reduce the shock on the system when we get up to the point of actually having to pay the bills for this aggressive capital program.” Colleen Ponzini, the city’s acting chief financial officer, said the city’s five-year capital plan anticipates spending $265 million, of which $124 million would be funded through reserves, $112 million from debt and $28 mil-
lion from development cost charges, grants and contributions. She said city staff are trying to secure grants, which would reduce the need to borrow or draw on reserves, which are projected to decrease from $69 million in 2018 to $39 million in 2023. Coun. Mary Trentadue also supported continuing with a one-per-cent tax levy. “It is important we be very clear and transparent to the community about why we put this in the
budget.The need is there. This is not something that council has just determined we should have. I think it is providing a bit of false hope to say we need it one year and we don’t need it the next year and to move it around based on the tax requirements and demands,” she said. “I support this. I know that it is a hardship, but unfortunately it is absolutely required to do the things the community wants us to do.” Continued on page 3
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