Kevin Hanson – Division 1
Quick Bits
Last fall I contemplated bringing a motion for administration to look at an adjustment to the Bragg Creek Utilities water-to-wastewater ratio factor to consider seasonality of winter vs. summer. In the end Council received updates from staff that shone additional light on work reviewing rate formulas and factors across the board for all Rocky View owned utilities. This comprehensive effort will not have impact until setting of 2024 budget / master-rates. Please be mindful of potential summer irrigation costs as this year’s rates are not yet seasonally adjusted.
Division 1 Rocky View Open Houses
There is an Open House scheduled for late May that was to be a combined effort for Springbank Division 1 & 2, hosted at the Heritage Club. Clr. Kochan now prefers that this just be limited to Division 2 residents. This is folks north of Lower Springbank Rd., north of Springbank Rd west past RR 32, and North of Highway 1 west of Hwy 22.
The first Division 1 RVC open house will be June 21st, 6-8 pm at the Bragg Creek Community Centre. Finalization is ongoing for which areas of Administration will have staff available with information tables and displays. The anniversary of the 2013 flood will feature as a theme across a number of the departments, and building permitting and planning will also be top of mind. All residents welcome.
Two additional open houses are in the works for early fall. Locations likely to be Elbow Valley Residents Club and Heritage Club, since our community is still physically divided by the 101st Street closure. Feel free to attend the event(s) most convenient for you.
2023 Budget Finalization
Council finalized 2023’s budget on April 11, with the completion of the 2023 assessments. Administration is purposefully conservative with assessment growth estimates. This year we had a surprising bump in “Live Growth” from an estimated $2.2M to $6.9M in taxes, due mainly to commercial development in East Balzac and other industrial focussed ASPs. Council tweaks to the budget included 200K for additional planning resources to help with backlog, creation of a 75K pool for local Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations, and increasing Library Board contributions from $4.00 to $6.00 per capita.
The original budget last fall proposed a 6.0% property tax increase; approximately the real cost of inflation the County is experiencing. Administration recommended finalizing the increase at a more modest 4.0% and leaving the bulk of the $4.7M in the Tax Stabilization Reserve. There was a Council resolution to further drop the tax increase to 3.0%, that I did not support. I argued that this was well below real inflationary pressures, and that to get back to square one next year would require not only catching up from this year, but also pressurized by ongoing high inflation next year. I had some support for the longer-term view, but ultimately could not convince enough of my colleagues to prevail.
Rocky View Foundation – Seniors
The foundation was recently successful in securing $4M in provincial funding for the Abrio Place hotel conversion project in Airdrie. After sitting empty for more than 2 years, the project is finally underway with the general contractor on-site and working. This frees up some of the organizational energy to work on the Cochrane and Bragg Creek projects – the foundation’s next 2 priorities. More on this next month.
Please e-mail me if you would like to be added to my contact list for e-mail and on-line communications – KRHanson@RockyView.ca or call 403.463.1166.
