After 3 months of shut down, I am relieved we are moving towards opening up. For many of us, our work continued, albeit from a different location, but for others this time brought job loss, which is hard at any time in our lives, but even harder when the city, province and much of the globe is closed. After living in Calgary for most of my adult life, I have seen many ups and downs, as I’m sure most of you have – I’m confident we will return to a “new” up, it may take some time but I know we’ll get there.
One of the sectors that performed very well during this time was the logistics/ warehousing sector. This is a sector of the economy that Rocky View County has been attracting over the number of years, particularly in the East Balzac and Conrich areas. Interestingly, I attended a talk by Todd Hirsch, who is the Vice- President and Chief Economist for ATB, a number of years ago and while he wasn’t speaking about RVC, he mentioned that of all the sectors in Alberta that was poised for growth, it was this sector. As Alberta was (and is) recovering from the O & G down turn, this sector has been heating up, and during COVID-19, it boomed. I mention this, because like all municipalities, we rely on our commercial taxes for a substantial portion of our operating budget, and no doubt, RVC, like everyone else, will likely see a slow recovery and businesses that can’t survive. RVC continues to promote this sector and even at the height of shut down, there was a large $100M investment into this sector which will bring $800,000 of property taxes annually to the County. These types of investments are important so that we don’t have to shift the tax burden to residents.
It is also important to note that we were able to reduce property taxes 5% (from plan) to help during this time. For residents it might only be $40 or $50 a month, but for our businesses it will be huge and hopefully allows them to be here next year to contribute jobs to the economy. Rebuilding and attracting business will be important, not just to improve the state of our economy but to ensure RVC remains one of the best municipalities there is. Our audited financial statements are available and we achieved a $6M operating surplus.Tucking this away will help us ensure that we don’t need to transfer the tax burden to you. I’m sure those in Calgary were wishing they were living in Rocky View right about now! We are a strong regional contributor and we have clearly demonstrated this during these last few years!
If you follow my Facebook page, you’ve already heard that Council voted 6-3 in favour of removing our opposition to the SR1 (Springbank Dam) project. The complete news release and details can be found here: www.rockyview.ca/NewsEvents/News/tabid/145/Article/1814/Rocky-View-County-Signs-SR-1-Agreement.aspx. I want you to know that I did not support this motion. I voted against this because I truly feel this project is not the right project for flood mitigation for Calgary. I believethisprojectwillcauseshort-and long-term environmental problems for Springbank and Calgary. I believe there are better solutions that actually protect more people, cost less money, provide not only flood relief, but a water resource to use for drought protection and recreation. This is why I voted against this.
The silver lining, if you can refer to it as that, is that the $10M the County will receive if the project moves forward is earmarked directly to Springbank for Cultural, Recreation and Community. It is a small benefit in the grand scheme of things, but I hope will go towards building something in our community that will add value.
Finally, the contest I organized to support local business has wrapped up. The response by local businesses and the community was fantastic. I’d like to give a huge shout-out to all the businesses that donated these fantastic prizes and to the winners noted below:
Links 5th Prize: Brent Gordon (Harmony) – 2 Rounds of golf – donated by Springbank Links
4th Prize: Heather Clark (RR 31) – Complete auto detailing – donated by Stampede Collision
3rd Prize: Sarita Barrett (Country Lane) – $250 store credit donated by Mountain View Building Materials.
2nd Prize: Andy Biblow (Villosa) – $250 credit donated by Springbank Self Storage
Grand Prize: Trina Vitolianos (Harmony) – Kamado Joe Jr., charcoal, lawn chairs and $50 Co-op gift certificate donated by Hanks Grills
Thank you everyone!
Kim McKylor,
Councillor, Division 2
