{"videoId":"662a846c-dbe5-4ae2-ae5a-c6d2c5328a22","source":"assemblyai","segments":[{"t":1,"text":"Okay, we'll now reconvene our meeting of the Capital Regional District Board. And we have no rise in report from the previous in camera meeting. If I could have a motion to recess.","speaker":"A"},{"t":21,"text":"Let's convene our committee of the whole meeting, please. Director's price and also. Thank you. All in favor. Thank you. Opposed and unopposed carries.","speaker":"A"},{"t":36,"text":"So in turning to our committee of the whole meeting, we did have the territorial acknowledgment provided at a pre seated seating meeting. I would look for a motion to approve our agenda.","speaker":"A"},{"t":55,"text":"Okay, so we're good to reconvene in our Capital Regional District Board meeting. We are now turning to item seven which is special meeting matters. Under 7. 1 we have the service planning 2027 community needs summary.","speaker":"A"},{"t":78,"text":"This was presented and discussed during our committee the whole meeting. There is no recommendation. The report is for information only. However, there is under the next item a motion specific to the community needs summaries.","speaker":"A"},{"t":100,"text":"So in turning to 7. 2 the Capital Regional District Provisional 2027-2031 Financial Plan approval, I would seek a mover of the five recommendations together. Please move by chair plant or. Sorry, Director. Plant emeritus. Emeritus. Yeah. There we go.","speaker":"A"},{"t":124,"text":"Sorry. Do we have a second vice chair? Little. Thank you, alternative movers.","speaker":"A"},{"t":133,"text":"I would like to just briefly thank staff and all of the directors around the table and the committees they serve on and the commissions who helped develop these recommendations. As has been said several times today, the 9.","speaker":"B"},{"t":146,"text":"9% figure that will maybe garner the attention of media outlets in the region is not an accurate figure for how the average taxpayer in Saanich, Victoria, Oak Bay and every other jurisdiction will be facing a new tax bill.","speaker":"B"},{"t":158,"text":"In fact, if you look in saanich, it's approximately $27 per household additional, an amount that I think is very reasonable for the amount of services that are provided to the residents in Saanich.","speaker":"B"},{"t":169,"text":"I wish the western communities well as they build their RCMP building, which we acknowledge is the reason why the 9. 9% is the number that will likely gain attention.","speaker":"B"},{"t":178,"text":"That being said, we are in this together and I'm sure when there are municipalities building their own infrastructure, these borrowing costs which flow through the CRD will result in other jurisdictions also having to explain to their residents why the 9.","speaker":"B"},{"t":192,"text":"9% or equivalent is not actually the number that their residents will pay. I want to respond to one comment that was made during the committee the whole session by a director. Pardon me. Yeah, it is a director here.","speaker":"B"},{"t":204,"text":"And that is, I do think that this term has been very successful and that the board has set itself up for the future.","speaker":"B"},{"t":212,"text":"Well, and I don't think there are going to be any new services likely envisioned by the future boards.","speaker":"B"},{"t":218,"text":"I think the biggest challenge that the board is going to have to face, and it's presented to us in the documents provided by staff, is the fact that water and utilities are going to be a challenge for the next board.","speaker":"B"},{"t":231,"text":"That is going to be very challenging.","speaker":"B"},{"t":233,"text":"And it makes me believe that like the province, through UBCM and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, working with the federal government, we must look at other ways to pay for municipal services than simply property taxes and requisitions.","speaker":"B"},{"t":246,"text":"And I hope that this next board will join in with other municipalities and regional districts and the equivalents across Canada at looking for fairer ways to pay for the services that residents need and that provinces and federal government should contribute more to.","speaker":"B"},{"t":260,"text":"Thank you.","speaker":"B"},{"t":260,"text":"Thank you, Director Plan Vice Chair Little, please.","speaker":"A"},{"t":265,"text":"Yeah, thank you. I just want to reiterate my thanks to staff regarding this provisional budget. I know that you start early in the year to prepare for this. You gave us a timeline. You've been working hard on this.","speaker":"C"},{"t":285,"text":"And I want to thank staff. I'm wondering, a little bit unusual, but regarding Director Plant's comments regarding taxes and the average household increase, average of $65, about 834 per household cost average.","speaker":"C"},{"t":301,"text":"I'm wondering if GM Chan can review what he said at the conclusion that how we're going to approach this in terms of we have economic uncertainty, we are going to be doing diversification.","speaker":"C"},{"t":319,"text":"Could you just repeat and reiterate those two sentences for us? Thank you.","speaker":"C"},{"t":326,"text":"Absolutely. Through the chair. So the other thing I'll say is I always offer, we always offer to visit any municipality that would like a walkthrough of the the provisional budget. We've done it for many, many years.","speaker":"D"},{"t":342,"text":"Happy to do that. And customize individual packages for each municipality. I send that to all the CFOs. They received it the day before the agenda was published.","speaker":"D"},{"t":353,"text":"So that you can see specifically the impact on your municipality in that particular slide. It's slide 27.","speaker":"D"},{"t":361,"text":"It does show both the change in cost per average household, which is column G, if you're looking at it, as well as the total cost per household for CRD CRHD services on a regional average basis.","speaker":"D"},{"t":376,"text":"The change based on this provisional budget is roughly $65, but you can see that it ranges dramatically from negatives. I brought up Highlands before.","speaker":"D"},{"t":386,"text":"So because Highlands is paying off all of their debt, they actually get a refund or a reduction in their Requisition this, this year and then the total just tells you or gives you an appreciation for what the total cost of requisition is for each household.","speaker":"D"},{"t":405,"text":"And again, that's dramatically impacted by the services in which they participate. I think the last comment, the last question you had was if I had any comments around revenue diversification.","speaker":"D"},{"t":418,"text":"We spend a lot of time on requisition and I've said many times that requisition only funds one quarter of our operating budget, whereas half of our budget is funded through rates and services.","speaker":"D"},{"t":431,"text":"So we started introducing a lot of information indicators, so on, on rates, taking into consideration all of the very, very important infrastructure renewal, capacity building projects that are going on, particularly in water, wastewater, solid waste and so on.","speaker":"D"},{"t":448,"text":"And we try to present those as well and sort of that balance or mix between sale of services or rates and requisition.","speaker":"D"},{"t":457,"text":"And the last bit of it, because I always say half and a quarter, we're sort of missing a quarter. That last quarter has historically been funded by grants and other third party donations.","speaker":"D"},{"t":471,"text":"We bring a grants report every year and I'm always amazed at the amount of grants that the organization receives in the tens of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions if you include single projects like the treatment plant or some of the housing projects as well.","speaker":"D"},{"t":490,"text":"So I'm not exaggerating to say that that balance I think is we of course always strive to get more grants, but balance between rates and requisition as well.","speaker":"D"},{"t":505,"text":"Thank you, Vice Chair Low. I next have ALT Director Wagner online and then Director Murdoch Sainich.","speaker":"A"},{"t":514,"text":"Thank you. Great segue for me there with what Nelson Chen was just saying. I was going to comment on the value of the CRD and how we're doing more together, honestly.","speaker":"E"},{"t":526,"text":"So we're doing more together than we can alone. Things like the RCMP building would cost us more if we were borrowing individually. So through the CRD we're saving money. So thank you to this body.","speaker":"E"},{"t":539,"text":"If this does go forward, it's really important that we save money wherever we can.","speaker":"E"},{"t":544,"text":"And so working together in that regard, getting a better financing deal another way is for grants and, and we are more successful in grant applications when we can show the province or the federal government that it has a regional benefit, that it's a big project that's going to help a lot of people.","speaker":"E"},{"t":565,"text":"Then they start noticing things like the reconciliation corridor for the rail, for example, is another way the CRD can lift this all up and through reconciliation.","speaker":"E"},{"t":575,"text":"So there's just so much exciting stuff happening through the CRD that we can't do as individual municipalities.","speaker":"E"},{"t":581,"text":"And, and I did want to emphasize that the province and the federal government don't necessarily understand local governments or regional governments as well as I wish they did.","speaker":"E"},{"t":592,"text":"Things like development cost charters are an invaluable tool to keep our tax rates down. We have very limited options. There's property tax, there's permit fees, there's things like parking fees or recreation fees.","speaker":"E"},{"t":604,"text":"So there's, there's bits that we can charge people. But it becomes quickly very unaffordable without the support of the higher levels of government or other funding tools.","speaker":"E"},{"t":615,"text":"So I do think that this sort of trying to reduce the development cost charges is a dangerous game for local governments. I don't like to hear that coming from higher levels of government.","speaker":"E"},{"t":627,"text":"It shows me they don't necessarily understand that we have a lot of infrastructure to maintain and we have a lot of services to provide and the money has to come from somewhere.","speaker":"E"},{"t":639,"text":"So we don't want those property taxes to be the only tool that we have in the toolbox. And debt, it can be crushing.","speaker":"E"},{"t":648,"text":"So DCCs are a fair way to support, especially because the province and the federal government are encouraging us to grow and in fact making legislation to make sure that we do grow very quickly in some cases in Langford, for example, we are wanting to have stable taxes and have those increases not be crushing us.","speaker":"E"},{"t":669,"text":"So for affordability, it's just so critical that we look at this whole picture. So just wanted to flag the good work the CRD is doing together for all of us.","speaker":"E"},{"t":680,"text":"And I think that I'll be trying to encourage the public to have a better understanding of what the CRD does and appreciate the staff presentations and information and discussion amongst members of this board.","speaker":"E"},{"t":694,"text":"Thank you, Altdirect Wagner. Director Murdoch Saanich.","speaker":"A"},{"t":698,"text":"Thank you, Chair McNeil Smith. I am going to obviously speak in support of the provisional budget and look forward to its approval.","speaker":"F"},{"t":706,"text":"I appreciate that there are folks who are going to be out on the campaign trail and having to do their best to explain what, what these numbers represent.","speaker":"F"},{"t":716,"text":"But one of the comments I wanted to provide in my reflection on my time at the board table is I don't think that the CRD and its services are well understood by regional taxpayers and residents of our region.","speaker":"F"},{"t":730,"text":"You get your tax bill and depending on how it's presented, the costs just seem to stack whether they're municipal or school or if they are C crd, depending on how that's presented on your bill, it just looks like they all add up.","speaker":"F"},{"t":745,"text":"So everybody's got their hand in your pocket.","speaker":"F"},{"t":747,"text":"But I think if you break it down for folks, I think they'd be very surprised to find out that in fact, there's an incredible amount of collaboration and shared service providing that goes on on the South Island.","speaker":"F"},{"t":761,"text":"In fact, I've had the opportunity to convey to people in the past when they've said, well, why don't municipalities just do that together? Well, in fact, we do, and we call it the crd.","speaker":"F"},{"t":772,"text":"It's just not well understood that that's what this is for.","speaker":"F"},{"t":776,"text":"Most people probably think about parks, they might think about recycling, But I don't think they fully understand the scope of what's being delivered through this organization and the staff that support it.","speaker":"F"},{"t":787,"text":"And so I just want to commend the folks around this table and those who came before us for having the foresight to develop a shared service model where we could shoulder these costs together because it's more efficient to deliver them together and where it makes sense for us to become subscribers to those regional services.","speaker":"F"},{"t":807,"text":"Each of our municipalities has done that because it makes more sense for us to do it together.","speaker":"F"},{"t":813,"text":"And to the comments earlier in the committee of the whole meeting where we talked about the growth in some of those services, I think it's a recognition of the value of doing things better, better together.","speaker":"F"},{"t":825,"text":"And transportation, obviously has one, is one that I have championed through this term.","speaker":"F"},{"t":830,"text":"And I want to thank the members of this board for their ongoing support for that initiative, which I think will pay off in spades in the short, medium and long term.","speaker":"F"},{"t":841,"text":"So I just wanted to convey my appreciation to the folks around this table, to the people who support this incredible work for doing, I think, a tremendous service for our residents by pooling our resources, by working collaboratively together.","speaker":"F"},{"t":855,"text":"And I'm hopeful that the next term of the board will continue in that spirit.","speaker":"F"},{"t":860,"text":"We've had so much success this term in working together, and I'm hopeful that we will continue to see that because it adds so much value for the people we serve.","speaker":"F"},{"t":870,"text":"And the next time we have a conversation about why municipalities don't do that together, we can say, actually we're working on that.","speaker":"F"},{"t":880,"text":"Thank you, Director Murdoch. Not seeing any other. Director Wickham.","speaker":"A"},{"t":887,"text":"Thank you. And I'd just like to speak through the triplies in support of what","speaker":"G"},{"t":894,"text":"Mr.","speaker":"D"},{"t":894,"text":"Murdoch said and the previous speaker. I get and see posts on social media and emails saying I'm paying all these taxes and I don't get a damn thing for it.","speaker":"G"},{"t":907,"text":"Well, the people don't seem to realize that all the Services that they get are being paid through their taxes.","speaker":"G"},{"t":915,"text":"And they do get lines on the road, and they do get water service, and they get hydro service and hospital services and housing and all the other services. And I think it.","speaker":"G"},{"t":928,"text":"It would do us all well to promote to the public what they actually do get, which is pretty well everything. You pay your taxes and you get what we get.","speaker":"G"},{"t":940,"text":"And I think public awareness is probably a good thing to advocate.","speaker":"G"},{"t":945,"text":"Thank you. Thanks, Director Wickham. Seeing no other speakers, I want to echo the very positive comments from other directors speaking in support of the budget. I want to speak briefly in full support of the financial plan.","speaker":"A"},{"t":961,"text":"And first, on behalf of the board, I want to express our sincere thanks to CEO Robbins, to CFO Chan and your team, finance team, and other members of the executive leadership team and your respective teams for the detailed work involved in the service planning and community needs summaries.","speaker":"A"},{"t":982,"text":"They are integral to informing the enormous work that has occurred over many months in preparing the financial plan. As the budget documents and staff presentations indicate, considerable work has occurred to achieve the consolidated requisition.","speaker":"A"},{"t":998,"text":"And this budget, I think, is carefully balanced between the need to maintain essential and other important CRD services and the cost pressures and the opportunities to improve services in our rapidly growing region.","speaker":"A"},{"t":1012,"text":"Today's provisional budget appropriate approval provides the opportunity for consultation, engagement and public input in the coming months. Before the new board considers the budget for final approval in March of 2027. I'll now look to call a question.","speaker":"A"},{"t":1029,"text":"All in favor? Thank you. Are any opposed? I'm seeing none opposed. That carries unanimous. Thank you very much. And now now takes us to a motion to adjourn Directors Aalto and Bryce. All in favor. Thank you again.","speaker":"A"},{"t":1045,"text":"Have a good afternoon.","speaker":"A"}],"words":2611,"fetchedAt":"2026-10-03T06:44:06.382Z"}