The $11.7-million borrowing referendum for the Maxwell Lake water treatment plant has passed by 74.3 per cent.
Results were announced at the North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) annual general meeting held at Community Gospel Chapel on the evening of Thursday, May 8.
With 32.5 per cent of eligible voters casting ballots either by mail or in person on Thursday, participation was at the highest level for any previous vote undertaken by the NSSWD, said chief administrative officer Mark Boysen, with 1,023 ballots cast by 3,143 eligible voters in the district. Twenty-seven ballots were deemed not acceptable, for a total of 996 eligible ballots: 740 voted in favour and 256 voted against the proposal.
“That’s great news,” said NSSWD board chair Brian Pyper at the AGM. “Thank you to all the ratepayers that supported us in this process.”
Referendum approval means NSSWD ratepayers will see a $100 per year parcel tax increase next year, unless a $6-million applied-for federal government grant is received, in which case no increase will be needed.
It is also one of the components in the district’s “Building Resiliency” strategy to improve water supply and quality in the coming years, along with raising the St. Mary Lake weir, with $10 million in funds provided by the provincial government, improving the Maxwell Lake watershed and joining the St. Mary and Maxwell sides of the system.
The AGM also reviewed major accomplishments for the previous year, which included a partial lifting of the 10-year hook-up moratorium on the Maxwell Lake side of the system.
“This was a difficult decision and controversial to many in the community,” said Pyper in his chair’s report, “but to be clear, the lift, which began on March 31, is on the Maxwell system only, and is expected to increase water consumption by roughly eight per cent in the district as a whole. To ensure that this new available supply was closely monitored, the quarterly connections reporting process was implemented by the board to regularly assess the status of the system capacity.”
The St. Mary Lake weir project, which Boysen stressed was in its early stages, was among topics raised by the approximately dozen ratepayers attending. Boysen invited any impacted landowners to bring their questions to him directly at the office.
A $25 per month increase in trustees’ honoraria was proposed and approved by a vote of ratepayers, bringing the amount to $400 per month and $425 for the board chair.
Fred Lizotte of McLean, Lizotte, Wheadon and Company was appointed NSSWD auditor for a three-year term.
All AGM documents, including financial statements, are available on the northsaltspringwaterworks.ca website.