The Skeena - Queen Charlotte Regional District will be no more if board members have their way.
So how much is that going to cost us, signage, letterhead and any other incidentals?
That’s exactly what I was thinking…it can’t be too cheap that’s for darn sure. I understand the need to change the name but with the cost and the way our economy is right now, I imagine the money could be better spent in some other capacity.
Stationary is a trivial expense. Regional directors are paid between $10,000 and $15,000 a year honouraria to attend one board meeting a month, and the board chair is paid more than that. Their management consultant was paid over $140,000 last year. Most of that money comes from Prince Rupert taxpayers, but they are not interested in what the regional district does with their money. This story will quickly go away and be forgotten.
Like mentioned above, the better question is why are they not doing more in Prince Rupert, considering almost all of the tax money comes from the city.
That is a better question. Another one is does the regional district have to cost Prince Rupert so much? The mayor and one city councillor sit on the regional board as directors and are paid about $10,000 each beyond their city honouraria. What do they have to say about how much the regional district costs Rupert taxpayers? Or is sitting on the regional board just a nice fringe benefit for them?
Prince Rupert does have a weighted vote on all money matters
That is true, but unfortunately Prince Rupert has only 7 out of 16 weighted votes on money matters, so it lacks a majority. At one time it had the majority of the weighted votes but that was lost due to population decline.
So Rupert can be outvoted on money matters by the small municipalities and the electoral areas, notwithstanding that it has 75% of the tax base, and hence pays the largest share of the regional district’s administration costs.
Thanks for that
I didn’t realize it had changed out of Prince Rupert’s favour
[quote=“r40345”]Thanks for that
I didn’t realize it had changed out of Prince Rupert’s favour[/quote]
I’ve heard that even when Prince Rupert had the majority of the weighted votes on money matters Mayor Lester cultivated support from the mayor of Port Edward and the directors from the two coastal electoral areas so that he would seldom have to rely on his weighted votes. That could still be done today. His concern was that since Rupert taxpayers paid most of the administrative costs of the regional district they should pay as little as possible.
The city’s representatives on the regional board should do more to protect the financial interests of Rupert taxpayers, also considering that other than the recycling centre it doesn’t do much for the city. They seem to be going with the flow, which means spending a lot of money on administrative costs of doubtful value.