SQCRD New Hire?

General Forums Prince Rupert Forum
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Does anyone know why the SQCRD is hiring a deputy corporate officer? Unless I am mistaken, they have a full-time Chief Executive Officerand as far as I know they also have a full time Chief Financial Officer. It is a pretty tiny budget without alot of employees. As far as I know, the SQCRD operates a garbage dump on Haida Qwaii and a recycling plant in Prince Rupert. I doubt they have more than 30 employees.

The reason I am concerned is that most of the administrative cost of the SQCRD is funded by the taxpayers of Prince Rupert. I believe Jack M. once said it is about 70% of the admin cost is paid by CPR taxpayers, so if you are from Prince Rupert, you might want to ask some questions of your local CPR elected officials who represent you on the SQCRD Board.

Posted in Civic Info Website “Careers”

Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District
Deputy Corporate Officer
Full-Time (35 hours per week)

The Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District includes some of the most breathtaking areas of British Columbia. Based out of Prince Rupert the Regional District consists of five municipalities and four electoral areas including regions along the mainland North Coast and Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands).

The Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District is seeking a dynamic and talented individual to fill the position of Deputy Corporate Officer. Under the guidance of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), the Deputy Corporate Officer will undertake a variety of administrative and corporate duties, including support for the CAO in undertaking the responsibilities of Corporate Administration (under Section 198 of the Local Government Act).

Applicants will have completed post-secondary education preferably in public administration and have a minimum of three years experience working in a Municipality or Regional District in a role related to corporate administration.

Considerable knowledge of local government legislation, regulations and processes is required. Excellent communication skills as well as experience with records management and preparation of agendas and minutes are essential. Also beneficial would be an understanding of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and parliamentary procedures.

The Regional District offers a competitive salary and benefits package. A detailed job description is available. To apply send a cover letter and resume to jmerrick@sqcrd.bc.ca

Applications will be received until 3:00 PM on Friday, September 6th, 2013

Joan Merrick, CAO
Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District
100 – 1st Ave East,.

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[quote=“Pantagruel”]

The reason I am concerned is that most of the administrative cost of the SQCRD is funded by the taxpayers of Prince Rupert. I believe Jack M. once said it is about 70% of the admin cost is paid by CPR taxpayers, so if you are from Prince Rupert, you might want to ask some questions of your local CPR elected officials who represent you on the SQCRD Board [/quote]

Financial decisions require weighted votes by the municipalities and electoral areas represented on the regional district board. The votes are weighted according to their respective populations (for non-financial decisions each director has one vote).

Prince Rupert makes by far the largest contribution to the SQCRD’s administrative costs and at one time it had a majority of the weighted votes, but with population decline that is no longer the case. Rupert still contributes the largest share, but the City directors can be outvoted by the others on weighted votes.

It’s a kind of ‘have our cake and eat it too’ situation for Charlotte, Port Edward and the electoral areas. That may explain why regional district directors are paid quite generous honouraria. They get about the same as City councillors, but typically have only one meeting a month while the City council has two.

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Why does this sound like our SENATE???

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Possibly the person already in this job resigned? The SQCRD created a new deputy adminsitrator position last year or so. Yes they have a huge budget and don’t do all that much. Meet once a month for an hour or two and the directors collect around $10,000 a year. For the Prince Rupert directors this is in addition to what they make as councillors. Their chief administrator got $140,000 last year. If you look at the budget it is notable how much goes just to pay the directors their salary and their travel costs. Some directors have to come from Haida Gwaii and it costs a lot for them to come here and stay in Prince Rupert.

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  1. The person did resign. This is not a newly created position.

  2. Only regions within a regional district who ‘benefit’ from that service pay for that service. In other words, CPR residents don’t pay for the dump on Haida Gwaii. CPR residents pay (along with other areas) for the following services: Recycling, CPR Archives, North Pacific Cannery and administration.

  3. For the last few years, the tax requisition for the SQCRD is approx. $30 per $100,000K of assessed value for CPR residents. That means for an average home of $200,000 a tax payer would pay roughly $60. Let’s keep in this perspective…

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[quote=“black_and_tan”]

  1. … CPR residents pay (along with other areas) for the following services: Recycling, CPR Archives, North Pacific Cannery and administration.

  2. For the last few years, the tax requisition for the SQCRD is approx. $30 per $100,000K of assessed value for CPR residents. That means for an average home of $200,000 a tax payer would pay roughly $60. Let’s keep in this perspective…[/quote]

Yes, and to provide further perspective, according to the SQCRD’s approved budget that will total $531,674 from City of Prince Rupert taxpayers in 2013.

From that, $236,389 will go towards Administration while taxpayers in Port Edward, Masset, Port Clements, Queen Charlotte, and Electoral Areas A, C, D and E will between them contribute $89,530. < sqcrd.bc.ca/images/uploads/d … budget.pdf >. Scroll to page 2.

It’s hard to conclude that City taxpayers are getting good value from the SQCRD when 44.5% of what they pay is going towards Administration.

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Keeping Things in Perspective…

I am all for keeping things in perspective. However, if I pay $60.00 per annum as a tax, I expect to receive some benefits. So B&T, I would appreciate seeing your analysis of what is the average Canadian (or Prince Ruperite’s ) tax burden and what does it pay for. Your analysis should demonstrates that the benefits received from the SQRCD are proportionately similar to the benefits that I receive from other levels of government for the value that I am taxed.

As an aside, please do not mention our friend Pamela. I know that I pay taxes for a Canadian Senate and a few other choice institutions which individually cost millions to operated each year. However, my personal tax burden which I pay towards the operation of that institution is not that significant. In other words, what I expect is about $3.00 or $4.00 per annum in my personal tax burden to finance the Canadian Senate is well repaid by the entertainment it provides. On the other hand, I have been unable to find anything humourous about the SQCRD.

SQCRD Recyling Plant…

The SQCRD recycling plant is, as far as I am concerned, a “feel good effort”. I believe that it is probable that more energy is consumed and enviroment pollution caused by the operation of the recycling plant than is saved by the operation. In other words, environmentally, we would be better off to simply bury or incinerate the material that is sent to the recylcing plant. I may be wrong about this so, if anyone has a specific study that demonstrates that, enviromentally, the operation of the SQCRD recycling plant provides a net environmental benefit, I would appreciate being provided the link to the report. Unfortunately, I believe that too often we get caught up in enviromentalist rhectoric and fail to look at scientific analysis.

B Traven.

Thank you for your comments about the SQCRD administration cost which is funded by CPR tax payers. I think it is grossly unfair given what I preceive to be marginal benefit that that CPR taxpayers receive. To attempt to solve or rebalance the sitution, It would be nice if a couple of solutions were explored:

a) The City of Prince Rupert should consider removing itself from the Regional District. This would take a lot of political will power. I don’t think it could occur with having an NDP MLA during a Liberal government. I think it should however be explored. Perhaps City Council could put the question to the electorate this November when a new Council Member is being elected.

b) The Regional District could begin providing some services that benefit the region, which are currently provided by the City. An example would be the Digby Island Ferry and Bus… People from Port Edward etc use the Digby Island Airport. They do not however pay any taxes towards the ferry subsidy nor the subsidy towards the bus. If the SQCRD took over the operation of the ferry and the bus to the airport, the cost of providing the ferry and bus service would be better apportioned. It might also be possible to get BC Transit to provide a portion of the funding, much like BC Transit provides funding for interurban busing in the Kitimat Stikine Regional District.

c) Port Edward Bus service. The Port Edward bus service could also be picked up by the SQCRD.

d) Airport Upgrades. Currently, the Airport requires some significant upgrades. Rather than the potential burden of the proposed loan to the Airport be solely underwritten by the CPR taxpayer, the burden should be shouldered by all SQCRD taxpayers.

e) Rework the current Electoral Areas. Given that Port Edward is looking at a megaproject LNG plant that will really ramp up air service demands, perhaps the City should encourage Port Edward to incorporate Digby Island into the Port Edward electoral area! The City could also cede a bit of taxable property (aka Prince Rupert Hotel) to assist Port Edward in funding the required susidy for the ferry and bus (this last proposal was meant as a joke, but who knows, it could work)!