The District of 100 Mile House elected officials, administration and staff are working hard to ensure this community has a stable and sustainable future – not only for the next five or 10 years, but for decades to come.
Council started down this road a few years ago with a goal to make sure 100 Mile House remains viable not only for its residents and businesses (taxpayers), but also for the folks who live outside the District boundaries.
Our community is the service centre for thousands of people who live up to an hour’s drive away – some on a full-time basis and others on a seasonal basis.
100 Mile House is where they get their groceries, health and dental care, merchandise, recreation, entertainment and other valuable goods and services.
To remain viable, the mayor and councillors have realized the District and its taxpayers cannot afford to be mired in debt.
Ridding ourselves of debt is a matter of survival – given the downloading of financial responsibilities from senior levels of government.
The reality for older and smaller rural communities is changing across the country, and it isn’t pretty.
Water and sewer infrastructures in these communities are ancient and crumbling, and in most cases, they’re in dire need of replacement.
They can no longer be fixed with a giant underground Band-Aid because Health Canada standards have changed dramatically for municipal water and sewer systems.
To make things worse for these small rural communities – similar in size to 100 Mile House – is the senior governments are not providing the levels of funding that were available a couple of decades ago.
This is why we are fortunate to have the leadership we have at the District level today. The goal is to make the municipality debt free within the next five or so years.
It’s important this goal is achieved because that’s likely when the allowable annual cut in our local forests is going to be cut in half, and there will be lean times ahead.
So, the District is building reserves and it’s only going to borrow for projects that are absolutely necessary and it’s going to do the projects that don’t require money to be borrowed.
That is why the District has been working away at the sewer infrastructure and is now working on a clean water system that will be sustainable for decades to come.
We all need to become involved in today’s goal to build a better future.
We need to learn what’s going on when we turn on our taps and flush the toilets.
We need to understand that conservation is the way we can save money and, in turn, reduce taxes.
