Having received my property tax assessment a couple of weeks ago, I was blown away to find that Oak Bay only took in $21,000 in developers’ fees and fees for variances. This news came in the same enclosure that wrote of the need to upgrade our aging infrastructure.
Now, I’m not opposed to development in principle. But when it comes with additional pressure on already-superannuated sewer, power, and traffic systems, then it seems truly bizarre that the municipality is not asking developers to pay something more like a fair share.
To put this in perspective, the municipality will take in the same amount of property tax from six properties like mine as it took in from all developer and variance fees last year. If that doesn’t constitute a massive transfer of wealth from the public to private developers, then I don’t know what does. Are you happy subsidizing developers’ bottom lines?
Dr. Stephen Ross
Oak Bay
