The City of Kimberley is making inroads into its infrastructure deficit, and that’s good news, says Mayor Don McCormick.
A couple of years ago, the big news was that Kimberley had an infrastructure deficit of $73 million, meaning that’s how much it would cost to replace all the aging infrastructure in the city — pipes, sidewalks, roads, fleet etc.
“The biggest impact on property taxes is the infrastructure deficit,” McCormick said.
Current Council made a commitment to hold property taxes to the Municipal Rate of Inflation, which is 2.01 per cent this year. That means that ways to bite into the infrastructure deficit have to be found in other ways.
And there is some success being seen, McCormick says.
“We put a plan in place and we are making headway,” he said. “the Urban Systems analysis says the deficit has been chopped by $5.6 million. The amount we’re spending on capital improvements exceeds depreciation for the first time, so we’re making positive inroads.”
$73 million is a big number, a scary number, the mayor says.
“That’s $100,000 for every man, woman and child in Kimberley. But we have to remember the deficit wasn’t dug overnight. It’s probably a 20 to 30 year horizon to dig out. And every municipality in the country is grappling with the same thing.”
Kimberley’s issue is that it has a 60 square kilometre footprint and only 5500 tax payers.
“The asset class with the most remaining life is actually roads,” McCormick said. “The worst is vehicles and equipment. The entire fleet has an expected remaining life of 18 per cent. If you have a fleet at the end of its life it’s harder for staff to maintain services.
“If you are just responding to things that break, you are not getting ahead. We are being more proactive now. We have a new vacuum truck, a new sweeper and a new garbage truck.”
With tax increases set at the MRI, existing spending is sustained. New money is needed to attack the infrastructure deficit, and that is being found partially through savings found in a full service review.
“Every service is being examined to find efficiencies. This is where the new sidewalk policy comes in,” McCormick said. “We can’t afford to have sidewalks in every neighbourhood, and in fact, we don’t. We need to be reasonable from a safety point of view. We need to make sure things are aesthetically pleasing. We continue to service sidewalks in areas with high visibility, such as downtown.”
Money has also been generated through the sale of non-core assets, such as lots. New taxes are being generated through the last several years of robust building permits, and the city has been successful in getting grants.
“Council and staff are proud we’ve been able to make a dent in the infrastructure deficit without going back to the tax payer.”
