A group of Cowichan Lake locals recently indicated that they would like to see future funding of the Cowichan Sportsplex in Duncan be done so on a usage based spectrum.
The indication came at a Cowichan Valley Regional District public presentation, carried out by the CVRD’s manager of corporate planning Jacob Ellis, at Centennial Hall last Monday.
Ellis was presenting to a group of over 50 people just prior to the Town of Lake Cowichan’s public meeting.
“For the past number of years, the CVRD board has been having ongoing discussions about Sportsplex funding,” said Ellis. “There is a desire at the board table for long term funding. Before the board can make a decision, there needs to be a consultation process. An incredible amount of time and effort goes into the Sportsplex.”
The CVRD is proposing two methods of long term funding.
The first is where every city, municipality, town and electoral area that makes up the CVRD pays the same into it.
“Each home in the CVRD would pay about $0.94 per $100,000 in assessed value, based on the 2013 grant of $146,500. This means the average homeowner in the CVRD would pay about $3.21 in taxes annually to support the Sportsplex.”
The other method is the usage based cost sharing one.
“Homeowners would pay different amounts depending how much residents in their area use the facility.”
In a document that Ellis presented, the usage based model shows that each home in the Town of Lake Cowichan would pay $0.65 per $100,000 in assessed value, homes in Area F (Cowichan Lake South/Skutz Falls) would pay $0.19, and homes in Area I (Youbou/Meade Creek) would pay $0.14.
The public in attendance voted 87% in favour of the usage based model when asked to compare the two.
“That is understandable and is good information for the board to have,” said Ellis.
Cathy Wagner ended the presentation by saying to Ellis and the CVRD, “you guys are taking everything away from us, everything is in Duncan.”
