The Chamber of Commerce hosted a State of the City address from Kimberley Mayor Don McCormick on Thursday, Apr. 27 at Centre 64.
McCormick discussed the six strategic priorities as defined by Council, what data is telling Council, what to expect in 2023 including upcoming projects, and held a question and answer period, which was dominated by discussion of the proposed development in Marysville.
The business model for the City, McCormick began, is “very simple.” The City had revenues of $26.4 million in 2022 and in 2023 that number has increased to somewhere around the low $30 millions.
WATCH:
“The reason for the fluctuation year over year has to do with grants and projects that are grant dependent,” McCormick said, adding the City has a number of projects that are receiving grants and bumping up that number this year.
All revenue comes from taxes, fees, reserves and grants. The goal, McCormick said, is to achieve a balance between service levels, infrastructure investment and reasonable taxation.
“You can’t do it all, because you can’t afford to do it all, so we try and get a balance between these three things,” he said.
“This is managed by incremental improvement. If you go back 1o years ago we had some pretty tough times, things weren’t looking as good as they are today, but if you go back and look at what’s happened over the last 10 years, there hasn’t been one really big thing that’s moved the needle, it’s been lots of incremental improvement.”
Council’s priority areas for 2023-2025 are: Infrastructure renewal, financial accountability, economic resiliency, environmental stewardship, inclusivity and civility, and risk management.
In 2017 Urban Systems did an asset assessment for the City, finding a $73 million backlog in spending, meaning the City hadn’t spent enough each year to cover the rate at which its infrastructure was aging.
The annual rate of aging is around $4 million per year, and every year, McCormick said the City has been spending more than that $4 million figure, meaning our assets are getting “newer not older.”
COVID, inflation rates and material costs rising as much as 100 per cent has meant it’s extremely difficult to compare the cost of those projects today, with the cost of them in 2017 when the asset assessment was done.
“It’s very hard to rate progress at this point, but I think all of us just need to look around town and see the state of things and you can see that we are in fact making pretty good progress,” McCormick said.
In terms of financial accountability, McCormick said the plan is to achieve goals and meet the expectations of the population, without excessive taxation. In Kimberley, 86 per cent of tax revenue comes from residential, putting pressure on residents. Rossland is the only other community that has a figure that high.
Business class 6 is one of the lowest tax revenue generators. RCR, Teck Metals are the two biggest business tax generators, at $238,837 and $138,836, respectively, with Tyee and Save-On in third and fourth. Kimberley has no light industrial tax base.
McCormick explained that the property owner, not the business, pays the taxes and it is based on the value of the property and building on it. An $8 million property would bring in $140,000 in annual revenue, equivalent to 50 homes, which is why commercial tax is so important.
When speaking of the priority of economic resiliency, McCormick said that economic development or program, it is one element of an evolving community. The single biggest economic impact is through planning and through investment in the community, with respect to buildings and if those buildings are residential, commercial or light industrial.
He said 2019 was a “monster year” for building permits issued and last year was even better, with 212 permits issued, averaging $60,000 each. From 2013 to 2016 permits were around the City was looking at around $8 million to $12 million a year in permits, which reflected the trend for a number of years with the exception of the build out of Kimberley Alpine Resort.
Then in 2016 an upwards trend began, with $34 million in 2019 and 2022 even higher. The two years in between weren’t bad, but COVID did have an impact.
“At the end of the day I don’t see any reason why we will ever be under $20 million a year in building permits again,” McCormick said.
That’s “critically important,” he added, as it’s one of the key reasons why the City was able to keep the tax increase this year at 3.9 per cent, the “non-market change.”
“That’s the adding of assessment from building that’s occurred over the past couple years that now come into being assessed and are being charged taxes in that particular year,” McCormick explained. “Had we not had that non-market change, of around $33 million, the tax rate increase this year would have been 5.5 per cent.”
From here McCormick segued into discussing the housing supply issue. 2019 has the most new dwellings built at 83, and 2022 had 68.
Housing continues to be extremely difficult. Kimberley is growing at a rate of 130 people per year, a steady increase since 2006 and new homes are not keeping up. Kimberley’s population in 2006 was the “low water mark” following the closure of the Sullivan Mine. The population was at around 7300 in 2001, down to 6200 in 2006 and it has been increasing steadily since then.
McCormick said that to catch up with the deficit in the next five years, at 62 units per year for 130 new people per year, is 489 new dwellings — roughly 100 a year, and Kimberley has never done more than 84.
READ MORE: Kimberley’s Manager of Planning undertakes project with Small Housing BC
“That’s not as daunting as it sounds, because what we’ve been doing to date is almost exclusively single family homes,” McCormick said. “So the message is, we cannot outrun our housing issue with single family homes.”
The way to close the gap and to provide the highest value to the community is through multi-unit residential rental, he added.
McCormick outlined seven projects, some with shovels in the ground, that represent 330 total rental units, including the Westcastle project in Marysville which is the furthest along.
In terms of economic resiliency, tourism continues to drive Kimberley’s economy and McCormick called Kimberley’s tourism product “spectacular.”
One challenge is that Kimberley badly needs a new Hotel, something McCormick has been working on for five years. The issue is most hotels rely on the Monday to Thursday commercial traffic to make profit. When hotels see the 86 per cent residential tax rate, they see that Kimberley doesn’t have enough commercial to make a go of it.
A total of 231,000 people visit Kimberley per year, with only 100,000 staying over night and the rest being day trips, with many of those staying in Cranbrook as there is not enough accommodation here.
With respect to environmental stewardship, McCormick said there are a lot of things that have been in place since 2007. As a corporation the City signed on to the environmental charter and emissions have been way down since then and have actually exceeded the goals.
Years that see higher emissions are partly due to heavy snowfall, as the fleet is still mainly gas driven. The City has started to convert the fleet to hybrid or electric vehicles. Some other initiatives include programs to further reduce GHG, expanding the commuter transit service between Kimberley and Cranbrook, expanding the active transportation network, continuing watershed resiliency and integrating curbside organics pickup, which should start this fall.
READ MORE: City of Kimberley will apply for grant to implement organic recycling
The main challenges facing the City is housing, accurate and sufficient data, tax revenue from sources other than residential, land availability and childcare. McCormick said these challenges are understood and work is underway to mitigate the issues and create opportunities.
With regards to inclusivity and civility, a new priority area, McCormick said this is to “ensure everyone has an opportunity to participate fully in the community.” Some initiatives include City Council adopting a code of conduct, striking an Accessibility Committee, further developing relationship with the Ktunaxa Nation Council and aq’am and supporting creation of additional social housing units.
Another new priority is risk management, the safety and well-being of the community. This includes wildfire management, storm water management and flood mitigation, facility and sidewalk inspections, and snow and ice management.
Cybersecurity is a major priority and McCormick said the City has hired a second IT person to help with the workload.
McCormick outlined some of the major projects to look forward to in 2023, including the new gymnastics club, which is just awaiting one final permit to go through before building can commence.
READ MORE: Kimberley, Cranbrook, Fernie among Kootenay towns to get substantial funding for tourism projects
Swan Avenue Park will be completed this summer, the bike park will be getting around a $200,000 upgrade and Jim Ogilvie Way will be rebuilt this summer from Rails to Trails down to the highway.
The SD6 childcare project is another huge one for the community. Cominco Gardens will be rebuilt with a new $1 million grant, the Platzl parking lot will be rebuilt, Centre 64 is to get a permanent outdoor stage, and the Marysville business park will be getting a sewer system installed.
READ MORE: Ground broken for 148-space childcare facility at Marysville Elementary
To conclude McCormick said that with regards to the state of the community, “generally speaking residents are pretty happy with where we’re at, so happy in fact that change of any kind is a problem and that’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing. It means we’re in a good place.”
Corporations and entrepreneurs are investing in the community and a culture is being created that attracts young families, meaning Kimberley has a bright future.
The question and answer period was dominated by discussion of the proposed McDonald’s, which will be discussed in part two.
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter