TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL Planning and Development Report: FEES AND CHARGES BYLAW UPDATE

FEES AND CHARGES BYLAW UPDATE

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT Committee receive the report for information.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER'S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To introduce amendments to Fees and Charge Bylaw No. 583, 2006.

TIME CRITICAL:

Yes. The proposed bylaw amendments introduce new and updated charges for municipal services, and services such as criminal records checks by the RCMP. Without an amended bylaw the Town is not able to collect fees from the RCMP.

BACKGROUND DISCUSSION:

The Fees and Charges Bylaw was last updated in 2006. In the intervening years, the Town has improved its services, however the fee structure for these services has not.

PROJECT INFORMATION:

Over the coming months, staff proposes to bring forward a number of amendments to the fees and charges bylaw. There are a significant number of charges that are outdated and do not reflect the actual cost of providing various services, as the bylaw has not been updated since 2006. A secondary objective is to have the majority of user fees and charges contained within one bylaw, rather than scattered through numerous subject specific bylaws.

The attached red-lined "Draft Schedule A" illustrates the amendments that are proposed for the first phase of this update. These changes focus on two main areas. The first is an update to the fees and charges for services offered by the RCMP such as records checks. Without this update, any fees collected by the RCMP will go to the federal government rather than the Town.

The remaining updates relate to fees and charges that are significantly outdated or have not kept pace with inflation and increases in the cost of materials and labor. Since the last amendment, printing technology and the size of maps that the Town can produce have increased, and the corresponding fees no longer cover the cost of providing this service. For items such as agenda subscriptions, agenda sizes are generally increasing along with the cost of paper and ink. The ALR application fees are from the Land Commission and are a new addition to the bylaw. The Town does have some ALR lands and without a fee listed in the bylaw, it would be difficult to charge for such an application.

Future amendments will include amending the Development Procedures bylaw, Soils Bylaw, Sign Bylaw, Business License Bylaw and others to bring the fees listed in those bylaws up to date, and to bring them into Fees and Charges Bylaw. Staff are also exploring mechanisms for automatic updates to fees and charges which would be tied to inflation or another similar metric.

BUDGET IMPLICATIONS:

Ensuring that the fees and charges bylaw is up to date allows the costs associated with providing a service to the public to be paid for by the beneficiary rather than being subsidized through taxation. A significant increase in fees collected is not anticipated for the 2016 budget year.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT Committee receive the report for information.

SUBMITTED BY: L. Chase, Director of Development Services

REVIEWED BY: K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer

Attachment

Schedule A—redlined version of recommended updates.