Our communities in Cowichan are facing an infrastructure crisis.
Everything from water and sewer lines to roads, roofs, and structures are hitting the end of their lives and our local governments don't have anywhere near enough money to cover the costs.
North Cowichan has more than 370 development applications in progress, representing more than 10,000 new housing units, but has the capacity to service only 4,200 new units. Estimated costs to upgrade North Cowichan's servicing systems is an eye-watering $359 million.
The City of Duncan's water and sewer systems, as well as other infrastructure, are 65 per cent through their useful life and replacement costs come in at $524.5 million. Needless to say, the city has nowhere close to that amount of money.
Duncan and North Cowichan need to relocate their sewage outfall from the Cowichan River to outside of Cowichan Bay. That project alone is estimated at about $95 million. It has been halted due to costs.
Ladysmith has also looked at its development cost charges in an effort to keep up with infrastructure demand, and the Town of Lake Cowichan has been upgrading their sewage treatment and municipal hall, among other things.
That's to say nothing of the infrastructure in the Cowichan Valley Regional District electoral areas, from water services to recreation facilities.
Some say the answer is new development, but it's not as simple as that. Even if development cost charges — what a developer has to pay to the local government to offset infrastructure costs and amenities — cover the entire initial amount needed, they don't cover the ongoing maintenance and eventual replacement.
Right now, not everything is always covered by those initial fees, either. At a recent North Cowichan council meeting it was pointed out that a roundabout needed due to extra traffic from a development was coming out of municipal coffers, not developer fees.
Business as usual will not work any longer. Our municipalities must take a long, hard look at their development cost charges and weigh the desire to attract growth with the lifetime costs of that growth to the taxpayers. Right now, too often, the additions to the tax base are not enough to pay for the lifetime needs of the infrastructure — or even its initial build.
This state of affairs cannot continue. Kicking the problem continually down the road is how we've gotten to where we are now. It may be useful to those looking for re-election, but it's not useful to the long-term sustainability of our communities.
Developers are going to need to pay more, since building and replacing infrastructure now costs astronomically more for local governments. Taxpayers cannot afford to foot the bill for new development on top of the old maintenance and replacement.
