Pity poor North Cowichan.
The workload is getting too heavy and to lighten the load, the burden is being heaped upon taxpayers.
Businesses and companies throughout the district are being forced to make hard decisions about their workforce all the time. Why should North Cowichan be any different?
The time to be adding staff in this economic climate has long passed. A serious look needs to be taken at why these three new positions being implemented by the municipality in 2018 are necessary.
The answer is more than likely they aren’t necessary. Certain ‘make-work’ projects can be delayed and some employees simply need to take on added responsibilities, whether they like it or not.
Sure, there’s probably union issues involved. But the addition of more employees now isn’t going to help if there ever comes a time to reduce staff.
North Cowichan is always touting how it must maintain its level of services, whatever that means, but at all costs? There are services that could be eliminated completely or duties duplicated and no one would even notice.
We’re supposed to feel grateful because the rate hike is not as large as anticipated since the projected tax increases pertaining to the new RCMP detachment building are delayed until next year. It just means those increases are still coming during the next three years, starting in 2019.
Enough already! Seniors and pensioners cannot afford these yearly tax increases that the municipality seems to be routinely imposing.
The consequences are spending will be reduced because people simply don’t have as much disposal income and that’s not going to help the local economy.
North Cowichan needs to get the job done without taking the easy way out.