On July 13, the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board passed a bylaw specific to Electoral Area B, the Cortes Island region, on waste removal billing.

Bylaw 469 includes provisions that remove the cap of dwellings determined for waste removal billing, exclusively. This bylaw relates to waste removal only, and has no effect on current SRD zoning laws.

Sheena Fisher, the Engineering Services Coordinator for the SRD, clarified this specific provision in an email to CKTZ News:

“The amendment's intent was to better align with service delivery, including the number of permitted receptacles, recycling, removing the restriction on the number of dwellings per improved property, and increasing the rates by 5%.”

Cortes Island residents can expect to see a 5% increase in fees for garbage pickup services. Image courtesy of the Strathcona Regional District.

The local online forum Tideline included a recent inquiry from one property owner reaching out to the community to see if any other community members saw a bill increase. Sheena Fisher confirmed that there were several property owners that reached out to the SRD, questioning the new framework for billing, as their fees due had increased substantially.

On Sept. 7, a team from the SRD engineering department visited several Cortes properties. Property owners that contested the "visual assessments" that were made on their properties' current number of dwellings were notified of the option to have the premises visited to clarify incorrect assessments. Fisher confirmed that corrected bills would be sent out to property owners accordingly.

To hear more details about Bylaw 469, listen to the CKTZ News update below: