Drawbacks and negatives to Incorporation

• With these benefits come responsibilities. We will have to
  • elect local people to lead us, Mayor and 2 or 3 councillors
  • take on the work that the CSRD currently does
    • hire staff to handle various services. Chase has a staff of 8 plus a fire chief https://chasebc.ca/departments/contact/organize contracts for road work, water system service and any other infrastructure that NS Inc. owns.
    • Make planning, and many other decisions locally
      
• Taxes may rise
  • They likely will, but until the Incorporation Study is done, we don’t know how much.
  • In the South Shuswap, taxes were predicted to increase by $328 which was to be phased in over 4 years, so roughly $82 per year.

I am aware that on the surface, staffing up for an incorporated community may seem like it’s going to be expensive. And it is. BUT, we are now paying our portion to the CSRD for their staff, building, fleet of autos etc. Therefore, this staffing component shouldn’t add anything significant for NS Inc.

Regarding increased costs…

When I was a kid, I had a beat up old Austin Mini that I drove for a couple of years. I loved it but it really wasn’t in great shape, and it didn’t really matter to me at the time. A couple of years later when it was apparent that I might get more dates if I had a nicer car, it was time to make that move. Guess what? I had to pay something for that new(er) car, an upgrade didn’t come for free. But it had a nice stereo, seats that laid back, and brakes! I didn’t get more dates, but I had a nicer ride. A few years later I had a family (yes, I did finally get a date), and needed a bigger car for the family. Darned if I didn’t have to cough up some cash for that too.

The moral here is that in order to upgrade what you have it takes a bit of cash. Is that benefit worth the expense? That’s the question we’ll have to answer. BUT FIRST we have to find out what that cost will be, and that’s where we’re trying to get to now.