For financial sustainability, White Rock (as do most BC cities) needs new sources of revenue. Currently, city finances are stable and sufficient. However, we do not have the funds to fuel our aspirations or keep a lock on future property taxes.
There are plenty of ways to save money. We spend more than we need to on sewer treatment, litter cleanup and garbage collection. If residents used low flush toilets and other water efficient appliances, picked up litter when they see it on the street or in a park, and recycled everything they could, we would all save a lot of money. Those funds could then be invested in better roads and sidewalks.
But there are also opportunities to make money. Cities are uniquely positioned to create energy utilities and extract commodities from our waste. We should be making money by generating electricity from the water in our pipes, gasifying our dry carbon-based garbage, composting our wet organic garbage, and ensuring all saleable commodities are recycled, not buried. This would not require White Rock to be all that innovative or inventive. We would be following the lead of local trailblazers like North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Squamish.
Sure, it would be very environmentally friendly, but it would also make lots of money. Let’s stop wasting the resources we have available to us and start converting it into money. That revenue could be used to advance projects to make our community an even better place to live without having to raise property taxes to pay for it.