Thornhill regional district director Ted Ramsey says he's resigned to a bylaw establishing a property tax in support of the Heritage Park Museum.
But he maintains that the method used to gauge voter approval was flawed.
"To me it was a bad exercise in bad government, the best example of bad government," said Ramsey of the alternative approval process in which more than 10 per cent of eligible voters within the area to be taxed have to register their opposition for a local government to either shelve a proposed bylaw or send it to a traditional referendum.
In this circumstance, just over five per cent - or 295 voters - out of an estimated eligible 5,536 people registered their objections.
The regional district board on Sept. 13 subsequently approved the bylaw which, based on its wording, will raise a maximum $40,000 a year. Property owners in Thornhill and in a portion of Area C, the larger rural area surrounding Terrace, will pay an average of $10.21 per year.
The bylaw, to come into effect next year, will replace an annual grant in aid. Ramsey two years ago objected to the grant, saying rural people should not have to support the museum as it is located within the Terrace city boundaries. It was his objection that resulted in a taxation bylaw being proposed.
Speaking after the bylaw was passed, Ramsey called ridiculous the assumption that if only 295 people objected, the remaining eligible voter total of more than 5,000 people were in favour.
"I just think it's inappropriate. It should be, you know, yes or no [and] not all the confusion that goes with it," he said of using the alternative approval process.
That process can be used if the amount to be raised is less than 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The bylaw will raise 26 cents per $1,000. It can also avoid the cost of a referendum.
Ramsey raised similar objections during the Sept. 13 regional district meeting, but added the bylaw wording changed from its original phrasing on how the money was to be used to also include capital expenditures.
That, he said, opened the door to increased taxation should, for example, the museum board want to construct a new building.
He also suggested holding off on the bylaw until it could be included as a referendum item when local government elections are next held two years from now.
Regional district chief financial officer Marc Schibli responded by saying the bylaw was capped at $40,000. And that directors could provide less money than that based on budget submissions made by the museum society's governing board.
Area C director Bruce Bidgood wanted his memory refreshed on why an alternative approval process was chosen.
"If we're going to spend more on a referendum than the amount of money being requested, why don't we just give them the money," he said.
Both Sean Bujtas and James Cordeiro, the City of Terrace's regional district representatives, reminded the board that a decision by the board in April to use the alternative approval process was agreed to unanimously by board members present. Bidgood and Ramsey were at that meeting.
New Hazelton director Gail Lowry reminded the board that plenty of information was available when the board chose the alternative approval process at its April meeting.
"If the two directors involved hadn't wanted to do it, the rest of the board wouldn't have gone along with it because as a board, we try and accommodate what the area directors want and if they had not wanted it, we wouldn't have approved it," she said.
Lowry made the motion to approve the bylaw with Village of Hazelton director Julie Maitland seconding it. Ramsey cast the only dissenting vote.
