The Town of Comox is taking important steps toward managing the long-term sustainability of the community’s assets and services. Financial stability is fundamental to the health of the community, and stable revenues and careful expenditure planning will ensure the Town’s ability to consistently provide the services your residents need and enjoy.
The Town owns $270M (2023 replacement cost) of public assets that require replacement over time. Using Asset Management BC leading practices and the Asset HealthScore Framework the Town is moving from a ‘Let’s keep taxes low’ to a ‘let’s keep assets healthy’ outlook, while always considering affordability.
As part of applying the Asset HealthScore Framework to the Town’s financial planning, asset data was compiled, replacement costs updated to 2023 dollars, and current funding levels determined. A risk profile, service level and debt financing approach was developed, and data was integrated with an asset replacement funding model.
The Town currently spends $4.2 million per year on asset replacement, equivalent to approximately $493 in property taxes and utilities charged to a typical home. Town assets are in overall good condition. Approximately 4% of assets are past their service life, and on average, assets are 51% consumed or through their service life. This translates to an Asset HealthScore of 94%.
Limiting asset replacement to the current $4.2M level of funding commitment is expected to reduce the condition of assets over the next thirty years. The proportion of Town assets past their service life within the next 30 years is expected to increase from 4% to 25%, and 73% will be fully consumed if funding levels remain at the current level. The Asset HealthScore will be reduced to 60%. This is not sustainable.
Three future financing scenarios for general, sewer and water capital fund assets were modelled to help the Town better understand the outlook if property tax funding were increased.
While these increases are substantial over the long term, it is clear that a current funding gap exists. A long-term approach to reduce this gap through increased funding of a minimum 1.0% in property taxes for the next twenty years and 1.7% in water charges per year to a typical home will help protect those assets for future generations.
Accelerating this increase in funding over a much shorter period will enhance the program's resiliency and protect against inflationary replacement cost increases anticipated in the future.