As required by provincial law, municipalities in BC must prepare annual reports. The report must include:
- A municipality's audited annual financial statements for the previous year
- A list of the permissive tax exemptions
- A report on the municipality's services and operations for the previous year
- A progress report on the performance of the municipality
- Objectives and measures used to determine the municipality's performance
- Any declarations of disqualification made against individual council members during the previous year
Municipalities must also provide opportunities for people to provide feedback about annual reports.
Langley City provided an opportunity for people to give written feedback or speak at last night's Council meeting about the 2022 Annual Report. No one provided feedback or spoke about the annual report. As such, Council received the 2022 Annual Report.
One thing to highlight from the annual report is that Council provided $725,743 in permissive tax exemptions for certain non-profits, the convention centre, and the faith community as follows:
| Organization | Amount |
|---|---|
| Anglican Parish of St Andrew's | $27,842 |
| Bridge Community Church | $17,693 |
| Church of the Nazarene | $25,031 |
| Community Police Office | $14,176 |
| Convention Centre | $53,881 |
| Encompass Support Services Society | $20,933 |
| Evangelical Free | $32,018 |
| Global School Society | $23,182 |
| Inclusion Langley Society | $33,828 |
| Langley Care Society | $36,168 |
| Langley Community Music School | $44,120 |
| Langley Community Services Society | $15,950 |
| Langley Food Bank | $25,220 |
| Langley Hospice Society | $7,117 |
| Langley Lawn Bowling | $40,354 |
| Langley Memorial Hospital Auxiliary | $71,627 |
| Langley Seniors Resource Society | $49,360 |
| Langley Stepping Stones | $12,917 |
| New Apostolic Church | $7,346 |
| Roman Catholic | $92,683 |
| Salvation Army - Gateway of Hope | $3,662 |
| Vcr Global Mission Church | $24,603 |
| Vineyard Christian Fellowship | $46,032 |
| $725,743 |
I am not suggesting that Council change who receives tax exemptions, but if Council did not provide these tax exemptions, this year's property tax increase would have been about 2.2% lower. As a note, Langley City is a part owner of the convention centre at the casino, which is why it has a permissive tax exemption.
Langley City Council also heard a presentation about our recently streamlined Request for Service portal at https://rfs.langleycity.ca/. The Request for Service portal is the easiest way to submit non-emergency requests for the City to action, such as parking complaints, abandoned garbage, litter, potholes, burnt-out streetlights, street landscaping issues, and unsightly property. The City cannot fix what it doesn't know about, so we will promote Request for Service over the next bit.
Last week, I posted that Langley City staff provided feedback to the Township of Langley staff about their planned update to the Booth, Fernridge, and Rinn Neighbourhood Plans. You can read the Township's request letter and the City's reply.
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