A new tax affecting residential development is designed to help acquire future school sites in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith district. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

school capacity

New tax adopted to help pay for future District 68 school capacity

May 11, 2022 | 4:42 PM

NANAIMO — School District 68 has a new tool to help close a significant gap in providing necessary future classroom capacity on the mid Island.

Nanaimo Ladysmith Pubic Schools (NLPS) enacted a tool embedded in the Local Government Act to apply a Schools Site Acquisition Charge for all new residential developments within the region.

District 68 secretary-treasurer Mark Walsh said their schools will be about 25 per cent over capacity at the current rate by 2031.

“It was very apparent that this needed to happen quickly so we can start building our war chest to either acquire land to expand schools or acquire new sites,” Walsh told NanaimoNewsNOW.

The charge involves a sliding scale of between $600 for multi-family developments to a maximum of $1000 for single-family lot developments.

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“We’re often too late in reacting to growth. Our board is really committed to being proactive in that regard.”

Walsh said the tax works similarly to development cost charges, which sees local governments charge builders to cover expenses like water, sewers, sidewalks and parks.

He said the process NLPS needed to follow to have the tax enacted included proving to the province of pending residential development regionally, which he said local governments provided.

The levy applies to all of the Regional District of Nanaimo member communities and Ladysmith.

While SD 68 still owns multiple closed school sites, Walsh says most aren’t located where needed.

He pointed to the Pleasant Valley Elementary School catchment area where that school is slated to be 108 per cent above capacity over the next decade.

“There’s an example where we don’t really have facilities where the growth is happening, that we would envision a future school site to be acquired,” Walsh said.

It’s unclear how much the new levy could provide annually for NLPS, Walsh said.

The District is currently exploring strategies to deal with over capacity issues impacting facilities in the north end of the district.

Data from Statistics Canada showed Nanaimo’s population climbed by twice the national average over the previous five years and is one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes