Moose Jaw Times-Herald: Council keeps LIP application in the works

In a vote of 4-3, councillors defeat a motion to withdraw the application 

Coun. Don Mitchell speaks to his motion for the
city to withdraw its local improvement program
(LIP) application to the Saskatchewan Municipal
Board at the Dec. 14, 2015 council meeting.
Lisa Goudy/Times-Herald    

By Lisa Goudy

On Monday, Citizens Advocating Sensible Taxation (CAST) presented a petition with about 400 names attached.

This petition urged council to withdraw the City of Moose Jaw’s application to the Saskatchewan Municipal Board (SMB) to help fund the cast iron water main replacement program through a non-petitionable local improvement program (LIP) on abutting properties.

“The local improvement program saves every property owner in the city the equivalent of a seven per cent mill rate increase, but at what cost?” said Terry Gabel on behalf of CAST. “Using frontage supplied by the city in the application, we were able to calculate the estimated cost to the 77 properties (next year).”

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