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Letters: Questioning the sewer paracel tax increase and the numbers

Letter writer has issues with the numbers presented by council

This letter is in response to the article titled “Sewer system unaffordable without tax increase”.

I am a professional accountant and I had the curiosity of checking the numbers based on which the council took the decision to increase the sewer parcel tax. I took all the Audited Financial Statements from 2006 to 2011 and I compared the numbers to the document in the council meeting agenda of Oct. 22, 2012. I was very surprised to find huge discrepancies.

For instance, as shown in attachment, the Audited Financial Statements for 2006 present a loss of only $2,944 while the council meeting document increases this loss to $91,729 .16 without any reason. For 2007 both documents present the same loss of $90,840 but there is no explanation for the big 2006 discrepancy.

In fact, the council document shows losses for all the years after 2007 while the Audited Financial Statements show that the sewer became profitable in 2010 and stayed profitable in 2011. Consequently, the statement that the sewer is losing money and the parcel tax has to go up in order to cover the losses is wrong. The sewer is no longer losing money according to the independent auditors who issued their opinion in compliance with current legislation.

I cannot speculate about the reason why the council document distorts the facts. As a professional accountant I have the civic duty to point out to discrepancies when I see them. As a taxpayer, I am appalled that the council decided to tax us in order to cover for inexistent losses. I hope more taxpayers will demand an explanation.

http://www.scheianu.com/docs/sooke.pdf

Monica Scheianu, CGA

Sooke