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Ted Laking
Laking would reset municipal priorities
Ted Laking, a candidate for Whitehorse city council, is committing to be a common-sense advocate on council to improve value and services for residents and their tax dollars.
Ted Laking, a candidate for Whitehorse city council, is committing to be a common-sense advocate on council to improve value and services for residents and their tax dollars.
According to the City of Whitehorse 2020 Annual Report, the municipal government collected $44 million in property taxes – a 68 per cent increase in taxes collected per year compared to 10 years ago, he said Monday.
“A common theme at almost every door I’ve visited over the past weeks in areas throughout Whitehorse has been that while the city’s revenue has grown significantly over time, there has not been an adequate focus on issues important to taxpayers in our city,” Laking said.
“Over the last several years, while multimillion-dollar infrastructure projects have been prioritized, the basics such as improvements to our roads or snow removal services have fallen by the wayside in many of our neighbourhoods.
In some parts of our city, residents have had to resort to filling in cracks and pot holes themselves while in other areas, they have had to use their own heavy equipment to clear the snow on their streets.”
Several subdivisions in the city pay high taxes yet receive little in the way of services from the city, he noted.
“This is especially applicable in country residential areas, which are not serviced with water and sewer and often have to contend with poorly-maintained roads and limited snow removal,” he said.
“I can understand the frustration of residents in our country residential neighbourhoods who receive little value for their hard-earned tax dollars,”added Laking.
“I recently took a tour of the roads in Mary Lake for example and their condition was unacceptable for a residential neighbourhood.
“If elected on October 21, I will be a common-sense voice on council and focus municipal priorities on the bread-and-butter issues such as snow removal, improved roads, safety and other essential services to improve affordability and quality of life for our city’s residents.”
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Comments (11)
Up 1 Down 1
Crunch on Oct 12, 2021 at 4:01 pm
@ Observer
Which province or territory do you happen to reside? Obviously you don't follow the liberal paper trail in Yukon or you would never make such a comment. Try to stay informed.
Up 4 Down 3
Anie on Oct 12, 2021 at 3:21 pm
Country Res, I think you misread my comment. I said you do not pay for those services, abd you do not have them. When the city decided to pave previously unpaved streets, residents paid for it either up front, or through a local improvement charge that was added to their taxes for several years. Then property values were assessed higher for taxation purposes. That's the same thing as an assessment including a septic tank - there is no difference. Where a property has city services, those services are considered in the assessment. I think it might be super helpful if GY were to put out some info on assessment, it might resolve some basic misunderstandings.
Up 11 Down 2
My Opinion on Oct 11, 2021 at 6:00 pm
One thing that is always missed in this discussion is that typically Country Residential owners do not want more services, they are just treated unfairly. For instance If you have a well and septic you are assessed aprox 20,000 each on your land value. However if you get water delivered from the city and waste hauled to the city you would pay considerably LESS for your taxes. I supply the infrastructure and maintain it and I am taxed more for the privilege. This is totally backwards.
Up 3 Down 6
Observer on Oct 11, 2021 at 1:29 pm
There it is "common sense", the con word for, let's look at everything where we spend public money and make sure that my con friends are getting the vast majority of it!!
Up 8 Down 2
Country Res on Oct 9, 2021 at 3:26 pm
@ Anie - Country Res folks don't pay for water, sewer and garbage because they don't GET those services from the city. The Country Res owner had to pay $20K(?) for a septic system. If the septic fails, the country res home owner pays to have it repaired. Same for water... they put out big bucks for a well or they pay for water delivery. Same for garbage... they pay tipping fees on ALL their garbage, not only on the excess of allowable bags.
Just because Country Res folks don't pay the CITY for these services does not mean they don't pay for the services.
I live Country Res within city limits and my street is not paved, everyone on the street has their own septic system, and either a well or water delivery. There is no garbage pickup. What street(s) are you talking about?
Up 17 Down 13
Anie on Oct 8, 2021 at 3:54 pm
Here we go, the annual country residential whine about not having services. Services that you did not pay for when you bought your lot (paved roads, sewer/water, sidewalks), and services that you do not pay for every 3 months (sewer, water garbage).
Up 23 Down 5
Country Res resident on Oct 8, 2021 at 1:43 pm
Actually BNR he's right - roads are maintained by the City in COUNTRY Residential (Mount Sima, Macpherson, etc). They are maintained by YG in RURAL Residential (Goldenhorn).
And those who moved to Country Res pay THOUSANDS in taxes - like $7000. With no City hookups, no services, nothing. And then get some shi**y roadwork.
Pretty sure you, in your effort to put this candidate down, are the one who is wrong and should "get your stuff sorted".
Up 41 Down 6
Jim on Oct 7, 2021 at 11:44 am
@wes, have you actually seen the service palace? We are talking well over 60 million for servicing the “small”city fleet. The largest road contractor in town manages to service their equipment in a less than 3 million dollar building. But no, we have to have huge plush offices, showers, cafeteria and wide open halls and spaces. This building is sheer ego building by our administration and elected officials as the not so fun infrastructure crumbles. How about we properly deal with traffic flow rather than put up $500 worth of signs (reportedly cost over $400k). It’s solvable, but will cost money. City priorities are out of control.
Up 45 Down 5
First order of business on Oct 6, 2021 at 6:32 pm
First order of business for the new mayor and council MUST be to put a halt to the outrageous new city hall building with bus hub. That should ONLY be considered once the city takes care of all the infrastructure, traffic, secondary Riverdale entrance/exit and other issues first.
Up 11 Down 20
wes on Oct 6, 2021 at 5:29 pm
As far as the article goes, it seems Ted would reset the municipal priorities to those currently seen to by YTG. How's he going to do that? The city built a new municipal services building so that it can more effectively care for and maintain the fleet of service vehicles. The old MSB building was beyond maxed out with respect to storage and maintenance facilities. Can't expand the fleet of plows etc., if you don't have the facilities to maintain them.
Up 25 Down 19
BnR on Oct 6, 2021 at 5:22 pm
“I can understand the frustration of residents in our country residential neighbourhoods who receive little value for their hard-earned tax dollars,”added Laking.
Here we go again.
Ted, it's country residential. People moved there to be in the country. Your taxes are assessed (partly) on your property value, and country res properties have skyrocketed. As far as the condition of the roads in country res, those are all maintained by YG. You may want to get the stuff sorted out before you talk about it.