High cost concerns
Councillor worried over unbudgeted cost of aerial photos
“It’s somewhat outdated, it’s amazing how much has changed. It’s really useful… we have quite a few requests from people (asking) ‘how big is my property? How long is my property?’.”
Montague CAO Andy Daggett
A Montague councilor is raising concerns over the high cost of having new aerial photography taken of the town.
Coun. Debbie Johnston was the only councillor not in favour of putting Montague on a gas tax funding application with several other municipalities for new overhead pictures during last night’s committee of council meeting.
Montague, Summerside, Stratford, Cornwall and Kensington are among the communities looking to apply for federal funding to enhance their Geographical Information System (GIS).
The total project would cost $200,000, while Montague’s roughly $16,000 share of the price tag would see about half come from federal gas tax funding and half from the town’s budget.
While Johnston said she wasn’t against the project, she had concerns with the price.
“I’m just concerned that it’s an unbudgeted item,” said Johnston. “I’m wondering for the outlay of money, how often would we use it?”
Johnston was also concerned with the timing and said she was in favour of postponing the request until the province makes a decision on whether to amalgamate Montague with other nearby communities.
Montague CAO Andy Daggett, who made the original request, said while the project was expensive it would be even more so if the town didn’t partner with other communities.
“It’s a lot cheaper to do it with somebody,” said Daggett, adding that the maps are used for property measuring, zoning bylaw enforcement and development permit compliance.
He said the town currently uses aerial photos taken in 2011.
“It’s somewhat outdated, it’s amazing how much has changed,” said Daggett, noting that he uses the current GIS every other day and sometimes multiple times a day. “It’s really useful… we have quite a few requests from people (asking) ‘how big is my property? How long is my property?’.”
“It’s really useful to be able to help people pinpoint some of those things.”
Johnston was the only councillor against moving the request forward to a vote during next month’s regular council meeting.
However, she wasn’t the one who showed hesitation.
Coun. John MacFarlane said he also shared some of Johnston’s concerns.
“We paid a lot of money before for this original data input, so we should have everything mapped in the town now anyway. I thought part of that (original agreement) was that this was being updated,” said MacFarlane.
Daggett said while provincial information on property ownership and assessment values is updated in the GIS, the physical maps are not.
If council votes in favour of putting forward an application next month, the town would use about $5,000 in its planning budget that is not currently designated for the project. Council was told the remaining $3,000 could likely come through property tax income, which is expected to be higher than budgeted.