Maybe one more comment on the Langley fill farming.
The Township of Langley is going to hire two "soil police" to monitor the fill farming situation that we recently wrote about. Now, we know that math is a very difficult subject for most people, but with the aid of our BA-II Plus calculator we came up with the following analysis:
The two new bylaw enforcement officers will cost the Township $80,000 each per year: total $160,000. To keep costs down, we will assume they use public transit to get from fill site to fill site.
Each year the Township receives an average of 75 permit applications. If all 75 are approved, and all 75 violate the terms of their permits, and all 75 are caught by the soil police, and all pay their $750 fines without fighting them in court, then the $160,000 spent on enforcement generates $56,250 per year in revenue.
And the Township expects to pay the $160,000 cost with the proceeds of the fines.
Some may suggest that there are law abiding citizens out there and that the number of violators will be less than 100%. But there is another part of the story that almost guarantees 100% violation. Each operator of a fill site must submit monthly engineer reports. If the engineer's report costs more than $750, it will be cheaper to pay the fine.
And residents of Langley wonder why they got a 4.5% tax increase.
See the article in the Langley Times.
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