Who We Are?
We are a group of Residents and Neighbourhood Associations, from across the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) to form the RDN Taxpayers Alliance (RDNTA).
Why Have We Come Together?
We have formed because of continued ‘Excessive RDN Tax Increases’ that are outpacing inflation, regional growth and most importantly family incomes. This is straining family budgets, undermining families’ financial confidence, and resulting in financial hardship. We recognize that our community services are not sustainable if our families are not financially sustainable.
The Core Issue
The Tax Pile-on Continues. RDN & Hospital Taxes are planned to increase 75% from 2025-2029. This increase is more than 7 times expected inflation and well ahead of both regional growth and income growth. This ongoing rate of tax increase is unsustainable. We see four major root causes:
1) A Poor Financial Planning Process that doesn’t guarantee fiscal balance or financial accountability.
2) Run-Away Capital Spending with limited prioritization between or within departments based on the difference between needs & wants or sustainable financial capacity.
3) Ineffective Project Management that often fails to design financially efficient projects or bring them in on-time on-budget.
4) Limited Transparency, Unbalanced Representation, and Limited Accountability.
Our Mission
Bring Together the Public Across the RDN & Realize True Sustainable Fiscal Balance
This will be achieved by advocating for:
- Improved Financial Planning Process initiated with a clear taxation cap & related Departmental Targets.
- Quantified Performance Management Metrics by Departments
- Prioritized Capital Spending Projects Across & By Department
- Timely Full Transparency of Financial Plans, Reserves, and full costed Project Business Cases esp. when borrowing is required.
- Fully Accountable, Responsible Representative Leadership.
Our Efforts to Date
We have a team of volunteer experts who conduct assessments of the RDN’s Financial Plans, Capital Plans, HR Plans and Hospital Budgets. Since 2023 we have shared our assessments and recommendations with the RDN Board assuming the issues may be simply a lack of full awareness. The RDN has made only modest and mostly cosmetic changes. The real issues persist.
Get Involved
Add your voice to the chorus for change. Individually we may not be able to do much and the RDN leadership may be backing on continued apathy, but together we can address the issues once and for all, especially with an election coming. So click below and discover all the ways you can help.
Sign Our Tax Cap Petition
We have created an RDN Tax Cap Petition to bring together the voice of the public and Cap Tax Increases at levels that sustain families’ budgets & financial confidence.