Environment Canterbury's Long term Plan

 The draft ECan Long term plan has set up two options and is asking for feedback on which of the two options ratepayers favour.   

What is Option 2?

Option 2 is the bare minimum and covers only the activities that they legally must do. Even this requires an 18.5% increase in budget (an extra $15.50 per quarterly rates payment for an average homeowner) to cover planning work to comply with the  government’s “Essential Freshwater Package”, together with a review of the Regional Policy Statement and long overdue Regional Environmental Coastal Plan.  

This option also sees the region benefit from the government’s Covid 19 recovery funding. Six recovery projects amounting to $24M of work have been selected, bringing in $15M of grants but still needing $9M of rates. This work will reduce flood risk focusing on weed removal, stabilising stopbanks and regionwide berm planting whilst also creating jobs. Further government grants from Jobs for Nature will support wallaby control, and clearing wilding pines in the much loved McKenzie basin. 

How is Option 1 Different?

Option 1 (the council’s preferred option) includes those same activities plus an extra $6.5 million of spending over the coming years.  This represents and extra $9.50 per  per quarter for the average household on top of the $15.50 outlined above but represents significant action to address climate and other environmental issues. 

 “I believe that at the last election many people voted because they realised, that as a community, we have to do more to protect our environment and slow climate change”, said Councillor Southworth. “Transformational changes come at a cost”, she explained. “This time around the Councillors are proposing these extra(non statutory) projects in a bid to tackle climate change and improve our environment faster”.

The extra projects included in Option 1 are: 

• Improving Public transport - introducing some new routes and increasing the frequency of other services. 
• Improving compliance with consents by employing more compliance staff.
• Active regeneration of the natural environment (Braided River Revival, wetland protection, and increasing native planting with a programme called Me Uru Rākau).
• More data collection and information sharing for better outcomes.
• A contestable fund to support local groups' environmental projects.
• Expansion of the Enviroschools Programme to reach over 50 schools currently on a waiting list, as well as continuing to support schools on the programme now.
  

Other questions

Other questions that the Regional Council has are around the balance of universal vs targeted rates. The universal annual general charge, which is the same for every single household in Canterbury, has more than doubled which takes relatively more from low income households.  The Council are interested in feedback.   

Likewise the Council is thinking about borrowing to make the current increase in rates less and defer some of that increase til  later in the 10 year project.   Think about submitting if you have a view about any of these things.

Making a submission

Of course it is possible to support some of these projects and not others.  It is also possible that there are projects that you think SHOULD be in the plan but are not. 

Submissions can be very short - they don't have to be long but if there is something you feel strongly about that is either good or bad then it can be useful to just let them know.  

Submissions can be completed by filling in the online form for which you don't have to answer every question (although you do need to supply your personal contact details).  You may also just write a letter (just make sure you include your personal contact details - Name, address, phone - or make a video. 

 

 Thanks to Wendy Everingham from Lyttelton who provided some of the information for this article.