Squamish's municipal council unanimously approved four big spends on Nov. 19 after no one in the community expressed opposition to the projects.
As a result, the District will be spending a combined total of about $5.78 million on computer upgrades, a heavy-duty truck, the landfill's vertical expansion and flood protection upgrades.
There were no responses to alternate approval processes that were held by the municipality.
In certain cases where the District has to borrow large amounts of cash, the municipality has to go through a process that allows local residents to vote against proposed spending.
For the alternative approval process, if 10 per cent of the voting population — which amounts to 1,469 electors — disagrees with the spending for these projects, a referendum must happen before council gives final approval. Those who don't vote are assumed to agree with the projects.
Locals were able to cast votes against these four projects from late September until Oct. 29, but no one did.
A breakdown of the four items follows:
Computer upgrades — the District will borrow about $1.38 million for spending on its Technology Transformation Project. New software is being installed in the District's information technology systems. This would affect the municipality's financial system, payroll, development applications, points of sale and recreation bookings, among other things.
Truck — the municipality will borrow about $328,000 to buy a heavy-duty truck that will be used for hauling biosolids and aggregate, as well as for snow and ice control.
Landfill — about $2.02 million will be borrowed for the third phase of its vertical expansion.
Flood protection — authorities will borrow about $2.02 million for the Squamish River Dike upgrade at Upper Judd Slough.
