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Notice of Proposed Tax Rate Increase

DATE: MAY 21, 2025

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT,

Skeetchestn Indian Band, in accordance with First Nations Tax Commission policies, and Skeetchestn Indian Band Property Taxation Law 2008, proposes to set the following annual tax rates for 2025:

PROPERTY CLASS                                                                                    RATE PER $1,000 OF ASSESSED VALUE

Class 1 – Residential                                                                                         3.49500

Class 2 – Utilities                                                                                              22.15000

Class 6 – Business and Other                                                                             9.95100

Class 9 – Farm                                                                                                  9.12279

Due to increased service costs, the Skeetchestn Indian Band is currently in a $150,000 shortfall in its annual budget for basic community services such as fire protection, garbage pickup, street lighting, as well as wildfire protection and suppression measures, a water system upgrade project, and general capital costs.  These rates will generate an additional $52,000 in revenue which will help offset this budget shortfall.

Signed,

Sukhvinder Chouhan

Chief Financial Officer Skeetchestn Indian Band

Canada Post Strike Notice

Attention Skeetchestn taxpayers. Due to a potential Canada Post strike, your 2025 tax notices may be delayed in being received. We advise contacting the Skeetchestn Finance Department if you have not received your tax notice by June 15th, 2025. We also recommend paying your taxes in person at the Band office, rather than mailing payment through Canada Post. Late payment fees will continue to be charged. Tax announcements can also be found on our website at https://www.skeetchestnnr.ca/

Chronic Wasting Disease Information

SNR’s Shaun Freeman spoke with Daybreak Kamloops recently to talk about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and its effect on local wildlife populations. You can find that interview at 1:42:53 here on CBC’s website, and read more about CWD below!

Chronic Wasting Disease poses a serious threat to wildlife in British Columbia and more importantly in Skeetchestn. This fatal neurological disease impacts deer, elk, and moose, causing brain degeneration, extreme weight loss, and ultimately death. Left unchecked, CWD could devastate our wildlife populations and disrupt the ecosystems we all depend on.
CWD is caused by prions—infectious, misfolded proteins—that spread through direct animal contact or contaminated environments like hay being transported in from Alberta where it is present. Once established, it is nearly impossible to eliminate, making early detection essential.
You can play a critical role in protecting our wildlife! Hunters are strongly urged to submit the heads of harvested deer for testing. A head collection depot is conveniently located at the Skeetchestn Natural Resources office, 1040 Lemonade Flats Rd, Savona, BC V0K 2J0, just outside the office in the freezer labeled “BC Wildlife Health Program”.
By participating in this vital surveillance effort, you’re contributing to the early detection and management of CWD, helping prevent it from spreading further and safeguarding our wildlife for generations to come. Your actions today will make a difference—submit your samples and join the fight to protect our ungulates!

Monarch Butterfly

monarch

Last COSEWIC designation: November 2001
SARA risk category: Special Concern

Description: The adult Monarch is a bright orange butterfly with heavy black veins and a wide black border containing two rows of white spots. The wingspan is about 10 cm. Monarch larvae or caterpillars are striped yellow, black and white; they grow to about 5 cm in length.

Habitat: Monarchs in Canada exist primarily wherever milkweed (Asclepius) and wildflowers (such as Goldenrod, asters, and Purple Loosestrife) exist. This includes abandoned farmland, along roadsides, and other open spaces where these plants grow.

Threats: Environmental conditions and loss of breeding habitat pose threats to all Monarchs. Threats for the western population include real estate development along the Californian coast, which infringes on the wintering sites of the western population.

Great Basin Spadefoot

spadefoot

Last Examination and Change: November 2001 (Uplisted)
Canadian Occurrence: BC

Description: This is a small toad reaching 40 to 64 mm in length from snout to vent. It has short limbs and a blunt snout. Adults are grey-green with brown or reddish tubercles and spots. The species owes its common English name to the presence of a black keratinous spade on the sole of each hind foot. The toads have vertical lens-shaped pupils and a glandular bump between the eyes. The mating call of the males is a loud but low, grating “gwaah” repeated over and over.

Habitat: Great Basin Spadefoot Toads are found in a variety of semi-arid to arid grassland and open woodland habitats, from valley floors up to 800 m or more. Typically they use temporary pools for breeding and development.

Threats: The dry grassland area of southern Interior British Columbia is one of Canada’s most endangered ecosystems. It is under pressure from agriculture and housing development. The latter has an impact on the abundance of underground water reserves which in turn impacts on the availability of suitable breeding ponds. The intensification of road traffic increases toad mortality, especially when numerous toadlets emerge from the water at one time. The presence of cattle at pools may disturb toad breeding, and soil compacted by cattle becomes less suitable for foraging.

Western Toad

westerntoad

Last COSEWIC designation: November 2002
SARA risk category: Special Concern

Description: The Western Toad has dry bumpy skin, horizontal pupils, and a distinctive white or cream-coloured stripe down its back. The toad varies in colour from olive-green to reddish-brown to almost black. Males can be 6 to 11 cm long, while females commonly reach 12.5 cm.

Habitat: The Western Toad will breed in an impressive range of natural and artificial aquatic habitats — from the shallow margins of lakes to roadside ditches. Adult toads can be found in forested areas, wet shrublands, avalanche slopes, and meadows. They appear to favour dense shrub cover, perhaps because it provides protection from desiccation and predators. The habitat requirements of hibernation sites for the Western Toad in Canada are not known.

Threats: The practice of stocking lakes where fish do not occur naturally may be one of the biggest threats to the Western Toad. The fish do not eat this species, but they do carry diseases to which the tadpoles and toads are susceptible. Other threats associated with development and agriculture includes road traffic, pesticides, and contaminants. Predation or competition with introduced species such as bullfrogs and stocked fish are also a concern.

Great Basin Gophersnake (Bullsnake)

gophersnake

Last COSEWIC designation: May 2002
SARA risk category: Threatened

Description: This species of snake (P. catenifer) is relatively large, with a moderately long tail; adults in the northwestern part of the range can reach 1.8 m. On the Great Basin Gophersnake, the dorsal blotches toward the front of the body are connected to each other. The belly is cream-coloured with black or brown spots on the sides of the body. Males and females are not significantly different in size, and the young resemble the adults in colour.

Habitat: Canadian populations of the Great Basin Gophersnake inhabit grasslands, shrub steppes, and open forests. Summers in the Okanagan Valley are hot and dry, and the winters are comparatively mild with little snow. In the United States, studies in Utah revealed that the Great Basin Gophersnake typically uses the abandoned burrows of mammals as nesting sites. These sites usually are on south-facing slopes, with no perennial vegetation.

Threats: Suitable habitat is present in only a very small area in the province, where it is being rapidly destroyed by urbanization and cultivation.

Western Rattlesnake

westernrattlesnake

Last COSEWIC designation: May 2004
SARA risk category: Threatened

Description: One of BC’s largest snakes; adults are from 60 to 150 cm in length. Background colour is brown, tan, olive or grey, overlaid by large dark-brown blotches along the back and smaller blotches along the sides. The under-parts are usually yellowish-white. The end of the tail has a rattle-like structure that gives this snake its name.

Habitat: Restricted to habitats characterized by bluebunch wheatgrass grasslands and open Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine parklands. The warmest and driest portions of the province in summer.

Threats: Many of the warm southern valleys have become heavily settled. Farms, subdivisions, highways, and other developments have destroyed some rattlesnake dens and foraging areas, and many snakes are killed by highway traffic. These treats will become more serious as land development and human populations increase. Due to predation they have a low annual survivorship, combined with a low rate of reproduction means that populations can increase only slowly in size.

Rubber Boa

rubberboa

Last COSEWIC designation: May 2003
SARA risk category: Special Concern

Description: The Rubber Boa, Charina bottae, is a small (75 cm) member of the family Boidae and the only boid in Canada. The Rubber Boa is easily distinguished from other Canadian snake species by its brownish colouration, rubbery appearance (due to its small, smooth scales), and short, blunt tail that resembles a second head.

Habitat: Rubber Boas occupy a wide variety of habitats including riparian, grassland, montane forest and, occasionally, vacant city lots. The major habitat requirements of the Rubber Boa are rocky outcrops and an abundance of coarse woody debris which the snakes use for protective cover and to aid in thermoregulation.

Threats: Where populations do exist in Canada, the population growth rate may be low due to the combination of late maturation and small litter size and, therefore, slow to respond to disturbance. Forestry, agriculture and urban development all reduce the quality and amount of habitat available to the Rubber Boa.

Lewis’s Woodpecker

Lewis's Woodpecker, Cabin Lake Viewing Blinds, Deschutes National Forest, Near Fort Rock, Oregon

Last COSEWIC designation: November 2001
SARA risk category: Special Concern

Description: Lewis’s Woodpecker is a medium-sized (26-28 cm) woodpecker with greenish-black head, back, wings, and tail, and a distinctive pinkish-red belly. It has a dark red face patch and prominent silvery gray collar and upper breast.

Habitat: The most common breeding habitats of Lewis’s Woodpecker are open, mature ponderosa pine forests; riparian black cottonwood stands adjacent to open areas; and recently logged or burned coniferous forests with standing snags. Essential habitat features are large, standing dead or dying trees (snags) for nesting cavities, and relatively open areas for feeding. Suitable breeding habitat in Canada is restricted to lower mountain slopes and valley bottoms in southern interior British Columbia.

Threats: Widespread clearing of ponderosa pine forests is likely responsible for much of the species’ decline in this century. Fire suppression in ponderosa pine forests is common practice in the province, and results in the development of dense stands which are entirely unsuitable for Lewis’s Woodpecker. Management of these forests will be the main factor in deciding the future of the species in Canada.