The Strathcona Regional District will not use $28,000 of its gas tax funds to help the Cortes Island Food Bank. At their October 22 meeting, 7 of the 14 district directors voted against a motion to fund the food bank.

Directors opposed to the motion were concerned about the potential impact that supporting a third party organization could have on future SRD applications for gas tax funding. 

As Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch explained, “  I’m not saying $28,000 is a dealbreaker. I don’t honestly believe it is, but moving forward, I don’t think we can take the same approach when the number is $200,000 or $500,000.”

“If you’re giving your gas tax money to third parties, are you saying you don’t have any infrastructure need yourself?” 

Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island, responded,  “One of the challenges on Cortes is that we don’t have SRD capital projects to invest gas tax lending. So we do have to take these extra steps to be able to provide it through a third party.”

“I spoke with one of the folks involved with the food bank today, and they said that over the last three years, usage has gone up by a hundred percent every year. That’s a lot of seniors, folks that are on pensions and really limited incomes. One of the interesting things he mentioned was that there’s a mental health component to this as well, and that when folks get access to good healthy food and have some stability around food security, that really impacts other parts their life, including reducing the likelihood to need medical support and other costs to government systems. This is a grant request for $28,000 to help them finish this.”

Gas tax funds are administered by the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM). The SRD staff report for this motion states: 

 “Discussions with UBCM highlighted that while every province administers its own version of the Gas Tax program, British Columbia stands out for allowing a comparatively high number of third-party contributions. In contrast, UBCM noted that outside B.C. there is only one known instance of Gas Tax funding being directed to a third-party project-Ontario’s financial support of an aquatic centre not owned by government. That said, both UBCM and Transport Canada acknowledge that B.C.’s regional district model is unique, and that collaboration with community organizations in rural areas can be both beneficial and desirable when it helps reduce planned public expenditures. It is the extent of such third-party support that has raised concern.”

Robyn Mawhinney, Regional Director of Area C, pointed out that the food bank fits into two categories the UBCM supports:  “Number one, under resilience – Which is infrastructure and systems that protect and strengthen the resilience of communities to withstand and sustain services in the face of natural disasters, extreme weather events from climate change. I do feel that a food security system like this is really building resilience in a place which is going to be really hard to access if there is a significant event. So I think that this really fits well under that category. I also think that it really fits under community benefit. It’s primarily for public use, or public benefit, and that is entirely what this is. This is not being used for a personal benefit.”

CAO Leitch:  “I completely agree with everything you said. There’s no question that it qualifies under those categories, you’re a hundred percent right. The challenge is again, these are the UBCM resolutions, so it’s not an SRD asset. So is this a priority within the regional district. Do you have any other regional deficiencies that you could use this money for yourself. That’s the challenge. It qualifies under there, but it’s to a third party.” 

Campbell River Director Susan Sinnott asked, “Is there no other alternate bucket of money? I don’t think there’s any question this is a worthy project. It might not be a worthy project for this bucket.”

 Regional Director Gerald Whalley said, “It is kind of unfortunate that the electoral areas own gas tax money. I don’t think the board’s going to find anything that they would want to spend it on that would be a regional priority in their view. If you take, for example, the last expenditure I made, $50,000. I gave it to the Royal Canadian Legion in the Village of Sayward. You’re telling me that was a big mistake, I shouldn’t have done that? That Village Legion would have closed – but because of that donation it is still functioning, doing well. So I think there’s a little bit of disconnect in saying that this jeopardizes anything. Every municipality gets his own gas tax. They spend any way they want. They go to third party anytime they feel like it.”

Campbell River Director Doug Chapmen responded: “ the donor of the money (UBCM) looks at it differently, and I think we need to take that into consideration. A certain amount was given to the Strathcona Regional District. Internally, we’ve allocated it out to the electoral areas. That’s why I think, the CAO will correct me if I’m wrong,  That’s why they’re asking, do you not have any infrastructure needs anywhere else in the regional district and the answer to that is, yes, we do.”

Director Vonesch: “The gas tax money comes to the SRD, but the amount that comes is based on population (which includes the electoral areas).”

Mayor Kermit Dahl of Campbell River said:  “I think it’s pretty obvious that this is the wrong funding source.”

He went on to state that the electoral area directors believe they own a portion of the gas tax funding and the can spend it any way they wish, regardless of the impact on other directors. 

“The answer is, is this a regional priority within the regional district long-term capital investment plan? No. Is there capital works projects that should be looked at? Yes. Is this one? No, but it’s been brought forward by the director of Area B. So let’s call a question on receipt and vote.” 

CAO Leitch suggested  two alternative sources for funding. 

One is that Cortes Island start a food hub service (which would largely be funded through property taxes, or grants).

Alternatively: “There is a Grant in Aid service in Area B, you’re not bound to the amounts in the budget. You can overrun them. So technically speaking, Area B could give a Grant in Aid to the group for $28,000 regardless of what was budgeted in the financial plan.”

John Rice, Regional Director for Area D, added,  “Area D does have a lot of infrastructure needs and I would certainly hope that if the board made that decision that they were going to go ahead with this, that it wouldn’t jeopardize any potential grants that I might be looking at.”

“The other thing that I do want to mention, and I would encourage Director Vonesch to think about it, if he were to start a local service, I don’t think it would be a very expensive service. I think it would actually do you much better than just a one-time cash from the gas tax money.”

After the Cortes Island motion to use the gas tax funding was defeated, Director Chapman asked: “Does Director Vonesch want to propose a motion to ask staff to work on establishing local service for this, plus looking at his Grants in Aid?”

Director Vonesch:  “This project isn’t looking for annual operating funding. It’s looking to replace the desperate need of a food bank that is in someone’s garage (needs to be moved) and refurbishing a new space. So, no, I’m not interested in looking at a service at this point.”

Chair Baker asked, “What about Grant in Aid?”

Director Vonesch: “I’m not going to give a $28,000 grant to one project. At this point we already have a process started for this year. We distribute our grants in $2,000 to $5,000 amounts.” 

Links of Interest

• Link to part of October 22 SRD Board meeting (motion for Cortes food bank is at the beginning).
• Cortes Island Food Bank website
• Articles about or mentioning the Cortes Island Foodbank

Image at top of page: The food bank wishes to relocate to these two sea cans; all undesignated photos by Roy L Hales

Sign-up for Cortes Currents email-out:

To receive an emailed catalogue of articles on Cortes Currents, send a (blank) email to subscribe to your desired frequency:

Weekly Digest cortescurrents – [email protected]

Daily, (articles posted during the last 24 hours) – [email protected]