At the March 27th meeting of the Strathcona Regional District Board, a couple of items affecting Cortes were on the agenda. Decisions were taken with regard to funding for our community halls, and equipment for our volunteer fire department.
One vote was taken which permits SRD to direct funds to Cortes Island’s community halls for capital improvements.
A hall tax bylaw was established by referendum in October 2019, which set up a property tax based service to fund Cortes Island community halls. But this funding is restricted to operational expenses only, and can not be used to pay salaries — or for any capital projects.
The amendment to the bylaw that was just approved at SRD will permit the District to direct funds to our community halls for capital projects — but not funds raised by the existing tax service. Capital project funds must be, per the language of the amendment, “received by way of agreement, enterprise, gift, grant, or otherwise […] or any other means authorized by the Local Government Act or another Act.”
So this amendment means that our halls will be eligible for capital project funding via SRD, but there will be no increase in our property taxes for that purpose. Funds must come from other sources.
Another piece of Cortes island business was approved at the same meeting: the purchase of a new pumper truck for our volunteer fire department, to replace an existing truck.
According to the staff report on this agenda item, the Cortes fire department pumper truck to be replaced dates from 1986 and has reached the end of its service life. The Regional District is responsible for acquiring capital assets for the fire department; they put out a request for proposals back in January. But only one potential seller of a suitable pumper truck responded: a fire department in Scott County, Kentucky, USA.
Sole sourcing (no competitive bidding) is usually not considered good practise when government agencies make purchases, so having only one response to the RFP introduced some delays in the process. But the truck apparently was desirable; it is a 2013 Pierce Navistar equipped with permanently mounted fire pump, water tank, hose and all necessary equipment.
After some discussion SRD decided to proceed with this purchase, which will cost about $300,000. That purchase price will come from the Growing Communities Fund.
According to the staff report, a member of the Cortes fire fighting association will actually be travelling to Kentucky to collect the new pumper truck and drive it all the way home.
In other SRD news, it looks like there will be yet another chapter in the long. drawn-out legal conflict between the SRD and former director. Noah Anderson. Our readers will recall that the BC Court of Appeals delivered a verdict favourable to Anderson earlier this Spring. A three-judge panel determined that Anderson’s legal costs should have been indemnified, and also that she should not have been censured because consulting with her legal counsel did not constitute a violation of in-camera confidentiality.
But docket 41180 — filed on March 21st with the Supreme Court of Canada — suggests that SRD has decided to appeal the BC court judgment, taking it all the way to the highest court in the country. Cortes Currents will be following this story and bringing you updates as it develops.
[Feature image: SRD Board Room, from SRD website. Fire truck image from an old listing at Brindlee Mountain (seller of fire fighting equipment) web site.]
[Note: in audio captured from the SRD meeting, the fire truck is mentioned as a 2023 model, but in the staff report it is described as a 2013. The actual selling price is $287,000.]