A YouTube recording of the April 15th SRD Meeting is now available. Several Cortes and Quadra Island items were discussed at this meeting, which took place 23 days ago. In addition to grant applications from Linnaea Farm, Sierra Quadra, the Quadra Children’s Centre and two major projects from Quadra, there are questions of Board transparency and accountability.
Opening Up SRD Meetings To The Public
At the beginning of the YouTube, above, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) David Leitch explains why the SRD has not yet made recordings of its’ virtual meetings available to the public (0:26 in the YouTube above):
“there are many, many, many local governments that do not have the technology to broadcast to the public, so the consensus is that if we do not have the technology to broadcast to everyone, then we shouldn’t be broadcasting to people, let’s say, in our house.”
[This meeting] “ …. is not in camera, I know that, but if you make it available to a couple of individuals in your home, then you are not making it available to other individuals. If we can do it for everyone, then we’ll do it and that is what we are working towards, based on what the Chair said, getting our technology in here. Until that point we should limit it, professionally, just to the people involved in the meeting.”
Cortes Island Regional Director Anderson responded (1:58, in the YouTube), “I completely understand that we are in totally new territory and that inviting the public to participate live in these meetings, or view live in these meetings, is something we haven’t figured out how to do yet, but I would like to know if it is possible to take the recording of this meeting and then post it so that anyone could have access to it thereafter.”
Mr Leitch conceded the SRD has the ability to post the recording from this virtual meeting, but added that none of the other CAOs he was in contact with are doing it.
Director Anderson said she would love to make a motion for the recordings to be posted.
Regional Director Brenda Leigh raised a point of order (3:44), “Under public considerations, I already had a motion carried that staff bring back a report regarding when and how to incorporate the public. Currently we have printed minutes and minutes available on our website soon after the meetings are over. … That’s why I put that motion forward right at the beginning, because I knew that this was going to be otherwise dealt with in a long winded appeal to get things out to some people and not to others. So I just wanted to put that to bed right at the beginning of this meeting.”
The lack of detail available through the minutes is illustrated by the fact that the conversation above is recorded in them.
From The SRD Minutes
The minutes do, however, contain the following motion which was made just before the beginning of the YouTube recording above:
“Leigh/Unger: SRD 230/20 – THAT staff continue to investigate when and how we can best incorporate public participation in Virtual meetings and bring back a report on this at their earliest convenience – CARRIED”
There is also a notice of motion, which is in the recording:
“Director Anderson gave notice of motion for the next meeting as follows: “THAT the recording of this meeting be made available to the public after this meeting.”
Linnaea Farm’s Application – Denied
The most important Cortes item at this meeting was the board’s denial of Linnaea Farm’s application to use $44,520 of Provincial Gas Tax funding to purchase a heat pump. This was done on the recommendation of the Electoral Areas Services Committee (EASC), consisting of Directors Abram, Anderson, Leigh and Whalley.
Director Anderson introduced this topic to the board (12:41), “There was a discussion of this matter at the Electoral Areas Services Committee and I was able to have a meeting with staff afterwards, which helped me to clarify a number of matters. What became clear to me, was not clear to me in the reading of the staff report and that the primary concern that UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities) has with this … it is a service not traditionally delivered by local government.”
“I think that warrants some further investigation and a conversation with the applicant. The applicant didn’t have an opportunity, at all, to speak with staff or UBCM before this report came forward to the board. Not at this moment, I would be happy to have discussion, but I would like to move that we defer this to the October Board … that we just give the applicant time to discuss this with staff.”
Director Charlie Cornfield asked, “If it is a registered charity, which I see in the report, why is it considered privately owned?
To which Mr Leitch replied, “Private individuals can have registered charities, that is not unusual, but I wouldn’t call that the crux of the matter here … There are many issues to be resolved around this application.”
The minutes record two subsequent votes:
“Anderson/Colborne: SRD 239/20 – THAT the matter be deferred to the October 2020 Board meeting. DEFEATED – All Directors opposed except for Directors Anderson, Colborne, and Moglove.”
“Leigh/Whalley: SRD 240/20 – THAT the application for Community Works Funding from the Linnaea Farms Society for the installation of a heat pump be denied. – CARRIED”
Unstated Issues
There were a number of issues not stated at the meeting.
- In the SRD staff report for Linnaea’s application, it says the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM), who administer the Provincial Gas Tax Funds publish an annual account of how this money is spent and “of the 2,860 projects listed between 2016 and 2018, only 57 are associated with the search terms ‘club’, “search and rescue” or ‘society’.”
- This report also seems to focus on areas with a developed infrastructure. The “Capital Regional District (population 383,360), Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako (population 37,896) and the Regional District of Nanaimo” (population 90,505). Lacking both the population and infrastructure, the Cortes community formed societies to run its community halls. They are far more likely to be among the UBCM’s 57 exceptions than any similar buildings in Victoria or Nanaimo.
- In theory, Cortes Island receives a portion of the Provincial Gas Tax. A recent Strathcona Regional District report states, “as of January 1, 2020, the balance of Electoral Area B’s Gas Tax Reserve is approximately $565,325 and (this year) is expected to receive a 2020 transfer of $58,155 in addition to any interest earned on the balance.” According to Regional Director Noba Anderson, the amount keeps growing because it is difficult for Cortes to access these funds.
- SRD staff describe Linnaea Farm as a privately owned property. When I asked Linnaea Farm’s Executive Director, Tamara McPhail about this, in a recent interview, she replied, “We’re a collective group of people. We don’t own this land, we protect it and are stewards of it.”
- When he spoke at the EASC meeting, Mr Leitch said no one questions the fact that Linnaea is of great benefit to Cortes Island. What Linnaea needs to explain, to proceed with this application, is what additional benefits would this funding bring the community.
- McPhail told Cortes Currents, ““I have a feeling that if we could properly heat the building it would get used a hundredfold more often. The rooms are sometimes so cold when they come and it takes us three days to warm up a space that’s usable. There are so many projects that are looking for a place to land and the ones that have come here are really beneficial to the community.”
Quadra Island Grants
The following Quadra Island Grant in Aid applications were approved without any discussion:
- “i) $1,360 to the Sierra Club of BC – Quadra Island Group to assist with printing costs for FireSmart Handouts; and
- ii) $500 to the Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society (MARS) to assist with operating costs.“
Director Cornfield asked why the following two Quadra items were labelled ‘Economic Development Funding’ (22:37) “it’s a grant in aid”:
- ” i) $5,169 to the Quadra Children’s Centre to assist with 2020 insurance costs; and
- ii) $1,000 to the Campbell River Museum to assist with programming costs.“
Regional Director Jim Abram was not on hand to explain his rationale.
Director Cornfield subsequently cast the only opposing vote.
Rezoning For BC Ferries Use
BC Ferries applied to have two parcels along Pidcock Road, in Quathiaski Cove, rezoned to accomodate an additional ferry berth for the Quadra Island — Campbell River route.
The Bylaws associated with this matter (383 and 384) were given a first reading and will move on to a second reading.
Replacing Quathiaski Cove Community Sewer System Treatment Plant
Quathiaski Cove’s aged Sewer Treatment Plant “is now well beyond its service life and is becoming more problematic and costly to maintain.” During the last quarter of 2019, alone, $26,000 was spent for emergency repairs.
It will cost approximately $3.1 million to replace this facility. Most of this may be obtainable from the Canada Infrastructure Program – Green Infrastructure – Environmental Quality Grant Program.
Regional Director Jim Abram brought forward a proposal (Bylaw 391) that the SRD borrow $830,000, for the local share of construction.
Staff proposed that the requirement for three readings of Bylaw 391 be suspended.
Mr Leitch explained (51:06), “It is unfortunate that Directors Abram or [his alternate] MacKenize are not here … This is related to a grant application that we put in to the province and the province sent back that unless you have third reading of a loan application bylaw, your application is going to get thrown out … This is only the third reading and it shows the province that we will support our portion of the grant if we get it … if we don’t support it, the application is a mute point.”
There was no opposition. The rules were suspended, the bylaw was given second and third readings.
The Board is waiting for the Canada Infrastructure Program’s decision on this funding application.
Correspondence
There was an item of correspondence from Cortes Island.
“I am writing to support our very hard working Rep. Ms.Noba Anderson. I have lived on Cortes Island for 49 years & Ms. Anderson is the best Rep we have ever had. The very small number of angry nay sayers,for the most part, have not been here for very long & it is heartbreaking to see them tear apart the values & infrastructures that have taken us so long to to build & promote. Just look at our voting history to view the overwhelming support Ms Anderson, our health centre,etc has from the majority of my fellow islanders.”
“I was on the local health board for 9 years & it saddens me to realize that this small minority was actually against funding for first responders.” – Paul Kirmmse, Whaletown, BC
This post was originally published on May 8. The section called ‘Unstated Issues” and a screenshot of the SRD YouTube, with notes were added on May 10, 2020.
Top photo credit: Discovery Channel by David Stanley via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)