Regional Director's Updated Report - March 30, 2008

Board meeting update

Well, I haven't left yet and couldn't without informing you of the events of last Thursday (March 27th) at the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) monthly board meeting. This was the meeting where we were required to adopt the 2008 financial plan (the budget).

All of the Electoral Area (EA) directors expected that we were going to see the attitudes and the actions of the directors holding the most votes (the ones from Campbell River (CR)) exposed at this meeting. This is what happened in the Comox Valley Regional District (CVRD)the week before. Sure enough, our worst fears were realized. In spite of all of the rhetoric from the lead directors from CR over the past months leading up to the split of the RD about "cooperation", "getting along", "supporting each other's needs", etc., we were faced with a motion that would have effectively slashed our operating funds for the electoral areas to the point of not being able to function nor carry out any of the programs that the public wishes to see carried out. You will read about it in the CR media but I wanted to report it in our local island media also.

The blatant "power play" by one municipality, that has the power to control the RD through the new voting structure that the Minster set in place, was absolutely unbelievable. We were not only being ignored, but we were being treated as "subjects" of the city of CR. The most incredible part of this whole situation was the the municipalities DO NOT pay one cent into the operating funds for the electoral area functions. So this had absolutely no impact nor relevance to the taxpayers of the municipality of CR. There was no logical reason for this move on the part of our next door neighbour.

Some of the increases to our taxes will be directly attributable to the splitting up of the Comox Strathcona RD and others indirectly. We no longer have the economies of scale that we had before. Now we have two bureaucracies (although ours is undeveloped yet and is being contracted to the Comox Valley RD). It is more costly to run in this manner. Some of our functions will increase due to the elimination of the three major electoral areas in the other RD from our previously large tax base. We are now having to draw the same amount (or more) from a much smaller assessment area. So we will see a tax increase this year.

As an example, the Emergency Preparedness function (which was provincially mandated) was around $14,000.00 of requisition (the money derived from taxation) last year and was slated to go to $29,000.00 this budget year due to having to hire a staff person to deal with the overwhelming response from volunteers in the northern communities. This is more than a 100% increase in the budget and is justified by the need. This was one of the functions that would have been kept at the 2007 amount, plus a maximum of 3%, by the CR motion to slash the budget. I hope that the volunteers that have put so much of their time and energy into this program will see what I am up against!

After five hours of intense debate and argument, the electoral area directors were able to convince the municipality that what they were doing was wrong. Just plain wrong!. They had a caucus over the lunch break and agreed to amend the motion to leave out the functions that were solely funded by the electoral areas and also the Emergency Preparedness function. This allowed a great sigh of relief from the EA directors.

All of the other functions dealing with general government and corporate administration and finance will be held at 2007 levels with a maximum of 3% increase if needed. Due to this last minute motion, our staff were unable to give us any final numbers as to what our increases might be for 2008. We will find out in the next month, I am sure.

Bylaw passes

Many of you attended or submitted to the public hearing for Discovery Island Ventures, Catherine Smith. The issue was more or less a housekeeping item of amending the Official Community Plan (OCP) map to reflect the actual zoning that had already been passed earlier in the year. The bylaw passed with an overwhelming number of supportive letters and comments. Only one letter of objection was received. The marshland is protected under a section 219 covenant which is registered on the title of each lot in the subdivision, and the number of dwellings was reduced from the allowed two dwellings to one dwelling per lot due to concerns raised during the eight year plus, process.

Pre-school property

A letter has been sent to School District 72 to register the RD's interest in the property that will be divested by the school district in the future. We have requested a meeting with the appropriate staff and the trustee, Helen Moats. and expect this will take place upon my return. See my last report for details.

Planning for the future

Part of the planning budget discussion at the board meeting had to do with the initiative that is underway on Quadra to try and develop a village concept to implement some of the policies of our OCP with regard to various types of housing for different age groups within a village setting, utilizing best practices around walkable communities and green energy. This will be a very exciting exercise involving a great number of community members and will allow us to partner with other agencies to leverage money and expertise for this project. It will also be a good example of what a community, working together for a common goal, can accomplish. A sum of money is earmarked for use in this project to hire a consultant to help get this off the ground. That would have been slashed from the budget, had we not been successful in changing Campbell River's mind.

And I am going to stop there. I need to prepare for other things now, but wanted to make sure you had the latest info available to you before I go away. Read my last report for details on these and other issues.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Abram
Director, Discovery Islands - Mainland Inlets, Area J, SRD