Regional Director's Report - January 26, 2009

This will possibly be a longish article but please take the time to read it. There are so many things going on right now that you need to know about and in some cases, participate in. So I will just dive in and get started.

Snow removal

The issue of snow removal has been on the top of the list for the past month. It has been an incredible year for having back to back snow storms!
I would like to say thanks to our dedicated crew at Emcon for all of their hard work and long hours during the holiday season and acknowledge the sacrifices they made regarding being "home for the holidays". They had their challenges and faced them the best that they could. Equipment breakdowns at the worst possible times set them back considerably and made it very hard to begin to catch up. But they valiantly tried. I know that there are complaints out there by a number of people. Overall, our crew gave us great service and they should be congratulated for that.

In future snow events, I would encourage you to call the Emcon office directly at 285-3524 and leave a message of what your need is. Hugh will get back to you. If you call and cannot get through and there is a need for a specific service in a specific area, please call direct to the dispatch office at 1-866-353-3136. You will get an operator who can directly contact the crew by radio and deal with your concern. This is the very best method of dealing with a crisis, so please use it.

House numbers

As many of you may know, I was out removing snow for people with my tractor. I noted in many places that I worked that house numbers were either non-existent or were obscured or very hard to see. In my case, this was an inconvenience. In the case of an emergency it could be devastating to the resident. I supply, through the Regional District and the 911 Corporation, map books for all of our emergency service providers. They can find the area of your home. But let's not make them work at it to find specific houses. Identifying your driveway clearly, is for your own benefit. Please have a look at your house numbers and see if they need a bit of sprucing up.

Bute Inlet independent power projects

This is the most important thing that you could possibly do this year. Please read on.

The terms of reference have been released by the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) and are at: http://a100.gov.bc.ca/appsdata/epic/html/deploy/epic_project_home_316.html

After many days of making phone calls and writing letters (right up to the Premier's office), a small group of us managed to get them to agree to hold a public meeting and open house in Campbell River. The only ones they had scheduled were on the Sunshine Coast, even though all of the project area is within Area C (the area that I represent) and the nearest centre is Campbell River. The meeting will be on Monday, February 2, 2009, from 4 to 8 pm at the Quinsam Hall which is up at Quinsam Crossing (Willis Rd. and the Inland Island Highway).

It is so very crucial for people to attend this meeting. This could be our one chance to express our views and concerns about a project that will see 17 run of the river facilities, a huge substation near the mouth of the Southgate River, miles and miles of associated access roads and associated works, along with 443 km's of high-voltage transmission lines running all over Bute Inlet. This project is massive to say the least. Many of my constituents have spent many years promoting and developing eco-tourism and recreation businesses in this area and are likely to be heavily impacted by this proposal. Your voice needs to be heard and your written comments need to be received. If the input warrants it, there could be a Federal Review Panel required which will be far more detailed and comprehensive with more public input. Your input at this stage will help to determine that need, so please make an effort to attend and to write comments. You can send comments directly to the Federal Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, attention Marie-France Therrien at bute.reviewceaa-acee.gc.ca and to the Provincial Environmental Assessment Office, attention Kathy Eichenberger, at eaoinfogov.bc.ca Please do send your comments to both.

I hope to see the hall packed with people from our area. We live here because of the natural beauty and Bute Inlet is a large contributor to the sustainability of our natural ecosystems and to the wild nature of where we live. Please attend. You can go to www.ButeInlet.net for more info from the local group.

Regional District Task Force

The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) (I was president 2000/2001) has struck a task force with the provincial government to look at what changes need to be made to RD's in the next few years. I have been asked to contribute through the members of the task force and I have been doing that by email and phone. They have an ambitious timeline and hope to have a report ready for local government review prior to our annual convention in September. I am doing my best to make suggestions that will make our rural governance system be as good as it can get.

Granite Bay wharf update

We are continuing to meet with the RD and with Marine Harvest, to finalize our plans to upgrade the floats at Granite Bay, using the model that I developed in past pursuits of local government, community and industry coming together to make things work for the community at little or no cost to the taxpayer. We had a very good meeting a couple of weeks ago and all have our "tasks" to perform. We will meet again on Feb. 3rd with final plans and tasks and then the work of assembling, shipping and installing will commence. A great deal of the material and services are being donated, the engineering drawings are done and now all that we need is to firm up the volunteer list. So, if you are willing to work on this very exciting addition to Granite Bay Park, please contact me as soon as possible. We will need some folks to work on assembly in CR and some to work on installation at Granite Bay. Don't be shy!

Village project update

I am not going to say much about this at this point. We are discussing the issue at the January board meeting on the 28th to deal with some issues. After we have done that I will be able to fill you in on where we are at on this exciting project for Quathiaski Cove. This is still at the top of the list.

Strathcona Regional District (SRD) organization

Well, we are getting settled in at the SRD. We now have a permanent Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and a great receptionist / secretary, that does everything right. I just had a two hour meeting with the CAO to discuss where we are going with the SRD. We are planning to have a facilitated strategic planning session and a number of goal setting sessions in the next two months. We are also getting some training, offered by the UBCM, so that we all know our roles, duties and procedures. We have a number of new people on the board that are a delight to work with.

My main focus in the organization of the SRD will be to make it small, focused and efficient. I will not accept a clone of the huge bureaucracy that had developed in the Comox Strathcona RD. We will hire those that we cannot do without and work it out from there. Our costs will go down and we will become an effective team that will be able to deal with our local issues and effectively lobby the provincial and federal governments concerning those issues that we do not control. I am optimistic and look forward to working with this new team in the coming year. We have many projects ongoing on Quadra Island and in the outer islands and I look forward to the support of our new organization.

Seniors' housing

It has come to my attention that the seniors' housing project in the Cove that has been underway for many years just hit a speed bump. All of the regulatory issues have been dealt with through the RD and I have ensured that the zoning and all siting permits, etc. went through smoothly in the past. It was brought to my attention recently that the development permit that the RD issued a number of years ago had an expiry date on it. So, a new one was required and the cost would be $3,800.00. I was approached by Ken Duncan of the seniors' housing group and a grant in aid was requested. I have put that through to the SRD board and the cheque should be in the mail very soon. I hope this is the last bureaucratic hurdle that the group has to jump so that they can get on with construction.

Duck crossing clarification

I have saved the best for last. A few issues back I explained my involvement in getting the "duck crossing" sign across from the gas station in front of the school garden and pond. I did request the sign from the Ministry of Highways and they did agree to put one up. What I did not know was that at the very same time Sierra Quadra had suggested to a teacher (Bridget Walshe) that the students make a sign to warn traffic of ducks crossing the road. As she was the sponsor teacher for the Naturalist club she asked Savannah Pare (grade 5) to design a sign. She drew the design and the naturalist club raised money to pay for the sign to be made by Sarah at Quadra building supply. Emcon Services then erected the sign. I guess that the Ministry of Highways still owes us a duck crossing sign! So there you go! My report can actually end on a happy note that demonstrates how community involvement can get things done.

There are many more things that I am working on and that are in progress but I think that is enough for this issue. I don't want to try your patience any more than I already have! Feel free to call me between the hours of 8:30 am and 7:00 pm, Monday through Friday (not on weekends, folks!) at 285-3355, or you can fax me at 285-3533 or you can email me anytime at abramfamoberon.ark.com , or by mail at Box 278 in the Cove, V0P 1N0... Lots of choices!

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Abram
Director, Discovery Islands - Mainland Inlets (Area C), SRD