Written by Derek Koel
Koel Notes
Port McNeill’s council met Feb. 28 for their standard affair, which consisted of two delegations, the adopting of minutes/reports, nudge some bylaws forward, and meet in private after the public meeting about land and labour issues.
Community Futures of Mount Waddington Executive Director Riley Zimmerman was first up, he presented council with a slick a power point presentation with all stats and pie charts, but summed it up nicely with, “At Community Futures we aim to help entrepreneurs and businesses grow and succeed. If you have a business idea you want to discuss, come and talk with us. We offer both business start-up loans and business expansion loans.”
Ashley Wall from the Port McNeill Skate Park Committee was on hand to report on their plan for a 4-5,000 square foot skatepark facility.
The group was officially asking the town to partner up on the endeavor and for ‘support in principle.’ The support was ultimately declared, and the committee’s information package will be sent to the newly minted Parks and Recreation Committee.
However, when it came to talking turkey - including a skatepark in the upcoming budget - council waivered and ultimately did not make a specific motion to set aside funds for a skatepark at this time.
Coun. Shelley Downey broke the ice, asking, “it’s great to say we support it, are we going to send it the budget?”
Coun. Michelle Carson chimed in “I would think it’s smarter to include it now.”
Coun. Leighann Ruel was more hesitant, “I still think there is a lot of work to do, I don’t think it’s going to be an eight month turnaround to have this being built,” implying the project could wait for the next budget cycle.
Coun. Ann-Marie Baron reminded everyone there is a recreation line item, and “at least we have a line, that’s what we need to do, governance wise,” suggesting the line item would be there “if we need to move money out of the Community Forest.”
Baron is referring to the $2.02 million dollars the town has stashed away, all dividends from the North Island Community Forest partnership. Port Alice and Port Hardy have both received the same amount of cash. So far, Port McNeill has not spent a penny of it, only deciding to earmark it only for future capital projects.
Council received a fulsome, written, and verbal report from Carson with regards to her new assignment as Port McNeill’s Vancouver Island Regional Library Trustee. She attended a recent board meeting at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo and reported it was “a massive eye opener for me as to how important our libraries are.”
Council skipped through three interesting staff reports, all of which are available for review, via the agenda, on the town’s website. The long and short on those reports are as follows;
Port McNeill’s Manager of Visitor Experience attended the 2023 Destination BC annual tourism conference in Vancouver, and submitted a summary of the event for council’s information.
Similarly, the town’s Assistant Harbour Manager, was at an annual seminar, held by the Harbour Authority Association of BC, this time in Victoria. A report was filed that also noted a Small Craft Harbour’s Environmental Management Practices training certificate was also obtained.
An interesting tidbit was found in the Public Work’s Operation Report. Details are scant, but it seems the town has recently applied for another grant. The BC Government’s Rural Economic Diversification & Infrastructure Program (REDIP) has $33 million to spend and the town is applying for a slice of the pie under the Forest Impact Transition Stream, which is meant to support “economic recovery and transition in communities affected by changes in the forest sector.”
Council was tight lipped when asked by the Gazette for more details on the grant application. Details of the project are vague at this point, other than it will be over three years and the first year will be for planning. There is no formal public record of council discussing the project prior. However, the report indicates the project is for “Downtown Waterfront and Community Revitalization.”
We shouldn’t have to wait long to find out one way or another, REDIP plans to announce successful grants in March.
Two bylaws were on the agenda, Bylaw 716 is a standard annual affair, a borrowing bylaw, it formalizes a line of credit for the town based on tax revenue, that bylaw breezed by, but not Bylaw 717 – the proposed Harbour Rates Amendment Bylaw.
The bylaw will see moorage rates nudging up like everything else these days, the existing Bylaw states the rates must mirror the rising consumer price index, so general rates are set to go up 6.9 per cent.
It was a new addition to the bylaw, a 20 per cent surcharge on top of the increased hydro rates, that caught the attention of some of the council.
Mayor James Furney came out swinging against the 20 per cent surcharge, “I’m not sure that’s legal,” he said. Staff assured it was.
Downey countered they don’t make a profit off the hydro rates so they “have no actual revenue coming in to ensure the infrastructure, no revenue to tend to that, maintenance.”
This turned into a general discussion on passing bylaws, the timing of such and how to streamline the three different bylaws needed to set the harbour rates.
At the end of the day, council accepted the CPI increase but voted to table the bylaw for more information, especially with regards to the 20 per cent hydro administration fee proposed by staff.
“I’m not ready to roll with this yet,” Furney added.
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