But second request denied

The Regional District of East Kootenay Board of Directors Feb. 14 approved $140,500 in capital funding for additional insulation and drainage at the Canal Flats Arena.

The funds are to be paid by the Canal Flats Recreation Service over the next two years.

However, the board denied a $600,000 capital funding request (over five years) by the Village of Canal Flats for paving parking and improving dressing rooms in the arena.

It was a move that did not impress village Mayor and board member Ute Juras.

“I’m a little disappointed,” she said of the vote, which was limited to the five Columbia Valley directors only, with four to one voting against the request.

“I’m just a little bit frustrated that we have to fight for everything that comes up. The other directors are not quite on the same page,” she said, adding the board tries to show it works together but really doesn’t.

“Don’t give me the fuzzy all-for-one feeling,” Juras said. “Every time we turn around we have to fight for every penny we spend.”

District of Invermere Mayor Gerry Taft replied, “no one is being discriminated against” and said the other directors viewed the funding request coming from “a luxury category.”

Electoral Area F director Wendy Booth said the request posed a challenge because it “came out of the blue and there wasn’t any justification for it. It appears to be a money grab the whole Columbia Valley will pay for.”

Better communication leading up to the request would have helped, Booth added.

Juras said the budget request was emailed to the RDEK office “weeks ago.”

Canal Flats is celebrating the grand re-opening of the upgraded arena tomorrow (Feb. 22). About $1.2 million has been spent thus far to improve the facility.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

Article Share