Village of Canal Flats Mayor’s Report

By Mayor Ute Juras

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is having a good start into 2014. Village of Canal Flats Council is certainly eager to get back to work after the break.

Just before the Christmas break, we had our Planning and Priorities session which was very productive. Some of the key priorities we identified for the coming year were as follows:

Economic Development: create a community profile for the village that provides a tool for promotion, investment attraction and new resident attraction;

Community Branding:  create a community brand and related communications strategy for the village;

Contract a Municipal Planner:  resolve village long-term planning issues with assistance of a contracted municipal planner.

In addition to these we will also be looking at Seniors’ programming, Development Cost Charge Bylaw workshop to help council understand the pros and cons of it, as well as special projects such as Community Organizations Roundtable Engagement Sessions, Community Information Board and revamping of the village website to allow more participation of the community and interactive polling.

We also identified some ‘shelf-ready’ projects. This means that these projects are ready to proceed, have some allocation in the budget but require additional funding through other sources such as grants, for example, a sewage lagoon dike, community pathways and Fire Hall.

For a full version of the report is available on the village website or the office.

Road conditions have been a big issue region wide and at the last meeting of the Regional District of East Kootenay Board we had presentations by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and Mainroad Contracting. The main message that I took away was that they very much appreciate feedback from the public. Users of the roads are the best monitors in letting them know where the problem areas are. If you have any questions, concerns or want to give feedback please call them at 1-800-665-4929.

At the council meeting on Monday, January 27, council received a letter from concerned citizen regarding the Community Bus and transit service. There was no return address so I will be responding to the letter here.

The RDEK and BC Transit are working very closely together to keep this service running. In fact, starting this year, the service will be increased by adding an extra run between Invermere and Canal Flats in the early afternoon.

The other issue brought forward was the termination of the bus driver who did an extremely good job in public relations and promoting the service. I heard nothing but good things about him.  The only thing I can say about him leaving the employ with the transit operator is that it was not due to cutbacks by the RDEK or BC Transit. The Golden service was a separate transit system run by the Town of Golden not in partnership with the RDEK.  It was solely their decision to cancel that service.

The issue of the bus coming out of Golden has been an ongoing one since the service started. The operator is housed in Golden and the Health Connections starts and ends there. We have been looking at housing a bus in Canal Flats or Invermere for a long time now but a final decision has not been reached.

Regarding bus passes: BC Transit typically does not allow the drivers to handle cash. They have made an exception to the Columbia Valley service to allow monthly passes to be sold on the bus as there are difficulties finding vendors to sell them otherwise.  However, to allow the drivers to sell the ticket books would increase the cash they would handle to an unacceptable level. The books are available here at the Village Office or you can contact the RDEK and they will mail them out to you. A new Rider’s Guide will come out with this additional information and the new runs this year.

The letter also mentions the lack of promotion and we completely agree with that. This too has been a big issue since the beginning of the service. The fact is, there is no additional funding available by BC Transit, Ministry of Transportation or the RDEK for marketing and advertising. Council passed a resolution at the January 27 meeting to send a letter to BC Transit to look at this again in order to increase the ridership.

At this time, I would like to thank the undersigned of that letter for bringing their concerns to our attention. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions or concerns.

Bylaw enforcement was once again on the agenda as well. We did receive the petition signed by residents and will take it under advisement as we move forward addressing the concerns. As you may or may not know, our Bylaw Enforcement Officer has resigned his position due to personal reasons. Council is now committed to looking at the issues with certain bylaws, the policy on enforcing those bylaws and the hiring of a new enforcement officer.

Within the next three to four months we will work on bylaw amendments to more reflect the feel and needs of the community, as well as create a policy that will emphasize on compliance through collaboration and education more so than enforcement and ticketing. As usual, we welcome any feedback that you can give us.

Lastly, I would like to thank the members of the community who came out to the last meeting. It was great to see you all there and to hear your questions and concerns.

As mentioned at the meeting, council is there to represent the residents of Canal Flats and our decisions are based on what your wishes are. We welcome your feedback and ideas. For those of you who don’t know, we have a section on the agenda, called ‘Question Period,’ which allows the public to not only ask questions but also give comments. A full copy of the agenda which includes staff recommendations and background of the items is available on the website, www.canalflats.com, or at the Village Office on the Thursday prior to the council meeting.

Please check it out and come to the meeting if you have anything you would like to bring forward. For those of you who do not feel comfortable speaking in front of others, come out to the meeting anyway, but I am always available through the contact information below.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions/concerns  (Phone: 250-489-9070, e-mail: [email protected]).

Lead image: Canal Flats February morning. Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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