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Mayor’s update for March
By Mayor Mary Giuliano
Minister Coralee Oakes has informed that the City of Fernie will receive a $50,000 grant to help with land use and planning related work resulting from the implementation of the West Fernie restructure project and that the Regional District of East Kootenay will get a $20,000 improvement district conversion grant to assist them.
Six bids were submitted for the 2015 Sewage Treatment Plant Upgrade Project and it has been awarded to Cummings Construction Ltd for the tender price of $1,269,000, excluding GST. Upgrades are recommended in the Liquid Waste Management Plan and will provide the city with an advanced level of treatment for when it becomes necessary to discharge directly into the Elk River.
Lack of snow on Griz Days necessitated $5,500 from the Province’s Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) to the Fernie Chamber of Commerce for services. Congratulations to the organizer on a very successful event.
Fernie Rod and Gun Club, the oldest in the province, is hosting the BC Wildlife Federation Convention in April and support has been provided through RMI funds for cost of city facilities.
Interior Health has a phone line for voicing complaints: 1-844-770-5524.
The portable stage purchased with RMI funding is being requested to rent so a rental fee schedule has been established, call City Hall for pricing information.
An invitation was extended to Fernie by Calgary’s Mayor Nenshi regarding the annual Canada Mayor’s poetry Challenge. Council accepted and is seeking interest from school aged youth and adults to come and read an original poem of their writing at a regular council meeting in April.
A bylaw was initiated by the city specific C-HWY Zoned Parcels on the west side of Highway 3 and adopted to allow houses to remain residential as previously if it was destroyed it could not be rebuilt as a residence.
Council passed a motion to have staff look into a program to increase knowledge of local government by inviting youth to participate at council meetings. A motion was also passed to assist Wapiti Music Festival organizers with street closures, use of Annex Park, barricades etc. on August 6,7and 8.
Development Cost Charge Bylaw No. 2276 was adopted that included a complete review of DCC procedure. Included are policy considerations, development projections, project costs, timing of proposed capital projects, addition of new projects to the program, where necessary, and removal from the DCC program of those capital projects that have been completed or are no longer necessary.
Policing priorities
Elk Valley RCMP Detachment’s S/Sgt. Craig and Sgt. Thien provided quarterly reports on the detachment and asked for council’s priorities for 2015. They said that police patrols for downtown have increased and disturbance issues have seen a decrease. Council stated that priorities for 2015 were downtown core patrols and speed zones; it was indicated that the Elk Valley is a safe place to live with a very low crime rate.
Interior Health representatives presented interesting stats showing that Fernie’s population count has ages 50-54 as the highest number of residents followed equally by the 25-39 and 35-39 age group and the 55-59 age following. Chronic disease rates are lower than B.C. numbers with depression at the top at 27% and Fernie at 17 %.
There is also a “community health facilitator to bring health resources, assistance and expertise to municipal planning, policies and programming that can positively impact health.”
McDonalds Restaurant was asked to extend hours of operation. The owner attended a meeting to explain that with labour shortages and lack of population this is difficult; however, he would consider implementing being open longer this summer. A councillor commented that residents inquired as to why this one venue was asked to extend hours of operation. This was a request brought forward by one councillor, a motion was made and passed, several other restaurants have since been sent requests for consideration of extended hours of operation.
Resort Municipality Initiative funding
Last year it was suggested by the provincial government that the Resort Municipality Initiative might not continue past 2015.
This program is intended to help small, tourism based municipalities to support and increase visitation. With a smaller tax base it was noted that the demand of tourism activity can strain resources to provide infrastructure and event programming.
RMI funding therefore allows improvement of the tourism based infrastructure and amenities to attract more visitors and encourage longer stays. At beginning this was a provincial tax transfer but has since changed to one funded by general revenues so that it has basically become a grant for the 14 resort communities involved.
Extensive reporting several times a year has replaced annual reporting and the total amount has now been capped at $10.5 million with an extension to 2017. The formula is determined each year by using the two per cent Municipal and Regional District Tax collected in the previous year.
However, if the total of all 14 communities exceeds $10.5 million the amount will be reduced by an equal percentage to make sure the total value remains within the capped amount. There was a collective sigh of relief from the communities; however, there is still the distinct possibility that this program won’t continue despite the ministry acknowledging that this is a very successful program.
