Just Another Council Meeting

Last night marked the last Council meeting before the election, and it is a pity more people were not in attendance, as in many ways it typified the work we have done. Unfortunately, Andrew stone was not there recording everything, so it will not be preserved for posterity either...

It would have been informative for some more of the newcomer candidates to have sat through the close to four hour session (Wolfgang and Darren came for the Belterra reading).

Why? Well, a lot of things came together, there was spirited discussion, it was at times disorganized, there was some dissension, advice of staff was countermanded (not acted on is maybe a better phrase).

The meeting began with public comments on Belterra and the solid waste management report.

This was followed by a brief discussion on two Metro Vancouver bylaws, for which our assent was requested, and Council would only receive, not sign off on, without further information.

Corporal Don Southern gave a farewell presentation on the state of police enforcement on Bowen, and expressed his genuine attachment to this island. He got a standing ovation plus a book as a token of appreciation. Car crashes, property crime, assaults are all down dramatically over the past five years.

The Belterra rezoning was given second reading, but not before a contentious element, the provision of sewer and water, was rejigged such that Belterra could not automatically expect to get hooked up to municipal services. A goodly crowd of supporters came out just for that, then departed. The project was presented by Michael Rosen, over the speakerphone, as he is very ill, yet working from his bed. So this was quite dramatic, and the reading was met with cheers and applause.

Hap Stelling walked us thorugh the design element revisions for Snug Cove, and, led by Alison Morse, words were mulled over, parsed, pared and otherwise smithed to almost everyone's satisfaction.

Brent Mahood presented the Solid Waste Program options in some detail, with added comments from Zero Waste Bowen Don Marshall. There were a number of contentious ideas, including changes to frequency of garbage pickup, mandatory separation of food waste, transparent bags, and collapsing of the decal system into a fixed parcel tax. Needless to say, we ran out of time on this, but were able to agree on the establishment of a committee!, request another report, and get the ball rolling on complying with Metro Vancouver policies regarding waste management.

Finally, Christine Walker and Florrie Levine presented an update on the Community Centre, with a request to seek provincial funding for the next phase of the work. It took a lot of explaining to get Council onside with an application for $616,000 of potential spending, with the province providing 80% of the money.

There were so many themes, items getting wrapped up, moved along, that I found it a remarkable example of how this Council, staff, and community have worked over the last three years.