Agricultural Advisory Committee Headed by Councillor Danny Soles
Minutes of a Regional Council Meeting – November 13th, 2012
Staff Sergeant Tom Roy presented the crime statistics. He noted that calls to date are up over the 2011 statistics. Currently there are 18 officers and five traffic officers in the NRRM.
• The board approved spending $25,000 to install a security curtain in the Treasury Department at Municipal Hall.
• Declaring a conflict in the matter to follow, Regional Councillor Osbourne left the meeting. Reason for declaring said conflict is that he works for a company that supplies fuel.
It was then moved and carried that the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality move forward with the Union of British Columbia Municipalities’ (UBCM) fuel purchasing program which currently recommends that ESSO be utilised as the Municipal card lock fuel provider, and that Husky be utilised as the provider of bulk fuel deliveries at the Airport.
• An e-mail poll was used to approve the Development Variance Application – Harry and Karen Ducharme, for ratification. The poll decision ratified a move forward with public notification of Development Variance Application 1205 for two variances that would reduce setbacks and paving requirements in Heavy Industrial Zone located at 2 Barber Way and was unanimously carried.
• BC Natural Gas – Workforce Planning Strategy re: attendance at workshop – for ratification. It was unanimously 14 approved that Councillor Dolan participate in the BC Natural Gas Workforce Strategy and Action Planning Committee meeting being held on Thursday, November 29th, 2012 in Richmond, BC.
• An e-mail poll was used to approve the Temporary Use Application for Gym/Personal Services (Tanning) Facility at 4704-54th Street.
Regional Council further requested that the current applicant and future applicants taking out business licences for gym facilities be advised that it is NRRM’s intent to incorporate a gym facility in the proposed new swimming pool in the future even though the operational details of the proposed gym are uncertain at this time.
• New Business. It was approved that Regional Councillors Dolan and Eglinski be authorised to form an informal committee to discuss non-financial related partnership opportunities between the Northern Rockies Social Planning Council and the NRRM and to report back to Council.
• Regional Council rose and reported the following decisions and resolutions from their InCamera Meeting:
That the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality correspond with Minister Steve Thomson, MLA Pat Pimm, and Mr. Chris Addison of Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources with regard to being updated on the procedure for tourism operator permits for the 2013 season and request that the permit terms be extended from one year to five years, and further to ensure continued communication with the operators in the NRRM region throughout the permitting process in the upcoming year.
That Sonja Leverkus, Paul Sadlier, Ben Wall, and Tim Siemens be appointed as members of the Agricultural Advisory Committee for a two year term and further that Regional Councillor Danny Soles be appointed as Chair.
Continued on next page
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Fort Nelson First Nation & Shale Gas Water Licenses (Continued).It was unanimously carried that Regional Council continued discussion on the inaccuracy of the news article written by Damien Gillis of thecanadian.org website. It was agreed that letters be prepared to Fort Nelson First Nation and the Province about how misleading the article is and how it discredits Fort Nelson First Nation, Government and Industry.
FROM THE COUNCIL UP DATE
• Regional Council approved a current list of staff statutory and other appointments, providing staff with the required authority to carry out duties and functions as requested by Regional Council.
• Regional Council voted to retain Kasian for the functional programming of the Northern Rockies Primary Health Care Centre.
• Regional Council received correspondence from the BC Ministers of Agriculture and Transportation regarding local agriculture and maintenance of local transportation infrastructure. NEAT Presents Accomplishments, Budget Certification Protocols for Local Businesses Regional Council awarded a contract to update the Land Use & Development plan for the Northern Rockies Regional Airport to EBA Engineering consultants. This project will allow the airport to move forward with a consistent vision and better meet the needs of the North-ern Rockies Community and Industry.
NRRA Land Use and Development Plan Regional Council received a presentation from the local NEAT team on what they have accomplished in 2012.
• NEAT reported its biggest accomplishment of 2012 was growing local participation in the monthly Recycle Roundups which started in February 2012. Other activities have included a yearly shoreline clean-up of the Muskwa River and Parker Lake, building partnerships with local businesses, host-ing school and community information programs, and running fun events like the recent fashion show and Pumpkin Plunge. Through the hard work of NEAT and the support of the community, nearly 20 tonnes of recyclable materials has been kept from the landfill. Going forward into 2013, the NEAT team is looking to continue all existing services, learn more about best practices for community composting, and possibly expand to hosting as many as two Recycle Roundups a month.
Regional Council pre-approved the 2013 NEAT budget of $80,670.
• Regional Council agreed to provide support an upcoming Community Musical with a budget of $10,000. It is expected that revenue from the play will reduce this subsidy to approximately $4,000. The musical is being run by a dedicated team of volunteers, and will be playing between January 24—26, 2013.
• Regional Council approved recently developed certification protocols to help industry identify local businesses. These protocols represent a tiered system of certification and can be applied to distinguish between Locally-Based and Locally-Owned businesses.
These protocols have been received positively from the Horn River Basin Producer’s Group and have been championed across the northeast by Peace River South MLA Blair Lekstrom.
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