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Open-air burn request granted

District of Sechelt

District of Sechelt council voted in committee last week to grant a one-time exemption to the open-air burning bylaw, allowing Cloutier Holdings Inc. to carry out a controlled burn at 2224 Field Rd.

The company had been operating under a discharge permit issued by the Ministry of Environment in 2008, but sought the one-time exemption because it is now waiting for the province to approve a new permit.

Mayor Bruce Milne noted the concept of having a burn site that’s built to provincial environmental standards is not only supported by businesses in the area but by the Clean Air Society as well.

Applicant Daniel Cloutier said the roughly 200 tonnes of material in his burn pit — wood from building sites that has been left to season — represents only about half of the amount he had usually burned in the past.

The timing of the burn will depend on Environment Canada’s ventilation index.

“When the index is right, we’ll need a three-day window to burn,” Cloutier said.

Arts festival

This year’s Sechelt Arts Festival was “an unqualified success,” with general attendance up by three per cent to more than 2,600 attendees and off-Coast attendance increasing by six per cent, festival co-producer Diana Robertson reported to council Dec. 10.

Collaborations with First Nations artists reached a new level this year, with 27 heritage artists involved in the festival and shíshálh (Sechelt) First Nation’s tems swiya Museum hosting a heritage exhibit.

“It was really wonderful,” Robertson said. “It worked. We built new relationships and we’re going to take it from there and move forward again next year.”

The festival came in about $450 under its $86,500 budget, and while it lost ground on corporate sponsorships, a federal Canadian Heritage grant almost doubled — from $12,200 last year to $22,800.

“Expanding the heritage component, I think, is key,” said co-producer Nancy Cottingham Powell.

For next year’s festival, she said, organizers have been talking to Margie Gillis, the first modern dance artist to be awarded the Order of Canada.

“It looks like at this point Margie Gillis is going to come as part of a Western Canadian tour,” she added, describing Gillis as “the pre-eminent contemporary dancer in Canada.”

Calling the festival “a real flagship event,” Milne said he was disappointed to see few higher-income professionals or people in the 18-to-35 demographic in attendance.

“I don’t know what we can do to develop audiences and the recognition among audiences that some of the work that’s being done on the Coast — this one in particular, but not just this one — is worthy of anything you can travel to Toronto or London or L.A. to find,” he said.

The District contributed $30,000 to the event.