Budget E-Townhall
Sechelt’s E-Townhall on the budget Feb. 20 didn’t go quite as planned. While residents who came out in person to the municipal hall for the meeting were able to hear the budget presentation and ask questions or raise concerns, anyone who actually wanted to participate electronically was shut out.
A technical glitch meant there was no YouTube live stream of the meeting. There was also an issue with the audio recording.
District staff were able to recover some of the audio file, which they’ve paired with director of finance Doug Stewart’s slide presentation to create a video the public will be able to view.
Communications manager Julie Rogers said they’re also working on other ways to share the questions and answers from the Feb. 20 meeting and people can still email budget questions to info@sechelt.ca or post them to the district’s Facebook page.
Mobile vending
The committee recommended further consultation on amending the Parks, Lands and Roads Bylaw to allow for a mobile vendor spot near Friendship Park on Trail Bay.
The district recently put out a call for proposals for vendors interested in setting up at either Davis Bay or Kinnikinnick Park.
Coun. Noel Muller said a major concern with the Friendship Park site is the proximity to the downtown core.
“There’s a number of businesses in the downtown core who, slowly over the last year, year and a half, especially around our farmer’s market, are beginning to raise the issue of unfair competition,” he said.
The committee voted to get input from the Sechelt Downtown Business Association, Chamber of Com-merce and the Farmers’ and Artisans’ Market before the bylaw amendment goes to council.
Library funding
Sechelt’s finance, culture and economic development committee is recommending the District of Sechelt get together with the other funders of the Sechelt Public Library to discuss the library’s request for a funding increase.
2018 is the fifth and final year of a funding agreement between Sechelt, the SCRD areas of Pender Harbour, Halfmoon Bay, and Roberts Creek, and the shíshálh Nation.
The Library Board has asked for $262,000 above the annual increase built into that agreement.
The committee received a report from the finance department on Feb. 14 that suggested with Sechelt’s contributions to items like building maintenance included, the district’s per-capita funding is not as far behind the provincial average as the Library Board has claimed.
Coun. Darnelda Siegers questioned the accuracy of that calculation and said it won’t allow a proper comparison with the funding levels for the Gibsons library. She also put forward a motion to break the library’s funding request into capital and operating expenses and consider the capital only, because the funding agreement allows the partners to OK extra funding for capital projects.
“I would be in support of meeting with the other funders of the library and looking at that capital request of $139,700 and seeing who would put in which component of that so we can cover off that amount,” she said.
