This year's Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) was busy, but beneficial for local politicians who took part in the five-day convention in Vancouver.
UBCM is an annual gathering of representatives from 193 different communities across B.C. The representative mayors, councillors, chairs and directors come together to share ideas, pass resolutions and present a common voice for local government.
Throughout the convention there are a number of workshops to take part in, and most beneficial is the face time local politicians get with provincial ministers.
"You get 15 minutes with each minister to present your case, so you need to come prepared," said Sechelt Mayor Darren Inkster.
Inkster had two ministerial meetings with Minister of Transportation Blair Lekstrom and Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Shirley Bond.
Inkster said the meeting with Lekstrom centred on making sure Sechelt is still on the ministry's radar when it comes to future highway work, and he said talk about the expansion of the airport also came up.
Inkster said the District had a good relationship with Bond when she was in that ministry, but the change that occurred when Premier Christy Clark came into power left Sechelt's airport plans stalled.
"He's [Lekstrom] got his ministerial staff looking closely at the issue," Inkster said. "He's well aware that we have partnering funds waiting, so he knows that he could get bang for his buck. It's just them finding money in their budget to put into an airport up here. It's always about that, but I think we made a good case."
The meeting with Bond was about increasing RCMP costs and how to deal with them.
"I proposed that they consider lowering Sechelt's municipal contribution to policing from 70 per cent to 67 or 65 per cent. And that would save us probably $100,000 minimum," Inkster said.
He also presented Bond with a paper that shows the provincial government owes Sechelt some money for policing costs incurred in 2010.
"The prisoner costs is one the minister in a sense agreed with us on, that if our figures are correct there should be a reimbursement, so they're looking," he said. "We put a figure together of about $80,000 that we would look to them to reimburse. That was just in 2010."
Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board chair Garry Nohr spent his face time with the ministers discussing the recent SCRD transportation study, how to keep parks open longer and improvements to bus service.
Nohr presented the deputy minister of Transportation with the recently completed SCRD transportation study.
"We presented them with a couple and talked about the priority list of improvements, which they were glad to hear we'd done, because most of the time people just give them a shotgun effect," Nohr said.
He also talked with the deputy minister about improved transit and bus stops and areas on the highway that need improvement.
"That was a very productive meeting and they were very impressed with how the Sunshine Coast had all come together, all the governments, and discussed it and came up with a priority list," Nohr said.
A meeting with one of the Environment minister's deputies may result in partnering between the regional district and the provincial government to keep provincial parks open longer, he added.
"Our staff may be working with provincial park staff to keep them clean and more effective to bring more tourists here," Nohr said.
Nohr also met with the CAO of B.C. Transit to push for another highway bus to improve connections to the ferry.
Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk was named third vice president on the new UBCM executive, his fourth time on the executive.
"I look at the position from a bit of a selfish perspective in that what can this position do for all our communities on the Sunshine Coast," Janyk said. "We have more than 2,000 people elected in the province of B.C. and it's great to get the recognition and respect from my peers at UBCM, but when we have an issue with the ferry or the highway and have to go to a certain ministry, being able to say that the message is coming from someone on the UBCM executive can go a long way."
Janyk and Gibsons councillors had one meeting with deputy minister of Education Keith Miller about the proposed Gibsons Elementary School project.
Janyk said it sounds like the new school project will be going ahead.
"I think they could be making a final announcement either late this year or early next year," Janyk said. "Construction would be 12 to 18 months with an opening of September 2014. This is good news for not only Gibsons, but the whole Sunshine Coast."
Several resolutions were passed at UBCM, most notably one to make the ferry system part of the provincial transportation system and one that called on the province to institute a moratorium on further distribution of Smart Meters. Janyk said that resolution passed by about 55 per cent.
Janyk also said he is looking forward to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture that was brought up during Premier Christy Clark's address to UBCM last Friday.
"I'm very interested in this report. I think it could have some positive implications on small scale farming, and if we can capitalize on that, it would be good," he said.
