Sechelt council tabled a motion for a mayor's red tape reduction advisory committee for commerce and development due to a clerical error. The terms of reference for the committee were accidentally left out of the July 13 committee of the whole agenda package, but Coun. Ann Kershaw explained the need for such a group.
"Basically it's just to have a group of people so the business community can go to them when they have a problem with the District of Sechelt that they determine is a red tape problem - and I'm sure we have lots of them," Kershaw said. "It's patterned on what Surrey did, which has been very, very successful, and that advisory board would then make recommendations to council."
But some councillors were unhappy with the recommendation, which came from the mayor's economic task force meeting, because there were no terms of reference attached.
"We're being asked to approve something when we don't have any idea what the costs are, if there are any, what the implications are. We were advised that this [group] would be appointed, so I just think we've been kept in the dark on this," said Coun. Fred Taylor.
Staff noted the terms of reference were accidentally left out of the agenda package.
"I understand this to be an oversight. They should have been put together, and I apologize. We can have the terms of reference on the next council meeting on July 20 if there's a desire to move forward on this," said director of corporate services Jo-Anne Frank.
But the majority of council did not want to move forward.
"To say we need a red tape reduction committee out of the blue, when it's obvious and apparent and historically true that every business group around here comes in and complains about red tape, having another committee isn't going to make any difference," said Coun. Alice Janisch.
Coun. Warren Allan moved to table the recommendation, sending it to the July 20 council meeting for more discussion when the terms of reference are available.
Economic task force
Councillors supported a recommendation that an economic development advisory board be appointed by council, despite some concerns over duplication of work already being done at the regional level.
The new advisory board would use the Sechelt investment attraction strategy (also known as the Warner Report) to guide their efforts.
"It's a very good report, and I believe we should have endorsed or incorporated it into our solutions years ago, so I'm very glad to see this coming forward," Allan said.
But Coun. Keith Thirkell was concerned the new group would be duplicating work being done already by chief administrative officers (CAOs) on the Coast.
"The three CAOs of the two municipalities and the regional district were appointed by Sechelt and the regional district board of directors to undertake just this," Thirkell said. "I'm just wondering if we are continuously reinventing the wheel here and sending too many people off in too many directions and diffusing rather than focusing."
But Mayor Darren Inkster said the Sechelt group would be specifically focused on Sechelt's needs and act as a back-up plan if the regional approach falls flat.
"As you know if in fact that doesn't happen or it doesn't come to fruition or it doesn't develop the way we want it, this would be seen then as a back-up plan for the District of Sechelt," he said.
Councillors voted in favour of endorsing the motion, but said they would like to have a verbal report on the regional economic initiative from their CAO at the next council meeting July 20.
Sustainability plan
The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) is seeking input from council on the draft regional sustainability plan, which is expected to be finalized this October.
Councillors had questions about the plan and were concerned about the cost to Sechelt to implement it.
"Our own sustainability department is now costing the taxpayers of Sechelt about $150,000 a year including support staff. That's a fairly significant contribution already from Sechelt's taxpayers to sustainability," Thirkell said. "I wouldn't want to see any costs creep out of the District towards that [SCRD sustainability plan] if possible."
But SCRD manager of sustainable services Dion Whyte said the plan should not cost the District much, if anything at all.
"It's really a call to see how we can leverage resources that are already in the community in order to get good work done. So it's really not about developing functions and developing budgets and so on, it's about trying to be smarter with how we work together as a community," Whyte said.
It was decided that councillors and Sechelt staff will meet with SCRD staff to discuss the plan further at a focus group in September.
