The following are briefs from the July 10 Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) committee of the whole and board meetings.
Tide rises
The Coastal Tsunami are gearing up for their second season, and they’ll play it as a Junior A Tier 1 team.
Tsunami’s operations manager Rick Hopper gave an update to the SCRD board July 10.
“We had over 15,000 fans over the course of our 24 [home] games, and it was just fantastic,” said Hopper. “Julie Reeves, our sole owner, she kept assuring me that the people would show up. And did they ever.”
The newest team in the Pacific Junior Hockey League finished 11th in the league, winning 19 games, losing 27 games and tying one.
“As a Canucks fan, the record you had was actually quite good,” Sechelt director Darren Inkster joked.
Other directors commented on the camaraderie in the stands.
“It was incredible to see the community come together for something other than complaining about the ferries,” said Sechelt director Alton Toth. “People, they were having fun, they were enjoying, they were cheering, it was an amazing experience. And congratulations to you and everybody behind the scenes."
“It's a really great cross-section of the community that we see at those games too,” said White. “All ages and that's really fantastic to see, especially hosting at one of our public recreation facilities.”
While seven local players were signed to the team last year, this year there are two confirmed players with a third still waiting to hear.
“It's not easy to play junior A hockey,” said Hopper, adding that they’re hoping their work with minor hockey will allow local talent to grow.
Evacuation route
A “multimodal” evacuation plan for the Sunshine Coast is in the works.
Board directors approved a $119,436 contract for Emergency Management Group Inc. (funded through the community emergency preparedness fund).
“The regional evacuation plan will identify and provide capacity of available routes for egress, methods of evacuation, modes of transportation including marine, anticipated speed of progression related to local hazards, and other factors that impact evacuation routes,” explains the staff report.
Resting place
More casket lots and two new columbaria are coming to the Seaview Cemetery.
SCRD board approved awarding Harbour Hydrovac and Excavation Ltd. a contract of $138,000 for the work, which involves converting redundant sections of road into in-ground burial plots and installing the columbaria. This will provide 48 new above-ground spaces –– about five years of inventory. The project also includes six new spaces for the Jewish Burial Society, said a previous staff report.
The 2.3 hectare property contains approximately 2,400 internments, including casket burials, in–ground cremations and above-ground niches, which date as far back as 1937, said the report. The SCRD took on the cemetery in 1976.
In 2023, $589,600 was approved for the cemetery expansion project. Other aspects of the project to come include a conceptual plan for the full build-out of the cemetery into the southwest corner and stormwater management design.
It gets expensive
After the board approved a slew of (previously reported) project budget increases, chair Alton Toth brought forward a motion to have staff compile a comprehensive report on recent project budget overruns.
This report is to include an analysis of primary factors in overruns, review of current procedures and budgeting, and recommendations to support better accuracy and financial oversight of future projects.
The budget increases had been previously endorsed at the June 26 committee of the whole meeting.
“From our perspective as the policy, budgetary oversight side of things, I don't know if anybody actually really felt good leaving that meeting, where we had all of these increases that we really didn’t have any choice [in approving],” said Toth. “I think we need to get a little more information about how we got there. How can we mitigate some of these going forward?”
“There have been a lot of rocks and a lot of hard places lately,” said Elphinstone director Donna McMahon. “I think the public deserves the full transparency and accountability that we can deliver as a board.”
The motion passed unanimously.
Keeping families together
Directors unanimously endorsed District of Sechelt’s letter to MP Patrick Weiler, urging the renewal of work permits for families of temporary foreign workers.
The letter was brought forward by Sechelt director Alton Toth, following its endorsement at Sechelt council.
"Fundamentally, families deserve to be able to remain together, especially if they've left the safety and comfort of their homes and have come overseas to Canada to work to make a better future for their families,” said Toth.
Toth said he’d been in discussions with MP Patrick Weiler, who is advocating for rural vs. urban programs, given in rural places there isn’t the same opportunity for workers to commute from a larger urban centre for a job.
