Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board members spent much of last week voicing their concerns over everything from community safety to the role of regional districts in boundary extensions at this year's Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Whistler.
While funding announcements were "nothing - a big fat zero," according to board chair Donna Shugar, the board was able to bring to light some problems the SCRD is facing.
"A lot of the conversations we had were sort of theoretical policy discussions rather than a specific request for something," Shugar said.
In a meeting with staff from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, the board pressed to find a new funding formula for police-based victim services and youth outreach - "both programs that we really stand behind and are under-resourced and really important from a preventative perspective and assisting people with process," Shugar said.
She said she thinks the message was heard and holds hope the province will undertake a review of the formula, which works for some communities, but not the SCRD.
"[Ministry staff] didn't slam the door in our face, so it sounds like that review is happening. What the results will be, I don't know, but we are hopeful," she said.
Also on the agenda was a conversation with Integrated Land Management Bureau head Pat Bell regarding the approval process for independent power projects (IPPs). Specifically, Shugar highlighted the Tyson Creek IPP "where the oversight fell down in the granting of permission to do the project." During the approval process, no ministry staff anticipated a sediment slide from a lake delta that occurred early this winter. The board asked Bell's ministry to make sure similar mistakes are not repeated at other IPPs in the province.
Shugar and other SCRD board members voted against a UBCM resolution that would ask the province to amalgamate the federal and provincial assessments for large-scale projects. The motion did not pass.
"We were quite pleased with the result because we felt an amalgamation of those two processes would water the whole thing down to the weaker provincial model," she said.
Shugar said she felt the board did a good job in gaining provincial support to preserve public access to the Irvine's Landing dock, which has become an issue in Pender Harbour.
The board was also able to hold a meeting with community and Rural Development Minister Ben Stewart on the relative lack of input regional districts have when municipal governments want to extend their boundaries into regional districts.
"We want to see a greater role for the regional districts in boundary extensions," Shugar said.
SCRD directors also pressed Stewart to open up discussion on how local governments can be involved in provincial negotiations with First Nations.
