RCMP report
Sunshine Coast RCMP Staff Sgt. Vishal Mathura said calls for service in Sechelt went down this past summer as homeless people were housed.
“In comparison to last year I noticed a decrease in our calls regarding our homeless population,” Mathura told council on Nov. 16, during his report on RCMP statistics.
“They were actually not around and what happened was they found a place to live. They pooled their money and they went into a house and they were actually out of public sight and we had a decrease in our call volume because of that.”
Unfortunately, Mathura said, the same people who moved into a shared home have now been evicted and are back on the streets.
Mayor Bruce Milne said the story spoke to the “importance of social housing” and Mathura agreed.
“You know I didn’t really have an opinion one way or the other before but now I am in favour of social housing, because from my perspective it does work.”
Mathura also noted that the number of harassment files at the Sechelt detachment went up during the past year, which he attributes to the prevalence of social media and the opportunity it provides for online harassment.
“Previously that stuff wasn’t really an issue or a concern for us,” Mathura said. “It’s an issue all police forces actually have to deal with. Moving forward [we have to look at] how do we actually deal with those kinds of incidences.”
DCCs
Council rescinded third reading of the new District of Sechelt Development Cost Charge (DCC) bylaw to amend the appendix, at the prompting of the Ministry of Community Sport and Cultural Development.
The ministry noted that one item proposed to be funded by DCCs was not eligible – the Parks Master Plan.
Council took out the master plan reference, rescinded third reading and then moved a new reading, of which all were in favour.
The proposed DCC bylaw will now go back to the Ministry of Community Sport and Cultural Devel-opment for final approval before council can adopt the new bylaw.
Survey
The District of Sechelt is currently conducting a satisfaction survey online. In the past the district has done telephone surveys of a selection of the population, but this is the first time an online satisfaction survey has been offered.
Residents can go to www.sechelt.ca and click on the satisfaction survey link in the top right hand corner of the homepage to give their input.
“Residents are welcome to provide their input even if you have already responded via telephone. The results of the online survey will be tabulated separately,” a write-up on the website states.
“Analysis of the results of both surveys are anticipated to be presented to the Dec. 14 finance, culture and economic development committee meeting.”
Awards
Representatives from Maple Reindeers Inc. were before council Nov. 16 to present the plethora of awards the Sechelt Water Resource Centre has won since it opened in 2015.
The plant has won a Federation of Canadian Municipalities 2016 Sus-tainable Communities Award, a Canadian Con-struc-tion Association 2015 Envi-ronmental Achieve-ment Award, a Canadian Design Build Institute 2016 Award of Excellence, an Association of Consulting Engineering Companies 2016 Award of Excellence, an Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of B.C. 2016 Environmental Award and the Southern Interior Construction Association 2016 Innovation Award.
Milne thanked the delegation for their presentation and also made note of the work on the treatment plant by former Sechelt Water Resource Centre project manager Paul Nash and manager of engineering services Sanath Bandara.
“It’s absolutely true that one or two trade awards are one thing but six over the course of 12 to 14 months is highly unusual,” Milne said. “So we respect the work you’ve done and thank you for it.”
