The District of Sechelt is going to make some changes to its community association policy, including recognizing Tillicum Bay as a distinct neighbourhood.
The policy was created in 2014, and a staff report presented at the April 4 council meeting said it was “intended to ensure that the community associations were in good standing with the Societies Act, ensure the delegate addressing council represented the association and the association membership represents a majority of the residents in the neighbourhood.”
The associations raised several concerns with the policy at a March 20 meeting with councillors, including the possibility that some parts of the policy were no longer in line with recently updated Societies Act.
“I think it’s a good time to review this policy. As our community has grown, I think the needs within the different neighbourhoods have changed,” Coun. Alice Lutes said.
Mayor Bruce Milne said he thought the more restrictive parts of the policy are troublesome. “There were some interpretations of this bylaw that indicated it was in fact targeting community associations and I shared that when it was first and subsequently used,” Milne said, adding that he felt the Tuwanek association was singled out for regularly having non-full-time residents in their executive.
“We want to make sure we’re inclusive of that as well,” Milne added. “I don’t think we should be telling registered societies or associations who should be on their membership or should be on their executive. We should be focusing on are we getting input from people who live in the area, and reside in the area and invest in the area, and is that important.”
Milne also said he thought that a community association being able to show it represents the majority of the neighbourhood’s residents is “absolutely impossible.”
The need to designate Tillicum Bay as a distinct neighbourhood is tied to the part of the policy that says a neighbourhood association “cannot exist within the boundaries of an existing association.” Tillicum falls within the boundaries of both the Tuwanek and Sandy Hook associations.
Milne said he feels the policy should be as informal as possible.
“It’s not meant to be a bureaucratic policy to channel the democratic process in any strange way. I’m hoping when the policy comes back from staff it’s a much lighter policy that encourages participation.”
