Board elections
Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors acclaimed Halfmoon Bay (Area B)’s Garry Nohr as chair for 2016 at the Dec. 10 regular board meeting. Pender Harbour (Area A) director Frank Mauro was acclaimed as vice-chair.
At the start of his past terms as chair, Nohr offered some thoughts on his goals for the year ahead. This time, however, Nohr said he’s going to wait.
“We desperately need to work as a group to talk about the direction [of the board], not the chair giving the direction,” he told the board. “We’re going to come together to talk about what we’ve accomplished individually as board members over the last year, and what we hope to do in the next year. At the same time we’re going to look at how we’re coming with the strategic plan.”
Nohr says the board hopes to do that in January, and then he’ll come back with an inaugural speech as chair outlining what the board has come up with.
Two new directors also joined the board Dec. 10; Alice Lutes is now representing the District of Sechelt, and SIB councillor Randy Joe is the new director for the Sechelt Indian Government District.
Malaspina service
Pender Harbour director Frank Mauro said he’s been talking with his colleagues at Powell River Regional District about strategies for dealing with the gap in transportation services left when Malaspina Coach Lines suspended operations in the fall.
It was the only scheduled, commercial bus service between the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver.
“We’ve had some discussions with the manager of BC Transit on the Coast here, but we have quite a bit more to do in that regard to see what the potential solution to that is,” he said.
Powell River - Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons wrote the Minister of Transportation in October asking him to work with stakeholders on the issue.
Economic development
Directors unanimously approved a Dec. 10 planning and development committee recommendation to look at two options for the structure of a new region-wide economic development organization: a non-profit society or a development corporation.
The recommendation calls for SCRD staff to get legal advice on the options, and for the economic development steering committee members to take the idea to the other local governments (Gibsons, Sechelt and the SIB) for feedback.
It also calls for the final decision on the structure to be left up to the board of directors for the economic development organization.
Local governments hope to have that board in place by the end of January, 2016.
Library funding
SCRD directors have given staff the go-ahead to negotiate a funding agreement with the Gibsons and District Public Library Association (GDPLA), after ratifying a recommendation from a Dec. 3 special meeting of the corporate and administrative services committee.
At the suggestion of Roberts Creek (Area D) director Mark Lebbell, the agreement would expire in 2018 to coordinate with the term of a similar agreement with the Sechelt Library.
In her report to that Dec. 3 meeting, SCRD treasurer Tina Perrault said, “The purpose of a funding agreement is to provide clarity on funding objectives and transparency to the public, and protects both parties from any potential risks.”
At the moment there is no such agreement between the SCRD and the GDPLA.
