While this year’s Southern Interior Local Government Association convention was successful for Salmon Arm, it wasn’t entirely so for the District of Sicamous.
Last week the City of Salmon Arm hosted around 200 local government representatives, who were in town for the three-day convention.
Held at the Prestige Harbourfront Resort, the event provided an opportunity for members to discuss pressing issues of the day, pass related resolutions to go to the Union of BC Municipalities convention for wider support, and learn from numerous guest speakers including former Shuswap MLA George Abbott, B.C. Auditor General for Local Government Basia Ruta and former Vancouver Canuck and professional speaker Trevor Linden. But the event, organized and co-ordinated with the help of Salmon Arm council’s SILGA representative Chad Eliason and city staff, was also an opportunity to showcase the city and all it has to offer.
Salmon Arm Mayor Nancy Cooper said delegates responded well to the things that happened off site, such as an evening at the RJ Haney Heritage Village, or a lunch on the town where they had an opportunity to take advantage of the city’s culinary assets.
There were 34 resolutions voted on during the convention, ranging in topic from funding for provincial prisoners to enforcement of Riparian Area Regulations to preventing excessive vehicle noise in relation to motorcycles and boats. While Salmon Arm did not have any resolutions, the District of Sicamous had four, of which only two passed.
Of the resolutions that didn’t succeed, the most surprising for Mayor Darrell Trouton had to do with seasonal property owners not being covered under the province’s Disaster Financial Assistance. The resolution urges the province review this policy, “with a view to allowing all property owners regardless of principle or secondary occupancy, to qualify for DFA.” What was particularly surprising for Trouton was the sole person who spoke against this resolution, the Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s Area E–Sicamous/Malakwa director Rhona Martin.
Martin said she spoke against the resolution because the policy is the same elsewhere, including Alberta. She also noted B.C. wouldn’t have the money to cover the proposed change.
“I know how horrible it is, I’ve had to watch it twice now, where you have folks on one side of the street that are able to get coverage because they live there all the time, and you have folks on the other side of the street and it’s their seasonal property and they don’t receive any compensation,” said Martin. “And it’s very divisive. At the same time, it would be millions of dollars and I don’t think we can afford it.”
The other failed resolution was to have the province amend the Mines Act and require permit applicants to confirm such mining activity is within an area designated by a local official community plan and permitted by zoning bylaws.
Of the resolutions that passed, one was to encourage the provincial and federal governments to streamline reporting requirements and provide assistance in completing reports for smaller communities. The second successful resolution asks that the province develop a policy restricting changing ministry names to within four months of a general provincial election.
After the municipal auditor’s presentation, Ruta addressed a question on the minds of many present – the pressures an audit might have on already limited local government staffing resources. Ruta suggested avoiding duplication and the provision of additional resources via the Local Government Management Association as possible solutions.
Sicamous administrator Heidi Frank is hopeful that, if an audit should proceed, that some kind of support comes with it.
“Because we are all at full capacity and there’s no way we can take any of our staff and pull them aside to work with an auditor general,” said Frank. “While I understand what the province is trying to do, the strain is going to be huge on small communities. So I hope the province will take a look at that and come up with some solutions.”