Members of Qualicum Beach town council expressed wildly different views regarding suggestions coming out of a residents’ association forum on development last week.
One of the panelists at the meeting Thursday organized by the Qualicum Beach Residents’ Association suggested a new advisory group could be formed from the town’s existing three resident groups. That new group, which architect Bruce Fleming-Smith dubbed the Qualicum Beach Building Forum (QBBF), could have a look at development proposals before they got to council.
(A report on the meeting last week at the civic centre which attracted 120 people was in Tuesday’s edition of The NEWS and is still posted on pqbnews.com).
On Monday at town council’s meeting, Mayor Teunis Westbroek said he was “very intrigued with what was presented” at the forum last week.
Coun. Mary Brouilette disagreed.
“If you don’t ever want to see any development in Qualicum Beach again, that’s the way to go about it,” she said.
Coun. Scott Tanner said he was going to bring a motion to the next council meeting July 8 asking council to instruct staff to look at Fleming-Smith’s suggestions and report on what may be feasible.
Other news from Qualicum Beach town council’s regular meeting Monday night:
• The town’s auditor, Mark McGorman, presented his yearly auditor’s report. His report, and a detailed financial report presented to council by CFO John Marsh, are available for the public to view at town hall or through the town’s website, www.qualicumbeach.com.
“So, we’re in good shape?” Westbroek asked McGorman.
“You’re in good shape,” McGorman replied.
• Some members of council and town staff were in the dunk tank during the Show and Shine last weekend, raising $600 for charity.
“I lost count at 24 the times I hit the water,” said Coun. Bill Luchtmeijer.
• Council had a look at the property tax exemptions it allowed in 2012 and one seemed to jump at them — a total of $33,000 for the Island Corridor Foundation (ICF) related to railway lands and crossings within the town. That’s on top of what the town pays the ICF to maintain crossings and the town’s part of the RDN’s contribution to a railway some on council seemed convinced will never be re-launched.
“We’re spending a lot of money here and we don’t think it’s worth it,” said Westbroek.
“We are putting money out and there is no train,” said Brouilette.
“We have to have some action (from ICF) or we have to ask why we are exempting this property tax,” said Luchtmeijer.
Coun. Dave WIllie said the ICF needs to concentrate on uses for the corridor other than trains, or risk losing $14 million in federal and provincial funding.
“We have a team of individuals . . . spending all their time (negotiating) with Via Rail and Southern Rail,” said Willie. “If we don’t look at other options, we could lose that money.”
When contacted by The NEWS last week, a VIA Rail spokesperson said negotiations with the ICF continue.
• Marsh also supplied council with a report on what top-paid town staff made in salaries in 2012, and how much the mayor and councillors were paid for their services and to reimburse their expenses. Mayor Westbroek was paid a total of $41,611, including an automatic $11,366 allowed for expenses and $7,512 in reimbursed expenses. The top-paid employee of the town is CAO Mark Brown, who made $160,235 in 2012, when he was also reimbursed for $7,133 in expenses. There were 14 town employees who were paid more than $75,000 in 2012. For a more detailed list of who made what, please visit www.pqbnews.com.
