The District of Sicamous will be going to bat for seasonal property owners unable to claim disaster aid from the B.C. government.
At the May 1 Southern Interior Local Government Association meeting in Salmon Arm, Sicamous council will be seeking support for a resolution urging the province to review its Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) program, with a “view to allow all property owners, regardless of principal or secondary occupancy, to qualify.”
Sicamous Mayor Darrell Trouton became well aware of the discrepancy after the destructive June 23 debris flows in the Two Mile subdivision as well as Swansea Point, both of which have a large number of properties owned by seasonal residents.
“They probably pay three times more taxes in the community than any of the other residences, and yet they’re not recognized,” says Trouton. “My thought is you’re punishing somebody for having a second home or and investment home, an investment in our community, because they live somewhere else.”
Trouton recognizes Alberta – from where many of Sicamous’ seasonal residents hail – has a similar policy. But he says he still doesn’t agree with it.
Another resolution Sicamous council will be raising at SILGA relates to the permitting process under the Mines Act, and how there is currently nothing requiring applicants to seek local government support in advance, and how applications can be issued without respect to a municipality’s official community plan or zoning. At SILGA, council will be asking for the support from fellow local governments to have the province to amend the Mines Act to first require a mines permit application to confirm proposed mining activity is within an “area designated by a local official community plan and zoning bylaw permitting such mining activity.”
“We just have to nip that in the bud and say that in a residential area, or near a residential or a resort community, that somebody can’t come along and excavate the side of a mountain for gravel,” says Trouton.
Two other resolutions being forwarded to SILGA are aimed at making life easier for municipal staff, and saving the taxpayers some money. One relates to the provincial government’s penchant for ministry name changes.
With these changes comes a change in staffing. This, says district administrator Heidi Frank, makes it time consuming and difficult to bring new staff up to speed on certain files.
“When the ministry names continuously change, it creates confusion on who the appropriate contact is, not to mention the taxpayers’ expense of all the business card and letterhead changes,” says Frank. “Every municipality across the province then has to update its files. On a provincial level this is a huge soft cost.”
Sicamous will be asking for SILGA’s support in calling on the province to develop a policy restricting the change of ministry names to within four months of a provincial election.
The fourth resolution relates to reporting requirements for federal and provincial funding grants which, in the eyes of Frank and council, tend to be onerous.
“With the limited staffing numbers in municipalities such as Sicamous, we often struggle to complete the reporting requirements in order to receive the funding,” says Frank. “It requires financial, status, and general information reporting, often needing two to three people to work on one grant.”
The District of Sicamous, like all municipalities, is also required to complete such things as annual reports and five-year financial plans, without the same staffing levels or expertise as a large city. So Sicamous, through a resolution to SILGA, will be calling on the provincial and federal governments to streamline their reporting requirements and provide assistance in completing reports for smaller communities.
Resolutions passed at the SILGA convention are then forwarded to the larger Union of BC Municipalities Convention for support.
