The Village of Burns Lake will be participating in the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako’s (RDBN) proposed Parks and Trails Service.
In 2019, the RDBN launched a Parks and Outdoor Recreation study through a consultant to understand and to assess the needs, demands and services opportunities for recreation in the rural areas of the district. The staff brought back the report in June this year and presented it to the board. They were then directed to come up with recommendations on how to implement the suggestions from the survey.
The RDBN is now seeking participation from the regional district’s municipalities to put in place a service implementation bylaw and is hoping to have the bylaw adopted in the RDBN’s 2021 budget.
While the municipalities have until Nov. 13 to decide upon their participation, the village of Burns Lake has already given its nod to the proposal.
“It means the Village will participate in a new service that will be established by the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako. The purpose of the service is to create, operate and market regional parks and trails,” said the village Chief Administrative Officer, Sheryl Worthing.
The Village of Granisle will also be participating in this service according to Mayor Linda McGuire.
“It will allow our community to engage and participate in discussions surrounding the RDBN region. Additionally, should projects in our immediate area present themselves we will already be at the table,” she said.
Understanding the proposed Parks and Trails service
Under the proposed service, the staff has put forth a work plan for the years 2021 to 2023. According to the plan, in 2021, the regional district will work towards developing a Parks Bylaw that would put in place regulations for usage of the RDBN trails and parks around camping, fires, littering, smoking and even hours of operation.
They would also work on developing a maintenance policy and a special events policy.
In the first year, the service would undertake Cycle 16 Trail project planning and Trout Creek Park use and development plan which fall in the electoral area A i.e. the Smithers or Telkwa area and the Imerson’s Beach Park and Parking lot plus rail crossing development and Hospital Point Park operation and development, that falls under the Burns Lake Service Area.
Under the 2022-2023 work plan, RDBN hopes to establish a local government ticketing bylaw to help maintain law and order within the RDBN parks and trails and to develop an implementation strategy for collection and distribution of funds to societies providing recreation services.
How the service would affect the communities
The plan included a proposal include a bylaw that would have municipalities wanting to participate in the service and have seven sub-regional Parks and Recreation Service Areas. Electoral Area A service area would include Electoral Area A, Town of Smithers and Village of Telkwa, Electoral Area B and E Service area would include areas B and E and the Village of Burns Lake, Electoral area C would include the area C and District of Fort St. James, Electoral Area D Service area would include area D and Village of Fraser Lake, Electoral Area F Service Area would include area F and District of Vanderhoof and finally, the Electoral Area G Service area would include area G, District of Houston and Village of Granisle.
What this division means is that the costs associated with parks and trails are paid by the residents of the area where they are located. So each of these seven service areas will have their own budget plans and budget funding would be based on admin costs, maintenance costs for each facility, reserve funds for facility replacement and reserve funds for new projects.
How the taxation would work and the what kind of a budget would be allocated will however be decided once all the municipalities have responded about their participation. More information is expected to be available on the Parks and Trails Service in the coming days.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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