Plant upgrades
At the regular council meeting on Oct. 26, Grand Forks City Council decided unanimously to permit Granby River Mining Company to enter in to a Mortgage of Lease Agreement with Community Futures Development Corporation in order to secure financial funding for plant upgrades at its operations in Grand Forks. Council alsoapproved the city to enter into a non-disturbance agreement with Community Futures.
Energy planning
Council agreed unanimously to participate in FortisBC’s strategic community energy and emissions planning. The planning includes workshops, a consumption audit, andstrategy sessions on implementation of identified actions for energy and emissions reductions. CAO Doug Allin said that it would likely be the city’s manager ofoperations (David Reid) attending.
Regulation agri-tourism
Council agreed to direct staff to update the zoning bylaw to include agri-tourism, agri-tourism accommodation and farm retail sales as permitted accessory uses in theR4 and R4A zones, if the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) implements agri-tourism, agri-tourism accommodation and farm retail sales as regulatory requirements.
FCM Conference
Despite objections from Councillor Julia Butler regarding the cost, council unanimously approved sending Councillor Colleen Ross to the Federation of CanadianMunicipalities (FCM) Sustainable Communities Conference in Ottawa on Feb. 9-11, 2016.
Councillor Neil Krog stated that he has been to the conference several years before and found it very helpful and informative.
The early bird rate for registration is $715 for an FCM member for the full conference.
Municipal ticketing
Council has passed final reading of the amendment bylaw (No. 1957 A-3) to the municipal ticketing and information bylaw No. 1957. The amendment will allow for bettercontrol and enforcement of the bylaw with regard to watering restrictions.
Tax exemption bylaw
Council gave final reading to the permissive tax exemption bylaw for 2016. The bylaw grants permissive tax exemptions to a number of properties such as churches. Theexemptions will reduce taxes collectible by the city by approximately $31,668.
