The annual Union of British Columbia Municipalities Convention (UBCM) has come and gone, and a number of hot topics affecting Golden were discussed with ministers from the province.
Town of Golden Mayor Ron Oszust has returned from the trip to Whistler where he and other staff participated in daily discussions about issues that affect Golden and other communities around the province.
Major topics of discussion included Highway 95 bridges 1 and 2 replacement, Kicking Horse Canyon four-laning, labour shortages, and a community forest licence consideration in Golden.
“We met with Minister [Claire] Trevena, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, just to reiterate to her the importance of the Kicking Horse Canyon Project, and we got confirmation that things are moving forward with that project that is supposed to start in 2019, and as previously noted, it will take about five years,” Oszust said.
The Town of Golden council requested the minister ensures that the project, referred to as Phase 4, remain a priority with the province.
“We also talked to her about, which in my mind is a critically important project for our community, is the Highway 95 Kicking Horse bridges,” Oszust said.
The community has been waiting a long time to have the bridges replaced, and the Town of Golden has already been part of in-depth conversations about options to replace the bridges.
“The bridges need to be replaced, and that needs to happen sooner than later, and we’re just going to keep coming back and ensuring that gets into the budget over the next year or two so we can get that project going,” Oszust said.
The replacement project, which investigated three options, originally indicated the construction would begin sooner, but it was not slated in the province’s recent three-year budget.
“It is so important for the community because we’re at risk of a spring freshet flood through there and if it breaches at the low parts of the dike, or if it breaches the bridge at the ice floes, then we can be in trouble,” Oszust said. “That’s our only corridor across that river, and if that bridge is out, we’re in deep trouble.”
The preferred option for the bridge construction is to straighten out the curve across the river to limit the number of vehicles that must take a wide turn into the oncoming lane to navigate the corners.
In the summer, the increase in tourism has also increased the demand for workers in the community. There is a growing trend of labour shortages in rural communities.
“One hundred days of summer is when many of these businesses make their money, and it carries them through the winter, and if you miss a few days, it makes an impact on your whole year,” Oszust said.
Some suggestions to the Minister of Jobs, Trades, and Technology were to bring back the federal temporary foreign workers program, and the provincial nominee program. Both programs brought people to Canada to help bolster the workforce.
At the meeting, the Mayor also met with the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations, and Rural Development to discuss Golden’s community forest licence consideration. Community forest agreements are only granted to legal entities representing community interests, and are typically located in close proximity to the community that owns them.
“Community forests add other values, not just the harvesting of the timber and making profit and giving it back to the community, but you can also harvest for other values,” Oszust explained.
There is a variety of benefits a community forest can have on a community, from creation of jobs, to profit from lumber, and non lumber fibres. There are more than 50 community forests across the province, operating under 25-year agreements.
Other topics covered at UBCM included meeting with other resort municipalities for a full day to discuss how to move forward with the Resort Municipalities Initiative, since the program will be continuing, and reducing the amount of resolutions that communities have to decide on, so the province will be able to focus on more specific community issues.
