Last week, the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) board looked at ways to allow direct funding for economic development projects and initiatives in the Sayward Valley.
It’s an issue that the board has been looking into since May 2015 to allow a signage project to provide welcome signs at each end of the Sayward Valley to go ahead and on March 24, the board came up with a solution.
At its Sept. 15, 2015, meeting, the SRD board passed a resolution to seek an order from the Lieutenant Governor in Council, “which would overcome the difficulties being encountered with approval of Bylaw No. 224 as a result of the transition from the Comox-Strathcona Regional District to the Strathcona Regional District” in an attempt to amend Bylaw No. 224 to allow the direct funding.
The SRD most recently heard back from the provincial government on March 9 of this year. The Province requested that the SRD pursue some form of elector approval from the service participants, as the government considers the proposed amendment to the SRD’s current bylaw a “significant change in scope of the service” and believes it should be treated as a new service establishment bylaw.
SRD staff recommended three options for seeking elector approval.
Option A is to seek elector approval for the bylaw, either through an assent voting or alternative approval process. The total elapsed time is about three to four months.
Option B is to amend the bylaw to include all of Electoral Area A, with approval to be provided by director consent. The total elapsed time would be about one to two months.
Option C is to discontinue further efforts with respect to the bylaw.
“From an administrative perspective, Option B provides the most timely resolution to the Sayward Valley sign placement initiative,” CAO Dave Leitch wrote in his report to the board. “However, future years’ expenditures would need to consider the interests of constituents located in other parts of Electoral Area A since they would be contributing funding for the service. If the board wishes to restrict the authority for project funding to the Sayward Valley, it will need to consider how best to obtain the approval of those electors. If that is the board’s preference, it is suggested that an alternative approval process would be most appropriate for this purpose since no increase in funding is being sought.”
Last year, the SRD was hoping to amend the service so it could invest directly in economic development initiatives, rather than being restricted to supporting the efforts of others, then-CAO Russ Hotsenpiller, said in his report to the board.
“The current bylaw limits the role of the regional district to that of making financial contributions to other organizations that provide economic development services,” Hotsenpiller wrote in September 2015. “The authority to directly and independently undertake economic development activities and initiatives unrelated to those of other organizations is altogether absent. This would affect the signage initiative proposed for the Sayward Valley, which was the initial impetus for the change, since the regional district’s ability to directly manager the signage project is constrained to that of financier.”
The economic development service application to Electoral Area A is only in effect for the portion of the electoral area on the east side of Vancouver Island formerly known as Electoral Area H (Sayward-Bloedel), wrote Hotsenpiller. The service is provided under the authority of a bylaw that was adopted by the Comox-Strathcona Regional District and transferred to the Strathcona Regional District when it was created in 2008.
At the March 24 board meeting, Electoral Area A (Kyuquot/Nootka-Sayward) director Gerald Whalley presented an alternate to the options presented by staff.
He suggested the board make an arrangement with the Village of Sayward to transfer appropriate Gas Tax Funds to the Village for the entrance signs to the Sayward Valley and leave the service as it is.
This was carried by the board.
