Mr. Mayor, we're now live.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to start by acknowledging we're gathered here today
on the traditional lands of the Quotsin nation. And with a quorum being present, I'd like
to resume our regular council meeting. The first item we have here before us is approval
of the consent agenda. We have a recommendation that council approve the consent agenda
and recommendations contained therein. So I'd like to move the recommendation.
Moved by Councillor Finley, seconded by Councillor Justice.
All in favor and oppose, motion carries.
We'll now move on to the approval of the meeting agenda.
We have a recommendation that the agenda be adopted
as circulated, with some like to move the recommendation.
Moved by Councillor Finley, seconded by Councillor Calio.
I'll call the question, all in favor.
Opposed, not opposed, motion carries.
We'll now move on to Mayor's report.
So
last week I attended the 125th anniversary celebration of the Shamanus
healthcare auxiliary and offer a few words on behalf of municipality. The
auxiliary, the auxiliary for anyone who's not familiar with it was formed on
September 25th 1899 when 28 women came together in Shamanus amidst a serious
typhoid epidemic to support the creation of a local hospital. Every day
Since then this shamanist health car auxiliary volunteers have been serving the people of
shamanist and beyond. Initial support from the auxiliary involved practical activities
such as sewing bandages, drapes and hospital gowns and from those early days to now the
auxiliary is a staple organization in the community operating a hugely successful thrift
store and continuously raising funds to support the comfort and care of shamanist residents.
I want to acknowledge the work of the organizers and team of volunteers to put together
the celebration including Susan Bobye chair of the shamanus healthcare auxiliary committee.
As many of you know I recently joined Councillor Estash and the
Couch Valley Regional District Director for Couch and Bay Hillary Abbott for a couple tours of
our local public transit system with a focus on several key routes that run through North Couch
and as well as the inter-regional route between Couch and Animo. These included routes
routes number two and three from the Village Green Mall of the Couch and Commons, number
four from the Village Green Mall through Duncan to Maple Bay Road, number 34 from
Lady Smith to Shamanus, and the number six which covers Crofton and Shamanus
before looking back to the Village Green Mall. We were surprised at how
many folks were riding the bus whether the nine more on our local routes and
the large geographic area covered by each of the trips. We also found the
newly implemented UMO fair system,
which allows riders to purchase a reloadable card
or download an app to be straightforward to use.
I want to thank the Couch Valley Regional District staff
for organizing this tour
and giving us a better understanding of the strengths
for existing transit routes, areas for improvement
and expected changes as new Couch and District Hospital
opens in 2027.
We have further trips planned,
including myself and Councilor family
are going to be taking the route down to Victoria
at some point in the near future.
From September 16th to September 20th,
council attended the Union of BC Municipalities
annual convention in Vancouver,
which included more than 2,200 municipal mayors,
councilors and regional directors from cities
and towns across the province.
Convention featured panel discussions and workshops
of experts on a wide range of topics
from housing and healthcare to climate change
and wildfire mitigation to public safety and addictions.
In addition, the delegates voted on policy resolutions seeking action from the provincial
government on various issues, while also hearing speeches from the Premier as well
as the leaders of the Conservative Party and the Green Party.
We also had an opportunity to meet with several cabinet ministers on major challenges facing
our municipality, including mitigating flooding along the Shamanist River, long-term licensing
for the wells that supply drinking water to Shamanists, protecting jobs at the
Croft and Mill in the Western Forest Products Facilities in Chamanus and Couch in Bay and
continue provincial funding for the 9-1-1 Police Dispatch Services.
Finally, this Monday I attended the Every Child's Matters March at the Charles Howy
Park in Duncan on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
It was great to see so many folks out for this day for all Canadians, which is for
all Canadians to commemorate and learn more about the history and legacy of the
residential school system in our country.
I want to thank Audrey George from the Kola Housing Society
and the organizing team for all their work
and bring folks together for this important day
that included dancing, drumming,
and hearing directly from residential school survivors
about their experiences.
And that concludes my mayor's report.
We'll now move on to public input.
Public input is an opportunity for the public
to provide their feedback on matters
including the agenda,
The maximum number of speakers to be heard during public input is limited to five,
the maximum of three minutes allotted to each speaker.
I'm going to first start with the sign-in sheet here for any folks who are attending in person.
First, we have Mary DeLue, I believe it is.
I couldn't invite Miss DeLue up to the podium, state your name and address.
Yeah, good afternoon, Mayor and Council.
I just heard of this at one o'clock today.
So I'll try and speak clearly and not be rushed
I'm speaking about the permissive tax exemption by law that's proposed
There's 14 items here on your
Publication in the newspaper your notice all highlighted you can see that's a lot of items. They're all
Religious based various religions
It's quite a few Christian, many Christian, one non-denominational, one Jewish, one Sikh,
one Buddhist, no Muslim in North Cowichan, places of worship.
So I've highlighted them all, including camp Kiwanis, is that how you pronounce it?
Which says it's a Christian camp.
And then I tallied how many taxes they wouldn't have to pay.
I own a lot with a 1,200 square foot house on it here on Coronation Hill.
And I know I fill my property taxes or went up a lot this year.
And I'm 75, I'm retired, a widow.
I'm wondering why all these organizations are exempted.
There's a lot of land.
I didn't add up the acreage, but Count Qualnis has an awful lot of land, and some of them
look like they're around local housing.
One meditation place looks like it's just out in the Boone Summer, but they're on acreage.
The reason I feel they should be exempted is because religions have resulted in wars,
persecutions, genocides, tortures, rape, executions, discrimination, and withdrawal
of basic human rights and continue to do so. I call for your attention our history of residential
schools and land taken by the Roman Catholic Church with government approval and also the fact that
Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon today. It's not a thing in the past, it's a thing that's
happening now and I don't feel these organizations should be tax exempt when land is so valuable
and we have so many homeless people and we're looking for land to do good things with.
That's my shtick. I appreciate your time. I feel very deeply about this. I'm a retired teacher.
I spent my life trying to deal with all religions, backgrounds, immigrant children.
I was up north for 30 years teaching. Half the children in my class were Indigenous.
I don't think we should be pushing different people's points of views and getting rewarded for it.
I think we should all learn to work together and taxes should be applied equally by the communities.
We're at time. Thank you.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Oh, can I say one more thing? I forgot the most important.
We're over time.
It's a one sentence. It's a one sentence, please.
Just really quickly.
Okay, total of $109,950 saved for North Palatine, if you do not accept religious organizations.
Thanks.
Great, thank you.
I'd like to now invite up our next speaker, Brandon Tulfel.
Mr. Tulfel, if you'd come up to the podium, see your name and address.
Apologies, I think I've signed that incorrectly.
I'm here seeking a development variance permit.
I'm item 10.1.2.
I think we'll get to my time later on in the agenda. That's correct. Thank you. Apologies
I'll now turn to IT staff and ask if we had any virtual attendees of their hands raised
There are none. Mr. Mayor. Okay. We'll now move on to
we'll now move on to the
statutory hearing matter
So I'll call the statutory hearing to order at 5 10 p.m
for Development Variance Permit Application for 1892 Value View Place.
Where a person has a statutory right to be heard, that person shall be provided an opportunity during the statutory hearing.
The order of business for the statutory hearing shall be conducted as follows.
Staff will introduce the item.
The applicant will be invited to provide details of their application and respond to any question from council.
The corporate officer will provide a summary of the correspondence received and will read out any late submissions
Members of the public who believe they will be affected by the by-law or permit will be invited to provide comments
The applicant and or staff will be provided with an opportunity to respond to any new information
Received or to correct factual errors raised during the statutory hearing and then finally the by-law or permit will be considered by counsel
The session hearing item is development variance permit application for 1892
Valley View Place. I'll now invite the corporate officer to introduce the permit.
Thank you. So the development variance permit application 1892 Valley View Place.
So the purpose is for council to consider this application to decrease the maximum permitted
side yard setback from 1.5 meters to 0.67 meters to bring an addition to a
single family dwelling constructed without a building permit into
compliance and convert the addition into a garage and habitable space which
meets the BC Building Code.
Councilor, do you have any questions for staff?
All right, so I understand the applicant is present and does not wish
to provide any details of their application however they are available
to answer any questions that council may have. I'll turn to council and ask if you have any
questions for the applicant.
All right, I'll now invite the corporate officer to provide a summary
of the correspondence received. Okay, thank you. So one email was received and the email was in
support of the development variance permit from Mr. Hart, who is a neighbor who lives directly
adjacent to the property. This email was circulated to council earlier today.
Thank you. I'll now invite anyone who believes they will be affected by the proposed permit
to address council. Please state your name and address for the record, indicate whether you
are in support or oppose the permit before expressing your views. I'll provide anyone
wishing to speak a second time with the opportunity to do that after all interested
persons have been heard for a first time.
So not seeing anyone in the gallery, I'll turn
to IT staff and ask if we have any virtual attendees to their hands raised.
There are none, Mr. Mayor.
All right, I'll now invite staff and or the applicant to...
Oh, I guess, I mean, this is right.
Invite them to respond to any matters raised by the public, but we didn't hear anything.
So the final step is for council now to consider the permit.
The recommendation is that council authorize the issuance of development permit,
dvp 00105 and grant the variance section 57 6a of zoning bylaw number 30
zoning bylaw number 2950 1997 to decrease the maximum permitted
side yard setback from 1.5 meters to 0.67 meters at 1892 value you place with
something like move the recommendation move by councilor Manas seconded by
like Councilor Calio and your discussion.
All in favor and oppose, motion carries.
So that concludes the statutory hearing matter.
We can now move on to by-laws.
We have one by-law before us, Ms. May.
Okay, thank you.
So permissive tax exemption by-law number 39, 72, 2024
is being introduced to council today
for first three readings.
The by-law is drafted based on council direction
at the September 10th Committee of the Whole meeting
and proposes to exempt certain properties in 2025
and future years from municipal taxes.
The recommendation is that council gives
permissive tax exemption by law number 3972-2024
for second and third readings.
So moved by councilor Finley,
seconded by councilor Kalio.
Any discussion?
I'll just note for anyone tuning in
who may have heard the comments
from the member of the public earlier with regards to how we decide to provide permissive
tax exemptions to some of the religious organizations. I wouldn't encourage any folks with questions
to have a look at our council policy on permissive tax exemptions which is attached to the agenda
package which outlines our eligibility criteria for determining which of these applications
we're going to support or not. So I'll call the question all in favor.
Opposed? Not opposed. Motion carries. We'll now move on to reports. Item 12.1. Over to you, Mr. Suavey.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Item 12.1 is the Fire Protection Services Agreement with Halalt First Nations, Penelope, Tribe and Stenaimus First Nations.
The recommendation from staff is that council authorize the mayor and corporate officer to sign the 2024 Fire Protection Services Agreement between the municipality of Northcouch and Halalt First Nation, Penelope, Tribe and Stenaimus First Nations.
nations generally in the form attached in attachments one two and three to the
fire chiefs report dated October 2nd 2024 some like move recommendation moved by
councilor family second by councilor Calio any discussion
council manas just a quick quick question to staff this maybe to mr. Chief
French does this take into consideration the the increase in that we have
that incurred to the paid-on-call firefighters?
Yes.
All right, any further questions?
Okay, I'll call the question all in favor.
An opposed, not opposed.
Motion carries.
We'll now move on to item 12.2.
And before anyone moves it,
I just want to point out for council,
I did discuss the revised policy with staff
before the meeting.
And you'll notice that under the,
under the public input opportunity it indicates on page two or three when
invited by the mayor and subject to limits established in the council committee
procedures by a law number 3945 2024 each speaker will and then for part B it
says no for sorry for a says should first state their name and
residential address but then when you get down to the question period we say
that each speaker must state their name and address so what I've discussed with
staff is making that consistent we can put must for both of them however we
aren't at no one is actually compelled to state their address so even if we
put must in the policy you know anyone who's participating it's free for
them to decide if they want to do that or not but just would like to
consistency between the two sections.
Sound reasonable? Alright, would someone
like to move it then with must in both sections? Councilor Justice? Yeah, I mean
I also have a couple of comments about the wording that I didn't actually get a
chance to get to staff about, but in that very same section and I just throw
this out there to see what council thinks, but it does say under public input policy,
should there be sufficient time for a second question, those wishing to speak again shall
only do so with additional or new information, and that because it's, you know, people aren't
asking questions during public input, I was wondering whether that should be replaced
with a second remark or something similar to that. But it also alerted me to I
guess because I was wondering maybe that was that sentence was supposed to be
under the question period section. But there is nothing under the question
period section about people who may wish to ask a second question or a
follow-up questions so also nothing about time limit for for
asking a question
which we also discussed. I think with the time limit part this does reference the
council committee procedure by-law and my intent I've discussed this with a
corporate officer is we don't feel the 30 I think all of us don't feel the
30 seconds is enough so the thinking was that we can be flexible with
that time limit, one question period until the bylaw comes back for another round of revisions
and at that point we can can officially make it one minute. Yeah, no, fair enough on that,
but just to go back to the previous point, there is no policy guidance here for people who
want to ask a second question or a follow-up question,
which may be fine, but my preference
of that would be to deal with the next round of revisions to the council committee procedure
your bylaw but I will turn to the corporate officer. If I'm understanding the
counselor correctly you're hoping for consistency between the
two with public input and question period and question period at the moment
does not include any language around providing time for a second question. I
can make that I can make that amendment to it if that's counsel's wish so
that both sections are consistent.
That's easy enough to do,
if Council wishes.
I really apologize for not alerting you before this.
It's okay.
So you can jump something about it.
I mean, actually it doesn't really bother me
one way or the other, but it just struck me
that there was no guidance in that,
but there is under public input guidance
for people who might wanna come up for a second time,
which is actually less likely than people who want to ask the second question or a follow-up
question. I wonder if we can think about that until the next round of revisions, the committee,
the council committee procedure by law. I think there is value in having, giving people the
opportunity for a follow-up question, but I am hoping that with the limitation we've established
that we're going to get back to more actual questions rather than a second round of public
input. That's not to paint too broad of a brush because there's certainly folks who do come
I'm here with very clear questions
and I think would bring value with a follow up question
but if it turns into just two opportunities
or sorry, a third opportunity for public input,
I'm not gonna see a lot of value in that.
Yeah, I'm fine, one way or the other.
All right, so are we okay with moving to adopt it
with the consistency in the language around must and should?
Yeah, mover, moved by Councillor Finlay,
second by Councillor Callio,
call the question all in favor. Opposed, not opposed. Motion carries.
We'll now
move on to item 12.3. Over to you Mr. Suave. Mr. Mayor, this is the community
emergency preparedness fund grant application. The recommendation from
staff is the council authorized an application for a grant in the amount
of $40,000 under the community emergency preparedness fund grant
program under the volunteer and composite fire department equipment and
training funding stream for wildland personnel protective equipment and
Wildland firefighting equipment
Someone like to move the recommendation by councilor family second by councilor stash any discussion
Call the question all in favor and oppose
unopposed motion carries
We have no items under new business. We'll move to notices of motion. There's one notice of motion here
Item 14.1 the Croft and fairy terminal
I'll turn to the corporate officer. Do you want me to read it out or just Cal read out the motion just note
there's yeah
I'll just read the therefore part but you'll notice the first
part of the therefore references Adelaide Street it should be Chaplin and
we'll have that corrected before it comes back to the council table in a
couple weeks so the the resolution is that it be resolved that council does
not support the continued use of Chaplin Street for vehicle storage as
part of the Crawford and Ferry Terminal operations and further the
council will only support a plan that responds to the community concerns
related to reducing the impacts of any terminal operation on community roads and access to
community services such as the boat launch and Skateboard Park. And further, the council
authorized the mayor to formally communicate this position to BC Ferries and the Ministry
of Transportation and Infrastructure. So again, we won't be actually bringing that forward for
a couple more weeks, which time we'll have a chance to debate it. So I'll now move on to
question period. I'll start with the folks in the public gallery and ask if anyone has any
questions for council all
right okay I'll now turn to IT staff and ask if there
are any virtual attendees with their hands raised they're none mr. Mayor all
right my
apologies just a moment oh mr. Lake you state your name and address
hello hello hello yep mr. Lake you state state your name and address sure I'm
called Steven Lay, address is Chaplain Street Crofton. Not here in the function of a name
or an official address, but simply as an individual.
Mr. Lay, if I could just interrupt you for one moment. We do have a new policy around
a time limit on question period. I haven't flexed with this. I want to give you the
full minute instead of the 30 seconds, and it's something just so you're aware we're
working on tweaking because you've realized the 30 seconds kind of isn't enough for
I'm going to give you the full minute and please ask away, I'll start at the time now.
Sure. Just wondering if there'd be any point in me putting together a presentation to do
with hydrogen modifications on North Couch and vehicles that would save 25% gas mileage
on the highway as well as cleaning up the exhaust and the engines on the vehicles?
Yeah, thanks for the question, Mr. Lee. It's not on the agenda, but I'm going to just provide
What I'll suggest is that we have a delegation policy, so I think you could probably fill
out the form and you'll have an opportunity to present to council.
But what you could do is email myself or all the council and just raise the idea and
we can get back to you with some information on how to facilitate that.
Okay, thank you.
Great, thank you.
I'll turn to IT staff and ask if you have any other virtual attendees with their hands
raised.
They're not, Mr. Mayor.
All right.
That concludes our business.
So I'll declare this meeting adjourned.
Yeah, yeah, that's good.