[0:16] Good evening everyone and uh welcome to
the village of gold rivers regular
[0:20] council meeting. Thank you for all
coming out. Um it's wonderful when we
[0:24] get to see all our bosses out here like
this keeping an eye on us [laughter] as
[0:28] we go about the uh public's business and
the people's business. So anyways, I'd
[0:32] like to um take this opportunity to call
the meeting to order and u introduction
[0:38] of late items. Administrator Rory is
there any late you like to introduce the
[0:41] the agenda this evening sir?
>> No your worship
[0:44] » counselors any late you wish to
introduce the agenda this evening
[0:47] councelor Pringle
>> to the chair. Would we be able to go in
[0:52] camera please?
>> And what would be the reason for going
[0:55] in camera? Councelor Pringle
>> some personel
[1:00] » we could if we could get it seconded and
we're prepared to second that. Councelor
[1:04] Fawson.
No discussion on it. vote for going into
[1:08] camera. Everybody's in favor. Cancer
posing. Great. Add that to the agenda at
[1:13] the end of our meeting.
[1:19] Holy smokes, there's a lot of pages
here.
[1:23] We could be here for a while. Okay. And
camera.
[1:32] [sighs] Okay. personnel.
[1:37] Done.
Any other late items? Council wishes to
[1:41] introduce the agenda. Seeing none,
moving on.
[1:45] Approval of the agenda. The agenda be
adopted as presented. Who can remove it?
[1:50] Councelor Pickard. Second by councelor
Waymire. Any discussion?
[1:56] Seeing none, call for the question. All
in favor? Carried. We have an agenda.
[2:00] Adoption of the minutes. that the
regular meeting minutes from August 4th,
[2:03] 2026 be adopted as presented. Who care
to move it? Councelor Fawson, second by
[2:07] councelor Wemar. Any discussion? I was
on holidays during that meeting. I like
[2:11] to watch it on YouTube. I was very
impressed with you guys. You look really
[2:15] good and you made some great calls, I
think, especially on grants and uh and
[2:19] the smiles. So, I was um even though I
wasn't there, I thought you represented
[2:23] the community extremely well. Um other
than the cheerleading pep top stuff, is
[2:28] there anything [laughter]
Anybody else would like to comment on?
[2:34] No. Call for the question on favor.
We've got it. We adopt the minutes.
[2:37] Public and statuto hearing. Seeing none,
moving on. Unfinished business. Seeing
[2:40] none, moving on.
[2:45] Delegations. We have a delegation this
evening on water meter 7.1. I'm terrible
[2:52] at pronunciation, so I hope you'll
forgive me if I get it incorrect, but I
[2:56] have it as B. Radowski and M. Shenshin.
Am I even am I close?
[3:02] » If you would like to correct that,
you're welcome to do so.
[3:06] » Uh, okay. Presenters, uh, I just need
you to come to the mic that's behind the
[3:11] screen, introduce yourself, and then,
um, yeah, tell us where you live, and we
[3:17] listen to your presentation. If there's
just one person presenting, or both of
[3:20] you presenting this evening, are you tag
teaming like going back and forth? Okay,
[3:26] terrific. Okay, we have a super long
agenda tonight. So, just to make you
[3:31] aware that are some time restrictions on
what you're presenting.
[3:40] Yes, please. Ma'am,
[3:47] » do you need some technical assistance?
Oh, you got it. You're all lit up there
[3:49] now. Like Christmas.
>> Yes. So we are both trained as EMF
[3:56] radiation consultants by the geo vital
academy for radiation protection and
[4:01] environmental medicine in Austria Europe
clinic known for helping thousands of
[4:06] patients by addressing EMF exposures in
people's home
[4:11] across Vancouver Island and the
mainland. We have worked with academics,
[4:16] medical professionals, engineers and
even former European opera star. We are
[4:22] also co-authors of the book Holistic EMF
Protection Made Easy.
[4:28] » Okay.
>> Now about smart meters. These units
[4:33] constantly transmit microwave signals
which increase harmful radiation
[4:38] pollution in Gold River unlike analog
meters. Ultimately the gain is financial
[4:45] interest for corporations not for public
health which should be number one.
[4:51] Thousands of doctors and scientists have
warned again and again that wireless
[4:56] radiation disrupts communication on the
cellular level and over time the body
[5:03] can't keep up leading to illness even in
the young population. This radiation is
[5:09] not benign.
I pose a question. Has Neptune
[5:15] explained how much additional radiation
burden their smart meters will impose on
[5:21] our community and the environment? If
not, why not?
[5:27] Shouldn't council be making decisions
based on independent scientific
[5:32] knowledge, not vague assurances from the
industry lobby
[5:38] since independent experts like us
>> are not connected to the profit-driven
[5:43] wireless industry. We would be happy to
make an educational presentation to the
[5:48] new council to avoid any regrettable
decisions in the future regarding
[5:54] further expansion expansion of wireless
technology. In conclusion, our message
[5:59] is simple. Let's ensure council
decisions are based on independent
[6:04] science, not industry lobbying. Thank
you.
[6:08] » Thank you very much for your
presentation.
[6:11] » Oh yeah, now we have
[6:23] Yes, please.
[6:29] scientific controversy. It tells me that
scientists haven't figured things out
[6:33] and it means we can
>> case after case after case of malignant
[6:39] blastoma lymphoma metastatic carcinoma
but also
[6:45] a link between brain cancer and usage.
So much so that thankfully I wasn't a
[6:51] loose gun anymore. So it makes no sense
to argue that you can use a radio
[6:57] frequency radiation to put chemotherapy
into brain and then say that but by the
[7:02] way there's no negative effects.
>> It would be very nice to do studies
[7:06] before it is installed and then study
patients again after they have been
[7:10] exposed to telephone
>> and why do we allow 100 times more
[7:15] radiation exposure to our citizens and
our children than other countries do?
[7:20] But when you look at the data and you
look what's happening with infertility,
[7:23] cancer, DNA damage, but just seeing
these young people that were seen
[7:27] already,
>> you talk about the longer you can delay
[7:30] portable screens for your child, the
better.
[7:33] » If you interview these patients, they'll
tell you about cell phone loose next to
[7:37] their head is that the physicians are
not trained to answer these questions.
[7:43] Now with co we all have experienced some
form of social isolation but our EMF
[7:48] patients especially feel socially
isolated. EMFs act on bacteria and their
[7:53] host in a stressful manner.
>> EMF source removal or avoidance are the
[7:57] best way for creating a low EMF
environment. If that does not work the
[8:02] most effective solution is to shield
their home.
[8:05] » We need to listen to the scientists. We
need to believe the scientists that are
[8:09] doing the EMR research. Wireless
radiation isn't benign. It's a blessing
[8:15] and it's also a curse.
>> If they're not aware of this
[8:18] environmental pollutant and the
consequences of this environmental
[8:22] pollutant, they're going to misdiagnose
their patients. Dr. Ray said to me,
[8:26] "This is your generation's tobacco."
You're He told me this 10 years ago, and
[8:30] I think he's right.
[8:40] Uh so now it's my turn here. This EMF
medical conference was very interesting.
[8:46] I attended this as well. It was in 2021
and I was shocked to hear about the toll
[8:53] that EMF exposure takes on patients
young and old. They they actually showed
[9:00] the SC medical scans and we heard the
stories. It was horrific.
[9:06] I'd like to point out that we are
presenting what we presenting is based
[9:10] on scientific evidence and years of
medical research not hearsay or opinion.
[9:17] It is backed of by healing thousands of
patients who found no healing through
[9:22] mainstream medicine.
Uh please be read both sides of the
[9:28] international doctor's appeal. Even the
back has text is small but it's very
[9:33] interesting.
To be clear, radio frequency is
[9:38] radiation
which is emitted constantly by all
[9:43] wireless technologies such as cell
towers, smart meters, Wi-Fi, etc.
[9:50] Let me demonstrate a radiation exposure
with the cell phone with a tech phone to
[9:55] give you a glimpse to what chronic
radiation exposure is all about.
[10:06] This is a typical deck phone many people
have in the home.
[10:20] I have a reading of well over half a
million.
[10:28] I can go back.
[10:47] So this gives you an idea. This is
something that none of the telecom
[10:53] industry does. It surprises me. The
engineers
[10:59] Yeah. The the engineers
[11:03] uh that these big companies have, these
corporations, they failed to do so.
[11:10] So
uh on this
[11:12] » I don't think the gallery can see your
presentation.
[11:15] » Well, I'm just going to leave this. I
will move it forward so you can see it
[11:19] better.
[11:31] I would think the gallery would be
really interested in seeing it that well
[11:34] we'll listen to your presentation but
I'm sure they'd be very interested in
[11:37] seeing what you're saying
[11:42] » all about patients
>> yes
[11:46] » this because of this you're busy and you
should
[11:50] » so this is a typical home I not speak
about geopathic stress
[11:56] But this is very typical. We even
checked homes in Vancouver.
[12:01] High-end homes are supposed to be smart
homes worse for anyone. Here for
[12:07] instance, you have the water smart meter
always the ground. Unfortunately,
[12:16] water and copper are in extreme
contacttors. It travels through the
[12:22] ground into the house.
That's how it works. In fact, this
[12:29] radiation, we have other meters. They
are we touch them. They're very
[12:34] expensive.
And uh when you touch them, it shows
[12:38] your radiation level inside your body
which is absorbed.
[12:43] So,
here's a new car.
[12:47] They're loaded with transmitters today.
This goes throughout the whole house.
[12:54] Neighbors wireless boosters. Some of
them over well over 200 meters or 2,000
[12:59] ft.
Baby mones industry likes to say, "Oh,
[13:04] it's as safe as baby." I was present in
one of those events.
[13:09] And then they say, "It's a safe. There's
nothing safe about a baby. It has the
[13:14] same frequency at that device."
And that device actually has been banned
[13:20] in Germany and in medical institution in
senior res
[13:26] small children and children that people
that are unwell.
[13:32] They said it should not be in the
building.
[13:36] Here's an electric smart meter. I think
by now everybody would know, but we told
[13:41] they only emit once in a while. It's not
the case. They go nonstop. They like to
[13:46] meet many times even the seat even the
uh
[13:51] supervisor
I can be here I can pick up the smart
[13:56] meter here are the bedrooms baby
monitors are the same smart appliances
[14:02] are problem microwave radiation actually
goes through your whole house typically
[14:09] go back up go to the other end of the
house and you make a presentation
[14:14] cell towers
[14:16] They they proposed on the cell tower. We
already our home faces the cell tower.
[14:21] We have nearly 300 micro three no
300,000 microwatts per square meter.
[14:31] 1,000
microwatts per square meter. that
[14:36] doctors appeal in that they say leave
the area at 1,000.
[14:44] We we spend thousands of dollars to
share a house because we look directly
[14:48] at this town. We we looking three sector
antennas hunting directly. We have a
[14:54] beautiful big that we cannot use.
When I spend too much in front of the
[14:59] house, I feel unwell. When I just water
the plants, I feel unwell.
[15:05] unacceptable. And then Marus was going
to insult another one. So, let's hope
[15:10] this would be avoided with the next
council. Here's Wi-Fi.
[15:15] This goes through the house. Tablets,
they're not quite as bad, but they still
[15:21] live constantly.
You should always avoid them if you can.
[15:27] The neighbors Wi-Fi. Some of them have
boosters. They can be down here and
[15:31] check the information from home.
[15:40] So gaming consoles children play. Many
boys play for hours including my
[15:46] grandchildren s
they're horrendous. Laptops are also
[15:53] wireless devices because they
communicate back and forth with all this
[15:57] technology.
TVs also are the same. It comes you can
[16:04] go back and forth and all of these you
only solve one device.
[16:11] Just think at all of these together
in com in combination and industry like
[16:19] this like the smart me industry or
whichever it is is that it's safe. They
[16:24] base it on one meter in their lab. It's
never
[16:29] they have to connect all of them. They
have to be functional. And you're
[16:35] dealing with dirty electricity.
They're called harmonics and
[16:38] distortions.
And they creep. So anything metal, they
[16:43] can come into your house.
You have to put filters to to reduce
[16:49] that. So that's why so many people often
do that.
[16:54] So that's basically uh so this will give
you just an idea and uh lastly
[17:03] uh industry proudly FSIA
the product of these devices
[17:10] that they penetrate walls as well. Of
course they failed to mention that also
[17:16] penetrates your body and the bodies of
your children.
[17:21] Remember when you touched the rabbit
ears of the old TV sets
[17:26] and how the perception suddenly
improved. This is because our bodies are
[17:30] so superb conductors due to the high
water content of our bodies.
[17:39] So I'm almost done.
U take the time and read the article I
[17:46] sent all of you by Norman from Harvard
Press.
[17:52] called the captured agency.
It is fascinating. It reads like a
[17:57] criminal novel. How the Federal
Communications Commission is dominated
[18:02] by the industries it presumably
regulates.
[18:06] And I can say when dealing with the
wireless industry for several years that
[18:11] Canadian corporations are no less guilty
in the betrayal of the public.
[18:17] They gaslight the public because they
know nothing. Nobody has an if meter. No
[18:22] one.
If you have family members or friends
[18:26] who are unwell or those with children,
please pass this information on to them.
[18:33] » Thank you very much for your
presentations. Counselors, do you have
[18:36] any questions I'd like to address to the
presenters? Are you willing to take some
[18:40] questions if there is any?
>> Of course.
[18:44] » Not seeing any. Thank you very much for
your presentation this evening. very
[18:48] informative
>> and thank you for coming out
[18:51] » and thank you very much for your service
for this last year last years.
[18:55] » You're welcome.
>> On to the next item, administrative
[19:00] reports 8.1 grant partnership
opportunity disability alliance of
[19:04] British Columbia. Um moved that the
village of Gold River pass a resolution
[19:07] in support of being a partner for Gold
River Community Services 2026 disability
[19:12] alliance grant application which
councelor to move that councelor way
[19:16] second by councelor
Pickard. Any discussion
[19:28] start us off councelor Picker. Thank
you.
[19:33] Thank you so so much to the chair and I
just want to say thanks to um our
[19:38] partners for bringing this to us uh at
the Gold River Community Services. This
[19:44] is um yeah an exciting thing for uh
seniors. Councelor Waymire, I had a
[19:50] chance to sit down with the revelers and
a lot of them expressed some concern of
[19:54] uh what to do in case a disaster struck
and if anyone knew where they were and
[19:58] how they would get their medicines and
the people with no mobility, how they
[20:01] would um be helped if there was an
emergency. So, this grant's an exciting
[20:05] opportunity to hopefully continue some
partnerships with the SRD, Sean Kumman,
[20:09] who's been awesome and um I am really
proud of our all the work that Gold
[20:15] River Community Services does and would
be happy as a village to partner with
[20:18] them. So, we'll be supporting this
application. Thanks.
[20:23] » Thank you, Councer. Anybody else care to
comment?
[20:30] Everybody's happy with it. I'm really
happy with it. I love to see um that
[20:35] resource available in the community to
provide that information and um that's a
[20:40] and I think it's terrific partnership
with the different areas and and having
[20:44] that coordinator be available in our
community to help these folks out. So
[20:47] yeah, and $40,000
um if the province wants to timber if
[20:52] the province wants to provide that so
that we can that we can offer that
[20:55] service that's great. It doesn't cost
our local taxpayers anything. It
[20:58] enhances a service
people with disabilities. So I'm all in
[21:03] favor of it. Um no other discussion then
call for question. All in favor carried
[21:07] unanimously.
8.2 Build community strong fund local
[21:13] impact stream. moved that the council
approve submitting a grant application
[21:16] to the build community strong fund local
impact stream to complete mechanical
[21:20] systems upgrade at the Anfake aquatic
center as outlined in the climate ready
[21:24] infrastructure service CIS study
preparation for polar engineering
[21:28] pathway B that's a tongue twister
[laughter]
[21:34] first of all who would like to move it
council mayor second by councer
[21:39] discussion how we start off with our um
staff
[21:43] They can speak to the report.
>> Director of operations, Dr. You care to
[21:48] address your report, sir?
>> Yes. Is this on?
[21:51] » Your mic doesn't look very red to me,
sir.
[21:57] » Hello. Oh, yeah. [laughter] First thing.
One, two, three.
[22:00] » Um, yeah. I guess the the first thing I
should do is thank Chelsea for kind of
[22:04] doing the lion share of this. And then
when I picked this back up, um, I went
[22:07] and, uh, made an error on the
recommendation. It should be uh pathway
[22:12] A, not B.
>> Um, pathway B, there's three things
[22:16] included in pathway B that are not
necessarily the highest priority ticket
[22:20] items for us. The showerheads can be
done internally with staff. Uh, the de
[22:24] super uh dehumidifier and the um the um
the ice plant heat recovery over on the
[22:32] curling side arena. Um there there is a
system over there that is not that
[22:36] terribly old. And so uh pathway A was
the like the intended preferred
[22:41] direction.
>> Just for a point of order CA we've made
[22:45] a motion accepted the motion. We're
having discussion on that presentation.
[22:48] It is been read out as being do we need
to go back and address that sir or can
[22:53] we just do that as administrative
change.
[22:55] » Uh if you can just do it as a friendly
amendment if the mover and second are in
[22:59] favor of the minor amendment.
>> Friendly amendment moved by councelor
[23:02] Ramire. Second by councelor Pickard. All
in favor of friendly amendment changing
[23:07] it from B to A for discussion. Thank you
sir. Carry on.
[23:11] » Yeah. Otherwise um the report is as
described in there. This is about energy
[23:16] recovery uh some grants um that are that
are plausible to help uh the the this
[23:24] project audit energy audit report or
study was undertaken with the lens of
[23:28] looking at equipment that was going to
be aging out that was either to be
[23:32] identified or already identified in the
5-year capital uh budget. And so it
[23:36] looked at how do we renew uh assets and
infrastructure and and save operational
[23:41] funds on the operational side at the
same time. And so with that being the
[23:46] context, the other uh thing that's
affected by that switch from B to A is
[23:50] the uh financial implications. They are
actually reduced somewhat. uh they go
[23:56] from a outstanding balance of 1,41
uh,000417
[24:02] to $823,000446.
[24:06] So um that um very briefly explains the
difference between the two and the
[24:13] report otherwise um kind of speaks for
itself and then the um the um what do
[24:19] you call it the climate ready
infrastructure uh service study was
[24:23] attached uh for information
Um, so I'll leave it maybe to council if
[24:27] they have questions pertaining to the
report or the project or the grant.
[24:35] » Counselors, do you have any questions
you want to address to the director of
[24:37] operations?
[24:42] Councelor Way.
>> I think first and foremost, uh, thank
[24:47] you and Chelsea and staff for all the
work. Um, this is a unicorn of a grant.
[24:52] Uh these don't really come around all
that often for our infrastructure and
[24:56] you know getting her pool and everything
all upgraded and up to snuff. Um I guess
[25:04] um not that I'm necessarily thinking
this way, but this grant application uh
[25:09] if we were successful, does that tie us
to that dollar amount or
[25:17] um like would we be locked in?
director of operations doxy to respond
[25:22] to that
>> if I may through your worship. Um I'm
[25:25] not certain until we really finish the
application and um and then typically
[25:30] upon successful u successfully being
recommended or attaining the grant
[25:35] there's a grant agreement uh process and
then the details are flushed out during
[25:39] that that time and period.
>> Well, councelor Mary.
[25:42] » Uh very cool. Um that's perfect. And as
a second question, um I recognize time
[25:49] is very short. The deadline is very
soon. Um [snorts]
[25:55] would um
would reaching out to MMFN uh be an
[26:02] opportunity for us to get a letter of
support to strengthen this grant
[26:05] application? Um I'm again time is short.
Um turnaround time might not happen, but
[26:11] is that a possibility?
>> Director of operation
[26:14] » again if I may through your worship. Um
it is a possibility. um whether or not
[26:19] there's sufficient time and and
capacity, but reaching out to our
[26:22] neighbors is always a good um like never
never hurts a grant application.
[26:29] [snorts]
>> Just for my clarification and uh for the
[26:32] galleries understanding people are
listening uh the grant application is
[26:35] that um it's 50/50. Is that what it is?
It's whatever the final dollar amount is
[26:43] we would pay 50% of it and the province
would pay 50% of it. Is that the grant?
[26:48] » If I may, uh, it generally is. It says
up to 50% and a million dollars. So, it
[26:54] um it it may vary or flux or whatever
from project to project in the review
[27:00] and number of applicants, but in general
speaking terms, yes, $50.
[27:05] » Great. Because that's how we need to do
business. We talked about that early in
[27:09] our term that if we wanted to be
financially responsible and the tenants
[27:12] of that would be that we would not
consider projects unless we had grants
[27:15] attached that would um supplement the
financing of those we've got paid dollar
[27:21] for dollar for the projects we're doing
just can't afford it and I think you
[27:25] know the community should understand
that if you look at the fiveyear
[27:28] financial plan that this council had
passed you know for its projects I don't
[27:32] have the exact number because I'm not an
accountant but um it's over $9.2 $2
[27:36] million worth of projects over the next
five years that are critical to the
[27:40] operation of this this um this community
if we want to maintain our
[27:44] infrastructure, operating systems, our
equipment. And there's more like about 6
[27:48] something 6.5 million that have been
that have procured in grants. So that
[27:53] allows us to do the things that you're
talking about like right now to um
[27:58] upgrade the systems at our facilities,
our recreation facilities and u maintain
[28:03] the integrity of those buildings and
keep them operational. if we didn't have
[28:06] grants like this and people like
yourself and uh our mech dev officer and
[28:11] our CEO chasing these down because you
guys got jobs already and we ask you to
[28:16] do this off the side of your desk but
without the millions and millions of
[28:19] dollars that are coming in from staff
chasing down these grants we would be in
[28:23] big trouble big trouble we couldn't
afford it and we would suffer the
[28:27] consequences because things would be
burking down and we wouldn't be able to
[28:30] do stuff so yeah I'm very grateful for
all your efforts here and Um and the
[28:36] fact that um we even have money in our
reserves, it can be attributed to folks
[28:40] like councelor weight and his generation
putting money away in the good times so
[28:44] that here we are in the bad times.
There's some money in the accounts that
[28:47] we can do stuff with and we've managed
the money well so that it we haven't
[28:51] depleted those reserves so that we can
actually pay our 50%. Because there's a
[28:56] lot of communities out there desperate
for grant money, but they're out of the
[29:01] game because they can't pony up their
50%.
[29:06] So, they don't get to look at this
million-doll grant and the 50% of it.
[29:10] They
they don't have that money in the
[29:13] reserves to be, you know, to to apply
for this. So, um that's a soap box, but
[29:18] I think it's important for public to
understand that um the reason that Gold
[29:22] Rivers surviving and making it and not
looking at other communities as because
[29:27] the efforts of folks like yourself were
going out and hustling those grants and
[29:30] making these um project or upgrades um
for our critical infrastructure
[29:35] possible. So, thank you guys for your
efforts and like I said um if it doesn't
[29:39] have a grant attached to it, I don't
want to see it. [snorts] So, it's nice
[29:43] that uh you guys have found some grant
money because there is like council was
[29:47] saying, there is no grants. And all the
time that I worked for the village
[29:50] starting in 97, they simply said, no
grants for recreation facilities. No,
[29:56] no, no, no, no. Don't even bother. We
don't have grants for recreation
[30:00] facilities. We couldn't get a penny out
of the province or the feds. So, I don't
[30:04] know where you guys beat the bushes, but
if we got a million dollars worth of
[30:08] stuff to do down there and you found
$500,000 in grants, I compliment you
[30:13] because in my time doing that, beating
the bushes and finding grants, I never
[30:18] found a penny for recreation facilities.
So, thank you very much,
[30:24] um,
Councelor Pickard.
[30:28] » Thank you to the chair. Thanks for your
thoughts and I want to echo councelor
[30:31] Wayer and Mayor Lot and congratulations
to staff on finding a grant for some
[30:37] mechanical upgrades and operational
costs. As we say, it's always a
[30:40] challenge and very hard to find. So, and
we know how important the rec uh center
[30:46] uh recreation and Jerry Morgan are to
the community from from little kids to
[30:51] seniors and everyone in between. We we
know that that's a big um a big asset
[30:56] for the community and attracting
families and keeping them here. So, I'm
[30:59] really glad to see us being proactive
about maintenance there and just
[31:03] replacing some um end of life's assets
and also looking at ways we can reduce
[31:08] energy and greenhouse gas usage. So,
that's awesome. And another huge plus is
[31:13] just being proactive and having
everything modernized and energy
[31:16] efficient and up to date um might help
some some kind of future investments. We
[31:21] had a group come to us that wanted to do
a summer bond spill for curling and and
[31:25] staff was a bit of an issue getting the
ice in early but also equipment and not
[31:28] not really being modernized and
operating effectively that wouldn't be
[31:32] able to handle that moisture and the
heat in the summer. So maybe having our
[31:35] equipment up to date will attract maybe
a broader range of groups there, more
[31:40] more teams coming up for hockey, more um
usage of the pool and um yeah, I know
[31:45] the pool as councelor Wayer said too
also supports the MFN community know TAS
[31:50] residents come and use a lot and Strath
Kona Park Lodge there sometimes there in
[31:53] the summer in the winter time. So I
think it is a really big benefit to the
[31:57] communities all around us too. So thanks
for um all your work finding this grant
[32:02] and good luck submitting on the 11th.
Thanks.
[32:05] » Thank you guys pickard. Just another
question. Director Paper Doxy is this um
[32:10] report from polar engineering that I
spent like seven to 12 hours reading and
[32:14] trying to understand and is this paid
for by grant or did we pay for it?
[32:19] » Um again if I may through your worship
the report itself was actually funded
[32:22] through a grant at 100% level. So, and
it was geared around um helping
[32:27] communities that necessarily didn't have
um the in-house expertise um pursuing
[32:32] energy operational savings and of course
greenhouse gas reduction. So,
[32:36] » what would it cost the folks in this
room and our community if we had to pay
[32:39] for that grant? What was it to pay for
this report?
[32:43] » I I might have missed that with all the
thousands of numbers I went through
[32:46] there on your that report.
>> Don't quote me. I think about a 30
[32:51] $40,000 study.
>> Yeah. So I thought something like that
[32:55] terrific
study and engineering report done by
[33:00] grant and uh the repairs critical
repairs to infrastructure and operating
[33:04] systems half on the grant. I'm a happy
man.
[33:09] Uh yeah any other discussion any other
questions for director of operations
[33:13] doxy or croy?
No. I'm seeing any um call for the
[33:19] question to accept as amended.
All in favor? Done.
[33:27] Are you still Are you still sitting
there dro? It looks like you have a few
[33:31] reports here. [laughter]
>> Yeah, might as well. Yeah.
[33:36] Uh Gold River Aquatic and Sports Center
climate ready infrastructure study. that
[33:41] the move that the Gold River Aquatic and
Sports Center climate ready
[33:45] infrastructure study report be received
accepted for information. Who care to
[33:49] move it? Councelor Fawson second by
councelor Pringle. Discussion
[34:11] Everybody's really happy with that one.
Okay.
[34:20] Me, too. But I'm biased. I'm a pool guy.
Been one for all my life. So, I thought
[34:24] I'd kind of just sit back and let other
people take the lead on this because I
[34:27] because I'm unabashedly biased about
this. Invested fully invested in this
[34:32] one.
I I am curious. So, director of
[34:37] operations, Docs, I see in your report
that you were you were you were looking
[34:41] for gremlins in your HVAC and your
mechanical systems. Did you happen to
[34:46] find any gremlins there, sir?
>> In your in your report, I see that you
[34:51] mentioned that in the things that you
did over the summer at the aquatic
[34:54] center there was gremlins running
around.
[34:56] » Um, we are still some of them are being
solved and some of them are still
[35:01] ongoing. It's a bit of a combination
having managed in the at the uh
[35:07] recreation the aquatic center you're
probably familiar with just you know
[35:11] things like the control systems not
working or HVAC systems running when it
[35:15] shouldn't be
hot water where it not where it should
[35:20] be just yeah it's it's a complicated
building [laughter]
[35:27] » and I understand that money's already
been allocated but you're looking for a
[35:30] little bit more. Is that correct?
>> Is this uh
[35:35] » that would be a subsequent uh report
coming up on the agenda next.
[35:38] » Thank you, sir. Getting ahead of myself.
Okay,
[35:42] councelor Pickard.
>> Thank you chair and um yeah, thanks for
[35:48] uh you guys finding the grant to do this
study and appreciate and I think it's
[35:51] been good learning for us as we go along
when we're always saying, well, why do
[35:55] all these reports and we have reports on
reports? But just showing that this
[35:58] climate ready infrastructure service
study prepared by Polar kind of was a
[36:03] springboard that allowed us to identify
where we needed our upgrades and repairs
[36:06] so we could build a really strong
proposal for the build community strong
[36:10] fund. So I think it's a good kind of
lesson that sometimes like we got the
[36:14] read up for our ECA report and and study
and so hopefully that we have that
[36:20] professional report done and then we can
use that to go ahead and find grants for
[36:23] the the priorities or upgrades
identified in those reports. So thanks
[36:28] for the foresight in getting that done
and making us eligible for this build
[36:31] community strong fund grant.
Thanks.
[36:34] » Thank you councard. Anyone else call for
the question? All in favor?
[36:40] Cool. And now the meeting. Move that
council direct staff to pursue projects
[36:45] and funding in support of the
recommendations through infrastructure
[36:48] renewal.
Council
[36:52] moved it. Second by councelor Pringle.
Discussion.
[36:57] I love it.
All in favor call for question. Yeah.
[37:02] Good.
That's why I like being a politician in
[37:07] this community.
[37:10] » Yeah, they value health and wellness and
uh all the other things that go with
[37:15] having those facilities.
Um 84 Anidic Aquatic and Sports Center
[37:22] main [snorts] pool boiler renewal. Move
that the council approve a budget
[37:26] amendment drawing upon capital equipment
reserve accounts in the amount of 65,000
[37:30] and directing towards the capital
renewal of the pool boiler and that
[37:35] council authorized staff proceed with
replacement of the main pool boiler a
[37:38] cost of not more than 240,000 care to
move it councelor way second by
[37:42] councelor Pringle discussion the same
question I had for you before
[37:47] director of operations stocky when I was
a little ahead of myself can you explain
[37:51] the um you have money budgeted already
in the existing budget for 2026 and um
[37:57] um for doing the job and you're going to
consolidate that money and you just need
[38:01] another 65,000 in order to get worked
in. Am I am I summarizing it correctly?
[38:06] » If I may through your worship, you're
you're pretty close. Um I actually had
[38:10] we had uh
$125,000 in the capital budget and then
[38:16] I actually made an air and I had $50,000
in the operational budget for the same
[38:20] thing.
>> Okay. Um, so as it turns out, uh, the
[38:23] boiler is, um, more money than either of
those. Yeah.
[38:27] » So, the air works in this instance in
our favor and we still do need $65,000,
[38:32] um, and recommending to transfer it from
the capital reserve.
[38:36] Um, I guess like also point out within
the report though that um, this is a
[38:41] good example of having having the study
um, it was completed back uh, near the
[38:45] year end. Um, but we we we wanted to
have a refrigeration because as soon as
[38:51] we brought the study to to council for
information, we knew it was going to be
[38:54] followed up with uh requests for
information around uh the budget and we
[38:58] wanted to make sure in the boiler
because it had also failed earlier in
[39:01] the spring and we needed to get a
refrigeration contractor kind of lined
[39:04] up. So, this is a good example of um
just needing to have all the layers kind
[39:08] of like put into a into a row for it to
make sense to bring before council, but
[39:13] we do need the main boiler to be
renewed. Um it um it's described in the
[39:18] in the report. It failed in the spring.
We um we jigged some of the plumbing
[39:23] over from the leisure pool boiler to
circulate the the water from the leisure
[39:27] pool or from the main pool through the
leisure pool boiler. Um but it involves
[39:31] manually valving open and valving closed
uh the different circulation systems and
[39:37] it was able to maintain uh within about
2 degrees of the temperature target
[39:42] temperature but it it will not be able
to there's not enough BTU power there to
[39:46] to to heat both both uh bodies of water
from uh from a ground cold uh standing
[39:53] still so to speak. Um so we do need to
get the boiler going. Um, and that's why
[39:58] they ask for the $65,000. And that is
this boiler that's in here is in line
[40:03] with what's being recommended and
what'll be being applied for. It is a um
[40:08] what do they call it? A condensing uh
hydronic uh boiler. So, it's a separate
[40:12] circulatory system from right now the
pool body water goes through the uh the
[40:17] heat exchanger within the boiler and in
the new system it'll be heated through a
[40:21] separate heat exchanger. Um, so the the
liquid going through the boilers is
[40:25] actually a kind of a a straight tap
water, glycol or like some other liquid
[40:30] besides the pool body water. So it won't
have quite the chlorine and uh uh
[40:35] exposure. They they last much longer. Um
and um that's about all I know on that
[40:40] for right now. [laughter]
>> That's a lot.
[40:42] » The report says it all.
>> That's a lot. That's triggered.
[40:47] Thank you through the chair and thanks
again director DXY for uh your staff
[40:52] doing all their creative rigging up
plumbing all throughout last year. I
[40:55] know they had challenges and we go to
the pool lots with my daughters and I
[41:00] know there was some disappointment with
the community of all the the temperature
[41:03] fluctuations and some seniors and and
kids getting packed up and the boiler
[41:08] issues and temperature. So, I appreciate
your staff did the best they could with
[41:11] aging equipment. And I also was
wondering um you know, if this is
[41:16] included in the building community
strong fund grant, does it have to be
[41:18] exclusive and do we have to do this
first? But director, administrator Roy
[41:22] and I chatted today and he mentioned the
urgency and to get lifeguard staff and
[41:26] to ensure that the pool opens in time.
It's a matter of kind of urgent time to
[41:30] get it going for opening day, October
5th. So maybe we can include it as a
[41:34] retroactive expense of the grant. would
usually know, but uh and if not, thanks
[41:38] for your guys' foresight and all your
guys' work and hopefully we can get it
[41:42] in and temperatures up to standard and
the hot tub hot for the opening day.
[41:47] Thank you.
>> Thank you, Councelor Pickard. Um Council
[41:52] Remmer,
>> yeah, I guess at the heart of it, the
[41:55] boil or pool needs a boiler now and uh
placement that staff's recommending um
[42:01] it's fits with the rest of the what is
it called? The CIS study. Um so I have
[42:06] no particular qualms with this. Uh it's
a unnecessary
[42:12] evil to uh pay that money but at the
same time uh we want to you know have
[42:16] our pool up and running in October. So
I'm all for moving forward with this.
[42:21] » Thank you Councelor
[42:25] Fawson.
>> Thank you through the chair. And just a
[42:28] a question through the chair to our
director of operations. Um, so if this
[42:33] passes tonight, then is the boiler going
to be installed by October 5th?
[42:38] » Director of operations, Oxy.
>> Um, I can't guarantee it, but that is
[42:44] that is what is um uh loosely promised
by the refrigeration company. They they
[42:49] say that the one that they're spec is
compliant with what's being recommended,
[42:53] but also available on the island with
with readily accessible parts. And um so
[42:59] it should be I know that's a strange way
to answer.
[43:04] » That sounds like you could be a good
politician to me.
[43:11] » Yeah, just a secondary question to our
director of operations. Um knowing that
[43:16] um what is the how many days will the
pool be shut down in order to replace
[43:20] this boiler?
>> Director of operations. Officer, you're
[43:24] shut down right now, correct? Yes, if I
may through your worship, the the goal
[43:27] would be to have this done prior to
opening. So,
[43:30] » what's your projected oper opening date?
Beginning of October.
[43:36] » It's October 5th. It's in the next
report. [laughter]
[43:38] » Yeah. Just testing.
>> Good. Councelor Fawson, do you want to
[43:45] explore anything else or are you good,
sir?
[43:49] » You're good. You're welcome.
Any
[43:54] other discussion on this item?
Um, I'll just weigh in because I never
[43:59] had an opportunity to really say
publicly my express my sentiments and
[44:03] thanks for um yourself and your staff
for showing so much creativity and
[44:08] innovation last year. I thought when it
I discovered that the boiler was down,
[44:12] being a practitioner, that would mean
that the main pool was going to be down
[44:15] for the operating season until you could
get your boiler and um you would only be
[44:19] able to operate your leisure pool off
your leisure boiler and your hot tub off
[44:23] your hot tub boiler because there are
three separate systems there. But um
[44:26] through I guess your [laughter]
your creativity and um and and your
[44:34] perseverance, you found a way that you
could uh get that leisure pool boiler to
[44:38] maintain temperature in leisure pool as
well as main pool so that we could keep
[44:42] that facility available to the
community. And I know that um when that
[44:45] facility is open to the community, the
health and wellness of the community and
[44:48] the overall betterment of the community
is being realized. So I I I do recognize
[44:52] that and I do appreciate that and on
behalf of myself, council and the
[44:55] community, we do really appreciate those
efforts because um our pool without um
[45:00] you know only partially open and during
operating season would have been would
[45:04] have been yeah really diminished what we
um the services we operate in the
[45:08] community and uh yeah I'm ready to go. I
just like I was looking at your CRS and
[45:14] uh that grant application and the
reports and everything. It looks like
[45:17] the two other boilers that you're
planning on replacing, the leisure pool
[45:20] and the hot tub are operate on the same
system as the main pool boiler. So, we
[45:25] won't be having to reconfigure anything
because that's the evolution, right, of
[45:30] the that boiler replacement program. All
three are going to operate on the same
[45:34] basic principles. We're not going to
have main pool being different from the
[45:37] other two that you want to replace under
the CIS.
[45:40] » Uh you're you're correct, Arthur. Um I I
I might be could or should add that um
[45:46] some of the headworks uh plumbing is
part of the main pooler pooler pool
[45:50] boiler installation that we're proposing
here um those headworks are done and
[45:54] installed. So um integration into uh
another boiler for the leisure pool will
[45:58] be be no problem. So yeah great. So
folks okay with giving director of
[46:06] operations an extra 65,000 to get the
job done before so we can go put the
[46:10] pool in October. Terrific. Any
discussion on it? All good. Call for a
[46:14] question. All in favor? You have your
$65,000.
[46:18] Director of operations, Oxy. Looking
forward to seeing being in the main pool
[46:21] on October the 5th. Hot main pool.
[laughter]
[46:26] » Thank you, sir.
[46:29] U
Nish Park Design. Holy smokes. Director
[46:33] of operations. Doctor, you got like how
many reports you got in this thing?
[46:38] [laughter]
Oh, this I think this is a record for
[46:42] the amount of reports staff reports that
we got from one staff member. Um 8.5
[46:47] Nish Park design options that Nymphish
Park design options report be accepted
[46:52] for information. Who care to move that?
Councelor Fawson second by councelor
[46:57] Pringle. Discussion
[47:03] councelor Fost.
>> Thank you to through the chair. I just
[47:06] wanted to say thank you to staff, but
also to um just this has been a long
[47:12] time coming. I think we as council were
working towards this uh pretty much four
[47:16] years started four years ago. So I know
our our community has been wanting to
[47:21] see the plans, wanting to know what
we're going to do. And I think by
[47:25] directing our staff to okay, let's go
out and get professionals to u look at
[47:30] this and give us design ideas is great.
I think it's um part of what we need to
[47:36] do to be physically responsible to make
sure that whatever we do is going to be
[47:40] uh one beneficial to the community but
also to uh financially responsible. So I
[47:45] um really look forward to seeing which
option we choose. I already have picked
[47:51] mine but I also want to do some tweaking
as well. I I don't think it really meets
[47:56] neither all three do neither of the
three do um I think directly uh deal
[48:02] with what I've heard from our
constituents.
[48:05] So, but I am very thankful for this
report and I know that we can uh move
[48:10] forward with this finally. So, thank
you.
[48:16] » Thank you, Cra. Um again, director of
operations doxy the $500,000 over budget
[48:22] for the rehabilitation of our nimish
park by this council. Where'd that money
[48:27] come from, sir?
[48:32] » Um actually maybe I can defer that one
to uh
[48:36] talk to [laughter] your CEO.
[48:40] that is coming from the grant funding
that the village received a couple of
[48:43] years ago that we have to allocate and
uh expend in the a fiveyear window
[48:48] » that was a growing um communities fund
the 966 some thousand that we got
[48:54] » that is correct
>> four years ago thank you sir so all this
[48:57] all this stuff that you're talking about
here is going to be paid by grant money
[49:02] » uh
>> and uh not these folks here we're not
[49:04] going to be taxing them and they're
going on their tax bill to rehabilitate
[49:07] Nkush work
>> well well up till the value of the grant
[49:10] money that is held in question. Um there
are certainly more options available to
[49:15] council to elect from that might be over
that value but certainly a lot of the
[49:19] amenities are within the grant.
>> Just wanted to emphasize that um we're
[49:23] not taxing our citizens in order to do
this upgrade to Nimish Park that this is
[49:27] being done through grant money that's
been procured for the provincial
[49:29] government. And I think these folks in
this room when they look at their tax
[49:33] bills are really happy when they don't
see them themselves having to be taxed
[49:37] another million dollars to upgrade their
um their main park in their community.
[49:42] So anyways, I just wanted to make that
point. I know where the money came from.
[49:47] [laughter]
Um any other discussions on receipt?
[49:51] Seeing none, call for the question and
receipt. All in favor? And next is that
[49:56] council direct staff to proceed
immediately. like that word immediately
[50:00] with playground equipment renewal using
the growing community spun cost not to
[50:04] exceed 150,000 and that council direct
staff to include the report for upcoming
[50:08] budget discussion and secured a movement
councelor Fawson second by councelor
[50:13] discussion care to lead us off I thought
you would lead us off on that one
[50:17] councelor Fost starting blocks
>> thank you for the through the chair um
[50:22] yeah I can't wait to see our tetanas
parks changed into uh parks that are
[50:25] actually going to be safe for our
children um I've only been here 23
[50:29] years. Um my son and my wife and I,
we've enjoyed the parks with him while
[50:34] he was growing up and we're a little
concerned when we saw how unfortunately
[50:39] well I'm really thankful the parks were
there. I I think with Helicopter Park, I
[50:43] think in Nipius Park, I already really
appreciate what the uh school school
[50:48] division had done with their school
parks. Um, and I think the school park
[50:52] uh, elementary park um, playground is
actually a great example of what or
[50:56] should give inspire us for the village
what we should do for our parks. So, I
[51:00] just wanted to uh, say thank you. It's
it's about time that we deal with this
[51:04] and I'm glad we have the opportunity to
look forward to dealing with it. Thank
[51:08] you.
>> Thank you, Counc. Any other counselors
[51:11] want us? Councelor Bickert.
>> Thank you to the chair and thanks
[51:16] Councelor Fawson. I agree with you. It's
time to look around and it's been
[51:20] identified as a priority by a lot of a
majority of residents to look at the
[51:24] tetanus parks and good term. [laughter]
I live beside the helicopter park done
[51:29] multiple emergency trips of other kids
on the rusty metal there. But yeah, we
[51:34] have to start bit by bit and this one's
all grant funded and um from community
[51:38] engagement has shown that it's a
priority. it's in the middle of town and
[51:43] will be kind of part of whatever we do
with the rest of the funding so that we
[51:47] can have kind of one defined space
that's not going to affect whatever plan
[51:51] whatever option design option that we do
and get started on it while we have the
[51:54] grant funding and a deadline to use it I
think is fantastic and I I really
[51:59] recommend I don't know who's going to
kind of look at design if it's going to
[52:02] be staff or if we'll have a chance to
review it but there's some really
[52:06] gorgeous um just kind of thinking
outside the box inclusive kind
[52:11] educational parks that include kind of
maybe we can include some gold river
[52:15] kind of history like Luna or salmon or
wildlife or MFN culture and art and
[52:20] Naimo where we had some conferences
before I have a gorgeous really really
[52:25] um it's just inspiring and really
beautiful for the kids and kind of
[52:28] incorporates lots of um traditional
images and animals and stuff and also
[52:33] all along the Wfuca Trail down have some
really neat kind of interactive parks
[52:38] for the kids too so I think it'd be
really special to include some um some
[52:43] local kind of culture or some local uh
First Nation culture and have it a bit
[52:48] artistic too as well as safe and um
upgraded. So, thanks staff for bringing
[52:54] this forward.
>> Thank you, Council Pickard. Anyone else?
[52:59] » That's where I'm
Yes. It's a long awaited report.
[53:06] I've had a few people on my case uh
having been at the uh open house in
[53:12] February, I think it was. So, I'm very
glad to see this in front of us today.
[53:16] Um I fully support um getting the
playground equipment in as soon as
[53:23] possible, as soon as we unleash the
funds. And um
[53:30] I think we perhaps might want to go
slightly further. Um I'm looking at one
[53:36] of the alternates. Um [snorts]
talking to the uh community garden um so
[53:43] that they have their preferential area.
And also, I'm thinking about I mean,
[53:50] because this has been so long, I want us
to be hitting the ground running in
[53:55] spring 2027.
Um, so I have another subsequent motion.
[54:01] I won't totally speak to it now, but
more or less getting
[54:07] as much of that done um in the meantime
so that we are hitting the ground
[54:11] running.
>> Thank you, councilor.
[54:15] Director of Operations, Docy, I see in
your report that you're recommending
[54:18] that um we select one
[snorts]
[54:24] component of the proposals and that's
the upgrade of playground equipment for
[54:29] 150,000. And I presume that the reason
that you've
[54:34] presented this to council in that manner
is you're looking at resources and um
[54:38] climate and time and how much
construction period you have and that
[54:41] you feel that this would be the only
thing that you could accomplish um
[54:44] during this um this year. Is am I am I
on the right track there, sir? Is that
[54:49] the rationale for recommending this
council that we just do the $150,000,
[54:54] upgrade the playground equipment um and
then defer the other stuff to the budget
[54:58] discussion and then look at um doing
that in next year? Is that is that the
[55:03] rationale behind the way that this is
being presented to council? Uh pretty
[55:06] much uh just keeping in mind um you know
the the next larger uh project will you
[55:13] know like budget time will be you know
post elections and so there would be
[55:17] time for the fresh fresh council to kind
of evaluate and and uh understand and
[55:23] own uh their priorities of the day. Um
and so yeah the playground equipment is
[55:27] aged. It is um it is not meeting like
current what would be Canadian standards
[55:32] acceptable for a playground. [laughter]
Um the um I guess the the one notion
[55:39] that is listed there in the alternatives
would be that if council like maybe not
[55:43] necessarily selecting a priority next
project, but if they um if they were in
[55:48] a position where they were comfortable
to select um an option one, two, or
[55:51] three in terms of where the community
garden goes, that would be beneficial to
[55:54] get them moving sooner than later. Um
and that would be the only, you know,
[55:59] that that's listed as an alternative uh
motion. Um
[56:03] um but that could also be kind of
deferred and uh you know discussed in in
[56:08] line with budget discussions as well. So
[sighs]
[56:12] um if this $150,000 was approved for the
replacement of the existing playground
[56:18] equipment um is that realistic and you
can do you believe that you can
[56:22] accomplish that before but uh before the
end of this budget year and would that
[56:27] be contracted out to somebody else or
would that be an in-house project? Uh if
[56:31] I may through your worship, the the most
likely um what I was would have been
[56:35] kind of planning on for that would have
been to go through a proposal and kind
[56:38] of leverage um some of the playground
manufacturers and installers
[56:42] um against each other to get the best
pricing. Mhm.
[56:45] » Um, so there would be there probably
wouldn't uh it's it's uncertain as to
[56:51] whether or not the the whole thing could
be 100% completed before December 31st,
[56:55] but we would need the funding and the
certainty to to be able to move forward
[57:00] um to be able to uh run a successful
competition, award a successful
[57:04] competition, get them going. And then
what what would happen is anything
[57:07] that's not finished or incomplete at the
end of the year, we would um I believe
[57:12] here we don't do carry forwards, but we
would roll it forward and budget for it
[57:15] in the following year. Anything that's
not complete,
[57:19] that sounds like a maybe.
[57:24] And that I keep on saying, you're going
to make a great politician one day, sir.
[57:30] Okay. Um council, any other discussion?
>> Thank you. to the chair. And um just one
[57:37] more thing to throw out there without
really having to decide on a design
[57:40] option, but since we've kind of parcled
off the playground as an attainable goal
[57:44] is it won't really impact whatever
design we go with, would we be able to
[57:48] maybe throw in um the pickled tennis
ball courts into that too or is that not
[57:53] doesn't really make sense now because of
weather? But I know there's been quite a
[57:56] few groups that have approached us that
are doing some makeshift stuff with the
[58:00] nets and repairing them themselves and
doing the lines themselves. So, I know
[58:04] that's kind of a defined area that won't
be impacted by what whatever design
[58:08] option um that we choose out of those.
So, I'm just wondering if that would
[58:12] make sense to do also implement now and
get it done with the park or just wait.
[58:17] » That would really be
>> Sorry. Yeah. To your worship, that would
[58:22] 100% be uh council initiative. Um it it
um
[58:28] it could be a constraining in terms of
like staff time um being able to set up
[58:33] and uh run multiple uh competitions at
the same time while we have the metering
[58:39] project ongoing and uh but yeah um I
mean if we're directed to move forward
[58:46] we will move forward with it.
>> Any followup? Councelor Brickard are you
[58:50] good? Any other questions for director
of operations Doxy?
[58:56] Call for the question. All in favor?
Done. Carried. You have your $150,000
[59:01] there, sir.
And do we have any follow-up motions?
[59:08] I thought we might. Councelor Rymer.
Uh, I have two follow-up motions. I'll
[59:13] start with one. um that council direct
staff to proceed by coordinating with
[59:18] the community garden association on
relocation of the community garden based
[59:22] on the preferred option plan.
[59:27] » Do you have a seconder? Councelor Fawson
discussion.
[59:36] » Um again this is uh very much uh
trying to get ourselves ahead in the
[59:42] game. Um it's not going to take too much
time to have that conversation and uh
[59:48] shows that we're reaching out to um a
very important organization uh whose you
[59:54] know main goal right now is probably to
find a home for 2027. So the more
[1:00:00] prepared we are for the 2027 growing
season which will be spring um the
[1:00:05] better it is for them.
>> Thank you. Director of Director of
[1:00:10] Operations Joy. Do you see any um any
issues with that
[1:00:16] motion that we're debating?
No, there um there is some flexibility
[1:00:23] um I I guess with regards to the
community garden location where um
[1:00:29] it could pro like if if council were to
say uh settle on option one, two or
[1:00:33] three um and something were to change in
the imple in in implementation
[1:00:38] implementation
process, sorry. Um
[1:00:43] there um it looks like um there would be
flexibility that um it could be wherever
[1:00:50] it is chosen to go there would be room
to move with whatever the remaining
[1:00:54] aspects of those option plans could
still go. Um you'll see that they're
[1:00:58] largely kind of around like number 60
the main uh just kind of a field in one
[1:01:04] of the option plans. that main field
becomes a uh looks like a what's it
[1:01:10] soccer pitch
if I I'm confusing myself. Um
[1:01:16] yeah, it's it's yeah, there is room
there um to accommodate that community
[1:01:23] garden. It's basically if they'd like it
over towards the north or more over
[1:01:27] towards the south
um there there is room to play. There's
[1:01:32] flexibility. Council Raymire, do you
have any follow-up questions, sir? Are
[1:01:35] you good?
>> Okay. Anyone else? Councelor Fawson,
[1:01:39] » thank you through the chair. And I'm
glad Council Ray, you brought that up.
[1:01:42] And u the this the one question I have
when when looking at all these different
[1:01:48] options.
>> Yes, sir.
[1:01:49] » Is again, I have a small garden. I look
for sunshine.
[1:01:54] » I look for shade. And so when I was
looking through these different options,
[1:01:58] I was like, neither of the proposals in
my mind are a great location for the
[1:02:04] community garden. But I did want to ask
director Doxy because this was done by
[1:02:09] um a consulting group, engineering
group. Um
[1:02:14] what is their recommend? So I'm assuming
from all option one, two, and three that
[1:02:18] these are where they propose the best
place for the community garden would be.
[1:02:22] And um like you said, I'm pretty sure
which whenever council decides we can
[1:02:27] consult with the community garden group
cuz I'm pretty sure they're maybe a
[1:02:30] little more knowledgeable than me about
the amount of sun that the gardens need.
[1:02:34] Um so there flexibility is there
flexibility with these one, two, and
[1:02:38] three options and if so um
>> I'm understanding that it's easily
[1:02:45] changed.
if I may through your worship. Um w
[1:02:50] within reason. Um you know um I was
looking for the all-in-one uh package.
[1:02:55] That's the one that has like a soccer
pitch uh instead of just a a simple main
[1:02:59] field. Um if you look at where the
community garden goes there, it is not
[1:03:04] terribly dissimilar than where it goes
in uh the music in the park option.
[1:03:08] Well, that one is different um sorry
than the green thumb option plan. Uh the
[1:03:13] green thumb option plan has it going up
nestled up near the corner with the uh
[1:03:16] the spray park and the playground. Um
versus the all-in plan has it kind of uh
[1:03:22] located in the middle of the west side
of the park. Um so if we put it in that
[1:03:28] uh all-in plan, it would really just be
a matter of juxtapositioning the
[1:03:33] gathering space or the gazebo. Um,
you know, um, and similarly, um,
[1:03:41] you know, if you put it like putting it
in location on the all-in-one plan, it
[1:03:45] probably makes the most flexible sense
in that if you do or don't go with a
[1:03:50] gathering space, at least the gathering
space is reserved to be near the
[1:03:53] playground and the spray park for
parental monitoring uh, sake.
[1:04:00] um the uh you know putting it over
towards the north
[1:04:05] um in the music in the park option plan
um and then the green thumb option plan
[1:04:12] those are also similarly compatible. So
it really comes down to if we really
[1:04:16] like the all-in plan versus the uh the
green thumb plan I guess.
[1:04:23] Um,
>> yeah, it's uh
[1:04:28] » I've seen counselor Pringle's brain
starting to explode.
[1:04:31] » But it's simply Yeah. The green thumb um
like the primary green thumb and the uh
[1:04:37] and the all-in option plan had the
community garden in a similar space and
[1:04:41] the music in the park and the alternate
green thumb have it at the north end of
[1:04:46] the park. So there's two very, you know,
crude basic depictive areas uh for the
[1:04:52] community garden. And if we can select
one of those two places, we can move
[1:04:56] forward with the rest in the time. Um,
you know,
[1:04:59] » thank you, sir. Um,
>> I just can I just want to just check on
[1:05:05] something here again,
could you um read back our motion for
[1:05:10] us, sir? I want to know what we're I
just want to refresh myself on what
[1:05:13] we're actually
>> to proceed with the community garden
[1:05:17] » uh based on the preferred plan.
>> Excuse me.
[1:05:22] » To proceed with the community garden
based on the preferred plan.
[1:05:27] » Okay. Thank you, sir.
Councelor F.
[1:05:30] » Thanks. Just a follow-up question
through the chair to the director of
[1:05:34] operations. Um when this when these
plans were drawn up and the the pe the
[1:05:39] men and ladies came out to survey the
whole nkish park um I'm assuming they
[1:05:45] came in the summer or the spring and not
when the uh one section I'm going to say
[1:05:52] the section closest to uh Eagle Crescent
is not flooded. And so I'm I'm thinking
[1:05:59] that needs to be taken into
consideration with whatever we put in
[1:06:03] there, whether it's community garden,
dog park, uh you know, the the um
[1:06:08] community uh you know, like anything we
put in that side of the park or that
[1:06:14] side of the track. I'm pretty sure
hopefully they were informed that that
[1:06:17] area floods quite a bit.
uh they they were they heard it from
[1:06:22] staff, they heard it from the community,
and they were out for the comm the uh
[1:06:26] the open house, I believe, was March
5th.
[1:06:29] » Um and so the survey work would have
happened uh prior like during during the
[1:06:34] winter period. So um I can't remember
specifically if there was snow or rain
[1:06:38] at the time. There wasn't a heck of a
lot of snow all winter here, but uh um
[1:06:44] it I don't think it quite flooded. This
was probably not the most representative
[1:06:48] year for flooding there, but yeah.
[1:06:54] Terrific. Any other discussion?
[1:07:01] You look like you're kind of in the
wilderness there. Councilor Pringle kind
[1:07:05] of feel the same way. Health for the
question. All in favor? Carried.
[1:07:14] Council Mer,
>> I'd like to make a subsequent motion
[1:07:20] that council direct staff to advance the
technical design, costing, and
[1:07:24] procurement preparation required for
rehabilitation of Nimish Park pathway
[1:07:29] and resurfacing of the tennis courts and
bring implementation ready options back
[1:07:34] to council for consideration ahead of
the 2027 construction season.
[1:07:39] » Do you have all that, um, C Roy, or do
you have a copy of that motion? I would
[1:07:43] be getting one from council way.
>> I sure hope so.
[1:07:48] Anyone care to second that motion?
Councelor Fawson. Discussion.
[1:07:55] » Councelor Wayare.
>> Uh, so as I previously said, I want us I
[1:08:00] mean, this has been a long time coming.
I want us to be able to hit the ground
[1:08:02] running in spring of 2027. Um, as we all
know, Canada has two seasons. We have uh
[1:08:10] winter and construction season and we
are uh heading into winter. So it's not
[1:08:16] quite realistic to expect resurfacing of
the pickle ball or tennis or basketball
[1:08:22] courts uh right now. But um what we do
have in front of us is multiple plans
[1:08:28] that all have a common entity of having
dire need of resurfacing of the tennis
[1:08:34] courts and the Nish Park pathway being
in need of a lot of love. Um, so that is
[1:08:41] very much uh the root of this motion uh
that staff has the winter to uh get the
[1:08:51] ball rolling and then hopefully come
spring of 2027 we can hit the ground
[1:08:56] running instead of uh possibly missing
another window.
[1:09:01] » Thank you, Counc.
[1:09:05] » Yeah, thank you councelor Weimar. And um
I I love this motion and I think it's
[1:09:10] great. We've been waiting a long time
for the macain report. I know staff's
[1:09:13] going to be really busy putting the ice
in and then the pool and the boiler and
[1:09:16] all that, but and then Christmas and all
that, but during that time, I think it
[1:09:21] would be great to be ready and prepared
and have have as much ready as we can. I
[1:09:25] know that the park was a big concern
with residents, but also that walking
[1:09:29] path around and how unsafe it is and how
two people can't go side by side and
[1:09:33] it's not great for mobility and needs a
bit more accessibility. having that for
[1:09:37] residents to look forward to in the
spring to get them through the dark days
[1:09:40] of winter. And also that pickle ball, I
know I haven't played it yet, but I used
[1:09:45] to play tennis with the old deli guy
against that wall and I love that that's
[1:09:50] gone. But I think just having that
knowing
[1:09:53] » deli guy [laughter]
the deli.
[1:09:57] » Okay,
>> I used that wall till it fell over and
[1:10:01] Mr. Kim Mr.
>> [laughter]
[1:10:04] » Anyway, I think having that, yeah,
knowing that that's coming and knowing
[1:10:08] that all the consultation was listened
to and we're working on it and it's
[1:10:12] going to be um have a facelift will be a
great um boost for residents over the
[1:10:17] winter. And just as a side note too, I I
like the option. There were some
[1:10:21] recommendations to have that, you know,
Molini drew up these different
[1:10:24] proposals, but the design options, but
the gazebo and kind of sitting viewing
[1:10:28] area by the parks, a great option for
parents who want to monitor their kids
[1:10:33] and who have to listen to all the
shrieks and laughs, but also maybe a
[1:10:37] second gazebo option for people who are
um don't really have kids or don't want
[1:10:42] to listen to all the shrieks and laughs.
some of the um elderly people or people
[1:10:48] who've moved on from the parent phases
to maybe even considering two different
[1:10:51] options to kind of accommodate both
those um listening pleasures for
[1:10:57] residents would be nice to consider.
Thank you.
[1:10:59] » Thank you, Council Pickard. Any other
discussion on the motion? Seeing none,
[1:11:03] call for the question. All in favor?
Terrific.
[1:11:08] Okay. Are we done with that one, folks?
I think [laughter] so.
[1:11:13] All good.
8.6
[1:11:18] Anfidic Aquatic and Sports Center and
Jerry Morgan Memorial Center reopening
[1:11:22] plan
that the Anfidic Aquatic and Sports
[1:11:26] Center and Jerry Morgan Memorial Center
reopening plan report be accepted for
[1:11:30] information who care to move it.
Council Pringle second by councelor Pit.
[1:11:36] Discussion
[1:11:43] [laughter]
the chair. Good luck getting the boiler
[1:11:47] in it.
>> One day I'm going to get one of these
[1:11:49] closed before you get your hand up.
Councelor Pickard.
[1:11:53] » I already did. It was really quick
through the chair. Good luck getting the
[1:11:57] boiler installed. I don't know if I'm
going to be able to accomplish that.
[1:12:00] » Looking forward to it.
[1:12:04] » Are you done?
[1:12:08] » Any other discussions? No. Call for the
question. All in favor? carried
[1:12:12] unanimously. 8.7 recreation service rate
review that the move that the recreation
[1:12:18] services rate review report be accepted
for information. Who care to move it?
[1:12:22] Councelor Faucet, second by councelor
Pringle. Any discussion?
[1:12:29] Director of operations Doxy. I see
you're recommending that um we do an
[1:12:33] inflationary increase for our fees and
charges at um the aquatic center and
[1:12:37] pool and you're recommending zero
increase at the um campground. Can you
[1:12:41] tell me why that we have a you're you're
recommending that um
[1:12:46] this that option of having zero at the
campground instead of 3% of the
[1:12:50] compound. What's your rationale behind
that sir? Um
[1:12:55] well the willingness to pay I suppose uh
the campground has just historically um
[1:13:02] it hasn't hasn't seen uh the the assets
or the quite the infrastructure. There's
[1:13:06] no water service. There's um there's
it's it's basically staff time um which
[1:13:12] does go up every year, but there aren't
a lot of uh secondary um technical
[1:13:17] amenities down there um that drive cost
quite as much as there are with the
[1:13:21] facilities like the pools, the arenas,
and such. Um
[1:13:26] so that's kind of the basic crux.
Otherwise, the recommendations towards
[1:13:29] 3% or um I'm going to say they're kind
of balanced. We heard the report from
[1:13:33] the health medical health officer tying
in uh kind of the need for recreation uh
[1:13:38] services in a community and and tying it
into the [clears throat] need or the the
[1:13:43] benefits of access in terms of like
physical health, mental health, and
[1:13:47] addictions and uh and heading those
things off. So, it's a bit of a
[1:13:50] conflicted report where I'm recommending
a 3% to keep us up with inflation, but
[1:13:54] also reminding council that some of
these things are um um they are
[1:13:59] community services um intended to
benefit the whole community and um and
[1:14:04] with that respecting council's um
direction as to what the increase should
[1:14:08] be, but we were recommending 3%.
director of operations oxy and
[1:14:12] historically over the last few years
you've been recommending the same amount
[1:14:16] and council's been proving that Croy
historically last few years has been 3%.
[1:14:22] » I believe it has been 3%.
>> Yeah, that's my recollection also. I
[1:14:26] could be incorrect but I'll go back and
take a look at the YouTube for the last
[1:14:29] couple years and see what we actually
recommended because I've got a boring
[1:14:32] life [laughter]
but I'm pretty confident it's 3%.
[1:14:37] And I do agree with you. Um I don't know
if my colleagues do, but I'm quite
[1:14:41] prepared to support um inflationary
increases and those facilities. That
[1:14:45] basically in my mind that's no increase
if we're just doing inflationary
[1:14:48] increases. And that's kind of a best of
both worlds. And at the same time, I
[1:14:53] don't believe we should be increasing
the costs of our um fees at the
[1:14:58] campground. I think they're excessive at
this point based on the amenities that
[1:15:01] are available down there. And you know,
I wouldn't support any increase in the
[1:15:04] the costs. I know that um you still got
some improvements that you're going to
[1:15:07] be doing down there, which is
encouraging. It's nice to see that I can
[1:15:10] finally find the campsites now because
they're all numbered and we have nice
[1:15:14] new information signs down there. And
you're planning on replacing those
[1:15:17] dreadful toilets that we have down there
that are the most that are disgusting, I
[1:15:22] think. And that's compliment. I could
probably get into other words, but I get
[1:15:25] in trouble for using exploitives, so I
won't go there. But I know that you're
[1:15:29] replacing those, so I'm very happy about
that and maybe some work on the signage
[1:15:32] and other thing. But one thing I got
from the people that were down there
[1:15:35] this summer, director of operation, Dr.
seem very happy with the fact that um
[1:15:40] you've uh you're keeping all of the um
campgrounds down there very clean. Your
[1:15:45] staff is doing a great job keeping it
very clean down there. Seem to be very
[1:15:48] happy with that. And the other thing is
that you've done some work on those
[1:15:51] disgusting toilets by putting in new
toilet dispensers and sand sanitizer and
[1:15:56] using a biodegradable thing to reduce
the smell and everything. So, I know
[1:15:59] you've been making efforts, but you
know, sometimes you can only put so much
[1:16:03] makeup on. The pig is still a pig,
right? So, I'm sure glad that you've got
[1:16:08] your $8,000 I think council gave you to
replace those um those um those
[1:16:13] buildings down there. The what do you
call those those rooms? Those toilet
[1:16:17] rooms down there.
>> John's John's.
[1:16:20] » Whatever you worship, they're they're
pit toilets. The super structure.
[1:16:25] » Yeah. I've never found a pit toilet I
like. It doesn't matter how nice it is,
[1:16:28] but I never but anyways I do appreciate
all the efforts that you guys made down
[1:16:31] there. But getting back to the question
here is that receiving for information
[1:16:35] I'm happy with your proposals and your
recommendations. Um any other
[1:16:39] discussion?
All for the question on favor receipt
[1:16:42] done. And then I see you kind of gave us
some detail in the next one here that
[1:16:46] council adjust the rates at the an
Aquatic Center as shown in column C that
[1:16:50] I assume is a 3% one. That's what I
referenced. Yeah. And that council
[1:16:54] adjusts the rate at the jury. Morgan
Moral Center as shown in column C and
[1:16:59] that council retain the rate at the
campground set during the April 20th
[1:17:02] 2026 council meeting as shown on column
A. Who care to move that? Councelor
[1:17:07] Picker second by councelor Foster. Any
more discussion that we had? Councelor
[1:17:11] Pickard.
>> The chair and um I think that the
[1:17:15] inflationary 3% is really fair. Just
keeps us in line with what we're
[1:17:18] increasing for wages and costs and
utilities and upgrades. And I think it's
[1:17:23] still really important to note even
though we do the 3% increase, infants
[1:17:28] and preschool kids six and under still
stay free which is awesome I think for
[1:17:32] little kids and increases accessibility
and safety and learning how to swim. So
[1:17:36] I appreciate you guys keeping that free
for kids under six. And also still our
[1:17:41] rates you know the 3% a child goes from
405 to 425 quite nominal and still
[1:17:47] really affordable and adults and seniors
too is quite nominal. So I agree and
[1:17:52] support it and still believe our rates
are really fair for the quality of our
[1:17:56] facilities. So thank you.
>> Thank you councelor Pickard. Any other
[1:18:00] comments? People happy. Good to go. Call
for a question. All favor
[1:18:07] reports from councelor
counselors councelor fost officer.
[1:18:13] » None at this time. Your worship
councelor Fson councelor Pickard.
[1:18:18] Thank you through the chair and um just
a couple updates for the last month I
[1:18:24] guess since we've met last and first of
all just want to say thanks to all the
[1:18:29] organizers and the groups and
individuals that made Goldiver days such
[1:18:33] a success and important event for the
community. It's always a highlight for
[1:18:37] our community and visitors in the
summer. So thanks to everyone involved
[1:18:40] in organizing and also thanks to the
Chamber of Commerce for taking it on
[1:18:44] this year. That's that was really great.
And also thanks to Connie and her crew
[1:18:49] from the slow pitch um Gold River Slow
Pitch and they did a lot of work to
[1:18:53] organize lots of crew and team and
visitors to come in and it was great to
[1:18:57] see so many people some great ball and
tons of people spending hopefully lots
[1:19:02] of money in Gold River and supporting
all our businesses and just making our
[1:19:05] community more vibrant.
And also just wanted to send consol
[1:19:10] condolences that that event
unfortunately ended um in a tragedy and
[1:19:15] we lost a really important member of our
community and send prayers and strengths
[1:19:20] to the Christensen and Johnson family
and the entire MFN community and Gold
[1:19:24] River community as Shane was a gentle
and kind soul with a big heart and
[1:19:29] brought our communities together more
than anyone I think I know in the
[1:19:33] community and um brought people together
and he was really committed to salmon.
[1:19:37] So he I don't know if anybody knows but
he right now the hatchery is out in all
[1:19:41] the rivers and getting all the salmon in
there so thanks to the Kuma hatchery and
[1:19:46] all their staff but he was a big part of
that team for over a decade. So he made
[1:19:49] a really big impact on salmon in the
community and um fed the salmon all
[1:19:54] throughout the year before their river
releases. So, um, yeah, well, he'll be
[1:19:58] deeply missed by a lot of us, but I hope
his legacy lives on through us and
[1:20:03] through, um, his love for salmon and the
impact he had. And so, um, yeah, and
[1:20:10] thanks to everyone who showed support to
the family community and celebrating his
[1:20:13] life. And, um, on that note, brood
collections going on. Mayor Lot's been a
[1:20:18] volunteer for that before, but the
Canuma hatchery and all their staff head
[1:20:22] out to the rivers and they actually
support six rivers and they collect
[1:20:25] they're collecting brood now in the
Burman and Gold Rivers. And that's super
[1:20:29] important for our area. They get the
fish, do the pairs, match them even for
[1:20:33] the Burman River, um get the most
genetic Burman DNA fish and make the
[1:20:39] pairs and then do all their brood stuff
magic out there and raise the fish all
[1:20:44] winter and then release them in the
river. So that really supports our
[1:20:47] fishing industries and our sport fishing
and wreck fishing and family fishing. So
[1:20:51] they're doing really important um work
out in the rivers right now. So thanks
[1:20:56] to their team. That's that's really big
for our fisheries around here. And um uh
[1:21:02] another note in some restoration work. I
don't know if anybody went out to
[1:21:06] Mushlet Lake at the end of August, but
our council's been really supportive of
[1:21:11] a big restoration project that's
restored some really important quality
[1:21:15] salmon spawning habitat at the outlet of
Mushellet Lake. So, that was a 1.4
[1:21:20] million all grant-f funded project that
restored habitat, employed local MFN
[1:21:26] members, um had some contractors come
out from Trinity Consultants and Far
[1:21:31] North contractors. So kind of a big
economic boost for the region too. And
[1:21:35] that project was completed ahead of
schedule, unheard of almost in
[1:21:40] construction and on time. And so that is
done and you guys will see some media
[1:21:45] and some footage there. But a really
also important collaborative project for
[1:21:49] partnerships and for ecosystem health,
for wed waterershed function, and for
[1:21:54] salmon health. So hopefully we'll see
lots of benefits. We'll see in a couple
[1:21:58] weeks salmon all coming up the rivers.
really incredible part of where we live
[1:22:02] and hopefully again using all that
habitat and that wershed restored and
[1:22:07] giving nature a chance to heal herself
out there.
[1:22:10] And uh two billion tree planting project
that's funded by natural resource Canada
[1:22:15] is also starting up in the upper Musl
rivers. So that's kind of the last year
[1:22:20] of that project. Restored some upper
octaw last year now upper mushullet and
[1:22:24] all just helping planting repairarian
areas. That's um Nucasan Wershed
[1:22:29] Society, uh Salmon Park Stewardship
Society, and MFN Partnerships also. So,
[1:22:34] some really great work happening
um in that restoration area. And then
[1:22:40] Mayor Lot and I had um an update from
kind of on the other end of the fishery
[1:22:45] stuff aquaculture. We're going to have a
big update tomorrow. So, we'll share it
[1:22:49] with Marian Council from Jennifer
Woodland, our contact with Surerach, and
[1:22:53] they
um she just got back from a trip, but
[1:22:57] there was a some update. She's actually
joined the board for resource works,
[1:23:02] which do lots of advocacy for our uh
resources and have been a big big
[1:23:07] partner with us to advocate for
aquaculture and our other industries.
[1:23:11] And we are still awaiting any updates or
news from the federal government on the
[1:23:16] aquaculture um proposed ban, but there
was a really important bi-election at
[1:23:21] the end of August and um they that kind
of went in the favor of the aquaculture
[1:23:27] support. So we should as we've been
saying for a long time, we thought early
[1:23:31] fall right now have an update on that
and we'll kind of know a little bit more
[1:23:35] for our um our residents and all our
partners at SURAC. So that's all for in
[1:23:43] Thank you,
>> Counc.
[1:23:47] » Yeah. Um I got to uh meet with the new
head of operations down at Western
[1:23:52] Forest Products. Um I don't even know
his last name, Derek. [laughter]
[1:23:56] I uh what four weeks in now. Um so I'm
trying to uh give him a little bit of
[1:24:03] grace as he gets his feet under him. Um
he tells me that um they're you know as
[1:24:10] said before the plan was to go into the
Saunders and go out to the east coast
[1:24:13] and they're kind of ramping up to start
doing that this uh fall. So apparently
[1:24:18] there's lots of wood there. Um it's
multi-year so that is very promising.
[1:24:24] And ideally, um, I was going to check up
with him, uh, get as, you know,
[1:24:29] up-to-date facts as possible, uh, before
heading off to UBCM, uh, which
[1:24:34] apparently I have three days to go and
see him again. Uh, that's everything for
[1:24:40] me.
>> Thank you, Council Wear. Did I miss you,
[1:24:44] Council Pringle? I know I'm bad
sometimes with that. I councelor
[1:24:48] Pringle,
>> I think at this time. Thank you.
[1:24:51] [snorts]
[1:24:58] Um, I don't know if you folks pay
attention to things like this, but um,
[1:25:02] that's important. Um, just recently our
prime minister, Mark Carney, um,
[1:25:07] appointed a new deputy minister of
fisheries and oceans, gentleman's name
[1:25:13] is Paul McKinnon. And um Paul McKinnon
was invited out to Vancouver Island by
[1:25:20] the Coalition of First Nations for
Finnfish Stewardship. And that group um
[1:25:25] invited um stakeholders in the
aquaculture industry um as well as
[1:25:31] politicians um like myself, communities
that have significant investments in the
[1:25:36] in the aquaculture business um to meet
with him. So we met with them in
[1:25:41] Campbell River and it was usually these
things are kind of lame. You know, you
[1:25:45] don't get too much attention. They're
just photo ops. But um this one wasn't
[1:25:49] this was a person who had a genuine
interest in uh understanding the
[1:25:54] aquaculture business on the West Coast
because there's a significant question
[1:25:58] before this government that they have
yet to answer and that's whether or not
[1:26:03] they're going to resend the um ban on um
open net salmon farming. So I was quite
[1:26:11] surprised that he gave me a a lot of
time to talk to him about the
[1:26:17] aquaculture business on the banker
around the west coast. And he also spent
[1:26:22] time trying to understand how that
impacted Gold River and what were the
[1:26:27] implications of us
shutting down um Surerax operations down
[1:26:33] at West Coast Marine Terminals,
terminating their hatchery and
[1:26:38] eliminating their open net fish farming.
And we talked about those implications
[1:26:42] and he was quite open to understanding
what was happening there. He real he
[1:26:46] wanted to know what were how is it going
to affect the people in your community?
[1:26:50] how many people from First Nations were
employed in that industry? Um what kind
[1:26:55] of um economic impacts does it have?
Like what kind of wages are generated
[1:26:59] and what secondary industries are
supported like um in your community? and
[1:27:04] he he gave me the time to go over that
and make the case and said that he found
[1:27:08] he said they found that very
enlightening and it's going to help him
[1:27:11] with his deliberations when he goes back
to um back to Ottawa and talks to his
[1:27:16] boss Joan Thompson and Joan's boss Mark
Carney because I guess this decision is
[1:27:21] sitting on Prime Minister Mark Carney's
desk and he's hasn't made it yet because
[1:27:25] he's not doesn't look like he wants to
follow what his predecessor did in this
[1:27:29] industry Pier Trudeau and it was
[snorts] interesting that bi-election
[1:27:32] that councelor Picker referred to in
North Vancouver Capalino. The fellow
[1:27:36] that was the MLA there was a was an
ardent um was was ardently opposed to
[1:27:43] the industry and uh was actively
involved in um you know drawing up the
[1:27:48] legislation for shutting and terminating
it. The new fellow that um got elected
[1:27:52] happens to be a staffer that used to
work for Mark Carney who has a
[1:27:56] completely different perspective on
aquaculture and the potential for
[1:28:01] aquaculture. So, um, thank you, um, to
Paul McKinnon, um, the deputy minister
[1:28:07] of fisheries and oceans for, you know,
spending the time, um, getting to know
[1:28:12] me and Gold River and Surerac and the
business because representatives for
[1:28:15] Surac were there and plus spending time
on the island. He had gone out and seen
[1:28:18] a lot of fish farms when he was here.
And so thank you for you know that um
[1:28:23] for for for really
diving deep into it and understand the
[1:28:27] implications if if uh we don't if we
terminate that business and it has and
[1:28:32] that business has so much potential for
growth and and has so many good things
[1:28:36] that it can provide. But I do thank him
and he also said that his office on the
[1:28:40] west coast interesting enough is um our
DFO building in Gold River. He said next
[1:28:45] time he's out here at the office he's
going to phone me up and invite me out
[1:28:49] for a cup of coffee. So I thought, "Wow,
I like that. That'll work for me." So
[1:28:54] anyways, that's probably one of the most
interesting meetings I've had with the
[1:28:57] highlevel politician. Most of the time
it's just photo op and you're out the
[1:29:00] door. They don't really care what you
have to say. It's just But this guy was
[1:29:03] really he was really interested. He
wants to know and um I think he they
[1:29:08] went very favorably. He seemed very
supportive of it. He's from PEI and from
[1:29:13] Prince Edward Island and the Maritimes
they aquaculture is a big thing out
[1:29:17] there. He said, "I grew up next, you
know, when I grew up, you know, next
[1:29:21] door to this operation. They it was
responsible was a hatchery and it was
[1:29:24] responsible for creating all the smolts
for all the open net fish farms that
[1:29:28] were operated by the province of New
Brunswick and Newf Finland and what was
[1:29:33] the other no scope?" He said, you know,
I said, "Well, we want our industry to
[1:29:38] mirror what you guys are doing on the
east coast rather than being shut down."
[1:29:41] So, he was kind of Yeah. So, I think
that maybe we have a different
[1:29:45] perspective.
So,
[1:29:47] That's good. The other thing I was
really grateful for, I don't know if you
[1:29:50] guys noticed it, but I sure noticed it
by looking around the town and talking
[1:29:54] to the businesses in town and looking at
our campground with the Uchuck being
[1:29:58] down. Like I had that terrible accident
and um you know that was
[1:30:04] down where was it down? They were down
at Barkley. They were down there and
[1:30:08] they ran ground or something to this the
bottom of the hull and lost their rudder
[1:30:13] and everything. So, they've been down
for the summer. And boy, talk about the
[1:30:16] impacts. Like, usually it's the
campground's full, you know, because
[1:30:19] people are waiting to get on to the
tours that um you checked in, but not
[1:30:23] this year. Talking to people in town,
the businesses, they usually, you know,
[1:30:27] talking they're accustomed to having
those customers come in and buy services
[1:30:31] off of them. Not happening this year.
So, um it was really it was really
[1:30:36] uplifting for me to be down there. And I
talked to the owners as we went through
[1:30:39] the summer, kept the updates, and Sean,
the owner, was down in Victoria for the
[1:30:43] whole time, you know, overseeing the
project. But the Utre is back in town
[1:30:47] again, and it's really nice to see it in
port and uh back in service again. So,
[1:30:52] that is really uplifting for me. And I
think uplifting for Gold River and the
[1:30:56] Nook Sound in our economy. And I didn't
realize, you know, the type of impact
[1:31:00] that has, but man, does it ever have a
profound impact, you know, when you take
[1:31:03] that out, it just like seems like the
the heart of our economy, you know, and
[1:31:08] I know these guys did a great job just
with that. They just had the a was it AJ
[1:31:12] Greer to work with in the summer and
they they were working 24 hours a day,
[1:31:15] seven days a week to keep up. They did a
great job keeping the business going,
[1:31:19] but they couldn't do any tourist
traffic. So, good for them. And I'm
[1:31:23] talking to Sean, the owner. who said
that um two years uh two years ago,
[1:31:27] remember we they he they they went down
because they their their motors were
[1:31:31] they had problem with their motors, but
they've got new motors now and he's
[1:31:34] going to be bringing it down to dry dock
again in October to have those
[1:31:37] installed. So, he's going to have brand
new motors on the boat, too, and brand
[1:31:40] new hull and a brand new rudder. And
hopefully is he has a fair saving for a
[1:31:44] few more years because he's had some bad
luck over the last couple years and it's
[1:31:48] been hard on him and hard on our and his
family and his business and our
[1:31:52] community. But yeah, really appreciate
these guys. I don't know. I I haven't
[1:31:56] met a heartier souls and these mariners
out there. They just nothing nothing
[1:32:01] phases them. They and they keep on
going. So, um great work you guys and
[1:32:06] I'm glad to have you back and your
business back and in service because it
[1:32:10] sure has a negative impact on the
community.
[1:32:14] Um I didn't know whether it was
appropriate for me to talk about this or
[1:32:18] not, but I just wanted to share with the
community that I did. Yeah, I don't
[1:32:22] care. people say maybe that's not not a
mey thing. I said well I'm the mayor so
[1:32:26] whatever I do is a mey thing so
suck it up. So anyways, but my my
[1:32:33] thought very much was this is that I did
attend that celebration of life for
[1:32:37] Shane Christensen who uh who
unfortunately passed away during the
[1:32:41] weekend our
weekend where we have our gold river
[1:32:45] days and it was very tragic and um
I just wanted to extend my condolences
[1:32:52] like people like um
councelor Pringle did at the celebration
[1:32:57] of life very profound and moving
testimonies from a lot of people. It was
[1:33:01] really a great ceremony. You know,
people just came up to Mike and they
[1:33:04] talked about Shane and um who he was and
you know the impact he had in the
[1:33:10] community and what an influence he
positive influence was in the community
[1:33:13] that yeah I didn't feel it was
appropriate for me to spoke to him for
[1:33:16] some reason. I don't know why but um I
do feel you know I should have and I did
[1:33:20] want to make this public comment that um
yeah my heart is broken. I think um the
[1:33:28] heart of our community is broken. I
think we lost a very valuable son of
[1:33:32] Gold River and Malach First Nations and
um the impacts are felt now and probably
[1:33:37] reverberate into the future. But I did
want to know that the family to know
[1:33:41] that um I extend my condolences to them
and all his friends and family and his
[1:33:47] loved ones. And I was really
appreciative of the folks that put on
[1:33:50] the celebration of life because they put
on a great um yeah a great ceremony for
[1:33:55] him. I think I just love the fact that
they had all those testimony
[1:33:58] testimonials on there. I've never been
to one like that before where person
[1:34:02] after person after person went to the
mic and um shared their experiences with
[1:34:06] Shane and I was, you know, I'm not
supposed to cry. I'm a guy and I'm
[1:34:10] supposed to be a macho guy. But there I
was blubbering and like because my
[1:34:15] daughter grew up with Shane and I grew
up with Shane and I have a lot of
[1:34:19] contacts with him. But I'm sure you know
he had contacts with everybody in this
[1:34:22] town. He was just kind of the great
ambassador ambassador for our community
[1:34:26] and [snorts] to talk about a unifying
force between Mao Mush First Nations and
[1:34:30] the citizens of village of Gold River. I
think we both adopt him. He's both our
[1:34:34] sons, right? So anyways, um Shane, we'll
miss you and um yeah, hope you're having
[1:34:40] fun up there with all your friends and
relatives playing whatever game you're
[1:34:44] playing because I know you love sports.
But yeah, so that's I wanted to do that.
[1:34:50] Um, one of the things that the mayor has
to do is he has to sit as a director on
[1:34:59] Strathon regional district and basically
represent the whole Stratthon regional
[1:35:04] district which is large areas basically
mostly central and a lot of North Island
[1:35:08] and um there was a project that um that
were worked on over the years that I was
[1:35:13] with uh sitting in this chair and
sitting on the chair and as the SRD and
[1:35:18] one of them was really proud of the BS
associated with and enjoyed working on
[1:35:21] and uh has recently come to fruition was
the umh
[1:35:27] the project that they had. Let's see if
I've got it written down here because I
[1:35:31] don't want to get the name wrong. These
are recorded and then people SRD give me
[1:35:35] hell when I go out there. Don't you know
the name of that project? [laughter]
[1:35:39] It's uh just like home lodge and the the
health professional housing project. And
[1:35:45] there was a ribbon cutting that we just
did recently. And that just like home
[1:35:49] project touched me because I'm health
care professional. And I noticed that
[1:35:52] there's a lot of barriers for people
when they're looking after loved ones.
[1:35:55] Like if you have a your child is really
sick and you have to take some place and
[1:36:00] they need care there and you want to be
there to support the child, you got to
[1:36:04] you know you got your transportation
costs over there. Accommodation.
[1:36:06] Accommodations are such a barrier to to
families. is too so expensive. And the
[1:36:11] just like home um allows people that
have loved ones um in the hospital that
[1:36:17] are being treated um to stay at this
just like home place that's just beside
[1:36:22] the hospital and it costs us for a
nominal fee. I think it's about $10 a
[1:36:26] night or something. They can stay there
and be there to support their loved one,
[1:36:29] right? And um if the loved one can get
to the just like homes, they can go over
[1:36:33] there, too. So um to me it's a it's a
project that um I enjoyed um being part
[1:36:39] of and working on and they also we also
talked about it's critical for a health
[1:36:43] care system to be able to compete to
attract um health care professionals
[1:36:48] especially specialists um there's so
much demand for them all over the world
[1:36:52] they can go anywhere they want so we
need to you know try and create some an
[1:36:56] edge for ourel and part of this project
was um folks that are interested in
[1:37:01] coming to Campbell river to work in
Campbell River and their health care
[1:37:05] professionals, they can stay at this um
this um health professional housing at a
[1:37:11] significantly discounted rate while
they're practicing here if it's just
[1:37:15] short period of time or long period of
time or if they want to be there as they
[1:37:19] transition in the community to find
housing. And it gives us a little bit of
[1:37:22] edge because one of the things that
health care professionals have indicated
[1:37:25] in all surveys that are done is that if
um there's some sort of u subsidy or um
[1:37:31] or facilitation for housing that um
affects their choice on where they'll
[1:37:36] practice. So, it's really great to be a
part of that and um yeah, and it's a
[1:37:41] project that
[1:37:44] I like I'm I'm I'm I'm really pleased
with and I think it enhanced the
[1:37:48] healthcare system out there in our
region and especially in Camel River.
[1:37:52] And the other one um that and we're
talking about my background is in
[1:37:55] recreation and aquatics. So, this one
was really passion one of my passions as
[1:37:59] we went through the years is that um
Strath Kona Gardens um is familiar with
[1:38:04] that. What we did is we um we tore down
the old aquatic center there and we
[1:38:09] built a new aquatic center and a
wellness center and that facility is
[1:38:14] going to be opening in the region and
I've had a chance to tour through it
[1:38:17] with the um the contractors and it's
going to just be amazing. People will
[1:38:20] just be blown away when they when they
get in there and they actually um enjoy
[1:38:24] and experience it. And our ribbon
cutting for the grand opening ceremony
[1:38:29] is on September the 29th, which I'll be
a part of. And um again, I'm looking
[1:38:33] forward to being there. And just to give
you some context, that project's about
[1:38:37] $70 million project, and it was done on
time and on budget. And um the reason I
[1:38:43] put a number to it and that sort of
thing is because when people talk about
[1:38:48] shutting down and bulldozing our pool
and recreation center, you're talking
[1:38:51] about um for those assets down there for
the community, they're hundreds of
[1:38:55] millions of dollars. Hundreds of
millions of dollars that we have and we
[1:38:58] that we that we own and um we don't have
any I might be incorrect, but I'm pretty
[1:39:04] confident we don't have any debt on them
at all. It's all paid off. Is that
[1:39:07] correct, Cra?
>> That's correct. The village of Gold
[1:39:10] River is debtree at this time.
>> Debtree. I don't know about you guys,
[1:39:13] but I don't know too many people are
debtree. Um, a lot of people I talk to
[1:39:16] have mortgages. They're paying for the
car payments. They've got their lines of
[1:39:20] credit. They got their charge cards. And
I know a lot of communities that I deal
[1:39:24] with, um, municipalities in the
province. I deal talked to a lot of
[1:39:28] politicians. None of them that I've
talked to are debtree. Goldfree is
[1:39:33] debtree. As far as I'm understand, CEO
Roy, we don't have debt on any of our
[1:39:37] public facilities. Am I correct there,
sir?
[1:39:40] » Yes, that's correct. Anybody can review
our financial statements. Well, it'll be
[1:39:45] indicated in there, too.
>> Yeah, that's pretty amazing. You guys
[1:39:48] aren't paying interest any interest on
loans.
[1:39:53] And most of the stuff that we do is done
through grants. I like it.
[1:39:58] Kind of keep Mr. Roy here. He's keeping
us going and all these creative
[1:40:03] financial ways to keep us going.
Yeah. Anyways, do I have anything else
[1:40:08] on my list? Oh, yeah. One more thing. I
I was spending some time with um
[1:40:14] councelor Way Meer and I and the CEO are
going over to Vancouver to participate
[1:40:18] in this thing called the University of
British Columbia municipalities. And
[1:40:22] sometime I wonder about the value of
some of these things that we go on. Um
[1:40:26] whether or not we get any return as a
community for us going over there and
[1:40:30] spending time with um these politicians
and administrators. But uh I think there
[1:40:36] is value. You know, they hear our
concerns about what we're what are what
[1:40:41] our priorities for Gold River. It helps
us when we want to um apply for grants
[1:40:47] and um I think that you know it networks
and so we have contacts there. But we're
[1:40:52] going to be when we go over there,
councelor Waymire and I are going to be
[1:40:55] running around visiting or actually
having meetings with the Minister of
[1:40:59] Finance,
Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of
[1:41:03] Citizen Services, Ministry of Rural
Development,
[1:41:06] Ministry of Environment and Parks.
And um there's a whole list of each one
[1:41:12] of those ministries. We've got our
briefing sheets that councelor Waymar
[1:41:16] worked on and really diligently did a
great job putting together and council
[1:41:20] and our CEO um cleaned it up a little
bit so it's more presentable so because
[1:41:25] we have to send that over to them. So,
we're going to be meeting with these
[1:41:28] ministers um to um discuss u issues that
are critically important to the village
[1:41:33] of Gold River and um advocating on their
behalf, plus networking and apparently
[1:41:38] learning and every once in a while we're
allowed to go play for a little bit, but
[1:41:41] we won't talk about that. So, but most
of it's work, work, work, and taking
[1:41:45] time off of work or taking holidays to
go over and do it. Yeah. So, that's
[1:41:50] something I've been getting prepared for
um during this time and uh hopefully
[1:41:55] next week when we head over like
council, he's got three days to meet
[1:41:58] with because we'll be hopping on the
hopping on the fairies and heading over
[1:42:02] to to Vancouver for um a week in order
to meet with these people and talk to
[1:42:09] them as politicians and bureaucrats
to promote Gold River's um interests and
[1:42:17] concerns. S. So that's about it for me.
Could go on and on and on, but you folks
[1:42:23] look like you're getting tired. 8:41
long meeting. Probably want to hear from
[1:42:27] me anymore.
[1:42:31] Probably happened about 15 minutes ago,
huh? They're just all very polite.
[1:42:35] Anyways, that's it for reports from
council. Um, information items, work in
[1:42:40] progress,
and let's see. We usually have a motion
[1:42:44] associated with that. Council received
the work in progress for information.
[1:42:48] Who care to move it? Councelor Waymer,
second by councelor Fost. Any
[1:42:52] discussion?
[1:42:55] Council Way, I thought you may want to
talk about revitalization tax exemption.
[1:43:00] » Yeah. Um, that one's coming up, so I'll
leave that one alone. Um, I guess a
[1:43:06] question through the chair to
staff in general. Um,
[1:43:12] we've had that inquiry into MmfN for
months now. Um, have we done any
[1:43:20] followup and have as have they
responded?
[1:43:25] » Director of operations, Oxy, I think
you've been fielding this one for the
[1:43:28] last 6 months.
>> I'm answering your worship. I sent an
[1:43:30] email back to the uh uh the person on
the language committee um just this last
[1:43:35] week. I haven't heard back yet, but u I
there's been a few prior uh
[1:43:40] correspondences through the through the
chain, but this time I went directly to
[1:43:43] the language board or committee person,
whoever is answering that email.
[1:43:48] » Beautiful. Thank you.
>> Thank you, director of operations. Doxy
[1:43:52] follow question. No. Um you're good.
Council, are you wanting to ask director
[1:43:57] of operations council?
[1:44:02] » Can we finish this up and then you can
ask him about something else? Any other
[1:44:06] discussion? Call for the question. All
in favor?
[1:44:09] Councelor Pringle, what is the something
else you wanted to ask?
[1:44:13] » Thank you. I just wanted to ask about
when the crosswalks will be redone and
[1:44:18] when they are redone, will we be able to
put the um November remembered day or
[1:44:24] Yeah. Um sorry, I can't think. The
stenciling, can we put that over top so
[1:44:30] we don't just see red on the roadways?
like we it enhances it a little bit
[1:44:37] better. I'm just wondering if there'll
be time to do that before November 11th.
[1:44:42] » Director of Operations Doxy. Um that we
hadn't necessarily planned on doing. We
[1:44:48] normally do uh some of the pavement
markings every other year. Um we could
[1:44:53] we could look at it and see if we can
still fit it in. Uh as it gets closer to
[1:44:57] the rain season as well, it does get
tight, but we can definitely look at
[1:45:02] that and try
[1:45:06] followup, councelor Pringle.
>> Well, just the crosswalks are very
[1:45:11] unseeable
and um so I would think that they it's
[1:45:15] either
>> come up to the two years or whatever. So
[1:45:18] I know you guys are really busy, but it
is also safety as well for our kids with
[1:45:23] them going back to school. So I just was
asking. Thank you.
[1:45:28] » So director of operations Doxy, is that
a yes or no, sir?
[1:45:33] Um, yes,
>> it is a yes, we will we will try to get
[1:45:36] the crosswalks uh done up here um as
we're into the fall season. So, and
[1:45:41] particularly the the Legion one.
>> Thank you, director of operations. Oxy,
[1:45:44] you good with that? Council Pringle,
that satisfy your quir. Okay. Number 12,
[1:45:50] bylaw 12.1, bylaw number 766 to ask 2026
revitalization tax exemption.
[1:45:58] Move that bylaw number 7662026
revitalization tax exemption be adopted
[1:46:03] by title only. Who care to move it?
Councelor Wayar. Second by councelor
[1:46:08] Fost. Discussion.
[1:46:13] Holy smokes. I was surprised if somebody
else started before you. Councelor
[1:46:18] Rayar. Councelor Rayar.
>> Uh here we are. Uh we're at the finish
[1:46:22] line. Um, I think this is a great
opportunity for the village of Gold
[1:46:26] River to uh really sell development um
to those contractors who uh seem to like
[1:46:33] to ignore our little town. Um think this
is going to be a great tool uh help us
[1:46:39] build um build new and you know
renovate. Um I'm so glad to see this
[1:46:45] here and I look forward to crossing that
finish line.
[1:46:49] » Thank you, Counc. Anyone else?
[1:46:57] For those folks that don't know what the
revitalization tax exemption is, I'll
[1:47:00] give you the thumbnail approach.
Basically, our overview is that we're
[1:47:03] prepared to defer some of our taxes that
we would normally receive to um
[1:47:08] developers are prepared to renovate
existing buildings within our community
[1:47:12] or put in new buildings in our community
and give us a bit of an edge. Um because
[1:47:16] a lot of times I hear contractors
complaining that it's too expensive to
[1:47:20] develop out here because of the costs
that are associated with building on the
[1:47:23] west coast instead of the east coast of
the island. And it gives us a it gives
[1:47:27] us an edge. Plus it also gives us
something that we can sell in order to
[1:47:31] help promote um any sort of initiatives
that we want to see happening in the
[1:47:36] community. I can point to and say,
"Listen, if you're going to invest in
[1:47:39] this community and bring your business
here and uh put your infrastructure in
[1:47:43] and um we're going to we're going to
we're going to give you a tax break uh
[1:47:47] for five years." And uh that means that
the taxpayers are not going to be
[1:47:51] getting that money for the five years,
but on year six, you will start getting
[1:47:54] that money. And that might been money
that you're not getting at all because
[1:47:58] nobody came to do any development or set
up their business before. So that's kind
[1:48:01] of the rationale behind it. And then
folks that want to take existing
[1:48:05] businesses or commercial or residential
over $150,000 if they want to do some
[1:48:10] upgrades, we're going to help them. And
uh we're going to give them a a
[1:48:16] basically crescendoing or descending tax
breaks um as we go year to year over
[1:48:21] five years. And uh again it gives us
another just another tool in our toolbox
[1:48:26] because um most of the time what we're
dealing with is we deal with uh you know
[1:48:32] things that discourage business and um I
think that's when we'll really encourage
[1:48:36] business and we're invested we got some
skin in the game now right we've uh
[1:48:39] we're taking we're we're giving up some
of our potential revenues um in order to
[1:48:45] attract people in businesses in to do
build start businesses for existing
[1:48:52] businesses or commercial homes to
upgrade them. And I think uh you know, I
[1:48:56] remember I was had the debate with the
CEO and some counselors and community
[1:48:59] members as we went through this and
people said, "Yeah, we need to have an
[1:49:04] incentive. We need to have something. We
need to have some sort of edge. We need
[1:49:07] to be able to sell something." And I
remember working with this council and
[1:49:11] our staff and and I'm glad that we're
here at this point. And I was wondering
[1:49:15] sometimes these things take a while like
councilor Wayer's kind like, "Yeah, it's
[1:49:18] finally across the finish line, but But
all I can do is say um thank goodness
[1:49:24] for the perseverance of all people
involved, council members, staff, and
[1:49:28] the community because at the end of the
day, I I I'm a little bit of a farmer at
[1:49:34] heart, community farmer anyways, but I
think we planted some good seeds there
[1:49:38] and it's um and hopefully um we see them
grow to fruition and u and we see some
[1:49:43] beneficial things in the community.
Yeah,
[1:49:48] that might stimulate some discussion.
Councelor
[1:49:51] Pickard.
>> No, thank [snorts] you to the chair and
[1:49:53] thanks for your thoughts. I agree with
all of them and thanks councelor Wayer
[1:49:57] for bringing this to um council to
consider and thanks to staff for taking
[1:50:01] the time putting it together. And Mayor
Law, you're right. It's things take so
[1:50:05] much time, but it's just to be
accountable and have transparency and
[1:50:09] have have us review it and have um
information sent out to the community.
[1:50:13] And this feels kind of nice to come near
the end of the term as we sat down at
[1:50:17] the beginning of the four years and set
out our strategic priorities. And a huge
[1:50:21] one for all of us across the board was
economic development and increase our
[1:50:26] tax base and make it a bit more diverse
so we can generate a little bit more
[1:50:29] money for our services and and keep them
up and not put that burden on taxpayers.
[1:50:34] So this is a really exciting
opportunity. I think it shows the the
[1:50:38] climate that we're willing to not just
say we want to do economic development,
[1:50:41] but we really can use one of the tools
in our tool belt that um that is
[1:50:46] attractive to business and as mayor you
mentioned too, you know, there's there's
[1:50:50] people that look at different options
and developing and revital and and
[1:50:54] investing here, but this is really this
is a big card in our back pocket that we
[1:50:58] can say this might offset some of the um
being remote or the cost of building out
[1:51:04] here. So I think it's really attractive
and you know there's been some barriers
[1:51:09] to groups doing investments here and
starting new new development with hydro
[1:51:13] being a big one but the cost has been a
big one that we've heard. So, this is
[1:51:16] one thing that we can have have an
effect on and it is a bit of short-term
[1:51:21] compromise and not having those taxes
right away, but in hopes of growing our
[1:51:25] tax base, having long-term investment,
and eventually making the community more
[1:51:29] um more viable and more more robust and
economically more sustainable. So,
[1:51:36] thanks to everyone for your patience on
this and work on it and look forward to
[1:51:40] what the future holds with this tax
exemption. Thank you, Mor Pickard.
[1:51:46] No. No. All good.
All the question. All in favor? Done.
[1:51:55] Correspondence. That the correspondence
be accepted for information. You can
[1:51:58] move it. Council. Nobody wants to move
correspondence. Is there something
[1:52:02] controversial in there? Councilor Ray.
Second by councelor Ringle.
[1:52:10] Discussion. Seeing none. Call for
question. All in favor? Done. You
[1:52:14] [snorts] guys must be getting tired. You
want to race through the rest of these
[1:52:16] items.
>> Okay, new business. Seeing none.
[1:52:21] Question period. Mr. Roy, do we have any
um inquiries online, sir?
[1:52:26] » Not at this time. Your worship
>> gallery. Um does anybody wish to come to
[1:52:30] councelor White?
Go ahead, sir. You know how that you
[1:52:35] know the drill.
>> Getting used to it. Yeah.
[1:52:42] » Chris White, 507 Golden Hind place.
>> Chris,
[1:52:47] » I'm just tickled pink with with the
meeting tonight, you know, like like we
[1:52:53] are so lucky and and this just just
reinforced everything. I feel good about
[1:52:57] this place. The fact that we have zero
debt, just that alone, like zero debt to
[1:53:03] live here. our taxes are reasonable and
it it's just it's just it's just really
[1:53:08] really good. You guys have done a great
job and I'm just tickled being here and
[1:53:13] it's just it was just good. It was a
good I feel really good about everything
[1:53:17] going on here. Thank you for that.
Yeah, I I remember when I was working
[1:53:22] for the village of Gold River and you'd
hear the squeak squeak squeak squeak and
[1:53:26] that was uh councelor White walking down
the um hallway
[1:53:31] looking at the looking at the
dispersements at your bills had to sign
[1:53:36] off and knocking on everybody's door and
says, "Is this the best that we could
[1:53:40] do? Can we get it cheaper?" And I used
to be just terrified. [laughter]
[1:53:47] » Oh, good. like is that my is that one of
is that one of the things that I bought?
[1:53:51] But one of the things I gained from that
is that um I realized that um it's a
[1:53:57] petition of trust to have um stewardship
over the public purse and that we're in
[1:54:03] we've been given a very important role
and that is to make sure that we get the
[1:54:06] best value for the taxpayers for the
money and that um and people like
[1:54:11] councelor White at that time and others.
I had a CEO who was
[1:54:16] » Larry Plur who even squeakaked more than
you did I think um who are they they
[1:54:21] were very good about managing money and
uh I got beat up a lot. I still got the
[1:54:25] bruises and stuff but um I think it I
think it made me more more financially
[1:54:30] conscious because when I got in here the
first thing on my radar was and we
[1:54:34] shared with this council was that we
need to be financially responsible and
[1:54:38] get our financial house in order. We
cannot kick this can down the road
[1:54:41] anymore. We've been doing it since 1997
9 what I remember when I started right
[1:54:47] and we never had a budget balance and we
never had a budget um operation budget
[1:54:52] that was balanced and we were constantly
drawing down on our surpluses and
[1:54:56] reserves and living beyond our means and
we're going to get to the point where
[1:54:59] the the cupboard was bare and we'd be
shutting down pools and arenas and golf
[1:55:05] courses and everything else and laying
people off and contracting stuff out and
[1:55:08] I thought don't ever want to get close
to that.
[1:55:13] » So, mayor council, that's all I had to
say is just thank you. A heartfelt thank
[1:55:17] you. You're doing a great job. Tickled
pink and and yeah, thanks.
[1:55:22] » Yeah, we better have Thank you very
much, Councelor White. We appreciate
[1:55:25] that.
And uh yeah, and thanks for um like you
[1:55:29] said, other people before us um deserve
the recognition because like in hockey,
[1:55:34] there's a term called setting the tone.
You guys set the tone for your, you
[1:55:39] know, the pre the your council and the
subsequent councils. And I'm hoping that
[1:55:43] the council after us will look at what
we did during this term, cutting
[1:55:47] millions and millions of operating
budgets and we had to raise taxes a
[1:55:51] little bit more than folks wanted them,
but and I I understand that and we
[1:55:55] wanted lots of grants, but we wanted at
the end of the day I I said to this
[1:55:59] council is that let's see if we can
achieve something that hasn't been
[1:56:03] achieved for for all the time that I've
been here since 97. I don't know the
[1:56:07] math. That's about 20 what, eight years
or something. Um, let's get a balanced
[1:56:11] budget operationally and and um and
projectwise and yeah, and once we get
[1:56:18] it, fight like hell to keep it. Don't
ever lose it. [snorts] And uh yeah, and
[1:56:23] that like you said, with no debt, we're
in pretty good shape. And um I think you
[1:56:29] see that because I talked to people that
want to invest in our community and
[1:56:32] they're saying they're going to put a
little bit more money into our community
[1:56:35] because they see that we got our
financial house in order. Like um Kent
[1:56:39] O'Neal, they said they they they're
building some things or adding some
[1:56:43] value buildings down there at his lodge.
And then and then there's a fellow down
[1:56:47] in the industrial sub down there who's
bought those two lots. All the for the
[1:56:53] what 27 years I was here, Chris, were
empty. there when nothing was in there.
[1:56:57] He bought those and now he's developing
those and expanding his business. He
[1:57:02] said, "Yeah, you guys got your financial
house in order. I'm feel comfortable
[1:57:05] that you're not this town's not going
to, you know, go bankrupt and um I'm
[1:57:10] investing some money." So, I think that
not only did we do our work, but um
[1:57:14] hopefully that reverberates and other
people have confidence and they're
[1:57:17] willing to um take a risk and invest
some money in in our community. So,
[1:57:22] yeah. Anyways, I don't know how I got
there. This is just question period. So,
[1:57:25] I'm not supposed to be going on and on
and on and on and on. Especially when
[1:57:28] it's nine o' especially when it's nine
o'clock at night. People are going to
[1:57:32] get upset with me. So, um any other
questions?
[1:57:42] » Glad you talked for so long. I got a few
things here.
[1:57:45] » Uh you got as much time as you want. Go
ahead.
[1:57:50] » I wrote all over it.
So, my first question to the mayor, um,
[1:57:57] do we no longer do territorial
recognitions at the beginning of
[1:58:00] meetings or was that just an oversight
tonight?
[1:58:02] » What's that? I over I missed it.
>> Okay. The other thing that apparently
[1:58:07] [clears throat] is an oversight that
quite upsets me because it's not the
[1:58:10] first time. Um, we made a lot of big
deal tonight about all the grants the
[1:58:15] village gets and you thank Joe a number
of times and no disrespect to you Joe.
[1:58:20] I'm sure you're you are doing a
wonderful job, but not once did you
[1:58:24] thank Chelsea Stubs whose job it
literally is to look for grants for this
[1:58:28] village and that really upsets me
because she does an awful lot of work
[1:58:32] for us and you never thank her.
>> Yeah, I my apologies. I agree with you.
[1:58:37] I think Chelsea does a wonderful job for
us and I and I know that um when the
[1:58:43] grant that we got from ICE TE to provide
for her position when that had expired
[1:58:50] um at that point I advocated for um
investing in that position and encourage
[1:58:56] council to continue on with that
employment because I realized how
[1:58:59] invaluable it was. I think maybe um
>> bad you can't remember to thank her once
[1:59:03] in a while then that's all I really
wanted to say. Thanks.
[1:59:05] » You're you're right. Um my next question
is regarding the work in progress. Um
[1:59:10] last spring I came to council with a
couple of requests. One of them was to
[1:59:15] have um cemetery awareness day
recognized which we did and it went very
[1:59:18] well. Um but the other was also to get
the cemetery mapping up and running. I
[1:59:23] spoke to the SRD money wasn't a problem.
Nothing else seemed to be a problem. I
[1:59:29] don't think it's been done. So I'm
wondering why it's not on this list.
[1:59:33] » It's a good question. I don't really
know myself. I'd have to refer it to
[1:59:36] staff. Staff, would you any staff member
care to um field that question? Director
[1:59:41] of operations, Doxy,
>> can you use that mic there, Sarah, to
[1:59:45] respond?
>> It is a work in pro progress. It's it's
[1:59:48] gone um to the consultant that's working
on our asset management um portfolio and
[1:59:53] it will be going into the mapping system
and and I don't know exactly when right
[1:59:57] now it'll go be going live, but it is it
is a project in in in process.
[2:00:03] » I'm very encouraged to hear that. Can we
get it on the next agenda if it hasn't
[2:00:06] been finished, please?
>> Sorry. What was your request?
[2:00:10] » To have it as a literal work in
progress. If it is one and it's not on
[2:00:13] the agenda now, can we get it
[2:00:18] » point of order sale?
>> Uh the council never directed this to be
[2:00:22] placed on the work in order work in
progress for council. It was done on an
[2:00:26] operational level. Uh but it's uh
council's will.
[2:00:32] Anyone care to move that?
Councelor Pringle. Second.
[2:00:37] All in favor of putting it on the list.
Okay. Done. Next.
[2:00:43] » Uh, do we know how many people work at
Surerac?
[2:00:49] » Surak. The entire
>> Sorry. Down at our site here like in
[2:00:52] Gold River. Oh,
>> I No, not exactly. It varies, but last
[2:00:56] time I had a reading from them, they
said that they're somewhere in the 3540
[2:01:01] range if [snorts] you include both the
hatchery and um open net fish farming.
[2:01:06] » And do we know how many of those people
live in Gold River?
[2:01:09] » I don't, but there is a number of them
that do.
[2:01:13] » Um also with regard to your
>> I think
[2:01:16] » meeting with the minister,
>> I think if you wanted that information,
[2:01:20] you could probably talk to Surerac. I
think Shannon Moberly at Surerac would
[2:01:25] be able to provide you with that data. I
think she keeps that data.
[2:01:28] » Well, I was just curious because you
were advocating for them with the
[2:01:31] Minister of Fisheries and whatnot. So, I
was just curious how many there were.
[2:01:34] Um, and with regards to that meeting
with the Minister of Fisheries, um, do
[2:01:38] you know anything about where we're at
with regards to being able to buy fresh
[2:01:41] seafood at our dock?
>> I don't.
[2:01:44] » Could we find out what the problems are
with that happening?
[2:01:48] » I don't know if I could find out, but
I'll look into it. It had it had been
[2:01:52] discussed some years ago because I knew
we were at a point where the local First
[2:01:56] Nations could have licenses to sell
things like halibet and whatnot.
[2:02:00] » Yeah. So, have you looked into it in the
past?
[2:02:04] » It has been looked into before, but I
was just thinking that with you being in
[2:02:08] contact with the fisheries minister, it
might have been something you had been
[2:02:11] asking about.
>> No, I was looking at something
[2:02:14] different.
>> Okay.
[2:02:15] » What else have you got?
Um,
[2:02:18] I had a question about who's going to
UBCM, but you actually did bring that
[2:02:22] up. And I'm just wondering if one of you
is planning to attend the session on
[2:02:27] hospital and rural health funding,
[2:02:32] seeing as that was another thing you
brought up under your regional district
[2:02:36] meeting,
[2:02:39] » the funding for Sorry,
>> your question. Can you repeat it again?
[2:02:44] uh seminar at 2 p.m. on the 14th
regarding regional hospital funding with
[2:02:48] special regard to rural areas.
>> No, I didn't.
[2:02:52] » Okay. Um you also rattled off a bunch of
minister meetings. Are those actual
[2:02:56] meetings that have been scheduled or are
they just meetings that you've already
[2:02:59] asked for?
>> Um they've been confirmed.
[2:03:03] » And you also didn't mention the Minister
of Highways. So are they on the list?
[2:03:07] Well,
say Roy, we've got some correspondence
[2:03:11] back from the Minister of Highways
concerning Highway 28 that you shared
[2:03:15] with us. Did you want to share that?
>> Uh the
[2:03:20] council did not uh do a request for
meeting with the highways ministry this
[2:03:24] year. Uh but uh conversation with the
ministry is that they are planning to do
[2:03:28] some work starting this fall on some
base work repairs on Highway 28 near
[2:03:34] Gold River. Yeah, I remember your
correspondence and it was um indicated
[2:03:38] that you've been working at staff level
with their managers and they've
[2:03:40] committed to a number of briefs.
>> An email
[2:03:44] 28 based on our request. Correct.
>> Yeah, I had an email correspondence with
[2:03:48] highways contact last week where he that
is what he stated. He would be advising
[2:03:52] of timelines once he had them and it
would be posted on drive BC.
[2:03:56] » Thank you, sir.
I specifically asked about meetings with
[2:04:00] the highways minister last spring and
was told that at no point in the
[2:04:03] previous three years had you met with
them. Um I ser at that time that meant
[2:04:08] you were going to have a meeting with
them this September and I'm very
[2:04:10] disappointed to find out that you don't
consider that a high enough priority.
[2:04:14] » Fair enough.
>> Um
[2:04:16] » what else have we got?
>> Oh campground.
[2:04:20] Is the public going to be able to see a
report on where the campground was at
[2:04:24] this summer compared to previous years?
Director of operations, Doxy,
[2:04:29] would you care to respond to that
question, sir?
[2:04:33] Sure.
>> If I may through your worship, we we can
[2:04:36] put together a report. Um, with the
information that we have in prior years,
[2:04:40] there is not always consistent
information that was reported on monthly
[2:04:44] basises, but we can certainly do a
report like kind of a like an annual
[2:04:49] summary uh total revenue, total revenue,
what we expected and um kind of what
[2:04:54] projects were were going on and
successful.
[2:04:57] I would very much like to see that
because although I did also hear a lot
[2:05:01] of very good comments about work that
had been done at the campground, I also
[2:05:04] heard from numerous people that they had
not paid to stay there. Nobody had come
[2:05:10] around to collect money and that was
rather upsetting.
[2:05:16] That's feedback that's valuable for
operations.
[2:05:19] Okay. Um,
[2:05:27] I had another thing, but I'm going to
leave it for now because I still need
[2:05:31] things from the village.
>> Thank you for your question.
[2:05:33] » Thank you very much.
>> Anyone else care to um address council?
[2:05:42] » Nope. No other questions?
Thank you. [laughter]
[2:05:47] Okay, moving on. No. No. A motion.
Motion to adjurnn in camera. Who would
[2:05:53] care to make that motion? Councelor
Pringle, second by councelor Waymire.
[2:05:57] All in favor, folks. We're in now in
camera. So, thank you for coming out. Um
[2:06:02] enjoy your evening and um
as always
[2:06:08] » as