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Okay, I'll uh call to order the special
council meeting. Um is this being

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recorded? No,
>> live stream.

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» Oh, live stream. Okay, so right. Okay,
so this is recording live on YouTube. Um

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I'll uh we have some late we have late
item. Um,

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this corporate [snorts] officer, go
ahead.

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» Okay. So, I'm adding that laid item. I
sent an email to everybody talk about

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the RDS's request for a letter of
support.

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We'll do that at 4.2.
Um, so first, uh, motion to, uh, approve

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the agenda.
Uh, councelor Vel and councelor

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Barkwell. All in favor carries. and 4.1
permissive tax exemption and uh

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who's this is just for adoption. So
motion to adopt council va councelor

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trainer all in favor that carries and
then um the RDS request for a letter. I

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sent an email out to everybody last
night if you had a chance to look at

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that. Um, basically they're
[clears throat]

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they're looking for um
for a um a grant to hire a regional

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economic development coordinator
and uh they're asking the municipalities

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to participate. It would the commitment
would from us would be $10,000 a year

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for three years. Um
we do know they're asking all the

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municipalities. We do know um a soy use
um has declined to participate. So I

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don't know what that means for the other
municipalities.

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Probably be we'd have to pay more. Um
it's uh it has been discussed at the RDS

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quite a bit including in strate
strategic planning last week. Um there's

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a lot of disagreement I would say on the
RDS board about the role of this person

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and the role of having a regional
coordinator as opposed to uh economic

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development for each specific kind of uh
community in rural areas. Um,

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so my my my feeling is um that $10,000
is could be put to better use here in

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the community. Um, councelor Barkwell
might have a his own perspective. He's

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listened to all these discussions at the
RDS table as well. I don't want to put

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you on the spot, but um but uh so we I
just put it out there and if someone

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wants to um you know, we just need to
decide whether we want to give them a

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letter of support or not. Basically, a
letter of support would mean we're

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committing to that 10,000 for for 3
years. Uh council trainer,

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» what kind of um jobs would this person
do in terms of like how what would

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Summerland um get from it?
>> Don't know. We don't know. Okay. So, we

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don't really know what the job would
look like or what kind of tasks they

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would be doing in terms of examples of
economic development that would benefit

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the whole region.
>> Well, it's it says it says here that

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they uh it would support local
businesses in the workforce, conduct

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strategic planning and data tracking,
strengthen rural and regional

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competitiveness,

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which doesn't really tell you a whole
lot. Yeah. Councelor Malin.

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» Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to hear
from our liaison. Uh,

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please.

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» Well, my personal view is that um it's
really hard to quantify the value of uh

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economic development. Everybody always
says, "Oh, you need to have, you know,

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somebody promoting economic
development." and and I am always kind

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of skeptical of that [clears throat]
and what can they really accomplish. And

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then even on a on a regional district
scale, I'm thinking what do we have in

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common with Princeton as far as economic
development goes, [gasps]

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but there may be [sighs]
things that come up that are specific to

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Summerland that we can,
you know, ask them to do. It's kind of

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reminds me of the our community lees on
officer. She's partly funded by the

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regional district. So, she's helping out
here in Summerland. It's, you know, she

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doesn't ignore us uh when we're I'm
working on setting up the citizens on

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patrol. So, something like that could
come up. So, since it's such a small

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amount and then it's going to be
leveraged up by grant money, um I could

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go along with this one myself.

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uh councelor Pete
>> um I'm concerned that we wouldn't get

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that much value out it out of it at this
stage and the other thing being the

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world competitiveness.
I some might argue that this is a time

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to have somebody that goes and looks for
things, but I think there's a settling

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out that's going to happen over the next
2 3 years. And I don't think the timing

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would be right for doing an economic
development officer at the RDOS level or

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our own.

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» Councelor Betts,
>> um, thanks for the opportunity to speak

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and think about this. I I can see where
the other comments are coming from. Uh,

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one of the things that I will note um,
came up at UBCM was the discussions from

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our um, kind of northern regions, how
they seem to be getting more and more

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organized in um, in [sighs]
developing the resource um, industries

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up north and really accessing large
amounts of both government funding and

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um, connections and capacity building
with First Nations that kind of needed

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an in between a liaison, which it seemed
And um there are lots of opportunities

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to engage um private companies for that
though that would come at a cost of more

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than $10,000 for um the District of
Summerland. Um

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I honestly I don't I don't have enough
context to commit $10,000 to this.

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I just read it five minutes ago.

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» Melvin,
no. I can't support it either. I just

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don't see the,
you know, I can see a need. There's

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there's no doubt in my mind. I think we
could use someone in that capacity, but

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how do you control it? You know, like
they're doing a project in Princeton,

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they're doing a project in
Soyuse, and we need, you know, someone

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here helping us at that time. Like, how
do how does this person

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how do you deal with that? and you know
so I'm not willing to put up the money

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at this point in time.

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» Okay. Well, we
do we need a resolution on the table uh

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or
>> we

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and then that would mean we do nothing.
>> Yeah.

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» Okay. So, we need a councelor Benz.
>> Um thank you. I think the only thing

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that I would offer is just
um in order to secure this funding from

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communities just a slightly more
developed idea about what that role and

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value [clears throat] would be to this
region and that we could get behind it

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but I just think that it's still in the
fleshing out fa phase which is going to

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take everybody's $10,000 and to get
organized.

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Well, this is exactly the kind of issue
the issue I have is that even uh on the

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RDS board there isn't a consensus of
what it would do. It's one of those

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situations. Well, here's an opportunity
for a grant. Let's apply for it and then

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figure it out afterwards. and and that's
why there's there's not consensus on the

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RDS board about um about the need you
know the need and and what such a person

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would do and and big debate about you
know a regional officer versus you know

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narata would like to have its own so um
that's um none of that was resolved

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um okay so would somebody like to bring
this forward for information. Councelor

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Trainer, Councelor Van Alen, second. Any
further discussion? I'll call the

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question. All in favor?
And none opposed? That carries.

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And a motion to adjourn this special
council meeting. Council Nelson,

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councelor Barkwell. All in favor? That
carries.