City of Powell River’s annual report has been adopted with two amendments.
At the July 11 council meeting, deputy corporate officer Jessica Lefort said the annual report is a legislated requirement that the city produces each year. She said it highlights the goals and objectives that have been accomplished and to be accomplished in coming years.
Lefort said the annual report had been made available to the public for comment for more than two weeks, through the city’s website and advertisements in the Peak, plus social media.
Councillor George Doubt said he wondered if there had been a lot of public input, asking for clarification, or suggesting changes, errors or omissions, and asked if there had been none. “There have been no submissions from the public and no questions,” said Lefort.
Councillor Trina Isakson said she wanted to make two amendments that could be included in the motion to approve. She said the first was to put the councillors in alphabetical order in the report.
“My only reason for that is I showed up on the first page and I feel like it’s out of order,” said Isakson. “I don’t to feel like I’m special in any way so I just wanted things to be in proper order.”
Council carried the amendment unanimously.
Isakson said the second amendment was in reference to council’s newly established strategic priorities. She said she was moving to amend the annual report on the pages that reference previous council strategic priorities with a statement indicating that they are the previous council’s strategic priorities, and that the current council’s strategic priorities are listed on pages 26 and 27.
Councillor Rob Southcott said the listing of the two sets of priorities has been common practice in previous annual formats.
Lefort said the legislation was vaguely worded to have what was accomplished and what council looked to have accomplished in the coming year.
Isakson said her main reason for the reference is for clarity.
“I know that we know how this process has gone and the time it took for us to get to a place where we approved our strategic priorities, but it does seem a bit jarring to see things that don’t represent the newly established goals of council,” said Isakson. “I believe last year there was asterisk on those pages, or the first page of the previous council’s strategic plan. It clarifies for readers who might be confused.”
The amendment carried unanimously.
Council then passed the main motion with the two amendments unanimously.
According to a staff report, the Community Charter requires council to prepare an annual report each year, make it available for public inspection, and consider the report at a council meeting with any submissions or questions from the public regarding the report.
The report must include the municipality’s audited financial statements for the previous year, which, in this case, was 2023.
A list of permissive tax exemptions must also be included, plus a report on the municipality’s services and operations for the previous year.
There must be a progress report on the performance of the municipality with respect to established objectives and measures. There must also be a statement of objectives and measures that will be used as the basis for determining the municipality’s performance during 2023 and 2024.
Finally, the annual report must have any details of any declarations of disqualification made against individual council members during the previous year.
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