City of Powell River Council has voted to maintain Powell River Community Forest funding to the city and nonprofit organizations at previous levels.
At the March 20 city council meeting, councillors considered the first three readings of the 2025 five-year financial plan. Chief financial officer Mallory Denniston, first provided a high-level overview of the budget, then indicated that after councillors had made several cuts to the draft budget presented at a special meeting on February 27, that the projected city tax would increase by 9.5 per cent in 2025.
The first item up for discussion in the budgetary deliberation was the community forest allocation to nonprofit organizations. On February 27, council was presented a proposal to limit nonprofit funding to 10 per cent of the dividend, with the city retaining the remainder. The proposal at the February 27 meeting went to a vote, passing by four votes in favour and three opposed.
At the March 18 city committee of the whole meeting, a motion was brought to the table by councillor George Doubt to revert back to the same process as was used in 2023 and 2022, where the community forest split commonly averaged a 60 per cent allocation to the city, and 40 per cent to community nonprofits.
At the March 20 city council meeting, community forest president Greg Hemphill gave an impassioned speech to councillors, citing accomplishments of the community forest and the need to maintain the historic allocations to nonprofit organizations.
After Hemphill’s speech, Denniston provided the budgetary overview, then Doubt made the motion he had introduced at the March 18 committee of the whole meeting. In part, the motion called for the 2025 community forest dividend and contributions to city projects and nonprofits be determined according to the same process as was used in 2022 and 2023, with the participation of the community forest working group recently appointed by city council.
The motion also stated that the process for determining the dividends of the community forest for the years 2026 and beyond be determined in collaboration between the community forest board, the community forest working group, and the city.
City council members spent extensive time debating the motion, which carried, with councillor Earl Almeida opposed.
City council later approved the first three readings of the 2025 five-year financial plan. The financial plan will be up for adoption at a special meeting of city council on March 27.
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