City of Powell River councillors have received an overview of the city’s organizational structure.
At the January 16 committee of the whole meeting, chief administrative officer Lisa Bhopalsingh led a presentation that featured her and the city’s department heads outlining their operations.
Bhopalsingh told councillors the presentation was a precursor to informing budget decisions, and also, as the city comes back to implement the strategic plan with different action items.
Bhopalsingh said the city has 182 staff, including 21 exempt – management staff, 145 Canadian Union of Public Employees staff and 16 International Association of Fire Fighters staff. She said these numbers were as of December 2023.
Bhopalsingh showed a budget allocation pie chart that broke down various categories for expenditures. Engineering and operations accounts for 36 per cent; parks, recreation and culture accounts for 20 per cent; administrative and corporate services, 11 per cent; fire and emergency services, 11 per cent; RCMP, 11 per cent; finance, six per cent and planning and building services, five per cent.
Bhopalsingh said the corporate services department’s key job is to be an advisor to staff and city residents on governance, matters related to council operations, looking at freedom of information, human resources, records management and bylaws.
City chief financial officer (CFO) Mallory Denniston said her department looks after city financial services and information technology.
“Our most exciting fun fact is we processed 18,000 transactions for $40.5 million in operating expenses in 2022,” said Denniston. “We send property tax notices to almost 6,700 properties. We have a dedicated group of hardworking individuals in the finance team that give excellent service internally and externally.”
Planning
Director of planning services Jason Gow said his department has 14 people, with 12 full-time, two part-time employees and two vacancies. He said there is a planning division and the building division in his department.
Gow outlined activities his department is involved in, such as the rental housing development on Ontario Avenue, updates to the city’s official community plan, heritage planning, sustainability planning, as well as social planning and the downtown planning process that is underway. A recent addition is film development. He projected a personal note from Canadian actress Sandra Oh, who was in the community in 2023 filming Can I Get A Witness.
Operation
Manager of operational services Rod Fraser highlighted the infrastructure department’s operations, such as waterworks, with the main source of supply being Haslam Lake.
In the city there are 151 kilometres of water mains supplying potable water to city consumers. The department also oversees sanitary sewer, which includes the newly completed consolidated wastewater treatment plan and more than 146 kilometres of sanitary sewer mains, with 114 kilometres of storm sewer mains.
There are 120 kilometres of roadways and 65 kilometres of sidewalks that need to be looked after, according to Fraser. The city’s fleet has 110 pieces of equipment, including two fully electric vans, two fully electric cars and an electric Zamboni.
Powell River Airport is also managed by the department, moving more than 40,000 passengers each year. The transit system provides more than 200,000 rides per year, with more than 200 bus stops and 16 bus shelters.
Recreation
Manager of recreation services Jamie Bretzlaff indicated the reason for the department’s being is to enrich life for people of all ages, through a wide variety of health, fitness and wellness programs, and indoor and outdoor recreation programs, plus cultural activities.
There are three city parks, covering 38 acres, six community parks, covering 107 acres, seven neighbourhood parks, covering 25 acres, six pocket parks, 2.5 acres, 10 nature parks, 213 acres, various city properties, 64 acres, all comprising more than 400 acres, and more than 80 kilometres of trails.
The heart of the recreation division is the “wonderful recreation complex,” said Bretzlaff.
The staffing contingent is 21 full-time staff and more than 50 part-time staff. Culture embraces what defines Powell River as a community, according to Bretzlaff.
“We aim to build community by providing venues and support,” said Bretzlaff. “We’ve been very successful, becoming one of Canada’s cultural capitals in 2004.”
Police and fire
Powell River RCMP have 21 municipally funded regular members, six municipally funded full-time support staff, seven part-time guards, one police-based victim services coordinator, and a support dog named Serrano, said staff sergeant Rod Wiebe. He added that the department has consistently come in under budget.
Powell River Fire Rescue chief Martin Drakeley said there were 16 full-time and 23 paid on-call firefighters, supported by him, the deputy chief and administration coordinator.
Call volumes in 2023 featured 1,273 total calls, made up of 420 fire/rescue and 853 medical calls. That’s up marginally from 2022 but is substantially higher than calls from 2016 to 2022.
Library
Powell River Public Library chief librarian Rebecca Burbank said in October 2023, there were 7,691 library cards, including 5,195 allocated to city residents. The library is open 58.5 hours per week and had foot traffic of 10,063 visits.
Circulation included 18,299 items, including 3,087 eBooks and eAudiobooks. Burbank said through September 2023, there were more than 9,000 attendances at programs and events at the library, due to the hard work and creativity of staff.
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