qathet Regional District (qRD) and City of Powell River will examine the prospect of joint economic development.
At the October 28 qRD board meeting, Electoral Area A director and board chair Patrick Brabazon said he had met with City of Powell River mayor Dave Formosa regarding whether or not there is an appetite for a joint program.
“He and I concluded that there might be, so he will be going back to city council, and I will be discussing it with the regional board with regard to where we could go, or maybe nowhere,” said Brabazon. “That will be up to the board to decide.”
Also in his chair’s report to the regional board, Brabazon said the northern Sunshine Coast ferry advisory committee, of which he is a member, has been extremely busy.
“It was a chaotic month for BC Ferries, which you are all well aware of, especially if you tried to take a ferry somewhere, given the weather we’ve had lately,” said Brabazon. “There will be a meeting between the ferry advisory committee and BC Ferries’ senior personnel [in November], which I will be attending, and I’ll be reporting back to the board on that.”
Brabazon said the long saga of the Lund water improvement district reached a new crisis point. He said he has been involved with this for 20 years.
“They’ve attempted to work their way through the provincial hurdles, et cetera, for funding and infrastructure improvements,” said Brabazon. “The chief administrative officer and I, 20 years ago, met the minister and he told us there was no money for improvement districts and that we could take them over.
“We informed the minister at that time that the regional district had passed a resolution that they would be willing to take over the improvement district if it was up to operational standards. The reason it is not up to operational standards, was, of course, they needed money. It was a true Catch-22.”
Brabazon said regarding the water district, the province was placing a receiver and it will have to be played out day-by-day.
“We’ll just see where it goes,” said Brabazon. “Certainly, I won’t be surprised if we hear from the province that they would like to talk to us again.
“I want to close by complimenting the trustees of the water improvement district who have kept that service operating, and it’s still operating today, despite all of the travails, problems, et cetera.”
Brabazon pointed out the efforts of Harold Robertson, who is the number one trustee, and the only one there at the moment.
“I can’t speak highly enough about Harry,” said Brabazon, “so thank you.”
