Motion to extend Powell River's budget survey deadline fails

City of Powell River councillors have chosen not to extend the city’s budget consultation survey until the end of January.

At the January 14 special committee of the whole meeting, councillor Jim Palm attempted to get correspondence on the agenda from Westview Ratepayers Society, proposing an extension of the deadline for the survey from January 19 to January 31.

In the correspondence, ratepayers president Rick Craig stated that his society had only recently become aware of the survey and had just obtained a printed copy of it.

“At our executive committee meeting this morning [January 13], we decided that the survey should be promoted broadly and also sent to our membership,” stated Craig. “The current deadline is January 19 and this does not allow enough time for our members to respond. 

“Given the importance of community input to this year’s budget, we feel that the city would benefit from the broadest community feedback.”

Palm made a motion to get the item on the committee agenda, and it was seconded by councillor Rob Southcott, but councillor George Doubt said adding something to the meeting agenda at the end of the meeting is bad practice.

“Our procedure bylaw says that if we are going to add things to the agenda, they will be added at the beginning of the meeting, and you give notice to everyone that you are doing it,” said Doubt. “We’ve had plenty of time to do that. I saw the letter from the Westview ratepayers more than 24 hours ago. I don’t think it’s an emergency.

“We are going down a really rocky road and I don’t know why we talk about procedure bylaws if we are never going to pay attention to them.”

Chief financial officer Mallory Denniston said the budgetary schedule was approved by council last May. She said if the deadline for the surveys was extended, the introduction of the second draft of the budget would have to be bumped from February 27 to a date in March.

Denniston said staff have three days next week to compile all the online and in-person engagement, and three days to prepare the report and analyze it, so it can go through the proper review cycle.

“In order for draft two to come forward with comprehensive options that reflect all the new information that we have received between December and February, those dates are as tight as can be,” said Denniston. “If we extend the survey, that feedback wouldn’t be part of the engagement report.”

The motion to put the correspondence on the meeting’s agenda failed.

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