City of Powell River councillors have been requested to keep community-to-community-to-community (C3) meetings with Tla’amin Nation and qathet Regional District (qRD) open.
At the October 3 committee of the whole meeting, Powell River Chamber of Commerce president Dave Formosa said he was appearing before councillors about their possible decision to change the C3 into a meeting that is no longer transparent.
“I understand some votes have been made by one party at least, the regional district, to have these C3 meetings not in public,” said Formosa. “A lot of you folks ran on transparency and open government.
“I remember almost 15 years ago, I became a city councillor, when under mayor Stewart Alsgard we decided to create the C3 with the three governments getting together, talking about issues that are common, plus collaboration and partnerships.”
Formosa said the meetings were open to the public and the media. He said he is concerned that the C3 meetings will be held in private and he does not know how that will serve the public.
“The chamber of commerce board had a unanimous vote to ask you to keep the three governments’ meetings open,” said Formosa.
He said in the past, C3 forums would have discussion and then the three governments would talk about the issues, and if there was a need to go in camera, to talk about land, labour or law, that would happen.
“So we’re here to publicly ask that council consider keeping the C3 open to the public,” said Formosa.
Councillor Jim Palm said when he heard about the outcome of the vote at the regional board, he was a little shocked because there were only two members who voted against the proposal.
“According to our Community Charter, you are absolutely correct,” said Palm. “We are a creature of the provincial government and we abide by provincial law under the Community Charter, which, at the present time, does not allow us to meet with our regional partners behind closed doors.
“As you pointed out, for 15 years the C3 forums have served us well, until recently, when a change in one of our partners’ governments brought about this request. We are working through this and we took it to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention and asked the provincial government to deal with the issue.”
Palm said for 15 years, the meetings were cordial and productive and dealt with the issues of the day.
Councillor Cindy Elliott, who sits as city representative on the qathet Regional District board, said the qRD board did not vote to break any laws. She said regional district directors were following the advice they were getting from the province, indicating that it was okay to accept an invitation to a forum that did not conduct business.
“I have no problem meeting in public, but at this point in time, our relationship with Tla’amin Nation is strained, as you know,” said Elliott. “I’m not in favour of not meeting at all. That’s not an option.
“We are asking the provincial government to treat First Nations, and Tla’amin Nation, as equals. We’ve asked the legislation to be changed so they can be considered a government like every other government.”
Elliott said the provincial government has responded by saying it’s not necessary and that council has everything it needs to carry on the conversations, and when they need to be in camera, they can be.
Elliott said the goal of the regional district was to continue C3 conversations, being in camera when they need to be.
Councillor George Doubt said he campaigned on transparency and believes it’s very important to be as open and transparent as possible. He said there are reasons in the Community Charter to go into closed meetings. He added that the matter will come up on a future council agenda and councillors will have that discussion.
Mayor Ron Woznow said from his perspective, the city does not have a strained relationship with Tla’amin. He said he meets regularly with hegus John Hackett.
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