City councillors voted to receive two letters regarding the prospect of locating an organics processing facility in Townsite, with one councillor being offended by the tone of one letter.
At the May 4 committee of the whole meeting, councillors voted to receive the letters from Townsite Ratepayers Society.
When it came time to discuss one of the letters, which had the subject line: Do you take us for fools?, councillor Rob Southcott said he read the correspondence a number of times and he was not sure if what he feels about it is personal or political, but he feels “kind of offended” by the tone.
“I feel the accusation that I perceive in it and the way criticism is expressed in this is not helpful from a standpoint of a community working together, which is really my purpose,” said Southcott. “I just felt I needed to state that.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she wanted to acknowledge what the letter states and what a number of community members are telling councillors is they object strongly to a composting facility located on Tla’amin Nation lands in front of Townsite.
“I know the process that is currently happening in the qathet Regional District did not go looking for a site for composting,” said Elliott. “What they did is put out a request for proposals to hear from contractors for a proposal for doing composting. That proposal would include looking for a site and how they would run it and all of those other things.
“The City of Powell River’s role would be as part of the qathet [Regional District] directors to vote on issues that pertain to that. If there is a location that asks for an application of the city for a development permit to run a facility, we then have an avenue to do our due diligence on sorting out all of the relevant aspects.”
Elliott said this particular issue is complicated by the fact that the Tla’amin lands are slated to become treaty settlement lands, at which time they will be removed from the city’s jurisdiction.
“It’s quite possible we will never have our decision-making process happen within the jurisdiction of the city, in which case, the only avenue is for the regional district to decide whether that is the appropriate proposal to approve,” she added.
Her suggestion is that the city continue to make the regional district and operators aware of the city’s concerns and study what is being proposed before they decide they hate it, because there are many technologies that may address concerns people have.
The reviewed letter stated that the decision for qathet Regional District awarding a contract for organics processing will be settled by a weighted vote, with the city holding down 54 per cent of the votes, and that voting to award the composting contract to a company with a location away from all residential neighbourhoods would be the ethical and right thing to do.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said not all votes that come before the regional district are weighted, which councillor Jim Palm agreed with.
Palm added that he was not offended by the letters. He said the writers have brought a lot of information and when it comes to an organics processing plant, they have done their homework.
“I have to agree with a lot of the contents of the letter and it will be interesting on a go-forward basis to see how this issue is resolved,” said Palm.
Municipal directors decide how to vote
Mayor Dave Formosa said city regional district directors councillors George Doubt and CaroleAnn Leishman are not told how to vote.
Doubt said regarding the subject line in the letter, about whether the city takes Townsite residents for fools; he does not. Doubt said the rest of the letter goes on to talk about regional district voting patterns, and he said there is often debate at the regional district about whether a weighted vote should be taking place.
“The decision is made there, not at city hall,” said Doubt.
He said the suggestion in the letter is that city council will be able to direct how city regional district directors vote on issues. He said nothing in the Community Charter or Local Government Act states a municipality can instruct a municipal director on how to vote.
“My point of view as a municipal director is I’m appointed by the city, I represent taxpayers in the city, but also make decisions on the regional district based on the best interests of the regional district as a whole,” said Doubt. “There may be times when that is not necessarily exactly the same as the best interests of the city, and there may be times when it’s not exactly the same as the best interests of some groups within the city. The decisions of the municipal directors on the regional district are made by the directors, and of course, the city has the opportunity to change those directors if they want.
“The premise of this letter is the regional directors who serve the city can be instructed by the city on how to vote. I disagree with that. I don’t think the city controls how I vote.”
Doubt said a decision on a composting facility will eventually be made on the facts and everybody will be heard.
