City of Powell River will put on hold the naming of a new airport service road until Tla’amin Nation is consulted.
At the February 2 committee of the whole meeting, a recommendation was made to name the new service road Airport Way, but councillor Cindy Elliott suggested Tla’amin should be contacted in the spirit of reconciliation.
In introducing the recommendation, director of planning services Thomas Knight said the new road involves the lease area to 987 Asset Management Ltd. (formerly Gaoshi Holdings Canada Ltd). He said an amendment is required for the company’s airport plans, where they had to shift the buildings toward Duncan Street in order to accommodate a new taxi runway.
Knight said they are going ahead with phase one of the project and the city is about to issue a building permit.
“In order to issue a building permit, we need a street address,” said Knight. “In order for all of the servicing, such as BC Hydro, Telus and all of these people who come in and hook them up, they also need a street address.”
Knight said the new service road will be in front of the conference centre and hangar the company is proposing to build. The hangar is to be built first, followed by the conference centre, said Knight.
“As developers, they are required to build that service road, which is going to continue the length of the east area property as they continue to build out the different hangars,” said Knight.
He said there are actually two Duncan streets in the immediate vicinity, including the street that runs from Marine Avenue up to Padgett Road. The roadway where the terminal is, plus all hangars and outbuildings, is also addressed as Duncan Street.
Knight said a review had been conducted at city hall and the question was asked: Will it be Duncan Street all the way through, or should another name be considered? According to Knight, the consensus was to call the service road Airport Way.
Elliott said the city is committed to reconciliation and one of the things that could be done to demonstrate that would be to ask the Tla’amin people if there is an appropriate name for that area they would like to put forward as an option.
Knight said planning services had a building permit to be issued right now. He said Telus is waiting for a reference name as well.
Chief administrative officer Russell Brewer said naming of streets can perhaps be addressed at a government-to-government meeting.
“It’s a very valid point,” said Brewer. “The context should be the higher, more strategic level. I’d like to do it justice.”
Brewer said this is also something that is planned for the city’s next strategic planning session.
Elliott said it’s great as long as the city is trying to get there, maybe going forward with a policy for doing a better job in the future.
Mayor Dave Formosa said he is pretty sure the city has a policy. He said when the protocol agreement was signed with the former Sliammon First Nation, he thought there was a policy whereby new street names were run by the nation.
“I’m pretty sure we have something in place already,” said Formosa. “We just have to find that and look it up and maybe refresh ourselves on that protocol agreement.”
Elliott said if there is a protocol in place and the city is not following it, she definitely wanted to know. She said she is not in favour of naming the road outside of the protocol.
Knight said under the road naming policy aboriginal place names shall be used in the naming of roads on lands within the city adjacent to Tla’amin Village and where geographical landmarks or an historical and relevant aboriginal name can be applied.
“That’s the only direction here that we have within the road naming policy,” said Knight.
Elliott said at this point, the city is guilty of ignoring its own policy.
Brewer said given Elliott’s point and what Knight read out, council can refer this back to staff. He said he will follow up with Tla’amin and staff will also do homework on the road naming policy. Brewer said it will be brought back to the committee when there is more information.
Councillor George Doubt said Brewer’s suggestion made sense as long as there is not too much of a time problem. He said as Knight pointed out, there are some issues with people wanting to know a road name so they can provide services so construction at the site can commence.
“I like the idea of bringing up the policy of how the city names roads and how we do that with interaction with the Tla’amin people, but that might be a prolonged process,” said Doubt. “I like the idea of council discussing the idea of improving the policy and other things we can do for reconciliation. I just hope it doesn’t cause too much delay.”
Elliott said she doesn’t want to hold up development either but the city is obligated to follow its own policies.
“I don’t think convenience overrides our commitment to reconciliation and our policies on these kinds of issues,” said Elliott. “I’m in favour of it going back to staff and coming back to us after a chat with Tla’amin Nation.”
The committee gave consent for staff to come back with direction, moving forward in a timely manner.
