qathet Regional District’s (qRD) board of directors will consider initiating a volunteer program for its parks, properties and trails.
At the November 10 committee of the whole meeting, directors discussed a motion that the board adopt a parks, properties and trails volunteer policy, and that the board direct staff to initiate the volunteer program.
Electoral Area E director Andrew Fall said the policy looks good and mentioned that the board had discussed the matter in the past.
“The presentation is really great and it’s a great job by staff producing the information that the public will see,” added Fall. “Normally, our policies are a bit more drab. This one looks more functional.
“It makes sense, and it balances the risks the regional district has with having volunteers with the huge benefits we get from having volunteers.”
Fall said he appreciates the monitoring part, that there will be data, and qRD can reassess in the future.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he believes it was last year that the Rotary Club of Powell River approached qRD about maintenance in the cemetery.
“I am grateful for the support of our staff and the board to get us to this point,” said Gisborne. “I’m also thankful for the CUPE [Canadian Union of Public Employees] response, which makes their position clear. We are not trying to replace any of the existing workers. We are going to continue to monitor it and we’ll maybe have to adjust the policy going forward.”
Electoral Area D director and committee chair Sandy McCormick said she had been approached by a number of people who say they’d love to come in and clear debris that has landed on the trails in the parks, but they have not been allowed to do it, officially. Other people have approached her who are regular hikers and want to clean up some trails, but the official policy has been to discourage that, she added.
“I’m really happy to see this policy,” said McCormick. “I appreciate the support of the union and its consultation in it.”
McCormick said the new policy talks about it being a program for community groups. She asked staff if participants needed to be formal community groups or can individuals get together and clean up trails, for example.
Manager of operational services Patrick Devereaux said the preference would be to have groups because the policy was set up for groups and it is easier to control, but qRD is not going to deny anyone from volunteering.
“We’ll work with them to go through the hoops, to sign up and do appropriate volunteer work,” said Devereaux.
McCormick said her hope is that people can develop a long-lasting love for parks as a result of being able to work on them.
Electoral Area A director Jason Lennox said it was great work by staff in developing the policy, involving the union and various stakeholders.
City director George Doubt said he wanted to underline his appreciation for the cooperation of CUPE.
“I understand the union wants to keep jurisdiction over the work they get paid to do,” said Doubt. “It’s significant that the union is agreeing to allow volunteers to do this work in certain circumstances. We have to respect and honour the agreement from our side, too. All in all, it’s a great step forward.”
The committee voted unanimously to send the matter to the regional board for adoption.
According to the volunteer program framework, community groups or businesses may bring volunteer service proposals to the manager of operational services for approval, and groups and businesses must enter into a volunteer agreement with the regional district.
