Two of Powell River’s ratepayers groups have expressed concerns about City of Powell River motions regarding community-to-community-to-community (C3) meetings and an intergovernmental working group between the city and Tla’amin Nation.
C3 meetings in past have been scheduled regularly for the city, Tla’amin and qathet Regional District to discuss matters of mutual interest, but have not been held since a Tla’amin request to hold in camera sessions during the meetings.
At the April 18 city council meeting, councillor Jim Palm said the correspondence from Townsite Ratepayers Society and Westview Ratepayers Society came in too late to be put on the agenda, but mayor Ron Woznow requested that it be on the agenda, even if it was late.
“I am very appreciative that he has taken that step for the simple reason that it shares a lot of my concerns on a couple of motions that have been put forward by councillor [Trina] Isakson [regarding C3 meetings and an intergovernmental working group],” said Palm. “As I said some time ago when these motions came forward, in terms of our Community Charter, C3 meetings have always been conducted in an open process, with not only the public able to attend, but the press as well.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott raised a point of order, saying debating the motions should happen during the motions and not during the correspondence section of the council meeting.
“Councillor Palm seems to be debating the motion at this time,” said Elliott.
Woznow asked chief administrative officer Lisa Bhopalsingh for assistance. Bhopalsingh said it’s up to the chair of the meeting, but typically, council would debate during the time of the motion.
Woznow asked Palm to keep his comments to factual excerpts from the correspondence without putting it in the perspective of whether he was for or against subsequent motions.
Palm said council would be breaking the law if it went behind closed doors during C3 meetings.
“We’ve never had one behind closed doors and I don’t intend to have them behind closed doors,” said Palm.
Isakson called a point of order, indicating that Palm had gone back to debating the coming motions.
Palm said he was not going to make any more comments and that the public has seen that he was trying to relay the contents of the letter. He said he would bring up his concerns when council dealt with the two motions coming up on the agenda.
Correspondence signed by the Townsite and Westview ratepayer societies indicated both groups had concerns regarding the motions being proposed.
“We confirm our recommendations that C3 meetings be open and transparent and in particular, open to the public,” the correspondence stated. “We are also concerned about the proposed composition of the working group. We find it astonishing that the mayor has not been nominated to represent the city.
“The mayor is the highest elected municipal official. It is an expectation of the residents that he represents them and that he will assume a leadership role in any discussions with other levels of government and with Tla’amin Nation. Moving forward without changing the working group to include the mayor would be a major mistake for council and seriously undermine the credibility of the working group.”
The ratepayers requested that the motion be modified to include the mayor.
However, when the motion was debated and voted on later in the meeting, councillors carried a motion that councillors Isakson, George Doubt and Earl Almeida serve on the working group.
Join the Peak's email list for the top headlines right in your inbox Monday to Friday.
