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Council Meeting May 6th 2008 - Recap

During the first public inquiries section of the meeting, Ms Diane Czezewski inquired as to whether your council could require people to stop spraying pesticides when they neighbor someone with multiple chemical sensitivities.

Council authorized the distribution of a proposal to reduce the yard size at 690 Columbia to allow for an addition to a house.

A stricter policy on content for street and pole banners was approved. The fees for the Heritage House user groups that contributed funds to the recent facility expansion were given a grant in aid to allow them to pay $5 an hour for the next 4 years, after which they will pay a rate of $10 an hour. Council made this very rare exception to the new fees and charges bylaw to recognize city hall's part in a communication glitch that happened between the city and the said user groups when new fees were first discussed.

Acting primarily on the suggestions from Ms Diane Czezewski, council restricted the use of pesticides on properties neighboring the homes of people with medically diagnosed chemical sensitivities.

May 2008 was proclaimed "Multiple Sclerosis Month" and "Mental Health Promotion and Awareness Month". June 16th - 22nd was proclaimed "Bike to Work Week".

Mr Brian Callandar (CA), from BDO Dunwoody LLP, presented the city's 2007 audited financial statements. Ms Gail Scott, CEO Venture Kamloops, presented on economic development in the community.

Council addressed correspondence from Ms Leah Sonne, suggesting that cycling at the same speed as pedestrians be legalized on sidewalks, by authorizing a response stating a desire to stay with the current bylaw. Council addressed correspondence from Ms Therese Churchill, requesting connecting Campbell Creek to the new water treatment plant or providing similar quality alternatives, by authorizing a response explaining that city staff is looking at the possibility of such a connection.

What I have learnt so far at the SILGA conference in Vernon..

Its a council day for me. I'm here in Vernon attending the Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA) conference. This conference brings together elected people from the BC southern interior to network, learn, and lobby.

So far today, the highlights have been:

• a motivational keynote on communications and "personal leadership" from Michelle Ray. She passed on some great tidbits on listening skills - :).
• a short presentation from Telus' Steve Jenkins on "green solutions for local governments". For the past 10 years, Telus has been working on reducing their environmental footprint in a measurable, structured fashion. I wonder if Telus reps pass on this information to small and medium size businesses as well. I think that might be useful for businesses who may not have the Telus' ability to experiment and trial.
• a great session on the action model used by the Vernon "Partners for a Safe and Healthy Community" group - that ensures that the initiative is not just a talk shop, but actually motivates action and accomplishes tasks.

We also had a short resolutions session. We debate resolutions and then vote to see if they become part of SILGA policy. The town of Lumby had a particularly contentious resolution asking that we adopt policy asking the province to give non resident property owning corporations a vote. This would mean, I imagine, that corporations like Walmart or Domtar would have one vote in every BC community where it operates.

This resolution was narrowly defeated. I voted against it, not so much because I believe non resident business property owners should not have a vote, but because I don't think that we in Kamloops have ever treated a non resident business operating in our community differently than a locally owned business. I think we treat them both as consituents who we need to work with and respond to.