the broken typewriter

New pool project gets a toe wet with reallocation of funds

Now that the City of Fort St. John has taken on the task of running the North Peace Leisure Pool replacement project, Council voted to reallocate funds from Capital Works to establish the New Aquatic Facility Working Group.

The $250,000 was originally slated for upgrades to the City Hall parking lot, following this winter’s planned demolition of the old IT Services building, now that the IT Services department has moved to its new home in the old RCMP detachment building.

Instead of becoming more parking, the IT Services site will become a green space until it’s needed for required for another use, the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Darrell Blades’ report to Council explained.

“Accelerating the process of building a new aquatic facility requires a reprioritization of planned capital projects. Canceling the repaving of the City Hall parking lot and reallocating the funds to the planning budget for this facility provides the ability to move forward rapidly within this budget year,” the report read.

The next step after the approval of funds was to appoint two members of council to the staff-led New Aquatic Facility Working Group as liaisons. Including councillors in the working group would make sure Council supports the public’s interests in the project, facilitating project development while maintaining accountability and transparency to the public.

All significant decisions and updates to come out of the Thursday working group meetings, will be presented to Council through the Committee of the Whole, so that council can deliberate and make informed decisions about the project in a public forum.

However, as three members of council were not in attendance at the August 25 meeting, Councillor Trevor Bolin moved that the appointment decision be moved to the next meeting, on September 8, to allow all members of council to participate in the decision and put their names forward for the working group if they wish.

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Process for public to ask questions moves forward; Stewart wants media defined

Council voted unanimously to support Councillor Bolin’s Council Procedure Bylaw Amendment resolution that:

“Council direct staff to prepare a report outlining options for introducing a process to allow members of the public to ask questions during Council meetings, including any necessary amendments to the Council Procedure Bylaw.”

In another Notice of Motion following the vote on looking into opening council meetings to questions from the public, Councillor Byron Stewart asked for staff to “identify for us what is or is not media, and how they present themselves to us as Council.”

This motion will be added to the agenda for the September 8 meeting, where Council will have the opportunity to discuss and vote on it.

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City wants your opinion on draft OCP

As City of Fort St. John staff move into the final phases of developing the new Official Community Plan, they’re looking for your opinion on the draft OCP on September 6, during the Farmers’ Market and Moose FM Block Party.

Since the spring, the city has been providing opportunities for public comment on the OCP, at various events like the FSJ Tradeshow in April, a lunch-time engagement with students at NPSS as well as a second online public survey.

Through these opportunities, staff were looking for input on the proposed goal statements and policies. What they learned was presented to Council at the Committee of the Whole meeting on August 25.

The first phase of OCP development took place over the fall and winter when staff asked the community what they liked and didn’t like about Fort St. John, and what residents’ areas of concern were, with the results presented to the CoW on March 24.

In seeking the public’s opinion of the OCP’s goal statements during the second phase, some of the goal statements have changed significantly as a result of the public input.

For example, under Housing, the goal statement was:

“To provide housing choice for all Fort St. John citizens” but that has changed to “For there to be a wide range of housing options in the City, meeting the needs of citizens,” reflecting the specific needs of the community.

The Transportation goal statement was also expanded from:

“To ensure that Fort St. John is easily accessible by all modes of transportation and well-connected to regional transportation networks,” to include more detail on how transportation could be improved: “To provide an effective transportation network for all modes of transportation that connects the community and surrounding areas, give priority to the safety and health of transit users and improves all mobility options.”

Similarly, the goal statement on Agriculture changed from:

“To promote and support agricultural activity in the Peace River Region, recognizing the sector’s importance to the local and regional economy,” to: “To advance and support urban agriculture in Fort St. John, recognizing its vital role in improving food affordability, strengthening food security, and fostering long-term sustainability.”

Residents also wanted to have rather than simply “foster” respectful and mutually prosperous relationships with indigenous First Nations and Metis neighbours, as well as celebrate local culture and heritage through the arts in collaboration with communities across Northeastern BC.

The draft OCP will be posted on the city’s Let’s Talk Fort St. John website in early September, and staff will present it to Council on September 8. Opportunities for public feedback will continue at the Farmers’ Market until the end of September.