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Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality held a public hearing and a regular council meeting Oct. 6. Below are the highlights of that meeting.
Public hearing
A public hearing was held on Oct. 6 for the Official Community Plan Bylaw. There were no speakers online or in-person and the hearing was closed.
Business arising from the public hearing
The council gave a third reading to the Official Community Plan Bylaw.
Following the third reading, the council will now submit the Official Community Plan Bylaw to the provincial government. It was noted that council cannot adopt the Official Community Plan until it has been approved by the province.
Councillor Brian Gilllespie thanked staff and acknowledged them for the work they’ve put in.
Council passed a motion to forward the Official Community Plan to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for Minister approval.
Appointment of acting Chief Financial Officer
Chief Administrative Officer Deanna Campbell has been appointed as the interim chief financial officer until a permanent staff member is hired.
A local government consultant who has expertise as chief financial officer will support her on more complex matters until the position is filled.
Chief Administrative Officer report
Jason White has been acclaimed as mayor for his first term. Voting will still take place for the four council seats with five candidates running. The first advanced voting opportunity took place Wednesday, Oct. 8. The second advanced voting opportunity will take place Saturday Oct. 10 at the municipal offices from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. General voting day is Saturday, Oct. 17 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Sun Peaks Centre. Mail ballots are available and can be requested.
The Sun Peaks Mountain Municipality is recruiting for a director of operations, with a lot of interest and applicants. Interviews will be held this week.
The water pipeline project has been commissioned and the focus is now advancing the application with the Ministry of Environment for the wastewater capacity infrastructure projects. Campbell acknowledged the staff in the operations department, “who have both really stepped up in the past few weeks in that vacancy.”
Cheryl Taylor-Gale, the director of finance has departed from the municipality after working for almost eight years. Campbell acknowledged her work and wished her best on her future endeavors.
Campbell also acknowledged the small finance team of staff members who have stepped up recently with the vacancy of this position.
As a result of the call of the provincial election, ministers are not allowed to respond to any letters or communication about the Union of BC Municipalities conference.
Campbell announced that this was the last council meeting with this current mayor and council. She acknowledged the team for all the work they have done and how much has been accomplished in this current term. She said it was an honour and pleasure working with this team and she looks forward to working with the new mayor and councillors.
Council Procedure Bylaw
Council moved the motion to adopt the Council Procedure Bylaw.
Councillor Hrycan thanked staff for tackling this important issue and appreciated them for their work.
Permissive Tax Exemption Bylaw
Council passed a motion to adopt the Tax Exemption Bylaw.
Letter submitted regarding Adaptive Sports Sun Peaks Grant Applications
Council passed a motion to direct staff to send out letters of support for Adaptive Sports Sun Peaks for the Kamloops Sports Legacy Fund and The Community Sport Program Development Fund.
Letter of Appeal: Property Tax Classification and Equity Concern
Campbell noted that there is no appeal process with the municipality regarding property tax amounts. The municipality has no authority to amend the amount.
A motion to direct staff to send out a letter to residents to confirm their proper address was passed.
Questions from the public
A question was asked wondering why the municipality is putting up a new flag pole for the Secwépemc flag rather than taking down the United States flag and replacing it with the Secwépemc flag.
Mayor O’Toole responded explaining that those flags are not owned by the municipality, the flags that are owned by the municipality are the flags by the firehall and that would be where the flag pole will be built to display the Secwépemc flag.
Another question was asked regarding the classification of Sun Peaks still being considered a rural community when it has now surpassed the population to continue being considered a rural community.
Council passed a motion to initiate the process and look into applying to make this change.
A member from the public thanked council for all the work they have done in a very difficult time expressing much appreciation.
A final question was asked online if McGillivray Lake Drive was updated as a collector road on the transportation schedule. Director Hoffman responded with “Yes it was.”
A message from Mayor O’Toole
Mayor O’Toole acknowledged those who are not running again and thanked them for all their work. He also thanked the administration and council for all their heavy work in the past four years. He reflected on the tasks that were accomplished in this time and went through the achievements and successes.
”It’s been a very busy four years and challenging. But with those challenges there have been some great opportunities,” O’Toole said, “I’ve really enjoyed working with this staff, this council… Thank you staff again for what’s been a really great four years. I appreciate this team… there’s a lot of unseen members of our administration and staff that are out in the community doing a lot of great work.”
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