To the Honourable Christine Boyle, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs
& Tara Faganello, Assistant Deputy Minister, Local Government Division
Hello and warm greetings from Quadra Island,
I am writing as the Director for Area C, Discovery Islands and Mainland Inlets, to share my significant concerns about an ongoing process at the Strathcona Regional District Board causing consternation and distress for residents of the Area I’m elected to represent. The intention of this letter is to identify the concerns in advance of a service amendment bylaw crossing your desk, a prospect seeming increasingly likely, and to request a meeting to discuss this issue.
Currently
Following a close (7-6) vote at the Board table March 25, SRD staff were directed to bring back a bylaw amendment which would add Quadra Island, a defined part of Electoral Area C, to the Strathcona Gardens Recreation Service.
Since the concept of the Service expansion was first broached at the Board table there has been substantial and ongoing communication from Area C residents to the Board requesting an Area C exclusive referendum. A petition of 1,226 signatures was received by the Board; as well an e-petition from remote residents with 484 signatures was received; and, close to 300 letters have also been received by the Board on this topic.
The message of the petitions and correspondence has been a firm ‘no thank you’ to being added to the Service, along with a request for an exclusive binding referendum rather than an assent process which simultaneously polls the 40,000+ residents of the areas already within the Service, as this would entirely drown the voices of the Area being considered for inclusion.
The glaring need for an assent process specifically for Quadra Island residents can be understood by examining the $122 million dollars in loans which the Strathcona Gardens Recreation Service has acquired in the last 2.5 years. Assent through Alternative Approval Process was gained from current participants in the Service, Campbell River and adjacent Area D.
Area C residents rightly had no voice in the debt acquisition and are rightly irate that a process to tax the average property $600 annually would now be undertaken. If ‘timing is everything’, this timing is being labeled ‘predatory’ by constituents in emails to myself and to the Board.
To date there has been no clarity provided on the assent mechanism: specifically, if the assent sought would be one single assent process for the areas currently within the Service along with the proposed area, or if Quadra Island residents will be meaningfully consulted through an electoral assent process for them specifically.
Technically/Legally
It’s my understanding that being added to a Service should be voluntary and therefore seeking individual assent of each Area is necessary. The maximum requisition for the Strathcona Gardens Service is $1.588/$1000: from my reading of the LGA an Alternative Approval Process would not be in order, and as the SRD’s Corporate Officer said to me, an AAP would likely fail, necessitating an assent process regardless.
Section 349 (5) of the Local Government Act permits the Minister to order that before a bylaw is amended it must receive approval of the electors in specified parts of one or more area. This is exactly what residents of Quadra Island have been petitioning for, and it is within your authority to ensure it will happen. This is why I am writing, and what I would like to discuss with you.
Additional context
Quadra Island is a rural community with few services, and currently Quadra residents support on-island recreation through a dedicated service. The focus of future service needs for Quadra Island are solid waste, and wood-chipping & climate resilience (a wood-chipping service is scheduled for consideration as an assent vote during the October election).
According to recreation reports the SRD Board has received there are no other coastal island communities which financially support off-island indoor recreation complexes, though in my own research I uncovered that residents of Denman & Hornby Islands support indoor recreation at 10% of the rate requisitioned from more accessible areas.
There is strong community resistance to financially supporting a recreation service which requires a costly ferry to access, and which recently acquired $122 million dollars of debt which this community had no vote on. Some residents are aware the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs and Inspector of Municipalities have a role in the bylaw amendment process, and you may receive correspondence regarding this issue.
In conclusion
Thank you for your consideration of this substantial concern which I look forward to discussing with you in person at your earliest availability. I will be in Victoria for AVICC and will happily meet with you Thursday April 23 or Monday April 27 if these work, or please suggest alternative dates.
Warmly and with gratitude,
Robyn Mawhinney
Director for Discovery Islands and Mainland Inlets (Area C), Strathcona Regional District Discovery Islands-Mainland Inlets, Electoral Area C, is located within the traditional unceded territories of the We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum, Klahoose, Homalco, Kwiakah, Tlowitsis, & K’omoks First Nations. I’m grateful to be living and working on these lands.