The island’s seven water system local advisory committees will be dissolved later this year.
The municipality had expressed their plan to do away with the committees (LAC) last week, and followed through with the decision during a unanimous vote in council on Monday. “This process was initiated as a result of council indicating the desire to increase its level of oversight of these utility systems’ operation and administration. The utility systems are facing big financial decisions and spending large sums of money on capital projects,” said chief financial officer Kristen Watson during the meeting.
The existing system involved LAC meetings – consisting of neighbourhood representatives, staff, and a council liaison – where area water issues were discussed and proposals or recommendations sent to council for consideration. The process did not involve direct reporting from staff to council.
“This makes it difficult for council, who ultimately retain responsibility and stewardship for the utility systems, to make recommendations regarding utility systems without the direct reporting,” said Watson.
Under the new model staff will assume responsibility for reporting to council on island water issues, and public engagement will switch to a mix of Committee of the Whole (COW) meetings, and less formal Community Information Meetings (CIM).
The COW meeting will take place in the spring and include presentation and discussion of utility rate bylaws and budgets, including reserves and user rates. The CIM will be held in the fall and involve conversations and ideas between staff and the public.
Watson said there was a mix of positive and negative feedback from LAC chairs during a recent meeting to explain the upcoming changes.
While the LAC will be no more, all of the Local Service Areas (LSA) – along with their current budgets and rates – will remain intact. CIM will be split up into four groups among the seven LSA – Tunstall Bay; Hood Point; Cove Bay and Eagle Cliff; and the westside systems of King Edward Bay, Blue Water Park, and Bowen Bay.
Mayor Andrew Leonard said he looked forward to the new approach to dealing with water systems. “We know over the last year-and-a-half, and well before this term, that the management and governance of our LSA and the infrastructure challenges that arise out of it in terms of the way that we’re engaging with the community and then how we’re financing these changes is a big challenge.”
“Instead of going before a committee that feels a little bit once-removed from council, the opportunity will exist to have the community and interested parties come before all of us as a council... It gives council the opportunity to really give ownership and accountability over the governance structure of our water systems, and provides new and better and more constructive ways for the community to be engaged with council and the issues that affect them in their local neighbourhoods,” said the mayor.
The vote to abolish the local advisory committees was a unanimous 5-0, with Coun. Sue Ellen Fast and Alex Jurgensen away.
