March 3 Council In Focus

Quickie agenda features trees and scholarships

A brief agenda dominated by tree cutting permits and a request from the local scholarship committee meant the March 3 meeting was the shortest of the year so far.

All members of Council were present at the table, and Chief Administrative Officer Ross Blackwell attended online. The gallery was also quite small, reaching only seven attendees both in person and on line.

Mayor Ken Berry began by reporting that in the closed portion of the meeting, a decision had been made with regard to the new appointments to the Curly Stewart Memorial Trust Fund Committee. He added the item would be further discussed later in the meeting.

Business Arising: McLaughlin Shares Procedural Statement

In a statement, Councillor Ron McLaughlin congratulated Council on "the positive work we’ve done to strengthen our governance practices and improve how we manage meetings," and noted that meaningful progress has been made. However, he asked that members of Council only add on-table items for truly urgent and time-sensitive matters. He also said that any references to the Ombudsperson’s Report need to be addressed during in-camera sessions. He said his intention is not to limit transparency or discussion, but to ensure that agendas remain focused, strategic, and respectful of staff time and Council’s collective role.

Berry noted that Council had been presented with a large number of reports in the closed portion of meetings over the past term, and he moved that these reports be made public, after appropriate redactions. His motion did not succeed.

Unfinished Business: Action Items

Councillor Jaime Cunliffe asked that Emergency Program Coordinator Mary Brown be given access to any information staff has uncovered with regard to Item 355, which deals with trail connectivity and rights-of-way, as Brown is now working with an Emergency Evacuation expert to set up a plan for the Village.

McLaughlin then requested an update on the Parking Plan (Item 365) and Blackwell said an update was in the works for the next meeting.

Councillor Neville Abbott asked for a fulsome update with regard to the status of Items 370-373, which addresses the application for grant money for a Municipal Fleet

Electrification Transition Study, as well as the follow-up RFP for a consultant to complete the study, and the status of the agreement with Elect-Tech for noise monitoring on the highway. Blackwell requested Abbott pose the question in an email, and said he would direct the reply to all councillors.

Tree Management

Tree Applications from 5 Brunswick Beach Road (page 21), 250 Oceanview Road (page 33) and 15 and 25 Periwinkle Place (page 45) all were ultimately approved, subject to a number of conditions. After discussion, Blackwell clarified that if there is some question that a tree is on municipal land a survey is required to confirm the location of the tree.

Cunliffe recused herself from the vote on the Periwinkle Place application.

Curly Stewart Memorial Trust Fund Committee

Councillor Neville Abbott spoke on behalf of the Curly Stewart Memorial Trust Fund Committee, asking council to both support the establishment of the 2026 committee, and to agree that the amount awarded to students be increased to $2,000. Abbott noted that this scholarship trust is not tax-payer-supported, but garners support through fund-raising efforts.

Appointments to this year's committee had been made in the earlier Closed council meeting, and both motions were approved.

Correspondence

Both letters of correspondence came from residents expressing concern regarding the structure of the community survey. Gregan Dunn (page 70) listed a number of flaws that he said could result in inaccurate data, and Rod Baker (page 72) offered to help staff construct a more effective model.

Blackwell said that the company who had put together the survey was also responsible for doing similar work with both North Vancouver and Squamish. In the discussion that followed, it emerged that part way through the process, the survey was modified to include N/A ("not applicable") as an option. Blackwell clarified that the survey was intended to get a sense of the community's feelings on a number of topics, rather than hard data to be acted upon.

Other Items of Note

• Minutes from the regular Council meetings on February 3 (page 5) and February 17 (page 13) were approved with minor changes.

• There were no resident delegations or participation this evening, apart from a brief interjection by resident Marek Sredski during discussion of the tree-cutting applications. Sredski was quickly muted, as he had not chosen to speak at either of the public participation elements of the meeting.

  
  
  
  

The next regular meeting of Council is scheduled for March 17, with the public portion of the meeting beginning at 7 p.m.

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