High Bar First Nation and Village of Clinton Sign Protocol Agreement
Mayor Jim Rivett and Chief Larry Fletcher formalized the agreement on Sept. 18 at the Clinton Museum by signing an agreement that will focus on cooperation and communication between the two parties. The agreement cements the intent of the implementation of joint actions and partnerships on economic growth, servicing facilities and to explore options for a co-operative form of government to benefit the residents of both parties.
Busy Week for Councils
The UBCM Convention is over for another year. What a busy week! Whistler is a beautiful place but I had no time to enjoy it. Between workshops and sessions and meetings, it kept us busy.
Overall the three meetings the Village of Clinton had with Provincial Ministers went well even though we did not get everything we were asking for.
The first was a meeting with Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Coralee Oakes to discuss the need for municipalities to revise and complete an Official Community Plan every five years and the strain that puts on municipal governments, especially for small communities. She was sympathetic but stated there would be an announcement made during the convention that would benefit small communities.
While addressing the assembly later on, she announced the development of a Small Communities Fund, which will invest more than $327 million over the next decade for communities in B.C. with populations under 100,000. Minister Oakes also announced the Government is establishing a $1.5 million asset management fund. Local governments can apply for funding to support cost-effective planning for their public infrastructure, including water systems and local roads. The fund will be administered by the UBCM.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General Suzanne Anton had good news and bad news for Clinton with regard to liquor licences being bought and moved to other locations. The rules are changing (again) with regard to liquor store licences and cold beer and wine store licences. When the changes were announced last year those licences were only allowed to move within a five-km radius of where they had been. That is being changed in 2015 to allow those licences to be moved anywhere within the province. The good news is that pub licences cannot be moved out of the municipality in which they were granted.
The meeting with Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure was also a good news, bad news outcome. One part of the Village of Clinton’s presentation centred on the flooding in the Tingley Street area every spring. This flooding comes from a culvert that had been installed by the MoTI several years ago that drains the water from the north side of the highway, through the culvert and releases it into a field on the opposite side of the road. Gravity takes over and this water ends up in the yards of people living on Tingley St. Minister Stone aid he was unaware of the problem and given that the Village had come up with a low cost solution directed staff to work with the Village on this project.
As for the removal of the 70-km/h transition zones, he stated that he has to go by the recommendations of the traffic engineers who have studied the area. He advised that staff will continue to work with the Village to monitor the situation once this has happened.
I won’t go in to the results of all the resolutions that were dealt with by the UBCM members. Suffice it to say that both resolutions put forward by the Village of Clinton were endorsed by the membership.
Art & Artisan Show
The Clinton Art and Cultural Association is hosting the Annual Clinton Art and Artisan Show in the Clinton Memorial Hall from Oct. 3-5. The theme this year is Horses so there should be lots of horse-themed entries.
Plan to come out and support our local artists and artisans at this show.
Susan Swan