WHAT’S INSIDE
MUSICAL PLAYGROUND A12
Weather Beefs&Bouquets What’s On Letters Classifieds Sports
A2 A11 A4 A10 B6 B3
www.firstins. ca 1-800-655-52 55
Enjoy hitting th e road this summer. We’ve got you covered!
www.comoxvalleyecho.com Friday August 15, 2014
Price: 57 cents plus GST
Volume 20, No. 65
Vote planned on tax to tackle homelessness
‘Surprised’ council says Maple Pool door remains open By Philip Round Echo Staff Surprise has been expressed at the hostile tone of an official statement on the Friends of Maple Pool website to overtures made by Courtenay City Council to try to resolve the campground controversy. As previously reported in the Echo, acting Mayor Bill Anglin presided at the ‘in camera’ council meeting where a response was agreed to proposals from the Friends seeking a solution outside the courts to the contentious land use issues. Anglin subsequently signed a fivepage letter addressed to local businessman Mike Hamilton, representing the Friends, now posted online on the City’s website at www.courtenay.ca It opened by setting out what councillors understood the group wanted following face-to-face discussions with senior staff, and went on to address the various issues raised, offering to seek compromise on a number of matters. Solutions, Anglin acknowledged in the correspondence, would require goodwill and clear commitments from all sides. The council offered to suspend legal action to give time for other matters to be mutually agreed, including a stated willingness by councillors to consider a ‘unilateral rezoning’ of the campground to avoid the site’s owners from having to pursue an expensive rezoning application of their own. But in the unsigned ‘official statement’ on the www.friendsofmaplepool.ca website - reported in Tuesday’s Echo - the council’s letter was treated with a heavy dose of cynicism. The demand was made for the immediate termination, not deferral, of the City’s legal action, and the statement also raised doubts and questions about the proposed ‘unilateral rezoning’ offer. That trenchant response has taken councillors by surprise, as they believe they were offering an olive branch to resolve the issue by going along with many of the points raised in the discussions Mike Hamilton and Andrew Gower had with staff. On Wednesday of this week, Anglin - who currently continues as acting mayor - told the Echo: “We honestly believe we had given them what they asked for - and we remain committed to finding a workable solution for everyone. (Continued on page 2)
By Philip Round Echo Staff
At the sheep beauty parlour Tyra Schaad, from the Comox Valley, blow-dries Paul, a purebred Romney ewe, during the 101st annual Coombs Fair Saturday. The action will shift to the Comox Valley Fall Fair Aug. 22-24. Photo by Brian Wilford/Oceanside Star
Should local property taxes be used to help tackle homelessness in the Comox Valley? And if so, how much would you be willing to pay? Those could well be questions on upcoming civic election ballot papers in the biggest test of public opinion on the subject yet conducted here. All four local governments - Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland and Comox Valley Regional District — will be urged to include an identical question on ballot papers for the November 15 poll. The secret ballot public opinion survey would be conducted like a referendum and on the same day and at the same places as people go to vote for their elected officials throughout the Comox Valley. But unlike a referendum, the results will not be binding and will not provide authority to tax homeowners - although they are intended to give clear guidance to all those elected on that day as to whether voters have an appetite for contributing money to future initiatives. The idea of putting a direct question to test the waters has come from members of Comox Valley Regional District, and at Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting there was detailed debate on the wording of the special ballot. After weighing up a range of options there was unanimity from the seven municipal as well as three rural representatives on a simple, clear question with three options from which people could choose. The question will be: ‘How much annual property tax would you be willing to pay to reduce homelessness?’ And the three choices in answer, based on the assessment of an average $300,000 house, will be: $0 (Nothing); up to $5; up to $10. It is being stressed those would be flat-rate figures representing a total amount of extra tax each year for the average house - not, for example, a dollar amount for every $100,000 of assessed value. The committee agreed there needed to be a clear option for people to say they didn’t want to pay anything, but there was detailed debate on what other figures might be appropriate as guidelines for electors who were willing to go along with some additional cost. There was no reference in the debate to what total amounts of money the various options might raise if implemented right across the Valley. But regional district finance staff believe around $40,000 would likely be raised for each dollar levied. So under the options quoted, the total ballpark figure would be a maximum of $200,000 for “up to $5” and a maximum of $400,000 for “up to $10”. For the ballot to go ahead, at least two of the three municipalities need to agree formally to participate alongside the regional district to ensure there is a fair cross-section of views in the Valley. (Continued on page 2)
Pipeline supporters ‘typically older guys wearing nylon baseball caps’ By Philip Round Echo Staff Courtenay and Comox municipalities may have declined to hear presentations against oil pipelines and increased tanker traffic, but their six official representatives on the Comox Valley Regional District had to listen to one on Tuesday. There were no objections at the opening of the committee of the whole to hearing Dave Mills of the
Expires "VHVTU
Dogwood Initiative, a citizens’ advocacy group, promote the idea of holding a BC-wide referendum on the issue. But by the end of the combative presentation, one member Courtenay’s Starr Winchester asked for her vote to be recorded against even formally receiving it. Mills said more than 5,000 people in the Comox Valley had already signed the ‘Let BC Vote’ pledge and they represented all shades of polit-
ical opinion. Democracy would be served if people had the chance to cast a ballot to express their views, whether for or against, he said. But in his assessment: “People are outraged that this has gone so far,” and he attacked the federal government in particular for changing rules and regulations through omnibus legislation “to push projects like this through,” adding: “In the good old days, this would be
dead in the water.” Provocatively, he added the people he observed supporting the pipelines and consequential tanker traffic were “typically older guys wearing nylon baseball caps who say we need the jobs.” But he considered many existing jobs would be negatively affected if the proposals did proceed, in addition to the huge risk of environmental damage. All coastal and many inland com-
munities would be impacted, and local governments that did not entertain motions being presented in opposition to the proposals, or at least in support of a BC vote on the issues, were “crazy.” The committee took no decisions, and no request for a staff report on the issue for further discussion was made, but chair Edwin Grieve briefly thanked Mills for his information before moving on to the next agenda item.
blindsandbubbles.com