Category Archives: government

All things related to government

Council Meetings of May 7, 2018

Leave a reply

City Council had a full day on May 7 with a Committee Of The Whole in the morning and a Regular Meeting in the evening.
Since the beginning of the year we’ve been webcasting the meetings Live on YouTube. Due to a technical glitch using YouTube was problematic this time so in a ‘need-to-get-it-working’ moment we used Facebook for the live webcast. This opened a new dimension in public/government communication. More on that in a separate article. Councilor Ross was out of town but did find the meeting stream and did watch. We know this because she check in on the Facebook comment thread associated with the webcast.

The COTW meeting ran two and a half hours. The order of items was altered from that in the agenda but all items were covered.

What was covered in the agenda:

The evening meeting ran just over an hour and had some interesting topics.

Are you still on Septic?

If you live in the city but use a septic system instead of city sewer services then you might find the Sewer Phasing Plan of interest. It begins on page 29 of the agenda package with the conversation about it beginning 13:45 into the meeting.

BC Housing Asked and the City said . . . ?

BC Housing approached the city with an ask for in-kind contributions to the new Women’s Transition House development. This is the same project that saw nearby residents and property owners come down to plead with council to do something to stop it . That came to no avail since council had nothing to do with it. But it’s an election year what do you think council chose to do? Watch and find out.

The meetings in their entirety

 

 

Gallery 2 - 2017/2018 year-end report and 2018/2019 budget Bylaw 1958-A5 Fees and Charges Bylaw Amendment - Business Fees and Charges James Donaldson Park Accessibility Upgrades Floodplain Mapping Risk Assessment Sewer Phasing Plan Draft Report Urban Systems Ltd. - Delegation on SSAT (Service Sustainability Assessment Tool) Monthly Highlight Reports QUESTION PERIOD MINUTES Council Reports RDKB Report Request for Waiving Development Fees Service Sustainability Assessment Tool Tree Policy proposal for unnamed peak east of Saddle Lake to be named Saddle Mountain 2017 Audited Financial Statement QUESTION PERIOD

Solicitor General Gives Press Conference in Grand Forks

Leave a reply

Mike Farnsworth, Provincial Minister for Public Safety and Solicitor General of British Columbia was in Grand Forks today (May 13). He got a lot of information pushed at him in a very short time and was shown the scope of the disaster up close.

At 3:30PM he showed up for the press in front of the Grand Forks Fire hall. Also there were the Mayor Konrad, RDKB Chair Russell along with others. National News networks were present as well.

The gist of it is an assurance that the province has our back and once the disaster has completed they will be able to properly assess the scope of the damage and better predict the losses. After that they will be able to come up a budget for Disaster Financial Assistance. Yes there will be financial assistance coming . . . just not a for a week or two. He also said that Premier Horgan has been on the phone with Prime Minister Trudeau letting him know what a disaster we’re going through.

The Mayor also appeared and spoke. In conversation afterwards I found out that he had ‘pulled the trigger’ on calling this an official disaster days ago. In all the busyness of the disaster most had no information that that step had been taken . . . but now we know.

Gregg Anderson and I attended and recorded as well as live webcast it to Facebook. You can watch that below.

The facebook live stream has commentary supplied during and later by citizens. If you’re curious what they said follow the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/les.johnson.gf/videos/2016449671722857/

 

City Council Meetings of April 9, 2018

Leave a reply

It was a full day for council with a Committee Of The Whole in the morning and a Regular Meeting in the evening.

In the Committee Of the Whole meeting there was a full gallery. It turned out almost all of them were with the Wildlife Association.
In the meeting council covered these items:

The meeting

The Regular Meeting had an agenda and an addendum to  the agenda. They covered these items:

The meeting

The meetings in their entirety from the beginnings

 

Annual report on RCMP activities in Grand Forks Grand Forks Wildlife Association - Request to grant a Licence to Occupy for a portion of City property located just west of the City landfill Temporary Use Permit for Tourist Commercial / Special Event Camping Tree Policy Monthly Highlight Reports Bylaw 2039-A1 - Zoning Bylaw Cannabis Amendment Bylaw 2046 - 2018 Tax Rates Bylaw 2047 - Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Update Bylaw 2048 - Records and Information Management Program Bylaw update QUESTION PERIOD ADOPT AGENDA RDKB Report Temporary Use Permit for Tourist Commercial / Special Event Camping Visa Credit Card Application Campground Fees and Charges Update Bylaw Downtown Business Community Request to Change Power Outage Time Motion 167 Standing Committee on Public Safety study Rural Crime Notice of motion DBA wants 4-way stops at downtown locations QUESTION PERIOD

City Council Meeting Mar 26, 2018

Leave a reply

Council had a single public meeting on Monday Mar 26.

Unfortunately due to technical issues beyond our control we were not able to live stream the meeting . . . but we did record it and you can watch it (or whatever piece you want from it) below.

It was also a brief meeting. Question period took up almost half the time as the pie shows.

What did they talk about? Well

 

You may watch the meeting from the beginning here

Grand Forks Art Gallery Revised Lease Agreement Cannabis survey results Boundary Museum - 2017 budget carried to 2018 UBCM - Provincial response to 2017 resolutions put forward Five Year Financial Plan Bylaw No. 2045 Questions From Public and Media