Read the full story from the Rush here with the report that Council received Tuesday here. It should be noted that Williams Lake taxpayers' stand to lose anywhere from $125,000 (continue providing fire services to rural fringe residents') to $700,000 (no more fire services to Areas D,E,F)
Also - Councillor Rathor expressed concern around the referendum questions. He also suggested, in my view, that this was pay-back by the CRD when they questioned how the City of Williams Lake in the summer of 2011 awarded a Request for Proposals or RFP for the then-proposed Indoor Turf Facility which I and I suspect the Central Cariboo Cariboo Regional District Directors' know to be false. If Councillors' Rathor and Bonnell felt blindsided of not knowing the referendum questions, they both had two options:
1) Contact the City of WL CRD Director or her alternate (Mayor Cook/Councillor Zacharias)
2) Do their own homework - the CRD Board Agenda is a public document and is available 7 days prior to the meeting)
For the record, here are the two questions that rural fringe residents will be voting on:
1) Contact the City of WL CRD Director or her alternate (Mayor Cook/Councillor Zacharias)
2) Do their own homework - the CRD Board Agenda is a public document and is available 7 days prior to the meeting)
For the record, here are the two questions that rural fringe residents will be voting on:
Parts of Area 'F' surrounding Williams Lake within a 13 kms radius of the 150 Mile VFD Firehall:
Are you in favour of the adoption of Bylaw No. 4775, 2012, which would expand the 150 Mile House Fire Protection Service Area while maintaining the existing maximum annual requisition limit of the greater of $125,000 or an amount raised by applying a rate of $1.28/$1,000 to the net taxable value of land and improvements in the service area? (The current requisition rate is $0.87/$1,000 which translates to a residential rate of $68/$100,000.)"
Areas 'D' and 'E' surrounding Williams Lake and the portions of Area F outside the 13 km radius of the 150 Mile House VFD Firehall:
"Are you in favour of the adoption of Bylaw No. 4774, 2012, which would establish a fire protection service in portions of Electoral Areas D, E and F, with a maximum annual requisition of the greater of $575,746 or an amount raised by applying a tax rate of $1.60/$1,000 to the net taxable value of land and improvements in the service area? (Based on 2012 assessed values, the current rate would be $1.41/$1,000, which translates to a residential rate of $133/$100,000.)"
Now - let us be clear. Director Joan Sorley was well within her rights as the duly-elected representative for Area 'F' of the Cariboo Regional District to decide to either submit a question of expanding the 150 Mile VFD to the max 13 km radius or submit a question of being taxed to have fire protection services being provided by the City of Williams Lake FD and let's respect the decision that she has made. I can't say how difficult it was for her, but nevertheless, I am certain she took many pieces of information into consideration before making that decision, in light of the residential survey split between 150 Mile VFD/WL Fire Department for fire protection services.
As well - Councillor Zacharias expressed concern over how the vote on Nov 24th would proceed in Areas D/E. Again - she is a former Area 'D' Director of the Cariboo Regional District so this won't be a surprise to her. When the Area D/E/F residents' vote on the above question, the determination of whether or not it passes would be entirely based on the combined yes and no votes, regardless of how each Area voted
Finally - in my view, I find the Cariboo Regional District's actions to date on this topic to be completely reasonable, under the very tight circumstances they found themselves in. Or in other words - they have acted like the couple that goes to the bank first and gets pre-approved for a mortgage (referendum vote) and then goes house shopping (negotiate with the City of WL for fire protection services). I do not see any communication issues or mishaps from the Cariboo Regional District but rather that the CRD Board is trying to work within its' legislative framework to have an agreement for rural fire protection for rural fringe areas just beyond the City of Williams Lake boundaries
Instead of attacking your neighbourhood (Cariboo Regional District) - both Councillors Bonnell/Rathor would do well to look at the 'big picture' and work within that framework as I know all of the CRD Directors' are committed to this statement (and so should Williams Lake City Council):
Building Communities Together
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