Electronic Council Meetings
All Quesnel City Council meetings will be held electronically, using video and/or audio technology, to protect the health and safety of elected officials, municipal employees and the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. These electronic meetings are permitted under the March 26, 2020 Order of the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General M083. Media representatives will receive electronic invitations prior to electronic Council meetings. The draft Meeting Minutes, and the audio recording, for each Special Electronic Council meeting will be posted on the Agenda/Minutes page of the City's website. The video recording for the April 21, 2020 Special Electronic Council meeting is now available on the City's website.
2020 Property Tax Due Date and Penalty Date
Council approved the property tax due date to be September 30, 2020 with the regular 10% penalty to be applied October 1, 2020. Property Tax Notices will be mailed out at the end of May 2020. City staff will build this alternative municipal taxation collection scheme into the City’s 2020 Tax Rate Bylaw that will be brought to a future Council meeting.
Independent 2019 Financial Audit Report
Corey Naphtali, Partner, from the KPMG accounting firm, presented an Independent Audit Report of the City’s 2019 Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2019. The City’s 2019 Financial Statements has received a clean audit in accordance with the Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards.
North Cariboo Child Care Inventory and Action Plan
Sarah Hubert, Researcher, Department of Research, Planning and Community Development
SPARC BC (Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia), presented the City of Quesnel Child Care Action Plan (“Plan”). This Plan indicates the North Cariboo regional has 15.1 child care spaces/100 children compared to the BC Average of 18.4 child care spaces/100 children. Based on the population projections for the North Cariboo, 86 additional spaces are needed to meet the BC average in the region over the next 5 years. Two of the biggest challenges identified in the Plan for increasing child care spaces are finding qualified Early Childhood Educators to work at the child care facilities, and finding the physical spaces (facilities) needed to provide child care services. Council voted to move forward with supporting local businesses and non-profits with expanding their child care programming. Staff will begin reaching out to child care providers in the coming weeks.
SPARC BC (Social Planning and Research Council of British Columbia), presented the City of Quesnel Child Care Action Plan (“Plan”). This Plan indicates the North Cariboo regional has 15.1 child care spaces/100 children compared to the BC Average of 18.4 child care spaces/100 children. Based on the population projections for the North Cariboo, 86 additional spaces are needed to meet the BC average in the region over the next 5 years. Two of the biggest challenges identified in the Plan for increasing child care spaces are finding qualified Early Childhood Educators to work at the child care facilities, and finding the physical spaces (facilities) needed to provide child care services. Council voted to move forward with supporting local businesses and non-profits with expanding their child care programming. Staff will begin reaching out to child care providers in the coming weeks.
Forestry Initiatives Program – Proposed Durrell Road Upgrade & Maintenance
Council approved a letter of support be sent to Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, to upgrade and maintain approximately 1 kilometer of Durrell Road as part of the City’s Forestry Initiatives and Trail Initiatives. The Durrell Road is under prescription development as part of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. As such, upgrading the road to the parking lot is a natural-fit with proposed fuel management operations, and ongoing summer maintenance of this section of road would have a huge impact on accessibility to Dragon Mountain Provincial Park and subsequently the expanding popular trail network.
Bylaws
- 1889 – Council Procedure (Electronic Meetings) – Final Adoption
Next Meeting
- 6:00 pm – May 5, 2020 – Special Council Meeting – Electronic Meeting - Public Not Permitted – Meeting Video Recording Posted on City’s Website on May 6, 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment