Bill had something here… To be, or not to be, that is the questionWhether ’tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troublesAnd by opposing end them. William Shakespeare – Hamlet To find a new path in a self-led community, or stay the course with the CSRD, that is the question. There will be hard work and challenges and ‘a sea of troubles’ in gaining our independence. By…
Drawbacks and negatives to Incorporation I am aware that on the surface, staffing up for an incorporated community may seem like it’s going to be expensive. And it is. BUT, we are now paying our portion to the CSRD for their staff, building, fleet of autos etc. Therefore, this staffing component shouldn’t add anything significant for NS Inc. Regarding increased costs… When I was a kid, I had a beat up old Austin Mini that I drove for a couple…
Provincial and Federal Grant Applications Provincial and Federal Free Money An Example A recent grant – the Growing Communities Fund grant – was sent to each municipality and Regional District. Here are the amounts provided to local municipalities (rough numbers based on the calculations provided with the grant) Municipality Population Grant$Salmon Arm 19,342 $6.3mRevelstoke 8,275 $2.7mSicamous 2,613 $1.5mGolden 3,986 $1.9mNS Inc. 3,200 $2.3m (if we were incorporated) CSRD 21,539 $3.8m (what the CSRD actually got)All areas split this (Area…
Things that NSInc. may have some have control over. Besides those things that we can have direct control over, there are other services, typically provided by the Province, where we would have more ability to control outcomes. One might be the provision of Health Services in our community. I look at small incorporated communities like Chase (pop 2400), Barriere (pop 1765), Clearwater (2388), and each of them has an Interior Health community health facility and ambulance service. The North Shuswap…
This is a bit of a long one.Things that NSInc. would have control over in an incorporated scenario. We would take a lot of the decision making out of the CSRD’s hands and bring it to local people. Things like solid waste transfer would likely be contracted to the CSRD as they have economies of scale to handle that, but most other decisions would be made here. This is a list of some things that would come here… For more…
Taxes that will stay on our current tax notices. The following items on our tax notices would stay essentially the same. They would increase annually due to inflation or other charges, but they are outside of a municipalities control. The numbers shown are the total for the whole North Shuswap and are rounded for ease. BC Rural Tax – $965,000 mainly for road maintenance and repair. Each taxpayer pays an amount called the BC Rural Tax which is mainly used…
Many people in the North Shuswap have been frustrated with our system of governance (CSRD) for many years. I remember shortly after I moved out here in 2004, chatting with community leaders about the Regional District and its challenges. Over the years there have been various attempts to bring the North Shu population together and demand a look at how we’re governed and what other choices there may be. This culminated in 2017 with a formal, private study, done on…
Have your say on how the CSRD spends tax dollars The first Committee of the Whole Budget meeting for the Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s Five Year Financial Plan offers a chance for the public to address the board about spending priorities. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 9:30 AM at the CSRD office, located at 555 Harbourfront Drive, Salmon Arm. A second meeting is set for Wednesday, February 26, 2020 also at 9:30 AM at the CSRD office. At both of these meetings, interested members of the public…
November 2nd, 1pm at Celista Hall This is a continuation of the Town Hall meetings that I started last March. I hope to have a Town Hall meeting every 6 months or so just to bring you up to date on things happening around the community and give you an opportunity to ask questions and give me ideas of things needing attention. For next Saturdays meeting I’m bringing in some speakers to talk about important things for the winter. I’m…
Community Watch – Wednesday Oct 23, 7pmHealth & Rehab and also Political Action on Thursday Oct 24, 7pmBoth meetings at the Scotch Creek Hall, doors open at 6:45. This week we’ll be having our second meeting for the Community Watch Group on Wednesday at 7pm at the Scotch Creek Hall (doors open at 6:30). The group has been busy getting information on various different flavours of communty watch, from Citizens on Patrol to Rural Crime Watch and others. On Wednesday…