A fresh team of newly elected council officials was sworn in during a ceremony held in Canal Flats at the Columbia Discovery Centre on Monday, December 8th. The swearing in of Council Oath of Office involved Mayor Ute Juras, Councillor Marie Delorme, and Councillor Erin Gornik as councillors Paul Marcil and Karl Sterzer were absent. The ceremony was officiated by the Commissioner for taking Oaths and Affidavits Brian Woodward, chief administrator officer for the Village of Canal Flats.
Delorme made a motion to put on the agenda a discussion regarding the Columbia Lake Stewardship Society, to ascertain the direction in which to proceed with planning for an information booth next year.The motion was carried unanimously.
“A member of the public requested that the road be maintained, and we had made, as a council, a suggestion that we talk to Canfor — I was wondering if Bill or yourself had looked into that?” asked Delorme. Juras confirmed that a Canfor representative from internal affairs had been contacted, and it was acknowledged that the matter had been successfully addressed.
“Public Works also went out and did some basic work on the road, but now it’s frozen, so it should be okay for a while,” commented Woodward.
In further discussion, the 2015 acting mayor schedule was an item of interest.
“For the public we have to designate an acting mayor for the year, so in case the mayor is not available, we have someone to step in, and in this municipality we always split that up into three-month terms. We take turns every three months and another council member is acting as mayor, and we do that every year so I can go on holidays, too,” explained Juras.
The motion for the 2015 acting mayor schedule was carried by a unanimous vote.
Due to the absence of council members, the Strategy Planning Meeting was deferred until Monday, December15th, and the Budget Meeting Date was also moved to accommodate a full house.
A decision about the Ktunaxa Kinbasket Treaty Advisory Committee Appointments was also deferred to the next meeting. However, it was decided that Marcil would serve as Juras’ alternate for the Regional District of the East Kootenay board.
Delorme suggested implementing a presentation by the Columbia Lake Stewardship Society (CLSS) during Canal Days, or the long weekend in June. “If they are interested in doing two demonstrations, I think it would be nice to have it at the beach as well as on the long weekend when all the people from the other province come,” said Juras.
Delorme concurred and would follow up with Tracy Flynn from the CLSS.
The Revenue Anticipation Bylaw No. 166, 2014 was adopted unanimously.
“It allows us to borrow money between the months of January and July because we’re basically operating on tax income, and the taxes are not due until July. So if there is something that comes up that we need to borrow some money for, this bylaw will allow us to do that and then we will pay it back once we collect the taxes,” said Juras, addressing the meeting’s attendees.