Skip to content

Slew of reports swamps councillors

As the school year gets set to ring the bell on the first week of classes, city councillors realize they have a lot of homework to do this fall and Tuesday they were scrambling to find time to get it all done

As the school year gets set to ring the bell on the first week of classes, city councillors realize they have a lot of homework to do this fall and Tuesday they were scrambling to find time to get it all done.

Council has nine plans, studies and assessments on its plate to be dealt with and city staff were looking for a schedule for implementing them. The time crunch has been brought about by the need to implement the Sustainable Official Community Plan, more specifically to give councillors time to review public input into the various plans associated reports as well as allow enough public input into the plan itself.

“I think we should go one step at a time because there are so many plans,” Coun. Claire Moglove said.

On deck to be discussed by council and pending completion this fall or in early 2012 are:

  • the Sustainable Official Community Plan

  • Agriculture Plan

  • Master Transportation Plan

  • Transit Plan

  • Community Energy and Emissions Plan

  • Integrated Community Sustainability Plan

  • Governance and Planning Partnership Strategy

  • Market Assessment (Land Use Study)

  • Marine Foreshore Habitat Assessment and Restoration Plan

Coun. Ziggy Stewart said council can rush through the plans and get them all done, or take them at a slower pace and those that aren’t finished by the time the November municipal election comes along will have to be dealt with by the next council.

“These are important decisions that will have a lot of impact,” Stewart said. “If we can’t get it all done, the next council will be here to continue.

“We’ve done this before where we’ve done too much in a short time. Things get missed when you rush into things.”

Councillors lamented the amount of regular work they had to juggle with meetings, committees and their day jobs. Some councillors also have additional regional district responsibilities.

Councillors agreed they needed enough time to read and discuss the reports and the public input. They requested that a spread sheet be developed of all the pending reports and let councillors priorize them.