Building a boat ramp in Tunstall Bay has been on council's books for a while. And now, certain permits are in place and construction could start. But is a boat ramp a wise investment in a time where council is looking at a tight budget?
The pros and cons of building the boat ramp in 2012 were under discussion at Tuesday's council meeting. When chief financial officer Karen Blow presented the interim budget, she said that the Tunstall Bay boat ramp is noted there with a price tag of $205,000. Those funds do not have a direct impact on the taxes but would deplete the community recreation reserves and, ultimately, impact community recreation initiatives such as the community centre, according to Blow.
Wil Hilsen, manager of engineering and operations, said that one reason for completing the boat ramp is that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has entered into a contractual agreement with the Bowen Island Municipality that expires on January 1, 2013. A total of $45,000 has already been spent on approval and preliminary ramp design, according to Hilsen, and the cost of $38,000 in consulting fees that were necessary for the approval process may have to be spent all over again if the project was postponed.
Hilsen presented a plan that included several scenarios. One option was to renegotiate with the DFO to extend the timeline but he said that this could incur extra cost. Another option is to install the ramp but hold off on any traffic improvements that would reduce the initial cost by $60,000. But Hilsen cautioned, "If we don't do the turnaround and parking, we have to engage in discussion with the neighbourhood association. There are traffic concerns in the Tunstall Bay area and some of the money [for traffic improvement] is warranted to be spent there anyhow."
Councillor Alison Morse noted that the project started in 2001 and has been postponed numerous times. She added, "Knowing how difficult the approval process has been, there is concern that we may throw away the $38,000 that has already been spent. We have the go-ahead from the DFO. If we are going to build a boat ramp, I think we should do it this year." Councillor Stone agreed to "try to complete it as quickly and gracefully as we can."
Councillor Wolfgang Duntz questioned whether council feels uncomfortable spending that kind of money on a boat ramp. "Is this a wise investment? Do we have a convincing reason for getting boats on and off the island? We have an austerity budget but, at the same time, we look to build a boat ramp," he said.
Councillor Cro Lucas explained that the project wasn't driven purely by the recreation side. "This is an emergency concern," he said. "as there is no emergency ramp on the west side of the island."
Hilsen confirmed that from a health and safety perspective, there are benefits to building the ramp. From a recreational side, it also has merit. In his report, he stated that if there would be no ramp installation, Bowen Island would continue to have no publicly owned launching facilities on the western side of the island and that there are significant concerns form an emergency access/egress perspective with this scenario.
Morse suggested to include the Tunstall Bay boat ramp in the capital budget without the traffic improvement (coming to a price tag of $145,000) and to look for public input. All councillors except Duntz voted in agreement.
