In their second-to-last sitting before the election, council passed some long-lingering bylaws and resolutions.
But first, they had a visit from the police.
The following are reports from the Monday, September 24 council meeting.
But still no word on a Bowen RCMP music video: The RCMP officer in charge of the Sea to Sky detachment, Kara Triance, introduced herself to council this week and presented an update on Bowen policing.
Triance highlighted some local initiatives. Community engagement and participation in local celebrations remains important. She mentioned the Garage 529 program, where bicycle owners can register their wheels for free so that if their bike is stolen, it’s easily traceable. She also noted that Bowen RCMP investigative work has targeted local drug traffickers and resulted in three arrests earlier this year (charges are pending.) Triance said that in a community such as Bowen Island, where tipsters potentially fear retribution, Crime Stoppers is an excellent tool for those who would like to help the police but wish to remain anonymous.
A written report accompanied Triance’s visit, which included some local statistical highlights.
There have been six reported assaults in the first half of 2018. This is as many as were reported in all of 2017. However, there were 14 reported assaults in 2016.
“Such incidents were typically unrelated to one another and in cases of domestic violence the Bowen Island RCMP use RCMP Victim Services in every instance,” says the report. “RCMP have a zero tolerance policy for domestic violence.”
The property crime statistics came with a caveat: “The majority of property crime (thefts, break and enters, mischief) is a result of opportunistic thieves,” says the report. “When such crimes occur, they tend to be unreported due to the minimal amount of value of the items stolen.”
In 2018 there have been (reported):
three break and enters (four in 2017)
three bike thefts (two in 2017)
And since 2006 only 15 shoplifting cases have been reported.
The RCMP encourage islanders to report all property crime.
And as drivers have likely noticed, the blue and red flashing lights have been increasingly common on Bowen roads, especially around school zones and the ferry lineup.
This has been a conscious effort on the part of police.
“Bowen Island RCMP has seen a high increase of violation tickets and impaired driving related charges this year, all in part of adjusting working hours and focusing on specific areas of concern,” reads the report.
Triance noted in her presentation that this doesn’t mean that there are more driving and inebriation infractions, rather that enforcement has been more stringent.
“Traffic safety continues to be a primary concern to Bowen Island RCMP, in part due to public request,” reads the document. “The pro-active efforts have also seen an increase in impaired driving charges.”
Impaired driving charges have gone up for the past four years: 2015: five charges, 2016: 11 charges, 2017: 17 charges, 2018: 13 charges.
However, the report ends on a high note: “We are also seeing an increase in designated drivers and responsible decisions being made,” it says.
A little shelter from the controversial topics: Dave Pollard is leading the charge on a new bus shelter in front of the library, which he hopes will be installed next summer during the Cardena Road improvements. The project budget is around $7,000, with the potential for funding from Translink. Current plans have the shelter adorned in Bowen art and it is to be fancier than Powell River’s bus shelter and less fancy than New Westminster’s public art bus shelter. The council voted unanimously to move ahead with a collaborative agreement.
Collaring local businesses: The video camera that live streams council meetings must have buckled under the pressure of the controversial topic of business licensing, as it cut out before airing the council’s vote. Technical difficulty aside, the business licence bylaw passed second and third readings (despite Mayor Murray Skeels’ strong objections to the legislation.) Now the bylaw need only pass fourth reading for its adoption.
With proposed rollout in January 2019, the bylaw would require any Bowen business to register with the municipality and pay a fee (up to $125, depending on the business.) Yard sales, fundraising by non-profits and busking are among the activities excluded from requiring a business licence.
The bylaw would require a part-time employee (costing $35,000) but is designed to be revenue-neutral. According to community planner Daniel Martin’s report, 350 licences (at $100 each) would cover the cost of the position.
In the more than a dozen letters submitted to council, some local business owners expressed concern about the fee eating into already marginal profits, especially for artists and small home businesses. Others were concerned about increasing government regulation with little foreseeable benefit to businesses.
On the other side of the coin, one the primary arguments given by the municipality and business licence proponents is that the data collected through this process would be invaluable not only for the municipality, but residents. BIM currently doesn’t know how many businesses are on Bowen or what they all do – what is the Bowen economy?
Better statistics also make for better grant applications for community projects.
Councillor Sue Ellen Fast pointed out that it’s been difficult to argue for better internet connectivity when they didn’t know how many home-based businesses are on Bowen.
“There seems to be a lack of communication here,” noted councillor Gary Ander. “We’re only doing it as a data measure.”
“We’re not here to control you,” he said. “It’s good government.”
Bowen and Lions Bay are the only Metro Vancouver municipalities that don’t currently require business licences.
Light industrial is getting in the zone: In a 4-3 vote, the lot 1 zoning of Community Lands passed third reading. It will come before council one last time to pass adoption.
The saga of lot 1 has been drawn out over the summer, with two public hearings (one the continuation of the other) and several referrals to staff.
Michael Kaile was the swing vote, teetering between capitulating to public resistance to the “light industrial” designation (though the words “light industrial” don’t appear in the “permitted uses” list) and wanting to pass the rezoning before council term was up.
Councillors Sue Ellen Fast, Melanie Mason and Gary Ander voted against the motion, citing concern with the permitted uses’ proximity to Bowen Island Community School, traffic concerns, the need for comprehensive planning of the area and the land’s desirability for residential use.
Mayor Murray Skeels, the loudest supporter of the bylaw, was visibly joyful when the bylaw passed third reading.
“I apologise for taking such glee,” Skeels told his more subdued colleagues.
The election issue that’s not the ferry: As the election looms and affordable housing is a much-discussed issue, one local development made a step forward.
After a committee of the whole meeting Monday, the subdivision of lot 3 of the Community Lands is all but assured. This area is perhaps better known as the land adjacent to the RCMP station, just off Miller Road.
The land would be divided into three: one chunk for the firehall, one chunk for the new health centre and one chunk for BIRCH.
For Bowen Island Resilient Community Housing (BIRCH), which already has an understanding with the municipality to work together, this means that they can start applying for funding says executive director Robyn Fenton. The plan is for around (give or take a few) 20 housing units on the area behind the RCMP station. Though the housing is still in the conceptual stages, Fenton is cautiously throwing out 2020 as a possible date for completion
This development also allows BIRCH to start looking into a community advisory group of eight to 12 community members to meet every few months, likely starting this October.
“We want them to check in, to review what we’ve done and give us feedback. We have really important questions to ask, like who qualifies to get in here – who’s going to get those subsidized units,” says Fenton.
Anyone interested in being on the advisory group is asked to email [email protected].
The last council meeting beofore the election will be October 9.
CORRECTION: the print edition of this article incorrectly stated that it was lot 2 on its way to being subdivided, it is in fact, lot 3. Thank you to the sharp-eyed reader who pointed this out.
