Supports development permit
City of Powell River voted at its September 21 meeting to provide Santè Veritas Therapeutics with a development permit subject to conditions for its medical marijuana grow facility in the former Catalyst Paper Corporation administration building on Yew Street. Santè Veritas will have to provide a detailed landscape design to the city with its agreement for the highway encroachment of the building’s proposed security fencing. The green palisade fencing must be erected along Yew and on the property’s boundary with the parking lot for Dwight Hall.
Designates dog park
Council voted to designate its newest park as the city’s official dog park. The fenced park, specifically designed for off-leash dogs, has been open to the public for the past year but had not yet been officially designated by council. The park is located off Duncan Street near the old Max Cameron Secondary School field. The city will look to the community for a suitable name for the park.
Extends committee mandate
Council supported a request from the city’s grant funding advisory committee to grant it a further extension. The group was to wrap up its review of how the city operates its grants-in-aid and permissive tax exemptions programs this month. This is the second extension the committee has received. With the extension, the committee has been given until the end of March 2018.
Supports chronic-illness program
Council voted to authorize mayor Dave Formosa to sign an agreement with Vancouver Coastal Health and Tla’amin Nation to create the Brave Hearts chronic-illness management program in Powell River. The city has not had a similar program for several years and residents have had to travel to the lower Sunshine Coast or Vancouver Island. The program, which was recommended in the expanded regional recreation initiative study, will include workshops and exercises specifically designed to help people recovering from heart attacks and other major surgery to recover and develop lifelong physical fitness. Brave Hearts will take registrations based on doctor referrals. Council approved $21,000 for the program with half of the cost coming from participant fees at $389 per person.
Hears report on tax exemptions
Permissive municipal property tax exemptions for Powell River’s non-profits will be slightly less in 2018. City chief financial officer Kathleen Day told the committee that the city is looking at $253,000 of exemptions for 2018, a $3,000 drop from 2017. The city provides the relief on 48 properties. Day said the reduction comes as the result of tax-roll adjustments. Tax breaks for non-profits, though supported under the province’s Community Charter, are not guaranteed and come at the discretion of council each fiscal year.
