qathet Regional District’s (qRD) finance committee is recommending the regional board authorize $50,000 to be included in the 2023 operational budget to support preliminary work on complying with the Accessible British Columbia Act.
At a December 7 meeting, directors reviewed the recommendation to become compliant with the provincial legislation.
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick said it is great news and that it is exciting that the regional district is moving forward in the area of accessibility.
“I know this board has supported moving forward on this issue over the last term and I know we’ll continue to do so,” said McCormick.
She asked if any funding comes along with this new piece of legislation.
“It seems rather awkward without that,” added McCormick.
Electoral Area E director and finance committee chair Andrew Fall said the provincial website indicates the province is allocating $3 million over three years to support organizations in meeting the legal requirements.
Regional district chief administrative officer (CAO) Al Radke said that was one of the more important features to be looked at to see if there is funding available.
“The biggest thing is it is a new frontier for us,” added Radke. “It’s something brand new the province has initiated, and it’s something we must comply with.”
Radke said by his knowledge, there has to be compliance by September 2023.
McCormick said she is concerned this will put pressure on the regional district’s budget, and there could be problems down the road trying to comply with the act.
Radke said the regional district does not yet know what the province wants done.
“We are going along a little bit blindly and we are also reaching out to Accessibility BC to get their input to make sure we are going down the right path,” said Radke. “We’re basically building this program from the ground up, based on some information in the act.”
Radke said one possibility is reaching out to City of Powell River and Tla’amin Nation to see if the exercise should be completed on a regional basis.
City director George Doubt said it is an exciting initiative. He said residents of the regional district have already identified there are barriers to accessibility. What the province is looking for is a detailed plan and it requires the regional district to establish a committee to advise on how to remove barriers, he added.
“It sounds like the creation of a plan for the entire regional district to all of these things about accessibility, and $50,000 is a minimal amount of money to try to do that,” said Doubt. “I don’t see any funding being guaranteed by the provincial government or anybody else, but we have to have a plan and in the hands of authorities by September 2023.
“We have to find room in our budget. It’s an interesting project but we are being asked to bite the bullet and cover the costs for now.”
The finance committee voted to send the $50,000 expenditure to the regional board for approval.
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