qathet Regional District’s finance committee is recommending that the board continue to set aside funds for a social planner position, even though the position hasn’t been filled for more than a year.
At the January 10 finance committee meeting, directors considered recommending that the regional board set aside $29,200 in the social planning service initiative with the funds being related to wages. The regional district has contributed in past to the wages of the social planner, which has previously been hired by City of Powell River and mostly paid for by Powell River taxpayers. Tla’amin Nation has also been a contributor.
Chief administrative officer Al Radke said any regional district funds being allocated toward the of a social planner, shared between the regional district, city and Tla’amin, would have to go through the social planning service.
City director Cindy Elliott asked if the wages would be a new item. Radke said the regional district has always paid a portion of wages to fund the social planner.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne asked how long the regional district had been waiting for the city to hire a social planner. Electoral Area E director and finance committee chair Andrew Fall said it had been a year and a half since there was a social planner in place.
Gisborne asked if the city had given any indication whether it is going to fill that position.
Radke said that the matter had not yet come up. The city, in its 2024 budget deliberations, will be deciding whether to continue with the position.
Gisborne asked if the regional district chose to go with the social planning position alone, what would the anticipated requisition amount be?
Radke said if Gisborne was talking about a prospective recommendation in a staff report that the committee recommends to the board that it approve the position of and fund a regional district social planner, it would be significantly more than the $29,200 proposed in the recommendation being considered.
Gisborne said the finance committee was considering whether to allocate $29,200 in the budget and partner with the city for a social planner. Or, if the regional district is committed to the social planning position, would it increase the budget? he asked. Otherwise, the regional district would be taxing the public the $29,200 to sit in the bank doing nothing in the hope that the city partners with the regional district, he added.
“If the committee is committed to the social planner position, then we can go it on our own, but if we are not committed, then, we set the value to zero,” said Gisborne.
Radke said there is an option in the report for the regional district to have a social planner position, which would be a board decision.
The motion to contribute $29,200 for a social planner’s wages carried, with Gisborne opposed.
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