Powell River Regional District directors approved spending community works funding to remove logs from the Haslam Lake weir after Colin Palmer, board chair, used his authority to add the motion to the regional board agenda.
Rural directors first discussed the motion to spend $40,000 for the project at the June 18 planning committee meeting. Palmer, who initiated the motion, showed pictures from 2005 when some logs in the lake pushed through the weir. He said Powell River Salmon Society thought that if the water level had been higher, the whole weir would have collapsed.
If the weir did collapse, it would impact residents’ drinking water as well as the salmon society, Palmer added. “You’re talking about a huge volume of water suddenly going down that river,” he said.
In 2012, Palmer, City of Powell Councillor Jim Palm and Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation representative Craig Galligos co-chaired a Haslam Lake Watershed Roundtable meeting. It was noted at that meeting that there is a need for plans to avoid, or manage, a build-up of debris at the weir, which is part of the city’s water system. The city has a licence to withdraw water from the lake to use for drinking water, but it must also ensure that a certain amount of water spills into Lang Creek to provide adequate water downstream to support salmon habitat. As well, Lang Creek is a source of drinking water for some rural residents.
The city has allocated $25,000 in its 2013 budget to remove a build-up of logs near the weir, but the project is estimated to cost $65,000.
Electoral Area B Director Stan Gisborne and Texada Island Director Dave Murphy voted in opposition to the motion at the planning committee, which meant the vote was tied and therefore failed.
However, Palmer, as board chair, has the authority to bring the motion to the board for reconsideration, which he did at the June 27 board meeting. This time, city directors, Palm and Maggie Hathaway, as well as Lasqueti Island Director Merrick Anderson, were included in the vote.
Murphy said he was not opposed to cleaning up Haslam Lake. “What I am opposed to is the arbitrary selection from the city of the sum of $25,000 and the regional district then kicks in the remainder,” he said. “I believe the city has community works funding as well.”
Murphy added that he didn’t think it was fair that the city asked the regional district to contribute a larger amount on a joint project.
Palm said the $25,000 “magically appeared” at a budget meeting. “We weren’t given a lot of details at the time about whether that would be adequate to do the job,” he said. “It passed and we were happy to see it being put into this year’s budget, but it wasn’t until after the fact that the whole story came to light for myself.”
Palm said Murphy had a good point. “Should it be equal or how should the break down occur?” he said. “From my personal perspective, having been engaged in the discussions all along with the regional district and Sliammon and the city, we were looking for projects. This one happened to be the first.”
Palm also said that staff is continuing to look at options for removing the logs and there may be an opportunity for a less expensive solution.
In the end, the motion passed.
Board members also discussed whether city directors should vote on community works funding that was allocated to the regional district. The board passed another motion directing staff to prepare a draft policy about community works funding received in favour of electoral areas being reserved for disposal at the discretion of electoral area directors.
Palmer said the discussion among the directors could continue once the draft policy was in front of them.
