File 0540-30-0003
CITY OF POWELL RIVER
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING
TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2018 (3:30 PM)
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
AGENDA
1. ADOPTION OF AGENDA
2. ADOPTION OF MINUTES
2.1 Minutes of the Regular Committee of the Whole meeting 4 - 10 held June 5, 2018
3. DELEGATIONS
4. CORRESPONDENCE
5. REPORTS
5.1 Report dated June 19, 2018 from the Director of 11 - 32 Planning Services regarding Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program Public Report for 2017
5.2 Report dated June 19, 2018 from the Senior Planner 33 - 38 regarding Proposal for Road Naming (Nootka Street, between Ontario Avenue and Orca Place - SUB 198)
5.3 Report dated June 19, 2018 from the Senior Planner 39 - 53 regarding Development Variance Permit 222 and associated Development Variance Permit 212 - Aero Services
Recommendation: That staff be directed to give notice in accordance with Section 499 of the Local Government Act of Council’s intention to consider at the Council meeting to be held on July 5, 2018, issuance of Development Variance Permit 212 to vary City of Powell River Zoning Bylaw 2100, 2006, by relaxing the rear setback requirement from 9.0m to 3.0m to facilitate the development of a 10-bay covered equipment storage building on the property located at 7347 Duncan Street, legally described as Lot 3 District Lot 5731 GP 1 NWD Plan LMP42898 (PID 024-567-302)
5.4 City of Powell River Recreational Cannabis Regulations 54 - 118 Public Engagement
5.5 Verbal Report from the City Clerk regarding Former Inn as Westview - Remedial Action Requirement
5.6 Community Engagement Reports - Councillors
5.7 Youth Council Report - Councillor Leishman
5.8 Action List 119 - 128
5.9 Bylaw Tracking List 129
6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
7. NEW BUSINESS
7.1 City Waste Audit - Councillor Skadsheim 130 - 133
8. MOTION TO GO IN CAMERA
8.1 Recommendation: That following adjournment of this regular meeting, Council move in camera to discuss matters covered by the Community Charter under Sections:
• 90(1) (e) the acquisition, disposition or expropriation of land or improvements, if the council considers that disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality; • 90(1) (i) the receipt of advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose; • 90(1) (j) information that is prohibited, or information that if it were presented in a document would be prohibited, from disclosure under section 21 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act; • 90(1) (k) negotiations and related discussions
Page 2 of 133 respecting the proposed provision of a municipal service that are at their preliminary stages and that, in the view of the council, could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality if they were held in public; • 90(1) (n) the consideration of whether a council meeting should be closed under a provision of this subsection or subsection (2).
9. QUESTIONS
10. ADJOURNMENT
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CITY OF POWELL RIVER
Minutes of the Committee of the Whole Meeting held in the Council Chambers, City Hall on Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 3:30 PM.
PRESENT: Councillor M.J. Hathaway, Chair Mayor D.J. Formosa Councillor R.G.W. Brewer (arrived at 4:58 pm) Councillor C.A. Leishman (via telephone 4:30 pm – 5:08 pm; in person 5:26 pm) Councillor J.G. Palm Councillor K.G. Skadsheim Councillor R.R.D. Southcott
ALSO PRESENT: Mac Fraser, Chief Administrative Officer Chris Jackson, City Clerk/Recording Secretary Malonie Shaffer, Deputy City Clerk Adam Langenmaier, Chief Financial Officer Tor Birtig, Director of Infrastructure Services Ray Boogaards, Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture Thomas Knight, Director of Planning Services Scott Randolph, Manager of Economic Development Jason Gow, Senior Planner Daniella Fergusson, Senior Planner Members of the Public Media Representatives
1. ADOPTION OF AGENDA 1.1 Remove Delegation - Item 3.7 - JP Brosseau, The Old Courthouse Inn, regarding Food Trucks in Townsite Moved and seconded that the agenda for the June 5, 2018 Committee of the Whole meeting be adopted as amended. CARRIED
2. ADOPTION OF MINUTES 2.1 Minutes of Regular Committee of the Whole meeting held May 15, 2018 Moved and seconded that the minutes of Regular Committee of the Whole meeting held May 15, 2018 be adopted. CARRIED
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3. DELEGATIONS 3.1 Tracey Ellis, Tourism Powell River, regarding Visitors' Service Strategy, Summer Student Portfolios and Celebrating 25 Years of Service
Tracey Ellis, Tourism Powell River, appeared before Council to provide a presentation regarding Visitors' Service Strategy, Summer Student Portfolios and Celebrating 25 Years of Service.
3.2 Len Thompson regarding Increase of South Harbour Monthly Moorage Rates
Len Thompson appeared before Council to provide a presentation regarding the increase of South Harbour Moorage Rates. Mr. Thompson's presentation included the following main points:
Rate increase; Harbour stretched to capacity and it appears the balance of transient boaters versus resident boaters needs to be addressed; Asking for conversation to seek corrections.
The Chief Administrative Officer advised that staff will reach out to Mr. Thompson and consider moorage rate increase impacts for the South Harbour; including long term, short-term, and transient boaters.
3.3 Don Edwards regarding Unsightly Condition of Properties in the City
Don Edwards appeared before Council to provide a presentation regarding the Unsightly Condition of Properties in the City. Mr. Edwards’ presentation and Committee comments included the following main points:
Unacceptable standards for private and public property; Who could/should maintain boulevards, curbs, etc.; Maintenance should be included in the Traffic Bylaw as a requirement that adjacent property owners must maintain area in front of their property, similar to snow removal requirement; Maintenance should include bus stops, sidewalks, etc.
By unanimous consent, staff was directed to address maintenance including and care of boulevards as part of the Traffic Bylaw Review, adjacent property owners/occupiers responsible for maintenance and possible use of volunteer efforts.
3.4 Sylvie Butler regarding Keeping of Poultry in the City - Animal Control Bylaw, 1979, 2003
Sylvie Butler appeared before Council to provide a presentation regarding
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Keeping of Poultry in the City - Animal Control Bylaw, 1979, 2003. Ms. Butler's presentation included the following main points:
Location and maintenance of coops; Rat and bear problems; Need for inspection to occur to regulate the keeping of chickens; and Treatment of chickens.
The City Clerk advised that this matter is already under consideration as part of the Animal Control Bylaw review.
3.5 Terry Mundy regarding Keeping of Poultry in the City - Animal Control Bylaw, 1979, 2003
Terry Munday appeared before Council to provide a presentation regarding Keeping of Poultry in the City - Animal Control Bylaw 1979, 2003. Mr. Munday's presentation included the following main points:
Neighbour has placed chicken coop 12 ft. from his door; now he has flies, rats and odour from his neighbour's chickens; Suggested lot size, location, and a fee be implemented with inspections to monitor the keeping of chickens.
3.6 Harry Raimondo regarding Keeping of Poultry in the City - Animal Control Bylaw 1979, 2003
Harry Raimondo appeared before Council to provide a presentation regarding Keeping of Poultry in the City - Animal Control Bylaw 1979, 2003. Mr. Raimondo's presentation included the following main points:
Placement of chickens away from owner's dwelling can result in coop being closer to neighbour's dwelling; Warm weather creates problems with odour and flies and inhibits the enjoyment of property; Opposed to three chickens on such small lots.
4. CORRESPONDENCE 4.1 Letter dated May 18, 2018 from Erik Blaney, SLI City Grill regarding Mobile Food Truck
By unanimous consent, the correspondence was received, and staff was directed to review issues raised in the letter, respond to Mr. Blaney and return to Council with a report looking into the bylaw regulations related to mobile vendors and food trucks, scope of related business licensing and vacant
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commercially zoned lands.
4.2 Letter dated May 22, 2018 from Maureen Tierney regarding Lack of Maintenance at City Airport
By unanimous consent, the correspondence was received, and staff was directed to explore maintenance options for the airport.
By unanimous consent, Item 7.1 was brought forward for consideration next.
7.1 Location of Beach Volleyball Court - Mayor Formosa
Mayor Formosa introduced the topic and presenters Dr. Jay Yule, Superintendent of Schools for School District 47, and Bill Rounis, Principal of Brooks Secondary School.
Both are Volleyball coaches and looking for appropriate locations for the sport of beach volleyball; They are pursuing grants with Powell River Community Forest and are in need of a location; Councillor Leishman will present this topic for discussion at the next Youth Council meeting.
By unanimous consent, staff was directed to work with Dr. Yule and Mr. Rounis regarding potential beach volleyball court locations and report to Council at a future meeting.
5. REPORTS 5.1 Report dated June 5, 2018 from the Manager of Economic Development regarding BC Rural Dividend Matching Funds
Councillor Leishman declared a conflict of interest as she worked on this proposal through her employer and left the meeting at 5:08 pm.
By unanimous consent, the report dated June 5, 2018 from the Manager of Economic Development regarding BC Rural Dividend Matching Funds was referred to the June 21, 2018 Council meeting.
Councillor Leishman returned to the meeting at 5:26 pm.
5.2 Report dated June 5, 2018 from the Senior Planner regarding Townsite
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Development Permit Area - Sustainable Official Community Plan Bylaw 2370, 2014, Amendment Bylaw 2516, 2018
By unanimous consent, the report dated June 5, 2018 from the Senior Planner regarding Townsite Development Permit Area - Sustainable Official Community Plan Bylaw 2370, 2014, Amendment Bylaw 2516, 2018 was referred to the June 21, 2018 Council meeting.
5.3 Report dated June 5, 2018 from Interim Chief Financial Officer regarding 2018 to 2022 Financial Plan Bylaw 2501, 2018, Amendment Bylaw 2518, 2018
By unanimous consent, the Agricultural Grant from the Rural Dividend Fund was removed from deliberations.
By unanimous consent, the report dated June 5, 2018 from the Interim Chief Financial Officer regarding 2018 to 2022 Financial Plan Bylaw 2501, 2018, Amendment Bylaw 2518, 2018 was referred to the June 21, 2018 Council meeting, with the Agriculture Grant from the Rural Dividend Fund removed for consideration as a separate amendment.
Councillor Leishman declared a conflict of interest in this matter as she worked on aspects of the Farm Plan (Rural Dividend Fund) with her employer and left the meeting at 5:50 pm.
By unanimous consent, the Agricultural Grant from the Rural Dividend Fund amendment was referred to the June 21, 2018 Council meeting.
Councillor Leishman returned to the meeting at 5:57 pm.
5.4 Report dated June 5, 2018 from the Director of Planning Services regarding Board of Variance Appointments
By unanimous consent, the report dated June 5, 2018 from the Director of Planning Services regarding Board of Variance Appointments was referred to the June 21, 2018 Council meeting.
5.5 Report dated June 5, 2018 from the Deputy City Clerk regarding City of Powell River 2017 Annual Report
By unanimous consent, the report dated June 5, 2018 from the Deputy City Clerk regarding City of Powell River 2017 Annual Report was referred to the June 21, 2018 Council meeting.
5.6 Report dated June 5, 2018 from the City Clerk regarding Election and Assent Voting Bylaw - 2018 General Local Election
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By unanimous consent, the report dated June 5, 2018 from the City Clerk regarding Election and Assent Voting Bylaw - 2018 General Local Election was referred to the June 21, 2018 Council meeting.
5.7 Report dated June 5, 2018 from the City Clerk regarding Tla'amin Nation and City of Powell River Community Accord - Amendments
By unanimous consent, the report dated June 5, 2018 from the City Clerk regarding Tla'amin Nation and City of Powell River Community Accord - Amendments was referred to the June 21, 2018 Council meeting.
5.8 Verbal Report from the City Clerk regarding Former Inn at Westview - Remedial Action Requirement
Councillor Leishman declared a conflict of interest in this matter as her brother's company maintains a service agreement with Seaboard Hotels and left the meeting at 6:30 pm.
The City Clerk provided a verbal report on the remedial action requirement for the building known as the Former Inn at Westview.
Councillor Leishman returned to the meeting at 6:34 pm.
5.9 Community Engagement Reports - Councillors
Councillor Palm reported on: Annual Army Cadet Ceremony; Sports Hall of Fame nominations - September 30 deadline.
Councillor Skadsheim reported on: Action Plan for Sunshine Coast Tourism; Ferry Advisory Committee meeting on Texada Island.
Councillor Southcott reported on: Powell River Food Policy meeting and work including a Food Hub; Community Action Team meeting; Literacy Council meeting.
Councillor Brewer reported on: Rural Dividend meeting.
Mayor Formosa reported on: Public Works Day at the Public Works Yard; Sea Cadets Annual Review; Met with residents regarding Animal Control bylaw complaints;
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Economic Development issues and recent meetings.
6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
7. NEW BUSINESS
8. MOTION TO GO IN CAMERA
8.1 Moved and seconded that following adjournment of this regular meeting, move in camera to discuss matters covered by the Community Charter under Sections:
90(1) (e) the acquisition, disposition or expropriation of land or improvements, if the council considers that disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality; 90(1) (i) the receipt of advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose; 90(1) (j) information that is prohibited, or information that if it were presented in a document would be prohibited, from disclosure under section 21 of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act; 90(1) (n) the consideration of whether a council meeting should be closed under a provision of this subsection or subsection (2).
CARRIED 9. QUESTIONS 9.1 Prior to adjournment the Chair received questions from the media and public regarding the following agenda items: Keeping of poultry; Election and Assent Voting Bylaw; South Harbour moorage rates.
10. ADJOURNMENT Moved and seconded that the meeting adjourn at 7:01 pm. CARRIED
CERTIFIED CORRECT: Chris Jackson City Clerk
The next regular Committee of the Whole meeting will be held at 3:30 pm on June 19, 2018.
Page 10 of 133 CITY OF POWELL RIVER REPORT
File No. 5830-20-0002
DATE: June 19th, 2018
TO: Mayor and Council
FROM: Thomas Knight, Director of Planning Services
SUBJECT: Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program Public Report for 2017
RECOMMENDATION: That Council receive the 2017 CARIP Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey for information purposes.
CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS:
I concur with the recommendation.
Mac Fraser, CAO MF:eb
ORIGIN/PURPOSE: The intent of this report is to fulfill the reporting requirements of the Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program (CARIP) to publically report on the City's progress towards meeting their climate action goals and objectives and its progress towards reducing corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
BACKGROUND: Completion of the 2017 Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey is a requirement to the commitment made by the City of Powell River to the Province as a signatory to the B.C. Climate Action Charter (Charter). As previously reported in 2017, the Charter is a provincial initiative that was first introduced in September 2007 to encourage local governments to voluntarily commit to achieving carbon neutrality with respect to their operations by 2012. As a signatory to the Charter, the City is eligible for an annual grant from the Province that refunds one hundred percent of the carbon tax paid on the purchase of carbon fuels used in the delivery of local government services. To be eligible to receive the CARIP grant, the City must commit to measure corporate GHG emissions, develop strategies, take action, and publicly report on the progress to achieve carbon neutrality.
To provide an update to the City's proposed actions and progress towards meeting their commitment to reduce corporate GHG emissions, the completed 2017 Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey is attached for reference (Appendix A).
Page 11 of 133 CARIP Public Report 2017 2 of 3 June 19, 2018 ______STRATEGIC PRIORITY: Participation in CARIP and completion of the 2017 Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey is consistent with the City's 2016 - 2018 Strategic Community Priority #:4: Sustainability.
EXISTING POLICY: The City’s Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) is broken into five Strategy Areas: Our Land, Neighbourhoods and Homes; Our Environment; Our Community Life; Our Transportation and Infrastructure; and, Our Economy. It identifies a number of goals and actions that the City should strive to achieve carbon neutrality. Examples of these include reliable and low-impact sources of energy, energy efficiency in buildings and vehicles, reduced consumption and waste production, complete streets and an enhanced public transit system.
The City's Sustainable Official Community Plan (SOCP) sets out various policies and objectives with regards to sustainability planning, Smart Growth and GHG emissions. The sections of the SOCP Bylaw that are most applicable to CARIP and carbon emission reduction are 1.2.1 & 1.2.3 Sustainable Development and Smart Growth Principles; 5.1.1 & 5.1.2 Environmental Sustainability and GHG Emission Reduction Objectives; and 5.1.5 GHG Emission Reduction Objectives - Transportation.
ANALYSIS AND IMPACT: As a signatory to the Charter, the City is required to publically report out on the Community- Wide and Corporate Actions they are taking to achieve carbon neutrality. Community-Wide Actions are those undertaken to reduce GHG emissions in the community at-large (i.e. not related to corporate operations). Corporate Actions are those undertaken to reduce GHG emissions produced as a result of a local government's delivery of "traditional services", including fire protection, solid waste management, recreational/cultural services, road and traffic operations, water and wastewater management, and local government administration.
As noted on the attached 2017 Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey, the City initiated several (minor) actions in 2017 some of which have or will be carried forward into 2018. Of note are those listed under Community-Wide Transportation Actions (e.g. Complete Phase 4 of the Bicycle Master Plan) and Community-Wide Solid Wastes (e.g. pilot project for the collection of organics). What is important to note in the Progress Survey is that the number of actions planned for 2018 is lower than in 2017 and that very few of these actions are specifically targeted to reduce GHG emissions – both corporately and community-wide. Greater emphasis must therefore be placed on those actions that can directly assist in the gradual reduction of GHG emissions. Community-wide initiatives should also be reassessed to provide more focus on this area.
With respect to the total amount of corporate GHG emissions for 2017, no estimate is provided in the Progress Survey as staff have been unable to direct resources to complete the technical input required. The last time corporate GHG emissions were quantified was in 2014. This was the first time the City achieved a corporate versus a regional total of actual GHG emissions generated. The total amount of corporate GHG emissions in 2014 was set at 1,212 tonnes CO2e. To determine total corporate emissions for 2017, staff have engaged the services of a local sustainability consultant, Anastasia Lukyanova. For community-wide emissions, the City has partnered with Climate Action Powell River (CAPR) to develop a carbon calculator. Funding for this initiative was approved by Council through use of the new CARIP Reserve Fund.
Page 12 of 133 CARIP Public Report 2017 3 of 3 June 19, 2018 ______In respect to the CARIP funds to be received, Financial Services has estimated the total amount of carbon tax paid in 2017 to be in the order of $52,704.00. Funds received through the CARIP program will now be forwarded to a new CARIP Reserve Fund referred to previously.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: No financial impact is contemplated for the 2017 CARIP reporting period although it should be noted that with the creation of a new Reserve Fund, monies normally directed back towards the Operations budget will no longer occur.
STAFF TIME/INPUT: Approximately 15 hours has been spent by staff and the sustainability consultant to review and complete the 2017 Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey and prepare the accompanying report to Council.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION: The completed 2017 Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey, will be available to the public via the Committee of the Whole agenda and posted on the City’s website. The one final requirement of the CARIP reporting process is for the Chief Financial Officer to sign off on an Attestation Form to indicate completion of the carbon neutral progress survey for 2017.
OPTIONS: 1. That Council receive the 2017 CARIP Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey for information purposes.
2. That Council provide staff with alternative directions.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas Knight MCIP, RPP Director of Planning Services
TK/rp Attachment: Appendix A – Survey Template
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Survey Template For the 2017 CARIP Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey
Local governments are required to submit the 2017 CARIP Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey on or before June 1, 2018.
Use Template to Collect Information In response to local government input, this Survey Template has been created to assist with collecting information for the 2017 CARIP Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey, and follows the same structure as the survey.
Responses entered into this Template can be cut and pasted into the online survey. The survey asks for up to five actions in each category, and there is a place in the survey to report additional actions if desired. In this Template, simply add more lines to the tables to report more than five actions.
Use Template to Assist with Reporting Local governments are also required to publicly report the information submitted in the 2017 CARIP Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey. There is no ability for survey respondents to generate a report of survey responses, in turn: • A PDF copy of your survey responses will be sent to you once your completed survey has been submitted. • Given that it is challenging to edit the PDF document, you are encouraged to use your populated version of this Template, or your own, to report your CARIP results publicly. • You may also choose to create a report in another format that contains the information submitted in the 2017 CARIP Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey.
Further information on CARIP can be found on the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing website.
The Government of BC will not collect, use, or disclose personal information using SurveyMonkey®. Please be aware however that IP addresses are collected by SurveyMonkey® itself, and these IP addresses and other information collected will be stored on SurveyMonkey®'s servers located outside of Canada. Please do not provide any third-party information (i.e. refer to others) in your responses to the survey.
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Climate Action Revenue Incentive (CARIP) Public Report for 2017
Local Government: City of Powell River
Report Submitted by: Name: Thomas Knight MCIP, RPP Role: Director of Planning Services Email: [email protected] Phone: (604) 485-8613 (office)
Date:
The City of Powell River has completed the 2017 Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program (CARIP) Public Report as required by the Province of BC. The CARIP report summarizes actions taken in 2017 and proposed for 2018 to reduce corporate and community-wide energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and reports on progress towards achieving carbon neutrality.
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2017 BROAD PLANNING ACTIONS
Broad Planning Actions Broad Planning refers to high level planning that sets the stage for GHG emissions reductions, including plans such as Official Community Plans, Integrated Community Sustainability Plans, Climate Action Plans or Community Energy Emissions Plans. Land use planning that focuses on Smart Growth principles (compact, complete, connected, centred) plays an especially important role in energy and GHG reduction.
Community-Wide Actions Taken in 2017 The City has created a Sustainability Committee comprised of three councillors, one member of the youth council, three representatives from local action groups and two members of the public. The committee’s mandate is to provide council with recommendations to achieve sustainable goals and meet corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets. The committee’s term is from May 16, 2017 to September 30, 2018. Council adopted a Bylaw to permit carriage houses (detached accessory dwelling units) on applicable residential lots to encourage increased housing density in keeping with the ICSP (Integrated Community Sustainability Plan, Our Lands, Neighbourhood and Homes - Strategic Direction #4) and the Sustainable Official Community Plan (SOCP).
Community-Wide Actions Proposed for 2018 Creation of two new higher density multi-family zones R4 and R5 Initiate the process to allow small residential lots by introducing new zones: RS-1, RS-2, and RS-3 in keeping with the SOCP and the ICSP Support Climate Action Powell River society (CAPR) in creating an updated community-wide GHG emissions inventory
Corporate Actions Taken in 2017
Corporate Actions Proposed for 2018 Update the corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory. The latest inventory completed measured 2010 calendar year emissions.
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Broad Planning What is (are) your current GHG Included as Part 5 within the City’s SOCP, the targets are to reduce reduction target(s)? GHG emission levels by 33% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Yes Are you familiar with your community’s community energy and emissions inventory (e.g. CEEI or another inventory)? What plans, policies or guidelines govern the implementation of climate mitigation in your community? • Community Energy and Emissions (CEE) Plan Yes • Community- Wide Climate Action Plan Yes • Integrated Community Sustainability Plan Yes • Official Community Plan (OCP) Yes • Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) No • Do not have a plan n/a • Other: No No Does your local government have a corporate GHG reduction plan? Yes
2017 BUILDING AND LIGHTING ACTIONS
Building and Lighting Actions Low-carbon buildings use the minimum amount of energy needed to provide comfort and safety for their inhabitants and tap into renewable energy sources for heating, cooling and power. These buildings can save money, especially when calculated over the long term. This category also includes reductions realized from energy efficient street lights and lights in parks or other public spaces.
Community-Wide Actions Taken in 2017 The City now requires all new subdivisions to install LED street lights (this requirement has not yet been formalized in a bylaw). Over 70 street lights were retrofitted with LEDs in 2017.
Community-Wide Actions Proposed for 2018
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Corporate Actions Taken in 2017 Aquatic Centre lighting was upgraded to LED. New public library which opened in July 2017 has LED lighting throughout.
Corporate Actions Proposed for 2018 Upgrade to LED Lighting at City Hall, Dwight Hall and Public Works Yard. Replacement of water storage unit on Zamboni to retain heating. Replacement of domestic hot water heat exchanger at the Recreation Complex.
Building and Lighting The Province has committed to taking incremental steps to increase energy-efficiency requirements in the BC Building Code to make buildings net-zero energy ready by 2032. The BC Energy Step Code--a part of the BC Building Code--supports that effort Is your local government aware of the BC Energy Step Code? Yes Is your local government implementing the BC Energy Step Code? No
2017 ENERGY GENERATION ACTIONS
Energy Generation Actions A transition to renewable or low-emission energy sources for heating, cooling and power supports large, long-term GHG emissions reductions. Renewable energy including waste heat recovery (e.g. from biogas and biomass), geo-exchange, micro hydroelectric, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic, heat pumps, tidal, wave, and wind energy can be implemented at different scales, e.g. in individual homes, or integrated across neighbourhoods through district energy or co-generation systems.
Community-Wide Actions Taken in 2017
Community-Wide Actions Proposed for 2018 Implement regulations to require all new residential buildings to be solar PV and solar thermal ready
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Corporate Actions Taken in 2017 Two propane-powered lights at the airport were replaced with solar powered lights with battery packs. Completed airport solar feasibility study
Corporate Actions Proposed for 2018 Incorporate solar into the new wastewater treatment plant design plans
Energy Generation Is your local government developing, or constructing: • A district energy system No • A renewable energy system No Is your local government operating: • A district energy system No • A renewable energy system No Is your local government connected to a district energy system that is operated by another No energy provider? No Are you aware of the Integrated Resource Recovery guidance page on the BC Climate Action Toolkit? No Are you familiar with the 2017 “List of Funding Opportunities for Clean Energy Projects Led by First Nations and Local Governments?”
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2017 GREENSPACE/NATURAL RESOURCE PROTECTION ACTIONS Greenspace Actions Greenspace/Natural Resource Protection refers to the creation of parks and greenways, boulevards, community forests, urban agriculture, riparian areas, gardens, recreation/school sites, and other green spaces, such as remediated brownfield/contaminated sites as well as the protection of wetlands, waterways and other naturally occurring features.
Community-Wide Actions Taken in 2017 Completed design and tender process for a park at the intersection of Marine and Alberni Installed disk golf at two city parks (Willingdon and Sunset) Council approved the purchase of 132 acres of land adjacent to Millennium Park (Lot 450)
Community-Wide Actions Proposed for 2018 Start construction of the park at the intersection of Marine and Alberni Initiate process to designate Penticton/MacKenzie parcel as municipal park.
Corporate Actions Taken in 2017 In 2017, the City updated the Tree Protection Bylaw to better align with the tree protection requirements in other jurisdictions. Following the update, there has been more enforcement of the Bylaw in new subdivisions by the Planning Department.
Corporate Actions Proposed for 2018
Greenspace Does your local government have urban forest policies, plans or programs? No Does your local government have policies, plans or programs to support local food Yes production?
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2017 SOLID WASTE ACTIONS Solid Waste Actions Reducing, reusing, recycling, recovering and managing the disposal of the residual solid waste minimizes environmental impacts and supports sustainable environmental management, greenhouse gas reductions, and improved air and water quality.
Community-Wide Actions Taken in 2017 Launched organics collection pilot for a sample of 500 residents Updated the regional Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) in cooperation with other SWMP committee members (community members, local businesses, Catalyst Paper, Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver Island University student body, Sunshine Disposal, Augusta Recyclers, Let’s Talk Trash, Tla’amin Nation, City Council and Regional Board elected representatives, key staff and technical experts).
Community-Wide Actions Proposed for 2018 Continue monitoring and evaluation of the pilot organics collection project Work with other stakeholders in the region on the design of the Resource Recovery Centre (Powell River Regional District, City of Powell River)
Corporate Actions Taken in 2017
Corporate Actions Proposed for 2018 Install new recycling bins at City Hall and the Rec Centre
Solid Waste Does your local government have construction and demolition waste reduction policies, plans No or programs?
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Does your local government have organics reduction/diversion policies, plans or programs? Yes
2017 TRANSPORTATION ACTIONS
Transportation Actions Transportation actions that increase transportation system efficiency, emphasize the movement of people and goods, and give priority to more efficient modes, e.g. walking, cycling, ridesharing, and public transit, can contribute to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and more livable communities.
Community -Wide Actions Taken in 2017 Completed Phase 3 of Bicycle Master Plan
Community-Wide Actions Proposed for 2018 Complete Phase 4 of Bicycle Master Plan Implement regulations to require all new residential buildings to be EV charging station ready Install two Level 2 EV charging stations
Corporate Actions Taken in 2017 The new public library location (opened in the summer of 2017) was built to be EV charging station ready (conduits were put in place for an easy installation of a charging station in the future)
Corporate Actions Proposed for 2018 Purchase an electric vehicle for the city fleet
Transportation Does your local government have policies, plans or programs to support: • Walking Yes • Cycling Yes • Transit Use Yes
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• Electric Vehicle Use Yes • Other (please specify) n/a
Does your local government have a transportation demand management (TDM) strategy (e.g. No to reduce single-vehicle occupancy trips, increase travel options, provide incentives to encourage individuals to modify travel behavior)? Does your local government integrate its transportation and land use planning? No
2017 WATER AND WASTEWATER ACTIONS Water and Wastewater Actions Managing and reducing water consumption and wastewater is an important aspect of developing a sustainable built environment that supports healthy communities, protects ecological integrity, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Community-Wide Actions Taken in 2017 City imposed water-use restrictions during the 2017 summer season
Community-Wide Actions Proposed for 2018 Water use restrictions will be imposed if necessary during the 2018 summer season in accordance with Bylaw 2425 (adopted in 2015) which sets water-use restrictions depending on weather conditions and reservoir water levels
Corporate Actions Taken in 2017 Replaced the Haslam Lake water main in the summer of 2017
Corporate Actions Proposed for 2018
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Water Conservation Does your local government have water conservation policies, plans or programs? Yes
2017 CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION ACTIONS
This section of the CARIP survey is designed to collect information related to the types of climate impacts local governments are experiencing and how they are being addressed.
Please identify the THREE climate impacts that are most relevant to your Local Government. • Warmer winter temperatures reducing snowpack • Changes to temperature and precipitation causing seasonal drought • Heatwaves impacting population health • Increased temperatures increasing wildfire activity • Increased temperatures affecting air quality • Changing temperatures influencing species migration and ecosystem shifts • Extreme weather events contributing to urban and overland flooding • Sea level rise and storms causing coastal flooding and/or erosion
Other:
In 2017 has your local government addressed the impacts of a changing climate using any of the following? Risk and Vulnerability Assessments No Risk Reduction Strategies No Emergency response planning No Asset management No Natural/Eco asset management strategies No Infrastructure upgrades (e.g. storm water system upgrades) No Beach Nourishment projects No Economic diversification initiatives Yes Strategic and financial planning No Cross-department working groups No OCP policy changes Yes Changes to zoning and other bylaws and regulations Yes Incentives for property owner (e.g. reducing storm water run-off) No
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Public education and awareness No Research Yes Mapping No Partnerships No
Other:
Climate Change Adaptation Actions Taken in 2017 Please elaborate on key actions and/or partnerships your local government has engaged in to prepare for, and adapt to a changing climate. Add links to key documents and information where appropriate.
Climate Change Adaptation Actions Proposed for 2018 Start accounting for the impact of climate change on rainfall projections in the sewer infrastructure requirements calculations (e.g. pipe diameter) Review the asset management plan with a greenhouse gas emission reductions and climate impacts lens
For more information please contact:
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The following are key resources that may be helpful to your local government in identifying climate impacts, as well as, strategies, actions and funding to deal with them. For those resources that you have used, please indicate whether they were useful in advancing your work in climate change adaptation? Indicators of Climate Change for British Columbia, 2016 Haven’t Used Plan2Adapt Haven’t Used Climate Projections for Metro Vancouver Haven’t Used Climate Projections for the Capital Region Haven’t Used Climate Projections for the Cowichan Valley Regional District Haven’t Used Province of BC’s BC Adapts Video Series Haven’t Used Preparing for Climate Change: An Implementation Guide for Local Governments Useful The Public Infrastructure and Engineering Vulnerability Committee’s (PIEVC) protocol Haven’t Used Sea Level Rise Primer Useful BC Regional Adaptation Collaborative Webinars Haven’t Used www.ReTooling.ca Haven’t Used Water Balance Model Haven’t Used The Water Conservation Calculator Haven’t Used
Funding: National Disaster Mitigation Program (NDMP) Haven’t Used Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) Haven’t Used Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (MCIP) Haven’t Used Climate Adaptation Partner Grants (FCM) Haven’t Used Infrastructure Planning Grants (MAH) Useful Federal Gas Tax Fund Useful
Other:
2017 OTHER CLIMATE ACTIONS
Other Climate Actions This section provides local governments the opportunity to report other climate actions that are not captured in the categories above.
Community-Wide Actions Taken in 2017
Community-Wide Actions Proposed for 2017
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Corporate Actions Taken in 2017
Corporate Actions Proposed for 2017
Other Are you familiar with the Community Lifecycle Infrastructure Costing Tool (CLIC)? No
Have you used CLIC? No
INNOVATION AND PEER-TO-PEER LEARNING
Innovation This section provides the opportunity to showcase an innovative Corporate and/or Community-Wide GHG reduction and/or climate change adaptation activity that your local government has undertaken and that has had, or has the potential to have, a significant impact. You are welcome to repeat an action that has already been listed.
Projects included here may be featured as success stories on the B.C. Climate Action Toolkit and/or shared with other local governments to inspire further climate action. Please add links to additional information where possible.
Communities that have conducted innovative initiatives may want to consider raising their profile through applications to CEA’s Climate and Energy Action Awards, UBCM Climate and Energy Action Award, FCM Sustainable Communities Awards or through submissions to FCM’s National Measures Report.
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Community-Wide Action
For more information contact: Corporate Action
For more information contact:
Programs, Partnerships and Funding Opportunities Local governments often rely on programs, partnerships and funding opportunities to achieve their climate action goals. Please share the names of programs and organizations that have supported your local government’s climate actions by listing each entry in the box below.
Mitigation
Programs and Funding
Adaptation
Programs and Funding
2017 CARBON NEUTRAL REPORTING
Local governments are required to report on their progress in achieving their carbon neutral goal under the Climate Action Charter. Working with B.C. local governments, the joint Provincial-UBCM Green
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Communities Committee (GCC) has established a common approach to determining carbon neutrality for the purposes of the Climate Action Charter, including a Carbon Neutral Framework and supporting guidance for local governments on how to become carbon neutral.
Prior to completing this portion of the survey, please ensure that you are familiar with guidance available on the B.C. Climate Action Toolkit website, especially the Becoming Carbon Neutral: A Guide for Local Governments in British Columbia.
Please note: As a result of the BC Recycling Regulation, local governments are no longer required to account for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from vehicles, equipment and machinery required for the collection, transportation and diversion of packaging and printed paper, in their annual Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program (CARIP) reports.
Reporting Emissions Did you measure your local government's corporate GHG emissions in 2017? No
If your local government measured 2017 corporate GHG emissions, please report the number of corporate GHG emissions (in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) from services delivered directly by your local government:
If your local government measured 2017 corporate GHG emissions, please report the number of corporate GHG emissions (in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) from contracted services: TOTAL A: CORPORATE GHG EMISSIONS FOR 2017 tCO2e
Reporting Reductions and Offsets To be carbon neutral, a local government must balance their TOTAL corporate GHG emissions generated in 2017 by one or a combination of the following actions: • undertake GCC-supported Option 1 Project(s) • undertake GCC-supported Option 2 Project(s) • purchase carbon offsets from a credible offset provider
If applicable, please report the 2017 GHG emissions reductions (in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e)) being claimed from Option 1 GHG Reduction Projects:
OPTION 1 PROJECTS REDUCTIONS
Energy Efficient Retrofits
Solar Thermal
Household Organic Waste Composting
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Low Emission Vehicles
Avoided Forest Conversion
TOTAL B: REDUCTIONS FROM OPTION 1 PROJECTS FOR 2017 tCO2e
If applicable, please report the names and 2017 GHG emissions reductions (in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e)) being claimed from Option 2 GHG Reduction Projects:
OPTION 2 PROJECT NAME REDUCTIONS
TOTAL C: REDUCTIONS FROM OPTION 2 PROJECTS FOR 2017 tCO2e
If applicable, please report the name of the offset provider, type of project and number of offsets purchased (in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e)) from an offset provider for the 2017 reporting year:
(NOTE: DO NOT INCLUDE ANY FUNDS THAT MAY BE SET ASIDE IN A CLIMATE ACTION RESERVE FUND)
OFFSET PROVIDER NAME OFFSETS
TOTAL D: OFFSETS PURCHASED FOR 2017 tCO2e
TOTAL REDUCTIONS AND OFFSETS FOR 2017 (Total B+C+D) = tCO2e
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Corporate GHG Emissions Balance for 2017
Your local government's Corporate GHG Emissions Balance is the difference between total corporate GHG emissions (direct + contracted emissions) and the GHG emissions reduced through GCC Option 1 and Option 2 projects and/or the purchase of offsets.
CORPORATE GHG EMISSIONS BALANCE FOR 2017 = (A – (B+C+D)) = tCO2e
If your Corporate GHG Emissions Balance is negative or zero, your local government is carbon neutral. CONGRATULATIONS!
If applicable, please record any emissions reductions you will be carrying over for future years and the source of the emissions reductions, including the year they were earned (E.g., Organics diversion, 2016 100 tCO2e).
SOURCE OF CARRY OVER EMISSION REDUCTIONS (and year earned) REDUCTIONS
BALANCE OF REDUCTIONS ELIGIBLE FOR CARRY OVER TO NEXT YEAR tCO2e
Carbon Neutral Reporting Does your local government have a climate reserve fund or something similar? Yes
GCC CLIMATE ACTION RECOGNITION PROGRAM
Green Communities Committee (GCC) Climate Action Recognition Program The joint Provincial-UBCM Green Communities Committee (GCC) is pleased to be continuing the Climate Action Recognition Program again this year. This multi-level program provides the GCC with an opportunity to review and publicly recognize the progress and achievements of each Climate Action Charter (Charter) signatory.
Recognition is provided on an annual basis to local governments who demonstrate progress on their Charter commitments, according to the following:
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Level 1 – Demonstrating Progress on Charter Commitments: for local governments who demonstrate progress on fulfilling one or more of their Charter commitments Level 2 – Measuring GHG Emissions: for local governments that achieve level 1, and who have measured their Corporate GHG Emissions for the reporting year and demonstrate that they are familiar with their community’s energy and emissions inventory (i.e. CEEI) Level 3 – Accelerating Progress on Charter Commitments: for those local governments who have achieved level 1 and 2 and have demonstrated undertaking significant action (corporately or community wide) to reduce GHG emissions in the reporting year (i.e: through undertaking a GHG reduction project, purchasing offsets, establishing a reserve fund). Level 4 - Achievement of Carbon Neutrality: for local governments who achieve carbon neutrality in the reporting year.
For purposes of Level 3 recognition, if applicable, please identify any new or ongoing corporate or community wide GHG reduction projects (other than an Option 1 or Option 2 project) undertaken by your local government that reflects a significant investment of time or financial resources and is intended to result in significant GHG reductions:
PROJECT NAME:
Based on your local government's 2017 CARIP Climate Action/Carbon Neutral Progress Survey, please check the GCC Climate Action Recognition Program level that best applies:
Level 1 – Demonstrating Progress on Charter Commitments X Level 2 – Measuring GHG Emissions Level 3 – Accelerating Progress on Charter Commitments Level 4 - Achievement of Carbon Neutrality Not Sure
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Page 32 of 133 CITY OF POWELL RIVER REPORT
File No. 4950-20-0009 3900-20-2180 3320-20-0198
DATE: June 19, 2018
TO: Mayor and Council
FROM: Daniella Fergusson, Senior Planner
SUBJECT: Proposal for Road Naming – SUB 198
RECOMMENDATION:
That Eagle Ridge Place be adopted as the name for the new road created by recent development.
CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS: I concur with the recommendation. Mac Fraser, CAO MF:eb
ORIGIN/PURPOSE: To consider a road name for one new road created by recent development.
BACKGROUND: A new development in Westview will create one new road. The road is to be accessed from Nootka Street, between Ontario Avenue and Orca Place (SUB 198). Attached to this report as Appendix A is a map diagram showing the location of the new road. The City has received a request from the subdivision applicant to consider a road name they have suggested.
STRATEGIC PRIORITY: Consideration of road naming aligns with the City's 2016 - 2018 Corporate Plan: Strategic Corporate Priority #5, Community Planning.
EXISTING POLICY: City of Powell River Council has established policies for naming, by bylaw, all roads within the City. As per City of Powell River Road Naming Bylaw 2180, 2007, the delegated authority for the naming of roads is vested with the office of the CAO in consultation with Council. Attached as Appendix B to this report is Bylaw 2180 for convenience.
Page 33 of 133 Proposal for Road Name SUB 198 2 of 3 June 19, 2018
ANALYSIS AND IMPACT: The City has received a request for a new road name. The request included a name suggested by the applicant for consideration by Council. Bylaw 2180 has policies intended to guide the naming process for most areas of the community. Specific to this request are the following:
North-south roads in Westview shall be most typically named after Canadian, Provincial or District names; and, North-south cul-de-sacs shall be known as “Place”.
For SUB 198, the applicant has suggested “Eagle Ridge Place” as a road name, inspired by an eagle nest identified on the site. The proposed road runs north-south and therefore should be named after a Canadian, Provincial or District name. Alphabetical order is not required in this area. The applicant has cited a hospital in Port Moody and a neighbourhood in Calgary as precedents for the “Eagle Ridge” name. Additional places recognized by Government of Canada named “Eagle Ridge” include geographies, such as a ridge in Yukon and a ridge in Kamloops. Other street addresses in the vicinity named after geographies or neighborhoods include Algerine Place and Nutana Crescent. Orca Place, south of the proposed new road, was approved as a road name in 2009 and is inconsistent with Bylaw 2180.
Other possible names include:
1. Eagle Bluff (locality in BC and Northwest Territories) 2. Eagles Nest (locality in Ontario) 3. Prince Edward Place (Province) 4. Newfoundland Place (Province)
To generate consistency with Bylaw 2180 and set precedent for potential future development in the area, Senior Planning and Engineering staff support first, “Eagle Ridge Place”, and second “Prince Edward Place”.
Previous road naming processes have included a referral to North Island 911. Planning staff have sent a referral to their Mapping and Database Manager and received confirmation that none of names above as well as those suggested by the applicants pose any concern for North Island 911.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The financial impacts of this application are limited.
STAFF TIME/INPUT: Approximately 4 hours has been spent by Planning Services staff to review background materials, refer the item to North Island 911, review the procedures for road naming, and to draft this report.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION: This staff report is attached to the Committee of the Whole agenda which is available to the public and posted on the City’s website.
Page 34 of 133 Proposal for Road Name SUB 198 3 of 3 June 19, 2018
OPTIONS:
1. That Eagle Ridge Place be adopted as the name for the new road created by recent development; or,
2. That Council provides an alternative direction to staff; or
3. That Council not endorse this application.
Respectfully submitted,
Daniella Fergusson Senior Planner
DF Attachment(s) Appendix A (Map Diagram SUB 198) Appendix B (Bylaw 2180)
Page 35 of 133
Page 36 of 133 CITY OF POWELL RIVER
BYLAW 2180,2007
A Bylaw to assign names to highways within the City of Powell River
WHEREAS Section 39 of the Community Charter authorizes the Council of the City of Powell River to assign names to highways within the City;
AND WHEREAS the Council deems it necessary and appropriate to adopt a Road Naming Bylaw;
AND WHEREAS the Council has deemed it advisable to establish policies for naming, by bylaw, all highways within the City;
AND WHEREAS the Council wishes to provide for the delegation of road naming;
NOW THEREFORE, the Council of the City of Powell River in open meeting assembled, enacts as follows:
Title 1. This bylaw may be cited for all purposes as "City of Powell River Road Naming Bylaw 2180,2007".
Schedule 2. Schedule A attached hereto and forming part of this Bylaw, is hereby designated as the "City of Powell River Official Road Naming Map" depicting out the naming of the City.
Interpretation 3. For the purposes of this Bylaw, 'road' shall be deemed to include a street, highway, lane, bridge, viaduct, and any other thoroughfares open to the use of the public, but does not include a private right-of-way on private property.
Policy 4. For the purposes of this Bylaw and subsequent amendments to Schedule A, the following policies shall generally apply when assigning new road names: Suffixing a) roads running in a north-south direction shall be known as "Avenues"; b) roads running in an east-west direction shall be known as "Streets"; c) cul-de-sacs running in a north-south direction shall be known as "Place"; d) cul-de-sacs running in an east-west direction shall be known as "Court"; e) cul-de-sacs having a length of 75 metres or less shall be known as "Way";
f ) roads forming a U-configuration, loop or circle shall be known as "Crescent";
Page 37 of 133 Neighbourhoods g) roads in Wildwood shall most typically be named after British Columbia lakes and waterways; h) roads in Townsite shall most typically be named after trees; i) roads in the north portion of Cranberry Lake shall most typically be named after mountains; j) north-south roads in Westview shall be most typically named after Canadian, Provincial or District names; k) east-west roads in Westview shall be named after cities and towns in British Columbia and shall generally respect alphabetical order; Other Guidelines 1) roads serving veterans' housing or related land uses shall commemorate battles; m) local pioneers who have made outstanding and significant contributions to Powell River may be recognized in the naming of roads provided the individual or their next of kin are consulted and support recognition; and n) aboriginal place names shall be used in the naming of roads on lands within the City adjacent to Sliammon Village and where geographical landmarks or a historical and relevant aboriginal name can be applied.
Delegation 5. The authority for the naming of roads under this Bylaw shall be vested with the office of the Chief Administrative Officer in consultation with Council.
Repeal 6. The "Corporation of the District of Powell River Street Naming Bylaw 128" and all related amendments are hereby repealed.
READ a first time this 28" day of August, 2007 READ a second time this 28" day of August, 2007. READ a third time this 28'h day of August, 2007
RECONSIDERED and FINALLY ADOPTED this 11" day of September, 2007
Page 38 of 133 CITY OF POWELL RIVER REPORT
File No. 3060-20-0222 3090-20-0212
DATE: June 19, 2018
TO: Mayor and Council
FROM: Jason Gow, Senior Planner
SUBJECT: Development Permit 222 – Development Variance Permit 212 7327 Duncan – Aero Powell River Services Ltd.
RECOMMENDATION:
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE RECOMMENDATION:
That staff be directed to give notice in accordance with Section 499 of the Local Government Act of Council’s intention to consider at the Council meeting to be held on July 5, 2018, issuance of Development Variance Permit 212 to vary City of Powell River Zoning Bylaw 2100, 2006, by relaxing the rear setback requirement from 9.0m to 3.0m to facilitate the development of a 10-bay covered equipment storage building on the property located at 7347 Duncan Street, legally described as Lot 3 District Lot 5731 GP 1 NWD Plan LMP42898 (PID 024-567-302);
COUNCIL RECOMMENDATIONS:
That Development Variance Permit 212 to vary City of Powell River Zoning Bylaw 2100, 2006, by relaxing the rear setback requirement from 9.0m to 3.0m to facilitate the development of a 10-bay covered equipment storage building on the property located at 7347 Duncan Street, legally described as Lot 3 District Lot 5731 GP 1 NWD Plan LMP42898 (PID 024-567-302) be considered for issuance after the completion of the notification period; and,
That Development Permit 222 to facilitate the development of a 10-bay covered equipment storage building on the property located at 7347 Duncan Street be issued subject to the following conditions:
a) Submission of a landscape plan to the satisfaction of the Director of Planning Services that addresses the areas of concern highlighted in this staff report; and, b) Receipt of the associated security deposit for the required landscaping to the satisfaction of the Director of Planning Services.
Page 39 of 133 Development Permit 222 – Development Variance Permit 212 – 7347 Duncan Street – Aero 2 of 4 June 19, 2018
CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS: I concur with the recommendations Mac Fraser, CAO
MF:eb
ORIGIN/PURPOSE: To obtain Council’s direction to give notice that issuance of a development variance permit is to be considered. To obtain Council’s approval to facilitate development on an industrial property at 7347 Duncan Street subject to Development Permit Area 7: Employment Centres.
BACKGROUND: Aero Powell River Services is a well-established business largely focused on automobile related activities located at 7347 Duncan Street. The property has a large warehouse building that houses several businesses at the south-eastern corner adjacent to Bowness Avenue. Attached to this report as Appendices A thru C are a locator map, orthographic image and site plan that illustrate the property.
STRATEGIC PRIORITY: Consideration to issue a development permit for this proposed development aligns with the City's 2016 - 2018 Corporate Plan: Strategic Community Priority #2, Economic Revitalization and Strategic Corporate Priority #5, Community Planning.
EXISTING POLICY: The subject property has a land use designation of Employment Centre within City of Powell River Sustainable Official Community Plan Bylaw 2370, 2014 (SOCP). The intent of this designation is to accommodate employment generating uses including service industry, light industry and light manufacturing uses.
The proposed development of this property is subject to the guidelines of Development Permit Area (DPA) 7: Employment Centres. The following is an excerpt from the SOCP. The objectives of DPA 7 are to: a) Achieve good quality development for new employment generating uses in Powell River; b) Provide guidelines for business park use; c) Minimize any negative impacts of industrial development upon adjacent commercial, rural and residential lands; d) Upgrade the external appearance of industrial development along the Duncan Street corridor; and, e) Optimize the ambient environmental quality in Powell River.
The full guidelines for DPA 7 are attached to this report as Appendix D.
The subject property is zoned M1 (General Industrial) in City of Powell River Zoning Bylaw 2100, 2006 (Zoning Bylaw). The M1 Zone is intended to accommodate a wide range of
Page 40 of 133 Development Permit 222 – Development Variance Permit 212 – 7347 Duncan Street – Aero 3 of 4 June 19, 2018 industrial uses including warehousing, wholesaling, distribution, manufacturing, assembly and a limited range of service related commercial uses.
ANALYSIS AND IMPACT: Form and Character Considerations The development proposed is a 10-bay industrial style building. Attached as Appendix E is draft Development Permit 222 complete with drawing schedules that illustrate the proposal in detail. The building is to be clad in vertical metal siding. The colour of the siding proposed is a light warm grey intended to match the existing building on site. The roof is to be a charcoal grey metal roofing. The bay doors on the southern façade are identified as optional on the drawings. It is understood that the number and location of doors is dependent upon how the interior space is of the building is used. While minimal, this completes the form and character review of the proposed building as it is an industrial building proposed for an industrial zoned property.
Variance Considerations The location of the proposed building will encroach on the required rear setback. As the property backs onto a residential zone, the required rear setback increases from 6.0m to 9.0m. The proposed building is located 3.0m from the property line. The applicant has applied to vary this requirement of the Zoning Bylaw. Attached to this report as Appendix F is draft Development Variance Permit 212. Generally, staff are in support of the variance requested. The proposed location of the building nearer to the property line makes better use of the industrial lands and provides more area to maneuver larger vehicles between buildings. Furthermore, please consider that if the subject property fronted Bowness rather than Duncan, it would make this boundary a side lot line rather than a rear. The required side setback between residential and industrial properties is 3.0m which is the same as proposed by the applicant.
The only concern staff hold relates to the neighbouring residential property to the north and whether there will be impacts by the proposed development. The placement of a large industrial style building in this location could negatively affect the adjacent property. The proposed height differential between the properties, as shown on DP 222 (B), could intensify any issues. It is understood that the applicant has already approached the property owners to explain the proposal. Again, it is understood that they hold no concerns. Either way, if given the direction to proceed, notice of Council’s intention to consider varying the Zoning Bylaw will be issued to these property owners and others within 61m of the boundary of the subject property. This will provide those that feel their interests are affected an opportunity to express their concerns.
Landscape and Site Aesthetic Considerations The final comment from staff addresses landscaping and site aesthetics. The entire site is currently without any landscaping and its overall appearance is not in keeping with newer developments in this area. While this may have been the norm in years past, DPA 7 has been established with the specific objective to “upgrade the external appearance of industrial development along the Duncan Street corridor”. Landscaping is one way to achieve an improved appearance. Staff will work the applicant to develop a landscape plan that satisfies the Director of Planning Services. It will address areas of the site that are visible from Duncan Street as well as the requirements from the Zoning Bylaw to provide landscape screening between industrial use and residential use properties. It will also address aspects of site circulation and access, parking and outdoor storage.
Page 41 of 133 Development Permit 222 – Development Variance Permit 212 – 7347 Duncan Street – Aero 4 of 4 June 19, 2018
FINANCIAL IMPACT: There will be increased taxation revenue for the City as a reflection of increased value of the property once the proposed development is completed.
STAFF TIME/INPUT: The time spent by Planning Services staff to review various components of this application, including all schedules and plans pertaining to the proposed development and on-going consultation with the applicant and other City departments is approximately 8 hours.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION: Notice in accordance with Section 499 of the Local Government Act of Council’s intention to consider varying the Zoning Bylaw will be given to all the owners and tenants of property located within 61m (200ft) of the boundary of the subject property. Additionally, this staff report is attached to the Committee of the Whole agenda which is available to the public and posted on the City’s website.
OPTIONS:
1. That staff be directed to give notice in accordance with Section 499 of the Local Government Act of Council’s intention to consider at the Council meeting to be held on July 5, 2018, issuance of Development Variance Permit 212 to vary City of Powell River Zoning Bylaw 2100, 2006, by relaxing the rear setback requirement from 9.0m to 3.0m to facilitate the development of a 10-bay covered equipment storage building on the property located at 7347 Duncan Street, legally described as Lot 3 District Lot 5731 GP 1 NWD Plan LMP42898 (PID 024-567-302); and,
That Development Permit 222 to facilitate the development of a 10-bay covered equipment storage building on the property located at 7347 Duncan Street be issued subject to the following conditions: a) Submission of a landscape plan to the satisfaction of the Director of Planning Services that addresses the areas of concern highlighted in this staff report; and, b) Receipt of the associated security deposit for the required landscaping to the satisfaction of the Director of Planning Services; or,
2. That Council provides an alternative direction to staff; or 3. That Council not endorse this application.
Respectfully submitted,
Jason Gow Senior Planner
JG/rp Attachment(s) Appendix A (Locator Map) Appendix B (Orthographic Image) Appendix C (Site Plan - Existing Conditions) Appendix D (DPA 7) Appendix E (Draft Development Permit 222) Appendix F (Draft Development Variance Permit 212)
Page 42 of 133 APPENDIX A
SUBJECT PROPERTY 7347 DUNCAN STREET Page 43 of 133 APPENDIX B
SUBJECT PROPERTY Page 44 of 133 APPENDIX C Page 45 of 133 APPENDIX D Bylaw 2370, 2014 Schedule A: City of Powell River Sustainable Official Community Plan 108
9.7 Development Permit Area (DPA) 7: Employment Areas This Development Permit Area is established under sections 919.1(1)(f) and 920 of the Local Government Act to provide guidelines for the form and character of industrial or commercial development in Powell River.
DPA 7 consists of all lands designated for Employment Centre use on Schedule B.
9.7.1 DPA 7 Objectives The objectives of DPA 7 are to:
(a) achieve good quality development for new employment generating uses in Powell River; (b) provide guidelines for business park use; (c) minimize any negative impacts of industrial development upon adjacent commercial, rural and residential lands; (d) upgrade the external appearance of industrial development along the Duncan Street corridor; and (e) optimize the ambient environmental quality in Powell River.
9.7.2 DPA 7 Guidelines (a) Building Orientation i. Where possible, buildings should be oriented to the fronting public street.
(b) Building heights i. Development in the vicinity of the Powell River Airport is subject to flight path regulations as set out in the Aeronautics Act.
(c) Landscaping Screening i. A comprehensive landscaping plan prepared by a Landscape Architect must be submitted to the City before final approval. ii. Healthy, mature trees and vegetation should be retained where possible. iii. Plantings and planting areas should be used to: a. Screen abutting residential properties from commercial uses where they are not separated by a street or lane; b. Screen parking areas from the street; c. Screen waste receptacles, dumpsters, and building mechanicals from the street; d. ‘Soften’ the appearance of buildings; e. Divide large parking areas into several smaller parking areas; f. Define or frame paths, streets, path entrances, and the edges of outdoor spaces; g. Shade buildings and outdoor spaces; h. Manage rainwater; and i. Stabilize soils and prevent soil erosion. iv. Landscaping should not be used to screen views to unit or lobby entrances from the street.
March 2014
Page 46 of 133 Bylaw 2370, 2014 Schedule A: City of Powell River Sustainable Official Community Plan 109
(d) Circulation and Access i. Appropriate use of on-site traffic controls and stop/yield sign locations must be illustrated on application drawings. ii. Distinct pedestrian pathways should be provided that safely connect from building entrances directly to parking areas and to public sidewalks.
(e) Parking and Outdoor storage i. Provision should be made for the secure parking of bicycles. ii. Vehicle parking should be located behind or to the side of buildings. iii. Indoor storage is preferred to outdoor storage. iv. All outdoor storage should be screened from the street either by buildings, landscaping or solid fencing. This includes permanent and temporary storage, dumpsters and waste piles, and any materials or equipment.
(f) Environmental Impact mitigation i. All sources of pollution including but not limited to air, dust, noise and light pollution should be minimized. ii. With respect to abutting residential, institutional, or commercial properties, proposed industrial uses should: a. Locate mechanical equipment and exhaust vents as far away as possible from adjacent uses and/or provide for sound-proofing and exhaust filtering. b. Locate any office or storage uses to act as a buffer between abutting properties.
March 2014
Page 47 of 133 APPENDIX E
CITY OF POWELL RIVER DRAFT DEVELOPMENT PERMIT 222
TO: MS. KATHY PEDNEAULT JKL PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT 7423 NOOTKA STREET POWELL RIVER, BC V8A OPS (PERMITTEE)
1. This Development is issued subject to compliance with all the bylaws of the City applicable thereto, except as specifically varied or supplemented by this Permit.
2. This Development Permit applies to and only to those lands within the City described below, and all buildings, structures and other development thereon;
PID: 024-567-302 Lot 3 District Lot 5731 Group 1 NWD Plan LMP42898 (LAND)
3. The Lands have been designated as a Development Permit Area in the City of Powell River Sustainable Official Community Plan Bylaw 2370, 2014, as amended.
4. The character of the Development Permit including the siting, form, exterior design and finish of buildings, structures and site shall be in accordance with the drawings numbered DP 222 (A) and DP 222 (B) (DRAWING) which are attached hereto and form part of this Development Permit.
6. Minor changes to the drawings that do not affect the general form and character of the siting, to the approval of the City.
7. As a condition of the issuance of this Development Permit, the City will receive and hold a security deposit in the form of an irrevocable letter of credit, cash, or certified cheque prior to development to ensure that:
(a) Any conditions in the Development Permit respecting landscaping and the provision of accessible parking stalls are satisfied; and
(b) Any unsafe conditions arising because of a contravention of any conditions in this Development Permit that need to be corrected.
The City may, in its discretion, apply the security to the cost of any works required with respect to landscaping, unsafe conditions, or to correct damage to the natural environment.
Page 48 of 133 Upon completion of the works, 60% of the deposit shall be returned with the remaining amount to be held for a one-year warrantee period.
8. The terms of this Development Permit or any amendment to it, are binding on all persons who acquire an interest in the Land.
9. The Land described herein shall be developed strictly in accordance with the terms, conditions and provisions of this Permit and by the remaining stipulations of the Zoning Bylaw.
10. This Development Permit shall lapse if construction is not substantially started within two (2) years of Council’s resolution regarding issuance of the Development Permit. Lapsed Permits cannot be renewed; therefore, application for a new Development Permit must be made and approved by Council to proceed.
11. This is neither a Sign Permit nor a Building Permit.
AUTHORIZING RESOLUTION PASSED BY COUNCIL THE ____ DAY OF ______2018
ISSUED THIS ___ DAY OF 2018.
______City Clerk
In consideration of Council’s approval of this Development Permit and other good and valuable consideration, I/We, the undersigned, hereby agree to the terms and conditions of Development Permit 222 and acknowledge that we have read and understood it.
______Authorized Signatory
______Print Name and Title
______Date
Page 49 of 133 DP 222 (A) Page 50 of 133 DP 222 (B) Page 51 of 133 APPENDIX F
CITY OF POWELL RIVER DRAFT DEVELOPMENT VARIANCE PERMIT 212
TO: MS. KATHY PEDNEAULT JKL PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT 7423 NOOTKA STREET POWELL RIVER, BC V8A OPS (PERMITTEE)
1. This Development Variance Permit is issued subject to compliance with all the bylaws of the City applicable thereto, except as specifically varied or supplemented by this Permit.
2. This Development Variance Permit applies to and only to those lands within the City described below and any and all buildings, structures and other development thereon;
PID: 024-567-302 Lot 3 District Lot 5731 Group 1 NWD Plan LMP42898 (LAND)
3. City of Powell River Zoning Bylaw 2100, 2006, as amended is varied by relaxing the minimum rear setback requirements of the M1 Zone from 9.0m to 3.0m.
4. This Development Variance Permit shall lapse if construction is not substantially started within two (2) years of Council’s resolution regarding issuance of the development variance permit. Lapsed permits cannot be renewed; therefore, application for a new development variance permit must be made and approved by Council to proceed.
5. This is not a Building Permit.
AUTHORIZING RESOLUTION PASSED BY COUNCIL THE 19TH DAY OF APRIL, 2018 ISSUED THIS ____ DAY OF ______, 2018
______Corporate Officer
Page 52 of 133 AGREEMENT TO DEVELOPMENT VARIANCE PERMIT 212
I/We, ______, hereby agree to the terms and conditions of Development Variance Permit herein before set forth bearing the number "212".
______Authorized Signatory Date
______Print name and title
Page 53 of 133
City of Powell River Cannabis Public Engagement Summary of Feedback June 6, 2018
Page 54 of 133 SURVEY RESULTS Response Statistics
Complete
Partial
Disqualified
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Count Percent
Complete 612 99
Partial 6 1
Disqualified 0 0
Totals 618
Page 55 of 133 1.Check the top three concerns you have with respect to the legalization of cannabis (select up to three only): 60
50
40
30 Percent 20
10
0
Value Percent Count
I am not concerned about 52.5% 324 cannabis legalization
Operation of cannabis stores 5.7% 35 (e.g. hours of operation)
Youth access to cannabis 38.7% 239
Number of cannabis 14.4% 89 businesses in Powell River
Public health impacts 16.7% 103
Cannabis store signage and 4.4% 27 advertising
The location of cannabis stores 8.1% 50
Cannabis-related crime 10.7% 66
Page 56 of 133 Public smoking and vaping of 41.0% 253 cannabis
Public health education 18.5% 114
2.Do you think there should be a maximum number of retail cannabis businesses allowed in the City?
Unsure 13%
Yes 45%
No 42%
Value Percent Count
Yes 45.0% 278
No 42.2% 261
Unsure 12.8% 79
Totals 618
Page 57 of 133 3.How many cannabis stores should be allowed to operate in the City?
All Others 5% 1 store 0 stores 4% 8%
20 stores 2 stores 22% 8%
3 stores 12%
10 stores 11% 4 stores 9% 6 stores 6% 5 stores 15%
Value Percent Count
0 stores 8.1% 50
1 store 3.7% 23
2 stores 8.5% 52
3 stores 11.9% 73
4 stores 8.9% 55
5 stores 15.4% 95
6 stores 5.7% 35
7 stores 1.0% 6
8 stores 1.6% 10
9 stores 0.7% 4
10 stores 10.9% 67
Page 58 of 133 12 stores 0.8% 5
13 stores 0.2% 1
15 stores 0.5% 3
18 stores 0.2% 1
19 stores 0.2% 1
20 stores 21.8% 134
Totals 615
4.Is there a commercial neighbourhood in the City in which you think cannabis retail stores should not be allowed to operate (check all that apply)? 80 Cannabis retail stores should be 70 able to operate in 60 any neighbourhood , 66.9 50 Westview (Joyce 40Westview (Marine
Avenue Avenue Percent 30 Commercial Commercial Corridor) , 17.7 Wildwood , 17.7 20 Corridor) , 15.4 Townsite , 15.7Cranberry , 15.3 10 0
Value Percent Count
Westview (Marine Avenue 15.4% 95 Commercial Corridor)
Westview (Joyce Avenue 17.7% 109 Commercial Corridor)
Page 59 of 133 Townsite 15.7% 97
Cranberry 15.3% 94
Wildwood 17.7% 109
Cannabis retail stores should 66.9% 412 be able to operate in any neighbourhood
5.Should cannabis retail stores in Powell River be allowed to operate during the:
Unsure 7%
Shorter hours than 9 am to 11 pm? 19%
Longer hours than 9 am to 11 pm? Same operating 9% hours as liquor stores from 9 am to 11 pm? 65%
Value Percent Count
Same operating hours as liquor 64.7% 400 stores from 9 am to 11 pm?
Longer hours than 9 am to 11 9.4% 58 pm?
Shorter hours than 9 am to 11 18.6% 115 pm?
Page 60 of 133 Unsure 7.3% 45
Totals 618
6.Is there a minimum distance that cannabis stores should be located from schools, youth facilities and playgrounds?
One block apart 5%
Unsure 7% Two blocks apart 8% I do not think there needs to be a minimum separation from Three to five blocks these locations apart 21% 20%
More than five blocks apart 39%
Value Percent Count
One block apart 4.7% 29
Two blocks apart 8.6% 53
Three to five blocks apart 20.1% 124
More than five blocks apart 38.7% 239
I do not think there needs to be 21.0% 130 a minimum separation from these locations
Unsure 7.0% 43
Totals 618
Page 61 of 133 7.Please respond to the following statement: Public smoking and vaping of cannabis should follow the current City smoking bylaw. "Smoke" or "Smoking" means to inhale, exhale, burn or carry a lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe, hookah pipe or other lighted smoking equipment that burns tobacco or other weed or substance No smoking within six metres from doors, windows or air intakes Unsure 3%
No, it should be more restrictive 32%
Yes 58%
No, it should be less restrictive 7%
Value Percent Count
Yes 57.9% 358
No, it should be less restrictive 7.6% 47
No, it should be more restrictive 31.9% 197
Unsure 2.6% 16
Totals 618
Page 62 of 133 8.Please respond to the following statement: It is important to me that the City has the resources to enforce the new cannabis regulations it is developing. This could mean committing additional resources to enforcement.
Strongly disagree 22% Strongly agree 34%
Somewhat disagree 17%
Somewhat agree 27%
Value Percent Count
Strongly agree 33.8% 209
Somewhat agree 26.9% 166
Somewhat disagree 17.6% 109
Strongly disagree 21.7% 134
Totals 618
Page 63 of 133 COMMENTS WRITTEN ON SURVEYS
Question 1: • Cannabis grow-ops springing up in residential areas. • I like what I have seen in Portland and Seattle. • I am concerned about being forced into only purchasing government-dispensed cannabis. I am concerned about it being made criminal bylaws rather than decriminalized. I am concerned about unhealthy chemical cannabis. Question 2: • Free market should decide. Concerned that big business will lock it up. • Our bars are too densely concentrated, this makes more opportunities for drinking and driving, combined with lack of public transit.
Question 3: • This is for the market to determine. • Ratio matching population but none belonging to Mayor of our town. Is it just me or does that seem obvious? Yet that’s what’s happening.
Question 4: • I would like to see a filter system be enforced for those growing cannabis as to stop the city from smelling like a skunk farm. I do not enjoy sitting outside and smelling skunk. There are things that can be done.
Question 5: • Definitely not throughout the night when people are more vulnerable.
Question 6: • We have a limited location of shopping opportunities in our city. One block apart from schools only. What are the locations that are really an issue? Are there restrictions on pharmacies?
Question 7: • I don’t like the smell on people’s clothes as they come in after having a smoke. • There is no alcohol consumed in public. The same should be for cannabis. Smoke in your own house. • I would like to see a filter system to be enforced for those growing cannabis as to stop the city from smelling. • It should be more restrictive because the smell carries farther. • Pot smoke is stronger, so a longer distance away from public. • More thought regarding prevailing wind directions and structures/shelters for people to use, should be established.
Question 8: • My main concern is the smell. That horrible odour that does not dissipate the same as tobacco. • Have you seen the state of the roads? Do we have bike lanes? • Cannabis-related crimes are statistically low. Enforcement of drug/death/injury is most important. • You cannot overdose on pot. Worry about fentanyl, heroin, cocaine problems.
Page 64 of 133 WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS FROM RESIDENTS
I attended last nights community meeting at the complex and would like to follow up with this email regarding City Council forming regulations around cannabis retail stores.
I would hope that City Council will not be too stringent with regulating the new cannabis retail stores. I feel there is no need to be any more restrictive than with licensing of liquor and beer and wine stores. Case in point, our Mayor owns a beer and wine store that is located within 2 blocks of 2 elementary schools, and this does not cause any problems for the youth at those schools. Cannabis should be not be held to a higher standard simply because of fear and unfounded what if's.
I would also like to see no restrictions on the number of cannabis retail stores. Restricting the number of locations will also directly affect (limit) the number/variety of different items that will be made available to purchase (the more variety of available products the better for the consumer). As well, by limiting the number of retail outlets you would be creating an environment that breeds higher pricing, and this is also not good for the consumer. I more stores available to purchase the product, will also create a competitive pricing market. Please also keep in mind that for every cannabis retail store approved, the City will be collecting fees such as licensing & taxes which are both good for City revenue.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Regards, Russell Werner ______
These comments were spoken at Evergreen Theater on May 9th 2018. Educational point of view.
- School District (Secondary Level) up to speed with the preparation of the new Federal and Provincial Cannabis Regulation in Canada.
-Legalization begins by the 2018 / 2019 School year. Is there a plan / Structure in place for educating Secondary Students for preparation of their future including the Legalization of Cannabis. To my understanding, this is a very time sensitive topic to be addressed.
Thank you.
Glenn Holstine and Family. ______
I found your survey lacking. The following is a list of things I would share instead of this survey. Question 1 - Should have been able to number each entry according to importance.
1. Public smoking and vaping of cannabis 2. Cannabis related crime. 3. Public health impacts. 4. Youth access to cannabis.
Page 65 of 133 5. Number of stores. There should be only one in each of the five areas of town. Those areas would be the list in question 4.
Question 2 and 3 - There should be only five, one in each of the five areas listed in Question 4.
Question 4 - These five areas of the city are the only areas that I would allow stores. The main parts of town would be the safest. I did not check any of the areas on the survey and so could not submit the survey until I selected one of them. This question appears to be worded this way for a reason but I cannot see why. Do you wish to have the stores in the residential areas? I should have been allowed to leave it blank because of my answer in question 3 and submit like that. Question 6 - They should be as far away as possible, not on a main route that children take to get to the areas. Stores should not have advertising on any part of the building other than the store name. Children should not be able to see what's happening inside the store and there should be no loitering outside the store.
Question 7 - No smoking in public. People cannot walk down the street with a bottle of beer so pot smoking should be no different.
Question 8 - I don't believe more enforcement is required, other than the RCMP. We don't have beer police so why have pot police?
My main concern is if a neighbour smokes pot in his back yard and the smell drives me out of my yard, I should be able to have that neighbour move indoors. I find the smell of cannabis extremely offensive and I don't believe I should have to put-up with it. I have no problem with a person's right to smoke pot if it's legal. Parties cause a lot of noise because of the consumption of alcohol and I can phone the police to have it quieted. I should be able to do the same to avoid the smell of cannabis.
Arthur Richards
______
As a licensed grower (15 units) for my personal use, I am fortunate at the moment to be able to access medical cannabis. However, in the past two years I have seen many seniors going to the dispensary at Grassroots Co operative for their medication, candies, oil, are very popular. I really do hope that the City will do the right thing and license this outlet, and others, that do a real service providing people with reasonably priced, and very superior products. They are also very helpful with suggestions for those who ask, and it is also very convenient. The quality of the big Licensed Producers is generally not as good and it will probably be a while until will be.
Thank you,
Gabrielle Butterfield ______
My name is Iris and I am a very genetically unlucky individual, as are my children.
I'm 34 years old and I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which is a rare genetic collagen disorder that results in frequent dislocations and hypermobility of my joints, easy tissue damage, as well as organ issues and pelvic organ prolapses. I'm also a cervical cancer survivor, and I've had 4 pelvic surgeries to treat it. I'm currently in the middle of getting tested for epilepsy as well, as I've had seizures recently and some disorganised brain activity that landed me in the hospital.
Page 66 of 133
I have an epileptic child (14) who has suffered a stroke and has lingering right side paralysis and also has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and I also have another child (11) who is a cancer survivor who is lucky to be alive. (Acute T-Cell ALL with CNS 3 metastasis) They also have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.
My cancer child has peripheral neuropathy and has psychiatric issues. Myself and my children are all on the Autism Spectrum as well. Cannabis absolutely changed my child's life.
I am from Courtenay and my cancer child's pediatrician was unable to write us a prescription for cannabis extracts directly for obvious reasons, but did provide a letter to our dispensary of choice stating that she was aware of my son's cannabis use and was monitoring its effects on my son. Unofficially, she was incredibly impressed at the benefits of cannabis use that my son experienced, and I have a great working relationship with my pediatrician who has known me and my family for over 14 years now.
I personally have a prescription from my own Doctor that I carry around with me for legal reasons, due to not having my ACMPR yet.
Powell River has been an absolute haven of compassionate care for families like mine. We fall between the cracks far too often, and many of the drugs prescribed to treat our combined conditions have incredibly detrimental side effects.
We rely on extracts heavily. I am a mother and extracts are the ONLY thing that I would provide my children with. We all THRIVE on CBD. I also prefer not to smoke cannabis around my children and I rely on oils and extracts for the treatment of my issues.
We are outlaws, and we will continue to be outlaws if allowances for extracts are not made.
I live in poverty and I could not afford fines or legal action if someone in a position of power were to take issue with our extracts usage.
It should not be illegal for families like mine to treat our health issues using optimal methods that work for us, nor should it be illegal for me to make an educated decision on what is the best method of treatment for our ailments, which is definitely cannabis until something better comes along.
I hope that Powell River continues to be a haven for people like me, regardless of our legal cannabis usage status. I fear what will happen to my family otherwise.
Iris ______
My statements from May 9 Cannabis Public Meeting:
The Federal Government is writing a bill to legalize “non medical cannabis” but presently nothing is being tabled to change the medical cannabis regime known as the ACMPR Access to cannabis for medical purposes regulations. At City Council’s committee of the whole meeting on May 17 2016, a delegation of patients from a local medical cannabis dispensary presented to council the fact that dispensaries are filling a gap in access to the cannabis preparations they require for their critical and chronic illnesses for medicine not available through Health Canada’s Licensed Producers. This respected council and honourable mayor agreed unanimously to direct staff to prepare a report, and draft zoning and business licence bylaw amendments to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries. I
Page 67 of 133 saw that as an act of compassion from council and a fine demonstration of local democracy in action. That is, of course, until an unelected official, the Chief Administrative Officer thwarted the democracy by shelving the directive. When non medical cannabis is finally legalized later this year, people living with critical and chronic illnesses will still find relief from the products available only at the dispensaries. Edible and topical cannabis preparations will not be available at provincially licensed shops. I would like to take this opportunity to demand that city council follow through with their decision to license medical dispensaries as Vancouver, Victoria, Gibsons, Kelowna, and other cities in BC have done.
It’s important to point out that we know Cannabis is safer than alcohol and legislation should reflect that. The rules for cannabis should not be based on what’s in place for alcohol and tobacco. Cannabis legalization has been shown to reduce rape and property crime, increase cannabis consumption, reduce other drug use including reduction in binge and normal alcohol use. Making cannabis more restrictive than alcohol is not empirically sound.
Smoking bylaw good as is, it doesn’t need to be re written and is defined to regulate smoking of “tobãcco or óther weed or substance”
Overly restrictive smoking bylaws would drive folks out of their homes and onto the sidewalks where they are vulnerable to prosecution and imprisonment under the draconian new anti-stoned laws. I implore this city to permit smoking clubs, or vape lounges for people who live in rental homes, apartments, or mobile home parks that restrict smoking.
Zoning: Again, cannabis is safer than alcohol. In most jurisdictions in BC, liquor stores and bars must be 150 meters from a school or playground. While there is no evidence to indicate that kids are more or less likely to use alcohol if they happen to see a bar or liquor store on their walk home from school, we do know that alcohol can cause cancer yet we allow it to be used around kids, sold in stores (events, bars, everywhere) kids can go into. Cannabis can help people with cancer, thus any more than 150m cannot be considered too close to a school for a cannabis store simply to exist. Should the minimum distance be 1/2 km from any school, as suggested by other stakeholders, there will hardly any space left in the city for cannabis retail to operate. One of the goals of legalization is economic development, and restricting or capping the number of cannabis stores in the city is counter to that goal. Let the market decide how many stores is appropriate for Powell River
The sky isn’t falling! Presently there are 4 cannabis dispensaries in Powell River and there have been no complaints. These brave folks who have been dedicated to compassionate civil disobedience have first hand knowledge of how this amazing plant can help to heal people, which strains or preparations are most helpful for particular conditions, and have built community with their clients. These kind folks must not be excluded from retailing cannabis under the upcoming Cannabis Act. In the years preceding the proliferation of dispensaries selling cannabis openly, there were shops on Marine Avenue that sold the herb, and then there were no complaints or reports. The region, particularly the rural areas, have a rich history of cultivation and distribution, this isn’t new, nothing is changing, the sky is not falling. Cannabis is as much a part of our culture here as swinging from a zunga on a hot day or drinking one at the brewery after a long bike ride. Responsible adults consume cannabis at local events like Sunshine Music Fest, in the lovey garden of the historic Patricia Theatre before catching a film, and outside and a half a block away from any live music venue. It’s not like a buncha stoners are suddenly gonna be passing out in the parks or on the bus benches, the sky isn’t falling.
From May 16th Cannabis Public Meeting:
Page 68 of 133 Last time we met I discussed smoking bylaws and since then it has become clear to me that Bill 30 basically makes it impossible for most people to use cannabis anywhere, or be under the effects of cannabis anywhere. I want to make it clear that Intoxication is not impairment. Unlike blood alcohol levels, The level of THC in the blood stream is not in an indication of impairment.
I’d like to address Question 8 from City of Powell River Cannabis Survey
“Please respond to the following statement: It is important to me that the City has the resources to enforce the new cannabis regulations it is developing. This could mean committing additional resources to enforcement.”
The new regulations are unjust and serve to create a whole new class of criminals. We fought for legalization to reduce police spending and harm from criminal records. If it’s legal why would we need to spend more City money on enforcement? How can we gauge whether or not we agree to commit additional resources if we dont even yet know what cannabis impairment is or how to test for it? It is presumed that additional resources will be necessary to police impaired driving. Presently the RCMP report an avg of about 1 DUI a day or less. After July 1 there won’t suddenly be a scourge of stoned drivers on the roads, the same people who for years have been driving unimpaired after using cannabis will be driving unimpaired after using cannabis when its legal. A roadside drugged driving charge carries a 90 day driving prohibition. That’s going force most people into unemployment. A Police officer may arrest a person who is suspected of being intoxicated from cannabis in public, if charged they could go to jail for 6 months and be fined $10,000 (2nd offence.) This kind of punitive legislation creates harm from cannabis where there was none. Cities in Canada have permitted Safe Injection Sites to reduce the harm from opioid addiction. Studies have shown that cannabis use helps to reduce ones dependance on opioids. The city could fulfill its commitment to reduce harm from opioids, by creating safe inhalation spaces. If not indoors, then perhaps special parks and shelters can be established.
The people of Powell River have expressed their medical need for dispensaries, which will be forbidden to operate after Bill 30 is passed. City council voted to adapt bylaws to permit dispensaries. If you’re asking us do we agree to spend more money on enforcement, we’ve already told you “NO.” The lawyer you’ve hired to advise the city has successfully litigated against at least 8 medical marijuana dispensaries effectively shutting them down and restricting access from people with critical and chronic illness. I find it disingenuous of the city to agree to license dispensaries and then hire an advisor whose job it is to shut them down. Question 8 isn’t a question, but I’ll say that I strongly disagree that the city spend resources on shutting down medical marijuana dispensaries and arresting people who have used cannabis.
I’m sorry I missed the final meeting.
Sincerely, Ari Neimand ______
I just finished filling out the survey for cannabis. I wasn’t able to give my comments in the survey only give my best guess. For instance where should cannabis stores be located or what the hours should be. I am not in favour of anything that has to do with promotion of smoking of any kind. Why is it that as a society we are trying to be rid of cigarette smoke which is absolutely disgusting and is a drain on our medical system. Now we want to promote a smoke that also makes you high. How are you going to control that. I am terribly allergic to smoke. Period. Now what happens. I become a prisoner in my home because my idiot neighbors will be smoking it all day long. They
Page 69 of 133 don’t work, they are on the system and they don’t care. When I go shopping I have a hard time to find an entrance where someone isn’t smoking a cigarette and now they can smoke pot. Which has way worse smell and as I said now they’ll be high too. I understand our criminal system is backlogged with marijuana cases. Maybe the system should be harder on those involved in the trade instead of letting them go. I am not opposed to the cannabis used for medicinal use. I know and have spoken to lots of people who are helped by it but I’m still not convinced that we’ve done all we can about the other part. I am 63 years old. I’m from the generation that grew up with this. I’ve been around it and seen the effects of it. I have friends who have never made anything of themselves because of it. I just think it’s very sad.
Deborah Jenkins ______
Page 70 of 133
TRANSCRIPTS OF COMMENTS FROM Q&A SESSIONS AT PUBLIC MEETINGS
May 9, 2018
Q: Now that it is becoming legalized here in BC, I would like to know what the chronic pain user for medical marijuana – is the provincial government going to cover our medical marijuana, as they do methadone for chronic pain, and other people who need methadone?
A: Mac Fraser – I’m going to disappoint you a bit because all the local government and municipality is going to be involved in is the regulation of recreational marijuana. The medicinal marijuana, if you leave your name with us, we can help you find answers out, but we don’t know it tonight.
Q. I am speaking as someone who has a prescription from their doctor for the use of cannabis. I have a long-term condition that is not visible – an incurable health issue. My question is for Sara Dubinsky -- under Section 7 of the Charter, Right to Security, in 1997, R. vs. Parker recognized reasonable access to cannabis as a medicine for those who are medically approved. The judge recognized that dispensaries were a key part of access for marijuana. I ask that cannabis, including CVB, the cannabinoid that is not psychoactive – I am a client at Grassroots Botanical Wellness. It is an illegal dispensary. However, I feel comfortable accessing it because I feel I have rights under the
Page 71 of 133 Constitution for access to marijuana to relieve my medical condition. What do you think is the probability of it being challenged in BC – Bill 30 – as far as access to medical marijuana?
A: Sara Dubinsky – The Bill really only puts limits dealing with the recreational cannabis. There are no contemplated changes at this point from the federal government for the medical marijuana or cannabis scheme. The federal government has indicated it might do a review of the whole system in the next three to five years. There might be changes at that time. There are court challenges. I’m aware of one that is scheduled to proceed in September, which has been brought by a conglomerate of dispensary operators in Vancouver. They are dealing with City of Vancouver bylaws and are also seeking to challenge the federal rules around medical cannabis. It may take some time to get a decision but there is at least that scheduled proceedings.
Q. I’ve read Bill 30 and I’m concerned that the dispensaries that I access will have to close because of the severity of the penalties for operating. Accessing cannabis from a licensed producer does not have the medicine that I have found works for me.
A. Sara Dubinsky – Part of the point of the event tonight is you can voice your concerns. City Council is here to hear that and can take into account members of the community that want to have a physical store that they can go to to access the cannabis.
Q. I put it to Town Council that Grassroots Dispensary is relieving my long-term health issue. I have great concerns that they won’t be able to stay open. I won’t be able to access the medicine that I need. I use a medicine that I cannot make. It has to be manufactured in a million-dollar facility. The company that I get it from is not licensed by the federal government. I am not the only person who is facing this issue. I know there are other people and the level of anxiety, and other triggering that you have to go through, wondering whether you can still have your medicine when you find something that relieves your symptoms, especially a long-term condition. I’m concerned that the BC College of Physicians is now recommending that people under the age of 25 – they are putting a number of restrictions on doctors supporting their patients accessing medical marijuana. I’m very fortunate that my doctor supports me. My concern is that I won’t have access on a daily basis to my medicine.
Q. My name is Russell and when you first started speaking you mentioned that copying another organization is the greatest form of compliment and that there is nothing in BC or across Canada to compare this to. That leads me to believe that you are not looking any farther than that for systems that are working. That is a bit of a concern to me. All you have to do is go across the line to the State of Washington, Colorado, or I believe California to look at systems, although they are not federally approved, it’s approved locally by the State. They have very successful businesses down there that are making significant contributions to the economy. I hope you are looking at those and not just saying that we have nothing in Canada.
A. Mac Fraser – Actually, Sara and her colleagues are actually doing research. My specific reference was within the legislation of the Province of BC there isn’t a norm. Ordinarily, we have pretty stable provincial legislation. You can see by Sara’s presentation that it is pretty dynamic right now. Absolutely, we are trying to learn from everywhere and anywhere. One of the challenges is nobody has been in business in North America long enough to be able to say, “this definitively works or doesn’t work.” Europe is a different case. One example is Portugal, where there is no such thing as an illegal drug of any sort. That is a big ethical issue, but it seems to have huge payoffs socially, financially and with criminology. So, there is a lot to be learned everywhere. To give you confidence, Lidstone and Company, through Sara, is bringing the learnings from other jurisdictions as well. We would just like to have a clear mandate from the province to know our restrictions and our powers.
Page 72 of 133 Q. Russell – If I may make another statement, I would encourage City Council not to be overly restrictive in the number of stores they allow to licence within the municipality. I think that having a number of stores to choose from, you create competitive pricing. I don’t think it needs to be any more restrictive than those of beer and wine stores and liquor stores. Our own Mayor owns a beer and wine store two blocks from elementary schools. I don’t think they need to be any more restrictive than that. If you restrict too much the number of stores in the municipality, you are also going to be restricting the selection and variety of products available to those. I think it’s important to those people that use cannabis medically to have the greatest selection available to them if possible.
Q. I’m a medical patient as well and I have a prescription. I am wondering where you will be getting cannabis – licensed producers, or where is it going to be coming from?
A. Sara – Provincially, licensed retail stores will access the product through the Liquor Distribution Branch. All of the cannabis at the Liquor Distribution Branch is going to come from federally licensed and regulated producers.
Q. Ari Neimand – Hello, my name is Ari. I don’t have a lot of questions per se because the guidelines handed down by the provincial government are pretty clear. I think you guys don’t have a lot of answers yet because we are learning them together. I wrote down some things I want to say.
I am going to bring up first medical marijuana. We know the federal government is writing a bill to legalize non-medical cannabis, but presently nothing is being tabled to change the medical cannabis regime known as ACMPR. Sara talked about that already. At a Committee of the Whole Meeting on May 17, 2016, a delegation of patients from a local medical cannabis dispensary presented to council the fact that dispensaries are filling the gap in access to cannabis preparations they require for their critical and chronic illnesses for medicines not available through Health Canada’s licenced producers. With respect to Council, the Honourable Mayor directed staff to prepare a report and draft zoning and business licence bylaws to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries. I see that as an act of compassion from council upon demonstration of local democracy in action. Council listened to the people that came into the meeting and we very much appreciate that. But that was until such time that the Chief Administrative Officer thwarted democracy by shelving the directive. When non- medical cannabis is finally legalized later this year, people living with critical and chronic illnesses will still find relief, and the products available, only in dispensaries. Edible and topical cannabis preparations will not be available in provincially licensed shops. I would like to take this opportunity to demand that Council follow through with its decision to licence medical dispensaries as Vancouver, Victoria, Gibsons and Kelowna and other cities have done.
It is also important to point out that cannabis is safer than alcohol and the legislation and bylaws should reflect that. The rules for cannabis should not be based on what is in place for alcohol or tobacco. Cannabis legalization has been shown to reduce property crime, reduce other drug use, including reduction of binge and normal alcohol use. Making cannabis more restrictive than alcohol is not empirically sound.
I want to mention the smoking bylaw, and I noticed in the survey, the smoking bylaw does sort of cover cannabis by saying “tobacco, other weed, or substance.” I don’t believe Council and staff need to spend a lot of time working on that to try and change it for cannabis. I want to mention how I feel about overly restrictive smoking bylaws. If people aren’t allowed to smoke in homes, or apartments, or mobile homes, they’ll have to go out on the sidewalks and smoke it in the streets. That’s a concern for some people that are uncomfortable seeing cannabis being smoked. I don’t know why they have a problem with that, so it’s important to take that into consideration when you are writing
Page 73 of 133 the laws and regulations for smoking in public places. I know the province has said that they won’t be allowing or permitting smoking clubs or vaping lounges at this time, but we’ve seen other cities licence them already. So, I look forward to City Council permitting these smoking clubs or vaping lounges for people who live in rental homes, apartments, mobile homes and other places that restrict smoking.
I want to talk about zoning because, again, cannabis is safer than alcohol and in most jurisdictions in BC, liquor stores and bars must be 150 metres from a school or playground. While there is no evidence to indicate that kids are more likely to use alcohol if they see a bar or liquor store on their walk home from school, we do know that alcohol can cause cancer and yet we allow it to be used around kids. I think it’s important not to restrict the distance of these cannabis stores from schools a half kilometre as other stakeholders have suggested. One of the goals of legalization is economic development. Restricting or capping the number of cannabis stores in the City is counter to the goal of economic development. I think we should let the market decide how many stores are appropriate for Powell River.
I want to say the sky isn’t falling when cannabis is legalized. There are four cannabis dispensaries operating in Powell River right now and these brave folks have been dedicated to compassionate civil disobedience and they have first-hand knowledge on how this amazing plant can heal people with strains or preparations that are most helpful for particular conditions and their clients. These kind folks must not be excluded from retailing cannabis under the upcoming Cannabis Act. In years preceding the proliferation of dispensaries there were shops on Marine Avenue that sold cannabis quietly and there are no reports of problems. The rural areas have a rich history of cultivation and distribution. This isn’t new, nothing is changing, the sky isn’t falling. Cannabis is as much a part of our culture here as swinging from a zunga on a hot day or drinking one at the brewery after a long hike. Responsible adults consume cannabis at events such as the Sunshine Music Festival, outside the theatre before a film or half a block from a live music venue. It’s not like a bunch of stoners are suddenly going to be passing out in parks. The sky isn’t falling.
I have a question for you Mr. Fraser. What are your personal fears about what could happen here in Powell River when cannabis is legalized.
A. Mac Fraser – I don’t actually put my mind to it. What I do put my mind to, and staff do, is empowering Council with all of the information that is relevant and ensuring the decisions they make are within the laws, and that’s the challenge. The first one might be in conflict with the second one. If what they want to do is not yet legal, and I think the expectation is that Council operates legally, so we are looking forward to clarity of provincial rules and regulations that gives Council the opportunity to make those decisions.
Q. I agree with a lot of what Ari said. As far as Council getting involved with regulating the number of stores or the extra security requirements, from all that I see, Council already has a ton of work to do. They don’t need a lot more responsibilities or more things that take up their time. We are not doing something dangerous here. Alcohol is far more destructive to our community, our society and our personal relationships than cannabis is. There is no point in fear, worry or distress.
A. Mac Fraser – Often council, on much less exciting issues than cannabis, has the dilemma of whether to bring forward legislation and rules that protect existing businesses and neighbourhoods, or whether they open it to the whims or opportunities of the free market. As Russell mentioned, competition breeds better prices. Council is well aware of the concerns across the country that by regulating cannabis, we may be keeping it underground, with the costs that are associated with it. That’s a concern. I’ve been in public service 43 years and the most amazing thing for me was when I
Page 74 of 133 saw police officers advocating for the legalization of cannabis because the status quo is so unacceptable. We are being very cautious about it.
Q. The provincial and federal legislation is going to have to be amended at some point in time, so what happens municipally is going to have be amended at some point in time. Rather than being restrictive and having to open it up more later, it would be better to err on the side of opening up more now and if you need to, close it down a little more.
Q. My statement would be that this is an opportunity. This is normalization. It isn’t just legalization. I hope Council will look at it that way. This is just the regulation trying to catch up to what’s here. I encourage Council to listen to the survey and to the opinions of the people here because it exists and is being used in a responsible and adult ways.
Q. My question is about the retail aspect for retail outlets. Right now, if you have a medical exemption, you can purchase your medical cannabis from the licensed distributors across Canada. You have the option to buy from anywhere in Canada and they send it to you in the mail. Will it be similar for retail outlets or will it be more provincially regulated? Will these outlets be able to source their wholesale cannabis from any licensed producer from across Canada?
A. Sara Dubinsky – It will depend on where the province has sourced the cannabis. So, only the provincially distributed cannabis will be sold in retail stores. So, a licensed producer who has not got an arrangement to provide cannabis to the BC Liquor Distribution Branch, that cannabis will not be available in retail stores. Medical users, once the new scheme is in place, will have the same access they have now through licensed producers and through the mail, but they will also have the option of going to the retail outlet to buy non-medical recreational cannabis. The province is going to operate an online sales system, so if you are a medical user, you’ll have three options. You’ll have the medical access you’ve had previously, you’ll be able to go to the retail stores to purchase from them the recreational cannabis, or you can go and purchase through the provincial online service.
Q. As far as the retail outlets themselves, they will be accessing their wholesale cannabis through something that has come through the provincial system.
A. Sara Dubinsky – Yes, all of the retail stores will have to obtain their supply through the province.
Q. For those people who have not yet got their approval from the federal government for medical use marijuana, with the legalization of marijuana, will those applications need to go through approval for medical use or is that going to be a moot point now that cannabis is going to be legalized?
A. Sara Dubinsky – It will depend on the individual. If they want to obtain the medical authorization there may well be differences in terms of what medical users are authorized to access or use. Certainly, in terms of quantities, the restrictions are 30 grams for possession limits, for example, for recreational cannabis. There are potentially much higher amounts that can be possessed and used by medical users. It will depend on the individual deciding if they want or need to obtain medical cannabis through the medical scheme, or if they are sufficiently serviced by the recreational system and going through a retail store or the provincial online retailer and getting it that way.
Q. The possession limit of 30 grams is for being in a public place, you can have more than that in possession at your house. If you can have four plants, you could have four pounds of herb.
A. Yes, 30 grams is the possession limit in a public place.
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Q. I turned 70 this year and started university more than 50 years ago, and I met people smoking weed – professors, college students, law professors. Over the next 50 years, the odd judge, the odd surgeon, the odd air force pilot, it goes on and on. A lot of police, including undercover – these were reasonable people. I think that knowing this is already here, we just have to be reasonable about it, smart about it. I think we are blessed with a Council here and staff of good common sense; just do what makes sense. Just as we manage alcohol, let’s just manage this and I think it will work out just fine.
Q. So edibles will be illegal?
A. Sara Dubinsky – For the time being. The federal government is planning to regulate and legalize edibles in the next year, but for the time being, they remain illegal.
Q. So if a person was to go down and get 30 grams, bring it home and convert it to an edible for them self, would that be breaking the law, or would they rather that you smoke?
A. Sara Dubinsky – I’d have to specifically look at the proposed Cannabis Act if there are prohibitions against manufacturing edibles for personal consumption. I don’t know for sure what’s the answer to that question.
Q. I just find it hard to believe that the government is promoting smoking anything – that they would rather you smoke it than eat it. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
A. Mac Fraser – At the risk of offending the rationale of the federal government, I think in the big picture they are phasing in the legality of all types of cannabis. They’ve chosen smoking first.
Q. The phasing in could take some time. I guess my question is, if somebody is living in a condo and the condo owner has the right to tell the person you may not, under any circumstances, use marijuana on these premises…
A. Sara Dubinsky – If we are talking about recreational and not medical, then all the signs from the province are that yes, a condo owner, through landlord-tenant law, will be able say tenants are not able to consume in this unit.
Q. Okay, so that would make the landlord more powerful than the government. Wow.
A. Mac Fraser – Nobody is more powerful than the government. Many things are more efficient. You’re asking good questions, which someone alluded to before – some judges are going to make some decisions.
Q. We have the RCMP here. What would you do sir?
A. Staff Sgt. Rod Wiebe – I think I would draw the parallel to landlords who now say you are not allowed to smoke cigarettes in a house. They have the same power. Our call volume is going to go up exponentially once cannabis is legalized. It’s going to be a learning curve for everybody. It will be case by case.
Q. What would you personally do if you were called to someone’s place and they made marijuana tea and they were watching TV?
Page 76 of 133 A. Staff Sgt. Rod Wiebe – Probably talk to our lawyers and see where we stand. I hope it doesn’t come to that. I don’t know much about the edibles and drinkables. One of the big things we are going to have is the smell of smoking cannabis. I’m going to assume the edibles don’t have the same aroma to it.
Q. That’s where I’m going with this. I’m in a position where I can’t believe my government is telling me I have to smoke. I don’t have a choice. I can’t believe anybody is being put in the situation where if you want cannabis, you have to smoke it. My question is, if I convert that into something – I go down to legally buy it from a provincially run store and bring it home and convert it into something I can use… will I have a problem?
A. Staff Sgt. Rod Wiebe – Without having regulations and law I can’t answer that question. We don’t have the immediate testing abilities for stuff like that, nor do we have the training to identify stuff like that, so…
A. Mac Fraser – My police chief gave you as clear an answer as he possibly can.
Q. Next question. There are some elderly people that I know that have tried marijuana for their arthritis and they have had extreme success with it compared to everything else. Most of them have heart conditions and can’t take a lot of medications. They can’t afford $8 or $10 or $12 a gram. A lot of these people are getting by on $1,200 or $1,500 a month. So, if I was to go down to the store and legally buy them some marijuana and gift it to them, where do I stand then?
A. Mac Fraser – I suggest it’s like alcohol. As long as the rules are followed, there are traditions of buying alcohol and giving it as a gift. Obviously, the person has to be over 18, they can’t be consuming alcohol in a public place… I can’t see why it would be any different with cannabis upon legalization. As long as it’s within the 30-gram rule or the equivalent of four plants, it would work.
Q. My name is Rob and I have a question concerning the federal government only allowing flower or oil to be distributed. I am standing here today to give testament to a topical solution that I’m scared will become unavailable in the very near future. I’m a licensed medical user and I can purchase from a licensed producer, however, I don’t have that available to me in a topical form. The only way I can get it is through my local dispensary, which are now facing unbelievable restrictions on what they are able to provide. Where does topical fall? I’m applying it to my body. I’m not getting high from it, all I’m getting is my life back. It seems very unfair the government is going to impose such things on anything. You’re not allowed to have a treatment that is successful, not harming anybody, and making it forbidden. It’s possible that I can get material from my licensed producer and go through a whole bunch of steps to make it into a topical solution to apply to myself but it’s much easier and more convenient to go to the dispensary and get topical ointment.
A. Sara Dubinsky – Oils will still be available. Edibles is where the line is being drawn. So fresh, dried and oils should all be available through the licensed retailers.
Q. Rob – If the oils you take are a tincture, you put it under your tongue, you don’t apply it to your knee, your ankle, your elbows or your wrists.
A. Sara Dubinsky – Are you asking me about the availability of the tropical oils or the edible oils?
Q. Rob – Topical solutions, such as creams, ointments…
A. Sara Dubinsky – It should be available through the provincially regulated system.
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Q. Rob – Immediately or am I waiting for…
A. Sara Dubinsky – No, it’s the edibles that have the waiting period. Edibles will be legalized and regulated approximately a year following the other forms of recreational cannabis.
Q. Rob – Okay, so hypothetically, my local outlet, distributor will still have topical ointments, solutions available if they go with the regulatory measures.
A. Sara Dubinsky – Yes, it will still be available.
Q. Rob – For anyone in this room who has never experienced cannabis topical solutions, it is something you really should try. It changed my life in so many ways. It’s not harmful, I can give it to my children, my parents, it’s the safest thing and the best thing I have ever tried.
A. Mac Fraser – In your comment you remind me of something I want to make sure people are aware of, is in this time that the province is racing to anticipate and ultimately react to the federal legislation, and we are seeing the provincial legislation, but there is always a regulation that amplifies that and explains it more – so that’s going to take some time. But then there’s also the fact that the Liquor Control and Licensing Board has to be set up. So even if all of the federal rules and regulations are in place, the provincial are in place, and your council anticipates it and puts municipal in place, I can’t speak for when the Liquor Control and Licensing Board will be in a place to consider applications and give them licences. So, there could be a delay. Minister Farnworth, the Solicitor General of BC, was quoted back in February when they announced the regime that they had a hope in BC that the first licences would be issued at the end of August. That is going to be impossible because the federal legislation won’t be in place before then. Even if it had been July 1, in my experience, that would be an amazingly quick turnaround. I don’t want anyone to have false expectations. We can have all the rules and regulations in place but then the Liquor Control and Licensing Board has to consider applications and licences and grant them before people can operate.
Q. I just have one question to council – the legalization begins by the 2018-2019 school year. Is there a planned structure in place for educating secondary students as far as preparing for their future, including legalized cannabis?
A. Mac Fraser – I can say no but it sounds like a good idea. I’m sure our school district will be proactive on that.
May 16, 2018
Q. Are you getting a lot of interest in retail stores?
A. Mac Fraser – We’ve had a number of people at City Hall who have asked where they get an application. The conversation is starting. We are not in business yet. Quite frankly, I’m not sure whether it’s curiosity or serious consideration. We have definitely had some very serious people come and say: “I’d like to be notified as soon as applications are available.” I believe the way it works is that the applications have to be approved by the province and there is a referral system to the City.
A. Scott Randolph – We have had serious enquiries from companies outside the community as well as people inside the community. They are more about where they can be located. We don’t know
Page 78 of 133 yet. It’s kind of hard to say to them – part of the application process for the province – you have to have a location identified. You have to have an address. That’s why we are doing this process, so council can set those rules in place and say this is where it’s allowed. Companies are hung up saying they can’t apply until they know.
A. Mac Fraser – There is specific reference from the province that existing retailers of cannabis have neither an advantage or disadvantage going forward in the licensing process. Local government has discretion to refuse to accept a licence from anyone who has acted in an unlawful means previously. That’s a discretionary issue. It is not automatic. The norm at City Hall is if someone is not acting within our bylaws we have tended not to do business with them. For example, we will not procure something from a company that does not have a valid business licence.
Q. Dan Clark – Council at the last meeting said that they were taking direction to sort of pass on to the province and the feds and that’s a lot of what I have to discuss – the sort of things that are going on at the local level. A lot of my issues are more with the provincial and federal stuff that is going on. As many of you know I am the director of Grassroots Botanicals, one of the four dispensaries here in Powell River. We have been in operation for over three years, with, as far as I know, no complaints to City or police. In that time, we’ve had a lot of satisfied clients. It has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me personally and I believe it has been very rewarding for our members as well. From the very start we tried to work with the City as much as possible. We went to the City and said that we were going to start a cannabis dispensary and we would like to apply for a business licence. That quickly wasn’t going to happen, but we tried to respect what the City was looking for as far as – they didn’t say don’t do it – the situation at the time was there was no real way to stop it and I felt it was a very good thing for the town but I did not want to be a jerk about it. I tried to be nice and work with the town a little bit. We tried to work with the City of Powell River to be a beneficial component for the community here. Now a large part of this beneficial role is to try and be a bridge to bring the extensive, well-established illicit industry into the clear light of day. My hope was that when legalization came through, my hope was that legalization would recognize the industry that already exists rather than trying to create a new industry from scratch. Of any place in Canada, this town is that industry. They are our neighbours and our friends and the people we know. Of any place in Canada, the weed/cannabis culture, this is where it is. I recognize that there are bad actors and that more regulation is needed, but the existing local industry is vibrant and mostly well intentioned. In preparation for this talk I tried to estimate the size of the local industry as it exists now. My personal estimate is that there are 1,000 people in town directly employed in the cannabis trade. The vast majority of this existing industry is already licensed through the MMAR, the MMPR or ACMPR. I will also point out that most of these jobs pay at least $20 per hour and a lot of them pay a lot more. The economic benefit to the town is pretty extreme. The direct fruits of this local market are the selection and quality the coming legal market will be unable to match, at least in the beginning. The existing market has an incredible range of derivative products, knowledge and experience that the legal market will only gradually be equal to. It is unreasonable to expect this illicit industry, which this town is clearly comfortable with, to disappear at the stroke of midnight on the day the federal legislation passes. The reason why dispensaries like Grassroots have been able to exist is because there are clear gaps in illicit supply. Cannabis was made legal in Canada by the Supreme Court that recognized cannabis is a medicine and people have a right to choose their own treatment and that product supply was part of this right. The supply issue created the grey area that dispensaries exist in now. Courts have recognized that dispensaries play an essential role in filling medical need. Provincial Bill 30 does not seem to acknowledge these supply issues. It merely sends medical users back into the same system that has been deemed inadequate for the last three years. I really feel that the existing industry as it stands now has been an extreme benefit to Powell River for a long time. It would be far better to try and bring the existing industry into the light. It would basically put a lot of competition in between this new invented legal system and the already existing system. That
Page 79 of 133 clash is where case law will come from. I think, going into the future, there is a continuing place for a place like Grassroots, which is focussed on the local aspects of cannabis and the local benefits of cannabis. We have an incredible industry here in town already. To try and sweep that away, it’s just not reasonable to expect. At this point, looking to the regulations as they stand, they seem to be written so anyplace like Grassroots is just not able to exist anymore. Or, it exists in an incredibly tenuous manner with extreme fines or possible jail time. I would like to find a way to keep Grassroots going, which, at this point, its continued existence, after the passage of these federal bills, is very questionable. I don’t know, exactly, what Council could do to try and help us keep on doing this, but I would love to try and explore something. I don’t know what the solution would be. This is uncharted territory. You can’t look to any other municipality to try and figure out what this would be right now. You can look at Squamish and Vancouver and Victoria as places in British Columbia and that’s pretty well it. I want to be in compliance very badly. I have been in the industry for a long time and one of the specific reasons why I started Grassroots was because I wanted to be in the light. I did not want to be a criminal anymore. I have been in the industry and I’ve tried to be a moral, ethical person for a long time, but I was in the cannabis industry, which means I exist as a criminal all the time. It’s a rotten way to live. I would love to give Powell River the benefit of that experience and knowledge that I have, and I feel this is the sunset of it right now. Our members are asking us if we are going to be around in the Fall and I have to say I don’t know. It’s stressing a lot of people out really badly. Thanks to City Councillors and staff for making this effort and making this available.
A. Dave Formosa – Your concern, number one, applies to Victoria. That’s your route. You are concerned that you won’t get a licence, so you are out, or is your concern that you would get a licence and the products that you have available will no longer to be available?
Q. Dan Clark – That’s exactly my concern right there. I’m pretty sure I don’t have anything blocking me from getting a legal licence, but right now, my shop has an incredible range of specialized products, a lot of which for people with particular conditions and I have that for them. If I become a legal dispensary, a legal recreational marijuana shop, all those specialty products that I have now are all illegal.
A. Dave Formosa – if you look at the document, creams and such, I don’t know where they fall.
Q. Dan Clark – I can answer that – if I become a legal recreational shop, none of those things are legal. They are talking about edibles in a year and other stuff sometime beyond that. I go from now, having 700 local members. This shop that I have is the only place that they get what’s making them well. There is no licit route for them. The licit market is coming, but for now, you have this huge illegal market. The day the regulations pass you are going to have a very small licit market, but gradually, the illicit one will shrink and the legal one will grow. And so, for my members, I could go right now from having a crazy range of products to becoming legal, with no products and then two or three years down the line, I might be able to recreate the selection of things that I have now. In that intervening two or three-year period, the members that I have now are going to suffer.
A. Dave Formosa – that may be the way it goes but foremost, if you did happen to come upon a licence, you’ve got to play by the rules or go back underground. The issues with creams and such; the edibles I can see taking some time, they say a year. But when it comes to topicals and creams…
A. Mac Fraser – If I could, Mr. Mayor, that question was asked specifically in the last session and Sara Dubinsky said they will be legal.
Q. The legislation says oils and doesn’t otherwise expand upon what is oils.
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Q. Dan Clark – It regulates the actual amount of active ingredient in oils, which is, let’s just say, it is the incredibly mildest, weakest amount of active ingredient ever. Almost everything I have in my shop is five times the potency of what the regulations allow. So again, even if they allow topicals, they are going to be the weakest topical that I have. I think the maximum amount of active ingredient that they are proposing is every millilitre of liquid can have 10 milligrams of active ingredient. I have products in my shop now where each millilitre of liquid has 80 milligrams of active ingredient. It’s a completely different level of potency and effectiveness.
A. Dave Formosa – In the business world, what one does, is get their foot in the door, they follow the rules, they form an association, and that association goes to Victoria and meets with the minister. You bring your thoughts and ideas there and together you expand your industry.
Q. Dan Clark – While that happens, the members that I have now…
A. Dave Formosa – Your hands are tied so you just have to wait it out.
Q. Dan Clark – My whole focus is on the well-being – that’s what our mission statement is, is to provide the cannabis needs of our membership to the best of our ability. Quite frankly, if we were to apply and go to the legal recreational route – all the recreational cannabis is non-medical cannabis. I read the Act and it defines what medical is. I don’t feel their definition is particularly valid. At some point in the future, the licit market will equal whatever the illicit market is now, but that is going to be sometime far in the future – at least a couple of years. At that point in time, two years from now, yes, our members could possibly be served by going through the legal route, but at this point…
A. Dave Formosa – It’s a young industry; you are going to have to put up with it if you are fortunate enough to get in.
Q. Dan Clark – Well, that’s an opinion.
Q. I think you are being generous when you say two years. They were trying to make marijuana legal two years ago and it has been postponed and postponed. I’ve never seen government agree on anything in two years.
Q. Dan Clark – You are going to have a lot of people trying to fight that industry too. Cannabis legalization you couldn’t even talk about comfortably for years and years. I was beyond the pale to even suggest it. Now here, within a few years, from the Supreme Court forcing the first medical legislation in 2001 or 2002, something like that, we’ve come a long way in 15 years. In the last five or six years it has really started to swing. It has been exponential growth. I’m guessing two years at a minimum. The licit supply might never equal the illicit supply. It might take a lifetime.
A. Jim Palm – I want to follow it up by saying I commend you for coming forward and asking the question. I hear our hands are tied on what substances are going to be sold but I have to ask you this: right now, from what I’ve seen from the people coming forward, they come to you on a regular basis and are very supportive of the services that you offer. They like that product very much. Is a lot of that product that you use grown locally?
Q. Dan Clark – I think 75 per cent of my business is just straight dried flower, just the dry product – bud – and I source all of that locally. I source all of it from here in town and Texada Island. The only time I’ve gone out of town is when there has been something good and I’ve brought it in just for a change of flavour. So, 75 per cent of my business is dried flower and 95 per cent of it comes from
Page 81 of 133 Powell River or Texada Island. The other 25 per cent of the extracts and edibles, I’d say a third of that has been grown in Powell River, then I take it to Vancouver to be extracted then it’s brought back.
A. Jim Palm – I’m just going to ask the industry experts in our audience, is there any chance that a local operator such as this that has done a great community service, working with your team to cultivate a local product that you may be able to market?
Q. Would there be willingness? Yes.
A. Palm – But your hands are tied.
Q. Yes.
A. Scott Randolph – I think what we’re hearing, just to clarify what Dan is saying, is that the feds, even with producers like Santé Veritas, their hands are tied to a level or degree. The strength of their product doesn’t meet a level what Dan is already selling to his 700 members. So that is going to be outlawed. My thoughts when you were talking about your suppliers locally, Dan, I wonder if they are going to survive?
Q. Dan Clark – Right now the illicit market is huge and the licit market it non-existent. When the legislation passes the illicit market is going to be very small. I’m already having suppliers drop off. They have stopped selling to people like me because they are in the application process of becoming legitimate.
Q. I was an illegal grower and now I’m a registered massage therapist and I just bought property here last month. In Alberta, in Edmonton, I treat people who still use illicit drugs because the pills don’t work for them, so they go wherever they can. Government, in my opinion, is stealing a lot of local money and expertise from our local communities. Local growers and suppliers are all going to get kicked in the teeth with all of this new legislation unless the town council stands up for them. In 1999 I was part of an organization that was taken down and I did not want to be a grower illegally, but I didn’t have any choice because there were no regulations for nothing. I’ve been using it as medicine since I was 15 years old. I have a federal licence and I get ripped off by the federal government. Last month I came to Dan’s shop and I got a card from him and I got better things that I took back to Alberta because I don’t have a choice. He loses his licence because for some reason the federal government or the provincial government says no, then he’s right, we lose 90 per cent of the shit. We are the best in BC.
Q. Dan Clark – Powell River is a national leader.
A. Mac Fraser – So if I could sir, just so it’s clear, you are asking City Councillors to stand up for local growers. There are two times a year when we have organized conferences. One is a subset of the provincial organization and the other is the provincial organization itself. There is a time when Council either en masse, or a subset of Mayor and Council, go to Victoria and advocate.
Q. What I hear is with the new hospital and all the stuff here we are already creating Powell River as a place to come and get healthy. This is what I am moving here for. I’m starting a cold laser shop as well as massage therapy that uses the topicals.
A. Rob Southcott – I have been thinking about the questions that you are raising tonight for more than just a week. You (Dan Clark) brought a delegation to Council and it was rather impactful. I don’t
Page 82 of 133 think there is any doubt whatsoever, certainly in my mind and in most others, that the medicinal market has become quite sophisticated and serves a definite sector in society that isn’t served through classic Western medicine. I come to this opinion partly because of having been a paramedic for 31 years and working from rural to city core in Vancouver, where I had lots of contact with people who utilized medicinal marijuana. The thing that I realize is that there is no accepted, clear definition of what delineates medicinal from recreational.
Q. Dan Clark – I have you ever looked up what the word medicine in the dictionary? You need a doctor’s prescription.
A. Rob Southcott – We have a lack, in popular culture – I use that term because I want to focus on what our breadth of understanding is – some of us will think that any marijuana use whatsoever is recreational. Others will see what you are doing is probably, very largely, medicinal. But then each of us would define differently what is medicine and what is recreation. Where do you draw the line there? So that’s something that hasn’t been done yet. As Mr. Fraser says, we have an ability to advocate for this interest and I’m very interested in Dan’s concern. Dan’ concern is for a lot of people who are served by something that now, ironically, is going to be threatened, because of legalization. Which, looked at from another angle, it’s regulation, but then when you keep going down that continuum, it becomes restriction and threat. That’s what I see happening here. Or that’s what I see apparently happening. What Council has the ability to do is advocate, but from an actual regulation standpoint. This is extremely narrow but what the actual opportunity we have is what you are asking us, or what you are asking to be considered, is something that could take just as long as what Dan is suggesting. It could take years. We actually had results on one request through the UBCM that we put through two years ago that just came through this year. So that’s how fast that works. We are interested, but what we can actually do – we are part of a conventional system and I believe, like you do, to change things, you need to get inside that system. That’s how civilization, that’s how our society works. We will do this but don’t expect miracles overnight.
Q. I’m just suggesting, kind of what the point is, is of the illicit sales going out of the back doors, in my opinion, 75 per cent of them are buying it for just medicine, not recreation.
Q. Dan Clark – It’s a grey area. They don’t have depression, but they are sad all the time and smoke weed and feel good about life again. Is that a medicine or is it recreational?
A. Rob Southcott – That’s not a question we are going to answer tonight.
Q. If I can make a suggestion, I think that probably the best next step is to actually put together a position paper submission to council with a request for advocacy.
A. Scott Randolph – And clearly define what you are asking of council and why. A nice clear communications piece that lays out the issues and the request.
Q. Dan Clark – I have just gone back on retainer with our lawyer, who is one of the foremost. He was a criminal legal defence lawyer for a long time and for the last three years he has been on the regulatory side of it. I fully intend to ask him, one of my first sets of questions for him is going to be setting up what recommendations he has. If we work with town council, what have other town councils done?
Q. I would suggest the sooner you can do this the better. We have the federal government stalling the legalization process and so you want to get that comment in as soon as possible.
Page 83 of 133 Q. Under the new federal law, Bill C-45, possession over 50 grams is a day less five years. Selling, under the new federal law, would be a day less 14 years maximum sentence. At this point I will neither confirm or deny that I am working at Grassroots, and I do this because, again, under the federal and new provincial act, any agent acting on behalf of a corporation is personally responsible, regardless of whether that corporation as an entity is prosecuted. I want to acknowledge this gentleman in the back and Dan for having the courage to speak in an area that to me would be legally responsible – speaking on the public record, and how difficult it is to have public consultation is an area of illegality. I applaud you, gentleman from Edmonton in the back, new to Powell River, for identifying yourself as a grower, because that is a big part of the conversation that is inaccessible because people want to keep their privacy and their anonymity with their medical licences, with their licences to grow. I came to Grassroots as a client. It’s not visible but I have a long-term health issue that is not curable. There is a serial pedophile in my family, so there is no cure for my condition. So, cannabis is one of the things that I use – It’s not my only treatment. It’s allowed me to be here coherently and intelligently. There are many clients like myself that came to cannabis because of desperation. I don’t enjoy breaking the law. It’s not who I am, but to relieve my suffering, you bet. It’s a very difficult choice to make and every person who walks through the door at Grassroots has to live with that. For some people it’s a terrible, emotional, moral turmoil. Some people on the first day will walk in the door and barely have a conversation because they are law- abiding people. But the medicine they have been offered and prescribed is not working, or they have tried them all, or the side effects are too bad. I would ask our town council, right now, as medical cannabis, any cannabis that is technically medical is what is recognized through the federal government through the ACMPR, that accessing cannabis for medicinal purposes, so as a medical client with my doctor’s prescription, I’m legally allowed to get medical cannabis through a federally licensed producer, I can go through the paperwork, I can grow it myself, or I could get paperwork and get someone to grow it for me. Those are my options. I don’t have time to grow cannabis for myself. I want my life back. As with any clients, they want their lives back. It takes a lot of energy, knowledge and time to grow cannabis as the people from Santé Veritas could say to grow it well at a medicinal level. I could access large corporations, federal producers, but they don’t have the strain that physically works for my condition. For someone with a health issue like myself, or someone who is treating cancer, or is trying to get off sleeping pills, or has a terminal diagnosis, you have to have access to try different things. You have to find a strain or type of cannabis that works for you and then you have to find the delivery system that works for you. I was smoking cannabis for a long time and a doctor said my lungs were inflamed. I switched over to vaping and now I’m switching over to tinctures because vaping has an effect on my sinuses. Every time I change I have to go through I have to go through a large, I’ve got to tryout at different times of the day. There’s so many different things. It takes a lot of time and energy. If I didn’t have access to conversations at Grassroots, if I didn’t have access to things, I would be suffering. So, the question then is how do we, as these new laws come into effect, the amount that Grassroots would be in contravention of, once it passes, and every day that Grassroots is open would be a separate offence, and the employees are liable, there’s huge amounts of fines and huge jail time. Really, what we are trying to do is engage in civil disobedience and help relieve their suffering, and have options, when they feel like they don’t have options. Grassroots has up to 700 local clients. That means all of their families. They say for one person who suffers, there are six to 10 people who suffer around them. As we move through this regulation, how do we look after our neighbours and our family members and relatives? In the proposed provincial act, there are sections for exemptions, so I would ask our town council to think about the definition of medical marijuana to be simply that you have a documented medical health issue. The BC College of Physicians and Surgeons are not behind medicinal cannabis and they are recommending that if you are under 25, no cannabis. If you have substance abuse disorder, no cannabis. If you have a history of psychosis, no cannabis. I’ve had a psychotic episode. Cannabis is not going to make me crazy and cannabis is not going to cause psychosis. So, there is a lot of misinformation about these things. Not everyone has the fortune I have to have a doctor who
Page 84 of 133 supports them and who recognizes and wrote a prescription. You can define medical cannabis if you have a medically documented condition that you are using as such. So, I would encourage our town council to recognize the difference between medical and recreational cannabis. We have a constitutional right to medical cannabis. We don’t have a constitutional right to recreational cannabis. You said last time, Mac, about you assume or you hope that town council is operating within the law. We recognize this is going to go through the court system. The courts have already recognized that the government has to provide medical access to medical cannabis for people. I have nothing against Santé Veritas, it’s a great use of the Catalyst office, it’s a great industry and it’s bringing another level of cannabis, but it doesn’t fit all of the pieces and it doesn’t serve everyone. I would ask that we find a way to keep this going and I think that would be one possible way is to put forward our own definition of medical cannabis, to look at other communities to do the same thing. There’s nothing illegal about asking for a different definition. And then perhaps recognizing there are dispensaries that are operating at a medical level and serving medical purposes versus recreational. All cannabis, once federal regulations go into effect, unless it comes from a federally licensed producer, unless you are a federally licensed medical producer and it come from your designated grower, it is illicit cannabis. We are not talking about in the news how severe the penalties and the fines are for that. Again, it’s an acknowledgement of the level of risk and why people aren’t coming forward. I’ve talked to people and said why don’t you write an anonymous piece, why don’t you get your position out there anonymously. It’s because they are frightened. They have enough on their plates to deal with than this issue, on top of a terminal cancer diagnosis or an autistic child with violent tendencies. Grassroots every day relieves the suffering of a lot of people and that’s really important.
Q. Ari Neimand – Hi everyone, my name is Ari. Thanks to the City and the people from the City for giving us the opportunity to participate. We are making history here talking about legalizing cannabis locally so I’m pretty stoked to be part of that. Like last week I have some words, some different things I want to talk about. Last time we met I discussed smoking bylaws. Since then it has become clear to me that Bill 30 basically makes it impossible for most people to use cannabis anywhere or be under the effects of cannabis anywhere. I want to say intoxication is not impairment. Unlike blood alcohol levels, the levels of THC in the bloodstream is not an indication of impairment. I’d like to address specifically Question 8 from the City of Powell River cannabis survey. I’m just trying to keep it local for city stuff. Question 8 from the survey says ‘Please respond to the following statement: It is important to me that the City has the resources to enforce the new cannabis regulations it is developing. This could mean committing additional resources for enforcement.” I want to say that the new regulations are unjust and serve to create a whole new class of criminals. We fought for legalization to reduce police spending and harm from criminal records. If it’s legal, why would we need to spend more City money on enforcement? How can we gauge whether or not we agree to commit additional resources if we don’t even know what cannabis impairment is or how to test for it? It is presumed that additional resources will be necessary to police impaired driving. Presently, the RCMP report about one DUI a day or less, that’s according to the police stats in the Powell River Peak. After July 1 we won’t suddenly see an increase in the number of stoned drivers on the road. These same people who for years have been driving unimpaired after using cannabis will be driving unimpaired after using cannabis when it’s legal. A roadside drunk driving charge carries a 90-day driving prohibition. That is going to force most people into unemployment because people in rural areas tend to drive to and from work. Also, a police officer may arrest the person who is suspected of being intoxicated from cannabis in public. First offence is three months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Second offence is six months prison and a $10,000 fine. That kind of punitive legislation creates harm from cannabis where there was none. Cities in Canada have created safe injection spaces to reduce the harm from opioid addiction. Studies have shown that cannabis use helps reduce one’s dependence on opioids. The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club, they are the oldest cannabis dispensary in Canada and they are doing a cannabis substitution program where they are helping addicts with
Page 85 of 133 access to free medical cannabis to help with their addiction disorder. The City can fulfill its commitment to reduce harm from opioids by creating safe inhalation spaces. If not indoors, then perhaps special parks and shelters can be established. The people of Powell River have expressed their medical need for dispensaries, which will be forbidden to operate after Bill 30 has passed. And City Council voted to adapt bylaws to permit dispensaries. If you are asking us, with Question 8, do we agree to spend more money on enforcement, we’ve already told you no. The lawyer you hired has successfully litigated in at least eight medical marijuana dispensaries, effectively shutting them down, and restricting access for people with critical and chronic illness. I do find it disingenuous of the City to agree to licence dispensaries and then hire an advisor whose job it is to shut them down. Question 8 isn’t a question, but I’ll say that I strongly disagree that the City spend resources on shutting down medical marijuana dispensaries and arresting people that use cannabis. My questions last week were for the chief of police, so my questions were written for him. Sgt. Day, I’ll ask you anyway and maybe you can answer, maybe you can’t. I was wondering if you or the chief will be instructing officers to aggressively enforce public cannabis intoxication bylaws.
A. Sgt. Kevin Day – Our activities are centred around public safety and if it falls in line with having to enforce bylaws, then I would say yes, we would be in a position where we’d have to enforce those laws as well. You are talking specifically about bylaws?
Q. Ari Neimand – I’m talking about public intoxication – three months in prison. When I inhale cannabis, I’m fine after I inhale cannabis. Not everybody has the same effects from cannabis that I do. Some people might become severely impaired and can’t walk but you don’t see that very often. So, I guess my concern is for myself – actually more importantly for medical users who won’t be able to use at home because they live in an apartment or mobile home park. If they have to go outside and use cannabis somewhere, if they are even allowed to in the City. Technically, one could say after they have inhaled cannabis, they are intoxicated, not necessarily impaired. I’m wondering if those kinds of people are in danger of losing their liberty because they were forced outside to use their medicine.
A. Sgt. Kevin Day – we’ll still enforce the Criminal Code and the laws that surround public safety. So, if impaired driving is something that we have to investigate as a public safety issue, then I would say that is a possibility. We have drug recognition experts that are trained in various ways and I heard you talk about THC levels. I agree the jury is out on that evidence, but there are a lot of things that come into play when it comes to investigating an impaired driver. We all know that cannabis is sometimes used in conjunction with alcohol and it’s not necessarily just cannabis that we are dealing with an impaired driver. So, there are lots of things that we have to look at. We have to look at the whole picture when it comes to investigating that individual. If cannabis, with our drug recognition experts… what we have hopefully coming through is a device they say isn’t necessarily going to have a quantitative result when it comes to cannabis use, but its design will hopefully be to basically be able to tell police there’s a drug in the person’s system. From that we would then would go into a further investigation. A drug recognition expert basically goes through 10 days of training and field training. It’s a long process. There are experts in the field and I guess at the end of the day my answer to you is yes, if someone is going to take a drug, that is a possibility that they may be investigated for impaired driving and that’s a Criminal Code offense.
Q. Ari Neimand – I do have a question about impaired driving but that [former] question was specifically, it wasn’t about driving. It was about intoxication in public. So, if a person walks out of their apartment and onto the street, and inhales cannabis, then walks down to buy a cool beverage or what have you, technically, they are publicly intoxicated. I’m wondering if those people will be aggressively pursued and investigated, if you will.
Page 86 of 133 A. Sgt. Kevin Day – I think we have to wait for the legislation before I can answer that particular question.
Q. Ari Neimand – Bill 30 has already been published and we can look at it, but it has only been in the first reading, so hopefully they are going to fine-tune it because there is a lot wrong with it.
A. Sgt. Kevin Day – The police have a lot to learn. It’s so new to us and we are waiting for the legislators to basically decide this is what we are looking at. We have those questions as well.
Q. Ari Neimand – You answered some of it. I’m interested if officers will be permitted to pull someone over even without evidence of some unusual or poor driving and force them to give a body fluid sample. I’m wondering if we can expect the RCMP in Powell River to be out on fishing expeditions, randomly pulling people over as they are permitted to do to then check our bodily fluids to see if there is any kind of intoxication or impairment. To be clear, alcohol, as I understand it, the RCMP need to see there is poor or unusual driving, or perhaps somebody leaves the bar. With the new cannabis legislation, officers will be able to randomly pull people over just to check. So that’s like fishing if you will. I’m wondering if people who are driving around unimpaired and haven’t used cannabis have to be concerned that they will be randomly pulled over.
A. Sgt. Kevin Day – I don’t think anything will change as far as our procedures when it comes to grounds for these sorts of things. We have to have grounds and reasonable suspicion that a person is impaired by drugs or alcohol.
Q. Ari Neimand – That’s true for alcohol but not for cannabis in the new legislation.
A. Sgt. Kevin Day – I would suggest to you it will not be different. We will still have to have reasonable suspicion that a person is impaired. We are still waiting for the legislation. In my view, we have human right and the police have to abide by those things and treat people with respect and dignity. Therefore, we have to be reasonable in our duties. That includes having reasonable suspicion that a person is impaired. Therefore, we enter into an investigation. I don’t think we as police officers want to randomly pick on people. We have enough to do. We have a lot to do, actually. We have limited resources and we just don’t have the time to devote to that sort of thing let alone want to do something like that. From a policing perspective we have a lot to learn. I would have concerns if we weren’t acting the way we currently are.
Q. Very often, when you have a law on the books and it’s not used for a long time, it is not good to have a law on the books that is ripe for abuse. Again, if you can pull someone over and search them and take a bodily fluid with no probable cause whatsoever, that is not used in common practice, it’s not a good law to have on the books. It’s not a good thing to have those laws out there.
Q. Randy – I haven’t heard anything about use in a club or in a specific café. I’m concerned we have been talking about public consumption but I’m assuming that’s public in a park or wherever. Town council still has authority over that?
A. Mac Fraser – No sir.
Q. Randy – We have bars where we can consume alcohol, but we are not going to be able to have a location…
Q. They are not licensing them at this time.
Page 87 of 133 A. Mac Fraser – No licensing of consumption lounges, private on-sale, online sales, delivery services, sales at special events, at this time.
Q. Randy – It’s just my opinion – they are doing it ass-backwards. If they gave us some rules and regulations about where we could put it legally in a building, we wouldn’t have all of these comments and all of these problems of people doing it in public. We’ve got bars. Why don’t we just make some regulations or licensing and you guys figure out how far we need to be away from schools and all that and make it so that it’s a standard.
Q. What about craft products? Are craft products governed by municipalities, provinces, or…?
A. All cannabis production is going to be regulated by the federal government. Any type of small scale production is going to need a federal licence.
Q. So there’s no way the municipality can decide?
A. The federal government is going to have large scale production licences, smaller scale production licences, hemp production licences, nursery production licences, and that’s it. That entails all of the possible production.
Q. The feds are going to supply the provinces and the provinces are going to supply the provincial stores and the private stores that the municipalities allow. Do we know the point spread between what the cost of the cannabis will be and what the sale price of cannabis is going to be?
Q. I’ve read that the retail will be between $12 and $15 dollars per gram and the licensed producers who are producing now are saying they can produce it for as little as $2 per gram.
Q. I’m assuming that if private stores open up in Powell River they are going to have to get their supply from the provincial store in town.
A. Mac Fraser – It will come from the Liquor Distribution Branch.
Q. But we don’t know what they are going to take for a markup.
A. Mac Fraser – From the City’s perspective, the only discussion so far has been on sales tax. It’s still under discussion. The federal government has stated that it is going to take 50 per cent of the sales tax, whatever that tax might be, and BC has said it is considering taking 25 per cent and giving 25 per cent to the municipalities. Currently, we don’t access any sales tax as a municipality, so it is quite revolutionary for us. The point was raised what will be the costs and that obviously will be a function of what council chooses to regulate or not. There is a concern that if there is regulation the bulk of the cost will be at the local government level because there is profit to be made at the provincial level.
Q. Do you have any idea what the provincial cost in the retail is going to be?
Q. This is totally rumour. I have a friend that works for a licensed producer and he told me that the Liquor Distribution Branch – now this LP is presently running a website and if you have a prescription you can go onto their website and order from them directly. They sell for $10 per gram. That’s the price they get right now per gram. The Liquor Distribution Branch came to them and is willing to pay a maximum of $2.50 per gram. They have no plans to sell to them whatsoever.
Page 88 of 133 Q. So we have no idea what the cost or the retail is going to be.
Q. At this point the provincial licensing board is at $2.50 a gram or $1,200 per pound. The present going rate for quality indoor cannabis is at $2,000 per pound, so if they are willing to pay a maximum of $1,200 per pound, they are going to be getting like the worst schwag. So, it could be $2 a gram and you can’t keep the lights on. Who knows?
A. Mac Fraser – With respect to cannabis, the feds are going to determine what, the province is going to determine how, and local government is going to determine where. That’s basically the regime. Any input to changing the how or the what is advocacy.
A. Jim Palm – the one thing that I heard loud and clear tonight from the local group that is doing their own thing and the people that are here from Santé Veritas, is that Powell River has an opportunity, I believe, far beyond our imagination. In terms of what we produce, if you say Texada Gold, everybody knows where that is in the world that knows anything about marijuana. So, if there isn’t an opportunity here, there is something wrong. So, if we can get the local producers to work with the locals and somehow cross the legislation for UBCM so that we can do something on a local level, you never know where it could go. I hear you loud and clear. Thank you very much.
May 22, 2018
Q. Darlana Treloar – I lost my son to fentanyl here in Powell River two years ago. I am also a medical marijuana user. I am disappointed that this plant is being demonized, as I feel it is a safe, non- addictive medication. It has helped in so many different ways. It helps for certain cancers, epilepsy, depression, pain, sleeping and so many more ailments. I also believe it will be helpful for people suffering from substance abuse as I feel it can help people get off of opioids. While I do feel there is a need for opioid medication, in cases of cancer and chronic pain, I also believe medical marijuana can help in these areas as well and people should have the choice to use these non-addictive medications. Opioids, in my opinion, have been prescribed too quickly and over-prescribed for too many years for pain and minor problems where cannabis might be the better choice. I was introduced to cannabis oils by a friend about seven years ago when I had a relationship split. I was devastated, and it helped with my depression and sleeping. It also worked wonders with my pain. I have osteoarthritis in my back and my L4 and 5 discs are herniated. I saw specialists and I was given opioids for pain many years ago in the form of hydromorphone. I refused to take pills and that prescription did not get used. Instead, I started using cannabis in the form of oils and edibles. I have been a daily user ever since and you know what? I have no pain. My right leg is still numb to this day but there’s no pain. This medication helps my pain and helps me to relax. I sleep and function like a normal person every day. I do not use it during the day, but I take oil every evening an hour before bed. I have a good, professional job and I’m in no way a slacker. My concern is that cannabis is being treated like alcohol. Alcohol is dangerous. I don’t think cannabis is. A lot of people like myself are daily users. Another big concern is driving prohibition. THC stays in your system. How are we going to be able to test for this correctly? I feel that legalizing will demonize this plant even worse than it already was. In my opinion, the government has this all wrong. I understand the medical cannabis shops are in danger of being shut down. The have been offering a wonderful service for people like myself. They are very knowledgeable about their craft. So please go back to the table and fix this.
Q. There should be lots of models right through the States when 80 per cent of the States are legalized. I don’t know why we are reinventing the wheel up here.
Page 89 of 133 A. Scott Randolph – Just to be clear, our lawyers are not just looking at what’s happening here in Canada. They are looking at other jurisdictions. It will help them in providing advice. As it showed in the presentation, there are specific areas that municipalities are responsible for. We welcome you to give us longer submissions on how those regulations should be developed. But please take the survey as well because we do ask specific questions with regards to, should we put a limit on how many licences there should be, where should they be allowed to locate, those types of things. The good part is we are doing this across the country, rather than the American model where they are doing things State by State. My father, who had cancer, in Florida, had no access to cannabis. I remember having this conversation with him about whether he could get his hands on anything to help. I don’t think anyone is disputing the benefits. How do we allow for legal sale in the community?
Q. Smoking has become unacceptable. People don’t even smoke in their homes anymore for fear of devaluing their homes when they sell. People will be moving into their backyards. We are legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Now I can understand legalizing it for medical use, but here you have legislation for recreational use. We’ve spent decades trying to get people off tobacco and now we are legalizing marijuana. It just seems bloody ridiculous to me, for all of the years we’ve been trying to get people to quit smoking. People will be taking their smoking habits into their backyards. So now, because of the regulations around smoking, we are going to find people are smoking this stuff in their backyards. Cigarette smoke really bothers me, but cannabis smoke is going to be even worse. How are we going to regulate people from smoking this stuff in their backyards and affecting their neighbours? We know that second-hand smoke is the most dangerous. This is an issue that really boggles me. I’m going to be forced to breathe in cannabis smoke in my backyard.
Q. Can landlords forbid renters to smoke cannabis in their rental units?
A. Scott Randolph – What I’ve heard over the last couple of meetings for a number of submission is that a lot of people that are using medical marijuana aren’t smoking. They are using creams, they are using topicals, they are using edibles, so I think it would be rare if you come across somebody smoking it. According to legislation the province has drawn up, you, as landlords, can say no. Just like a strata council can say no to cultivation and no to smoking inside that strata. Under the law, you’ll be in the driver’s seat as landlord.
Q. Dan Clark – I run a cannabis dispensary in town. Smoking has been the preferred method of ingestion for a long time. You get instant response from smoking it. If you eat something it takes an hour to an hour and a half to take effect but if you smoke it, cannabis takes effect in seconds. As time goes on, one of the biggest things I’ve found running a shop is when people have other forms of consumption available, they are really into it. People appreciate edibles. A lot of people come in and say they don’t want to smoke it – it’s a very common thing to say.
Q. So I have no problem with medicinal marijuana. The benefits are great. I do agree that the smoking of it is highly offensive to those people who do not like it. If you are a cannabis smoker, you like it. You can smoke it in your houses, your cars, anywhere, but it is the most highly offensive odour that’s out there. It’s skunk cabbage, it reeks and it’s disgusting. Your comment about people smoking and getting instant benefit from it – if I have a headache and I take Ibuprofen I don’t crush it up and smoke it and my headache is gone. It takes time for Ibuprofen to get rid of my headache. Anyone who is dealing with chronic pain and wants the medicinal benefits of medicinal marijuana, they need to take it an hour or an hour and a half before. Washington State has a huge issue of the odour. Where is the City going to protect us so my quality of life and my level of comfort and enjoyment in the outdoors isn’t ruined by people smoking marijuana around my home. There was a medicinal marijuana licence on Marine Avenue near a new home that I’m building at Churchman’s
Page 90 of 133 Corner and the smell of marijuana – we thought it was skunk cabbage coming from Churchman’s Corner. The smell is absolutely rank. We ended up finding out there was a medicinal marijuana licence across the street. When I phoned up the RCMP the RCMP can do nothing. They can’t go to the person’s house, or the door – they can’t ask. This four-plant per household is a joke because there is no enforcement, there is no authority. If I suspect my that my neighbour got a licence and he can under the federal licence grow four plants, and he’s got 400 growing in his basement, there is nothing that the police can do. They can’t go to the property. I talked to an officer who tried and they had no grounds to go there. You cannot go to the door and say your neighbour suspects you are growing more. Our municipality has a noxious odour bylaw. You know that the bylaw officers can do nothing because what is noxious to me may not be noxious to you. So, the smell of marijuana, it may turn my stomach, but for you, it doesn’t bother you at all. So, when I contacted the bylaw officers to try and do something, they said they would need, and she named the high-tech machine they would need to have to measure the air quality to determine whether it was a noxious odour. I’m going to get a burning barrel and I’m going to burn rubber tires and I will blow it with a fan over the neighbour’s house. And when the bylaw officers come to my place to say it’s a noxious odour, I will say my wife and I quite enjoy the odour of burning rubber. As ludicrous as that sounds, it’s a huge issue. Is the City of Powell River looking at making recreational marijuana legal?
A. Scott Randolph – The federal government is introducing legislation legalizing the consumption of recreational cannabis.
Q. I totally agree that we’ve moved society away from smoking and here we are now promoting the smoking of marijuana. The people who are pro-marijuana smokers will tell you that there is no difference for them sitting on their patio as to me sitting on my patio drinking rye and seven or rum and Coke. Well there is because my neighbours next door behind the fence can’t smell me drinking five, 10, 15 rum and coke. The odour of smoking is going to be highly offensive.
A. Staff Sgt. Rod Wiebe – Public consumption is going to be based on what City Council decides.
Q. It’s an interesting debate tonight. It’s interesting hearing about the input that City Council wants. What we are talking about is federal legislation of recreational marijuana tonight. I’ve heard people talking at other meetings about medicinal use of marijuana. What’s being left out and what is being talked about is medical marijuana, for example, which I think a lot of people prefer to use. In my younger days I ate a brownie or two myself. With this federal legislation we are not controlling that here in the meeting. Council isn’t going to control federal legislation except having input, which we all have at election time. We can talk about what’s going on in our community. What I want to say is I don’t think there is going to be as huge an impact as some people believe with the legalization of recreational marijuana. The fact is it has been in our community now, it has been pervasive in the community for a long time. I think there will be less change than we think. What I came here tonight to talk to Council about was to ask them to avoid the temptation to replace the federal laws against recreational marijuana with municipal laws that try to do the same thing. I’m asking Council not to create a new prohibition for recreational marijuana when creating bylaws to try to do what the federal government has decided they don’t want to do. The current smoking bylaw; I’ve read it can easily be changed and modified slightly to deal with recreational marijuana and think about the impact I have on other people. I’d like to find out from Council how many notices have been made under that bylaw. I think it’s been in place since 2009. How many fines have been levied and collected against people who have violated the smoking bylaw and how much time has been spent by bylaw officers enforcing that bylaw? I think people will get used to enforcement when bylaw officers start to enforce the smoking bylaw and the costs will go down over a period of time. People have talked about smoking in private houses. My insurance policy requires that nobody smokes in my house. Nobody does. My son and daughter-in-law like to smoke but don’t ask me anymore, they
Page 91 of 133 go outside and smoke in the backyard. I’m a landlord and my tenant agreement requires that there be no smoking in my rental place. If it were to come to the point where a tenant of mine had medical requirements to smoke marijuana and that conflicted with my rights as a landlord I think there is a way to resolve that involves respecting people’s human rights. I would think that using edibles instead of smoking or smoking outside of the building would be a reasonable accommodation for that. There are ways to work those things out. You want to take care of people’s health, you want to maintain the safety of your home, you want to be able to get insurance for it, too. So, banning smoking isn’t unreasonable. I don’t think Council should put in place outright bans on retail marijuana for recreational use. I don’t think they should put overly restrictive requirements in place for processes that are too restrictive in zoning for retail marijuana. There shouldn’t be any more regulations than there are for cold beer and wine outlets. When talking about access to cannabis by youth in our community, I think that’s a serious problem. It’s not a new problem, it’s one that has been in existence and is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with. Not only should there be drug awareness programs in school, which I’m sure the school district is on top of, but also increase resources for mental health. A great deal of the drug problems and the tragedies that have happened has its roots in mental health. I’m sure the police will be as vigilant in looking for retail outlets that are serving minors as they are with liquor outlets serving minors. I think that will become a normal course of business and I don’t think it’s something to be afraid of. I’ll say again that I don’t think there will be a huge uptake in the amount of marijuana being used in this district after recreational marijuana use passes into law. I think there are going to be policing issues and policing costs. Finding out who is impaired is going to be a more difficult process. Obviously, there’s erratic driving and accidents will take place and police officers will have to make a judgement. I was talking to my son in Switzerland where they have a device that will test for roadside drug impairment. I hadn’t heard about that before. Really, what I want to say is don’t overreact, don’t try to replace federal law with local law. I haven’t smoked any marijuana for a long time and with the changes coming later this year I don’t think I’ll suddenly start doing it. I think we need to regulate it, I think we need to have bylaws in place that we can enforce that will keep one person’s pleasure from interfering with another person’s pleasure on the other side of the fence and I think that can be done. We need to do things in a reasonable way to keep Powell River the great community that it is.
A. Maggie Hathaway – When the smoking bylaw came in in 2009 it was hugely controversial because of patios and all that, and at the end of the day, the Mayor said we had no intention of enforcing it, which bothered me. Why have a bylaw that you are not going to enforce it? As far as I know I don’t think there has ever been a ticket issued under the smoking bylaw. In response to your question, I think what will happen if you have smoking in the yard next to you, and yes, that would be very annoying if you wanted to sit outside, people have the option of taking it to court for the loss quiet enjoyment in your own home. I think probably some people will and will win, and then there is a precedent. It’s been a dog’s breakfast because we got that announcement that legalization was going to happen in July, and it’s been awful for everyone involved. The federal government hasn’t completed its process and the provincial government is trying to meet the deadline, so they are attempting to roll out something, but they are not sure what. They have to wait until the feds roll out theirs and we can’t do anything until the federal and provincial do their legislation, and then we know what our role is. We can’t override federal or provincial laws. We can only do limited things. I heard that Delta, I think it was, is banning it altogether in their municipality.
A Scott Randolph – Some municipalities on the advice of their legal counsel are putting in place moratoriums in order to clear the playing field in order to develop legislation. Starting from ground zero is the thought. Comox just recently put a moratorium on all cannabis sales inside their city limits. That is to create a ground zero effect with regard to the development of legislation and how they move forward.
Page 92 of 133 A Maggie Hathaway – The other glitch is they are not going to edibles for a full year so people that use the edibles for their medication are now going to have to smoke. I would write to Rachel Blaney, who is our Member of Parliament, and say you’ve got to push this through further because what you are doing is encouraging people to smoke and we’ve spent years trying to get people to stop smoking. The City hasn’t made any decisions yet. We are having all of these public meetings to hear what people think and some of the decisions are going to be really tough. I don’t know when we will actually be sitting down and doing that.
Q. Most medical marijuana is not smoked at all – it’s edibles. It doesn’t make any sense that the government is saying yes.
Q. If you are closed-minded that it shouldn’t come to Powell River, there’s a lot more people than you think using cannabis for medical or recreational purposes than you think. If Powell River becomes a pot-free zone it is going to have a shitty effect. If you make legislation that people can’t have it, it will make people’s decisions on whether they are going to move to Powell River or not. You’d be surprised many people smoke marijuana and we’ve had no problem with it.
A. Scott Randolph – Just to back up, when it comes to the municipality there are certain things we can legislate and certain things that we can’t. And going back to the point on enforcement, we have a question in the survey regarding resources to increase the amount of enforcement that is going to be necessary if we have to. That’s one of the things we are looking for input on. Should additional resources be put into enforcing, and it could be the smoking bylaw.
Q. Don McLeod – When we go on real estate tours there are very few houses that smell of cigarette smoke. You never smell any pot smoke. I don’t know where they smoke it.
Q. This is my opinion as a former cigarette smoker and a cannabis smoker now, the smell from cigarette smoking is more pervasive somehow. It sticks with places more. This is just my anecdotal opinion. When I was a cigarette smoker I didn’t notice it but when I quit, and I’ve quit cannabis for a period of time, too. If you smoke a cigarette in a house you can still smell it a week later. If you smoke a joint in your house, if you open the doors, in three or four days the odour is completely gone. There’s no scientific rationale behind it, it’s just me anecdotally.
Q. I’m curious. The City has a bylaw against burning in my backyard. I have restricted times when I can burn. If the City can control burning, why can’t the City control people smoking marijuana in their yards?
Q. To advocate for the other side, people are being told they can’t smoke it in parks, or in the street. The only way people are going to be allowed to smoke it is in their own house, if you own your own house.
Q. The problem with that is that’s my home. I cannot drive down a different street. If I’m down at the beach and the odour is offensive, I can leave, but I can’t get out of my house, my home that I built, my castle that I want to enjoy with my family and people are smoking near it. The City of Powell River should outright ban the smoking of marijuana and only allow edibles for medicinal purposes.
Q. BC Ferries, on their brochure, they have a no smoking policy now, so you cannot smoke on their property and you cannot vape or smoke on a ferry. It has a section that says if you are a medicinal marijuana user, you are expected to deal with your health issue off-property or you are supposed to use edibles. The federal government at this point is not allowing edibles so you are caught having to
Page 93 of 133 break one law or break another law. I think this is going to go through the court system and then the federal government is going to have to respond. And last week, Ari asked about people who have rental agreements where they are not allowed to smoke in their place, they are forced to smoke outside on the street. In the new law, public intoxication from cannabis is up to three months in jail. He asked if you would target these people or if there is going to be a level of enforcement with these people because they are renters and don’t have a safe place. The response was that he was hoping the level of enforcement that the police are using now would be the same.
Q. Remember that your yard is not public. This is private. The municipality has no teeth.
Q. Cannabis should have been decriminalized, not legalized.
A. Rob Southcott – This is about the fourth meeting that I’ve been to on this issue. My impression is possibly the best thing we can do is as little as possible. Darren, I hear your concerns because I don’t like clouds of smoke coming into my backyard either. I don’t think your backyard is polluted with clouds of smoke now, is it? I don’t think it’s happening that much. I appreciate what George said here the dope has been consumed here in this town for quite a long time according to my experience. I’m not a consumer. When I was in high school here it was just as prevalent as booze. This town, I think, had the third highest youth alcohol rate in BC when we were kids. We were a whole lot crazier back then. Most of us in this room probably have kids. My impression is that the young people are a lot smarter in terms of their use of intoxicants now than we were. To get back to that point though, I am starting to feel that the best thing we could do is as little as possible, because I think, I do not expect that all of a sudden there will be clouds of marijuana smoke all over the town. If there are, that’s a problem we’ll have to deal with. We do have smoking problems that we have trouble dealing with – cigarette smoking. The huge problem here is not municipal. It’s with the federal law. I would just like to re-emphasize what Maggie said is that this needs to be fixed because it’s creating a problem. It’s almost promoting smoking, which is so ironically stupid, it’s beyond belief. I think we need to push back on that because it’s stupid. At every single meeting I’ve been to, we talk about medicinal cannabis over and over again because we all realize that works. The last thing we want to do is screw up something that is working. We have got to figure out ways to let compassion clubs do what they do and keep the rest of it very well in proportion. That’s my feeling.
A. Scott Randolph – Council does have another role than the development of regulations at a municipal level, and that’s advocacy. It was mentioned at our last meeting. There is an opportunity to urge Council to advocate on behalf of a certain issue at the federal and provincial levels. The have a voice through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, they have a voice through the Union of BC Municipalities as well, they have direct contact with ministers and government. If there is a particular issue that you feel very strongly about, I urge you to give us a written submission that will go straight to Council, so they can decide whether or not they want to act upon it.
A. Maggie Hathaway – I want to mention that next week that I’m going to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and there are tons of workshops on this very subject. I will certainly be bringing forward the issue from this little town that we don’t want to encourage people to smoke. They’ve gone about this all wrong. If anything, legalize the edibles. If it takes time to go through the Food and Drug Administration, so be it, but let’s not rush into this so somebody could become elected. That’s poor politics in my view. Admit your mistake that you rushed it. We need to step back and do it right. I will be taking forward that position and I’m not shy to stand up and speak to it.
Q. I haven’t been in your store but are a lot of people vaping because you don’t smell anything?
Page 94 of 133 Q. Dan Clark – Washington State is one of the most highly managed States. Every sale is recorded right from clone, all the way to plant. In the first year the dispensaries were open, raw flower was almost 90 per cent of their sales and three years later the raw flower had dropped to 52 per cent of their sales, and what had taken it up was edibles, extracts and vaping. In the Province of BC, vaping is counted as exactly the same thing as smoking in the laws. The health issues are actually really up in the air. If you’re smoking something and you go to vaping, that’s a health improvement. If you are doing nothing and you go to vaping, it’s not a health improvement. One of the big things about vaping is it’s a way to get people off smoking. There’s a lot of controversy about vaping right now, about the level of what you are taking into yourself, and there are not nearly as many toxic components as there are in cigarettes. If you go from smoking to vaping, that’s a good thing. That’s an improvement.
Q. I was diagnosed by a doctor who said I had lung inflammation. I have a nervous system disorder from trauma and so I was smoking cannabis very heavily. I had a smoker’s cough and was diagnosed with lung inflammation, so I moved to vaporizing. The smoker’s cough is gone. Now I’m moving from vaporizing to tinctures. But for every health issue, even if you find a strain and a medium that works for you, when you shift that and change the delivery, even if you use the same strain, from smoking it, to vaping it, to doing a tincture, it totally has different chemistry and it has different effects. Not every symptom that was working for me with smoking, it took a long time for me to shift to vaping. And from vaping, it’s hard for me to let go of vaping and move just to tinctures. With vaping, you need to be concerned about – if you’re vaping herb, you need to be concerned about mildew and mould, so you really want to make sure you know that your herb has been sourced from an ethical grower. At Grassroots, most of the supply is local so it’s people that Grassroots can work with and call on face-to-face and go in and see what they are doing and know what they are doing, versus, when you start growing larger crops, you have to start managing with more sprays and those kinds of things.
Q. Dan Clark – Canada is trying to ram this thing through and we are going to lose so much ground. We are going to lose 10 years because Canada is going into the dope business. Canadians are going out of the cope business, Canada is going into the dope business. They’ve seen the profits and they are going to take billions of dollars out of this. They are going to ram it down our throats anyway they want so they can get the billions of dollars, not just in taxes, but in raw profit. They are going to take everything between retail and growth. They are taking it all. If you really want to understand this thing, read Bill 30. Here’s how it works – you’re nothing and they are everything. That’s the way it is going to work. Smoking is the easiest and most profitable way for the government to handle this. That’s the way it’s going to be. If you don’t believe me, ask the leader.
Q. We have Santé Veritas, a multi-million-dollar company, setting up for business in the Townsite. What are the economics for the City of Powell River?
A. Scott Randolph – We get more property tax revenues because the site has been improved. We would get money out of the permitting process with regard to the construction. We get a value out of the that which is supposed to cover the costs of helping them get that done. The only other thing we get revenue from, other than indirect through the employment of people and the property tax we get from that, is business licence fees.
Q. Dan Clark – The biggest revenue generator for Santé Veritas is probably the jobs that are created.
A. Scott Randolph – That’s the indirect kick. It supports other jobs in the community, we have extra property tax revenue from people having residences, but a lot of the revenue we receive would be indirect, other than the property taxes that we levy on the actual development.
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Q. Dan Clark – Don’t you find it interesting – you hit on this a few minutes ago about the policing, isn’t it interesting that we need more policing now that it will be legal? It’s pretty funny. A. Staff Sgt. Rob Wiebe – The costs we have now are for all drugs, not just marijuana, it’s for cocaine, it’s actually for prescription medications as well – it can be an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada under impaired driving. We have drug recognition experts that we use. So, an officer will stop a vehicle, determine that the effect of a substance is in their body, we will do the roadside tests, which are absolutely the standard field sobriety tests, the old-fashioned way. If we have enough grounds we’ll read the demand, we’ll bring them back and have to call an officer in who is a drug recognition expert. That whole process takes a huge amount of time.
Q. My husband is retired RCMP and I know it is very hard to get grounds.
A. Staff Sgt. Rod Wiebe – It’s a flawed system and it’s only a matter of time before our drug recognition experts get thrown out of court, but that’s the process we have now. I know they are working on roadside for marijuana.
Q. People are going to be operating heavy equipment, cranes, tugboats, aircraft, making decisions while they are impaired.
Q. They already are. Just so we’re clear, they have been for a long time. And you’re right. It will continue to happen.
Q. If the RCMP stop somebody there are hours of reports.
Q. I have trouble with the Council and everybody else in this community allowing the drug dealers to operate without a business licence in town. We are talking about what if it’s legal, or it’s not legal right now. The RCMP is not doing anything and Council’s not doing anything. They are operating illegally right now. When all this becomes legal, how much faith do I have that Council, at the municipal level, and the RCMP, at the federal level, is going to do something? How is this community going to react?
A. Scott Randolph – That’s what this process is about. Again, I can’t stress enough, if you have comments to make outside of the survey we’ve provided, please email us or drop off a written submission to City Hall. It will be included in the package that Council reviews.
A. Maggie Hathaway – I just wanted to make a correction. Bill 30 is actually provincial legislation. I thought the province got 75 per cent of the taxation and they were going to give local governments 25 per cent of that – and the feds only got 25 per cent.
Scott Randolph – I thought Mac spoke about 50 per cent at the federal level, 25 per cent at the… We’ll have to take a look at it. The bottom line is that municipalities, for the first time ever, will receive a share of sales tax, which we’ve never had.
Q. I have a question for the RCMP officer. I’m the guardian of a young person and I’m just wondering the level of concern the RCMP has with cannabis and youth. I know with the new federal bill it’s a huge concern. My concern for the person that I’m guardian of, his young friend had a boating accident, another friend is charged with sexual assault, another friend’s mom just died of fentanyl, he is friends with people who are murderers. Cannabis is kind of down on the bottom of the list as far as there are so many other things that are at risk for young people now. To me, it’s more serious than cannabis.
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A. Staff Sgt. Rod Wiebe – So with everything there is not enough left to do whatever you want so we prioritize. The dispensaries are absolutely illegal. We’ve thrown our resources behind the fentanyl crisis right now. We’ve had extremely good luck with that. I have a hard time pulling my guys off fentanyl enforcement right now to do cannabis. Given enough resources, I’d take the dispensaries down, too, but I can’t.
Page 97 of 133 Recreational Cannabis Regulations Public Engagement Summary of Feedback Page 98 of 133 June 19, 2018 Page 99 of 133 Page 100 of 133 Page 101 of 133 Page 102 of 133 Page 103 of 133 Page 104 of 133 Page 105 of 133 Page 106 of 133 Page 107 of 133 Page 108 of 133 Page 109 of 133 Page 110 of 133 Page 111 of 133 Page 112 of 133 Page 113 of 133 Page 114 of 133 Page 115 of 133 Page 116 of 133 Page 117 of 133 Other Feedback – Overview of Issues
• Survival of Compassion Clubs and Non Profit Dispensaries • Access to higher potency extracted products • Survival of Craft Cannabis producers • Private property owners being impacted by neighbours who choose to smoke Cannabis • Enforcement of Driving Under the Influence • Enforcement of Smoking Bylaws
Page 118 of 133 • Federal Government’s backwards approach to Cannabis Regulation Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 1 of 10 NEW ITEMS from June 5 COTW Item Direction Department Status 1. Letter dated May 18, 2018 from Erik Direction to review issues raised in the letter, respond to Mr. Blaney Planning Active Blaney, SLI City Grill regarding Mobile and return to Council with a report looking into the bylaw regulations Food Truck related to mobile vendors and food trucks, scope of related business licensing and vacant commercially zoned lands. (June 5, 18 COTW) 2. Letter dated May 22, 2018 from Maureen Direction to explore maintenance options for the airport as identified in Infrastructure Active Tierney regarding Lack of Maintenance at the letter. (June 5, 18 COTW) City Airport 3. Location of Beach Volleyball Court(s) Direction to work with Dr. Yule and Mr. Rounis regarding potential PRC Active beach volleyball court locations and report to Council at a future meeting. (June 5, 18 COTW) 4. Items forwarded to Jun 21 Council Referred to Jun 21 Council meeting: Administration Active Meeting Report regarding BC Rural Dividend Matching Funds; Report regarding Townsite Development Permit Area; Report regarding BOV appointments; Report regarding 2017 Annual Municipal Report; Report regarding Election and Assent Voting Bylaw; and Report regarding Tla’amin Nation and City of Powell River Community Accord; and Report regarding Financial Plan Bylaw Amendments (Note: two bylaw amendments will come forward to upcoming Council meetings). Page 119 of 133 Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 2 of 10
PROJECTS & TASKS ASSIGNED TO DEPARTMENT WORKPROGRAMS
Administrative Services Department Item Direction Most Recent Activity Status 5. Keeping of Poultry and Rabbits Direction to review the Animal Control Bylaw with intent to Active increase the number of chickens and rabbits, and to include bylaw provisions that consider bear smart recommendations and electric fencing. (May 1, 18 COTW)
Supplementary considerations: Location and maintenance of coops; Appropriate lot size and number of animals; Minimize rat and bear problems; Possible inspections of coops and treatment of animals, with appropriate fee. (June 5, 18 COTW) 6. North Harbour Observation Jan 30, 2018 COTW: Direction to prepare report and draft April 27: anticipate report to COTW Active Camera Access video surveillance policy in July. 7. Inn at Westview Remedial Action Requirement Issued. May 10: Demolition company Active March 13 COTW: further direction, that staff was directed to retained and scheduled site visit for obtain quotations for the building removal and produce a May 19, pending WSBC and owner backgrounder on this matter for release to the media. access approvals. Jun 15: waiting for report 8. Letter from Graham Cocksedge Direction that staff to respond to this letter and others related May 10: workload/ resource Active re: Lot 450 Land and Timber to the same topic by Feb 17. (Feb 14 COTW) continues delay in response. 9. BearSmart Community Prepare Options Report on becoming a Bear Smart May 10: on hold pending Youth Active Community, in cooperation with WildsafeBC Coordinator. Council input. (Sep. 13, 2016) Supplemental direction to include amendment to the Garbage Bylaw re: not putting garbage out before 7 a.m. (Aug 15, 2017 COTW)
Page 120 of 133 Chief Administrative Officer Item Direction Most Recent Activity Status 10. Report - Local Government Direction to convene a workshop with City Council, followed April 27: workshops scheduled to Active Regulation of Cannabis by public engagement meetings. (Feb 13 COTW) obtain community input. May 10: first workshop held (May 9); two more scheduled in May; Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 3 of 10 survey response submission deadline May 31. Jun 15: Public Engagement Report scheduled for Jun 19 COTW 11. Vacant Building Bylaw Prepare Preliminary Report (Oct. 18, 2016) April 27: further review of draft Active Staff to reference Kelowna bylaw as part of review (Feb 28 bylaw and how it would be COTW) implemented is under review. Supplemental direction to make a priority project, and increase scope to include vacant lots, unsightly premise and inclusion of ticketing authority for violations. (Aug 15, 2017 COTW) Note: project moved from Planning Services to CAO 12. Tla’amin Nation Canoe Families Council agreement to support the Tla'amin Nation's offer to Jan 30: A staff report will be Active Bid for Tribal Journey Destination host the 2020 Tribal Canoe Journey in Powell River. (Nov 16 submitted after event committee 2020 Council) meets; Hɛhɛwšɩn canoe gift to be displayed in City Hall foyer March 8: waiting for event committee to meet. April 27: no further update at this time. 13. Wood Stove Exchange Program Investigate feasibility, including costs to municipality, intake March 8: PRRD CAO is researching Active dates and experiences in other communities. (Nov 17, 2015) as a regional project. 14. Transit and Alternative Options Request that Councillor Brewer and CAO followup regarding Active for Transportation Web- the offer from a lower mainland transit and alternative Conference options group who would host a webconference for City staff and council members; the focus appears to more effective use of existing infrastructure. (Oct 31 COTW) 15. Zero Waste Corporate Policy Staff directed to work with the “Let’s Talk Trash Team” to May 10: Waste audit complete; Active develop strategies that promote and implement zero waste recommendations being efforts at City events and at all civic facilities, including the implemented. Recreation Centre. (Feb 14 COTW) Direction to also consider a policy on zero waste projects
Page 121 of 133 (such as building renovations). Bring to a future Committee of the Whole meeting. (Mar 14 COTW) 16. Regional Social Advisory Draft Terms of Reference (Aug. 18, 2016) Oct 24: Social Planning Program Active Committee New direction; Draft Terms of Reference for a region-wide final report received 16 October approach in cooperation with TN and PRRD (Nov 1, 2016 and under review by three CAOs COTW) May 10: PRRD has approved Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 4 of 10 participation in SAPAC; awaiting TN confirmation of participation. 17. Municipal Response to Truth and Develop actions for approval by Council to implement the calls March 8: report coming forward to Active Reconciliation Report to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee Final March 13 COTW Report that explicitly recognize the role of municipal May 10: municipal calls for action government. Note: Item #47 in the report requires a greater approved; implementation level of detail (Jul 7, 2016 Council) forthcoming
Direction to investigate options for presentation of the blanket exercise and report back to Council at a future meeting. (March 13, 2018 Council)
Economic Development and Communications Item Direction Most Recent Activity Status 18. Delegation regarding Proposed Direction to send a letter to the Province requesting that Active Changes to Municipal and there be community engagement and discussion, as well as Regional District Tax opportunity for input, prior to proposed changes to the MRDT. (May 1, 18 COTW) 19. City Lease Rates Review existing rates and prepare options report. (Apr 28, Oct 4: Project being contracted out. Active 2016 FC) Note: item moved from Finance to Economic Development 20. Dangers of Inhaling Compressed Direction that staff prepare a news release regarding the May 10: On hold pending further Active Air, aka “Canned Air” dangers of inhaling compressed or ‘canned’ air with name research. brands such as ‘Dust-Off’; staff to send letters to local stores who may sell these products requesting that they do not sell to children and consider moving the products to secure areas in the store.
Financial Services Department Item Direction Most Recent Activity Status 21. Social Procurement Policy Prepare report & draft policy (Feb 4, 2016) Oct 4: Staff are reviewing the Pending Prepare draft social procurement policy request confirmed activities and progress of the
Page 122 of 133 (Nov 1, 2016) “Vancouver Island Social Prepare a report to address social procurement (July 18 Procurement Committee” COTW) addressing this matter.
Infrastructure Services (includes Engineering, Operational Services, Transit and Wharf) Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 5 of 10 Item Direction Most Recent Activity Status 22. Letter dated from Chamber of Direction to respond to the letter and include the City's Active Commerce regarding Lack of Purchasing Policy indicating the City's support of local Support for Local Business businesses. (Apr 17, 18 COTW) 23. Correspondence regarding City Direction to provide, at no charge, the use of City bus service, Active Bus Service, Pool and Weight Recreation Complex pool and weight room for Kathaumixw Room Use for Kathaumixw 2018 participants: and, that the Kathaumixw organizing Participants committee be advised to make application for grant-in-aid funding in future years. (May 1, 18 COTW) 24. Correspondence regarding Traffic Direction to prepare an options report by the end of June that Active and Student Safety at Brooks addresses the concerns raised in Mr. Eskes submission, Secondary and Henderson including weight restrictions, signage, reduction of speed Elementary limits, sidewalks, truck routing and establishing a heavy truck permitting system. (May 1, 18 COTW) 25. Delegation regarding Traffic Direction to review the safety issues raised in the April 16, Active Safety Concerns - North Side of 2018 letter; and, implement immediate solutions and provide Cranberry Lake a verbal update at a future Committee of the Whole meeting. (May 1, 18 COTW) 26. Letter regarding Vehicle Direction to provide an options report to reduce vehicle April 27: traffic monitoring has Active Accidents on Harvie Street near speeds along Harvie St, near Quality Foods, including started; report expected late Quality Foods consideration of roundabouts, speed bumps and alternate summer. traffic flow. 27. Letter from Townsite Ratepayers Direction that a letter of support be provided to assist the TRA April 27: staff has arranged to meet Active Association regarding with grant proposals, and that staff review the proposal and when TRA Chair is back in town. Streetscaping provide an options report to assist with implementation. 28. Letter from Townsite Ratepayers Direction that a letter be sent to the TRA advising that the City April 27: staff preparing response Active Association regarding is waiting for Minister’s response to TRA letter; the City letter with planning input re: sec 21. Wastewater Treatment Plant shall include previous Ministerial approval letter; and include Consultation comments in response to section 21 enquiries. 29. Traffic Study, portion of Joyce Direction to undertake a traffic study along Joyce Ave corridor April 27: staff has identified as a Active Ave between Lytton St and Duncan St, taking into account impacts project and initiated collected of from current, proposed and potential future developments. information.
Page 123 of 133 30. City Buildings Energy Efficiency Direction to prepare a report to Council for funding of City April 27: LED lighting is being Active Recommendations buildings’ energy audits and engineering studies. (Feb 22, pursued for City Hall and Public 2017 FC) Works. Recreation Complex will follow. 31. Garburators Direction that staff bring a report forward on proposed April 27: identified as items for Pending amendments to the existing sewer bylaw that would ban consideration when sewer bylaw is Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 6 of 10 garburators from being installed in new construction, and reviewed. would prohibit the use of garburators in commercial spaces subject to a potential phasing-in period. 32. Traffic Bylaw 2412, 2016 Prepare report and amendments to Traffic Bylaw 2412, April 27: Engineering and Bylaw Active 2016 as proposed in January 19 report, along with Enforcement staff working on new inclusion of truck route map. (Jan 19, 2016) draft. Direction to include a default speed limit of 40 km/hr in Jun 15: draft bylaw under review, areas where no other limit is posted. (Jan 31 COTW) as time permits. Staff requested to include parking options in relation to Larch Ave matter raised at Feb 19, 2015 Council meeting (Feb 28)
Supplemental direction related to Excessive Speed Limits on Roads near the Westview Ferry Terminal: review the speed limits of the roads in the area with consideration of reducing the speed limit to 30 km/hr; consider other ways to reduce traffic speeds, and consider enforcement options related to parking and blocking of driveways and streets. (Oct 3 COTW)
Supplemental direction related to maintenance and care of boulevards, including options related to property owners/ occupiers to care for these areas adjacent to their lot, and opportunities for volunteers to assist. (Jun 5, 18 COTW) 33. Dynamic Modelling Prepare report on dynamic modelling and how it will impact April 27: waiting for consultants Active inflow and infiltration mitigation. (Dec 3, 2015 COTW) report 34. Solar Energy Production Prepare report assessing solar energy production feasibility at Active Feasibility Recreation Complex, Willingdon Beach Pavilion and Library (Aug 30, 2016 COTW) Page 124 of 133
Parks, Recreation and Culture Department Item Direction Most Recent Activity Status Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 7 of 10 35. Christmas Lighting along Marine Direction that staff investigate the Christmas Lighting along April 27: BC Hydro was involved Pending Ave Marine Ave with the Marine Avenue Business Association and previously. Item moved from Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. Infrastructure to PRC department as it relates to a cultural initiative. 36. Wild Ocean Whale Society Staff to followup with Ms. McKay regarding: installation of May 10: scheduled for May 17 Active Support marine mammal interpretive signage at the viewpoint, Council. Done Willingdon Beach and seawalk parking area; installation of permanent public use binoculars at the viewpoint. 37. Possible Seniors’ Council, or Request that the idea of a seniors’ advocacy group, or seniors Feb 23: grant received; report to Active Seniors’ advocacy working group; ‘council, be included on the December 12 C3 meeting agenda. come forward early summer. and Community Leaders’ (Oct 31 COTW) Dialogue on Aging in Powell River Prepare a report on implementation of items identified in the document that can be readily achieved. 38. Dog Parks Report Direction to (Sept 5 COTW): Apr 27: Public Meeting Scheduled Active prepare draft amendments to the Animal Control Bylaw to May 2, 7:00-8:30pm, Recreation address issues related to not cleaning up after animals, Complex-Elm Room dogs digging holes on sports fields, aggressive animals, May 10: Public Meeting held May community outreach, communication, enforcement 2; report forthcoming. options and so on; prepare a report regarding additional off leash dog parks, beaches and trail systems, including commenting on shelters, shading, potable water, parking and washroom facilities. 39. Recreation Complex Fee Direction to include amendment to the bylaw in November Feb 23: On hold pending fees and Active Schedule - Family Passes 2017 such that the disparity with family pass rates between charges bylaw discussions. two parents with one child, and the cost for a single parent March 26: Report anticipated for with one child is corrected. (Aug 15, 2017 COTW) April 26 Finance Committee.
Planning Services (includes Building Inspection and Business Licensing) Item Direction Most Recent Activity Status 40. Report regarding ALC Decision of Direction that staff work with the ALC compliance & May 10: staff in discussions with Active
Page 125 of 133 a portion of Hemlock enforcement officer, and provide a report to the April 19 C&E section of ALC Council meeting with ideas and options that demonstrate good faith and proactively addresses ALC non-compliance concerns, including but not limited to: offering other land for ALR inclusion, establishing community garden within the Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 8 of 10 ‘loop’, limiting access along the loop to emergency vehicles only; 41. Letter regarding Short-term Direction to refer letter to Housing Committee for Active Housing Rental Issues & Airbnb consideration and file in the Airbnb file. (Feb 13 COTW) Policy 42. BC Energy Step Code Direction to prepare report on implementation of the BC Pending Energy Step Code 43. Development Permit Guidelines Direction for staff to prepare amendment bylaw to DPA Pending Amendment guidelines to prohibit the use of vinyl siding. (Dec 21 Council) 44. Development Permit Issuance Direction for staff to review the City's Delegation Bylaw with Pending Delegation Review regard to threshold amounts in which staff are delegated the authority for issuing development permits for facade improvements. (Dec 19 COTW) 45. Solar Ready Homes Direction to prepare a report on amending City of Powell River Pending Building Bylaw 2141, 2007 to require all new construction in the City to be solar-ready. (Aug 17 COTW) 46. Electric Vehicle (EV) Ready New Direction to prepare a report implementing EV-ready Pending Construction infrastructure requirements into the Zoning Bylaw, the report shall include information on new construction cost estimates; for clarity the proposed charging stations are for overnight charging, not the fast charging units. (Nov 2 Council) 47. Business Façade Improvement Direction for staff to bring a report to Council regarding Pending Program establishment of a Business Façade Improvement Program, and that the Finance Committee allocate $25,000 to the Planning Department Special Project budget. 48. Tree Protection Bylaw Review Tree Protection Bylaw Review with scope to include: Pending maximum height of trees and protection of viewscapes; addressing concerns raised by delegate Trish Barnsley at the Jun 13 COTW meeting; and that amendments to the bylaw be more equitable, flexible and in keeping with other jurisdictions that regulate tree cutting. (Oct 18, COTW; Note this item was on previous Action Lists)
Page 126 of 133 49. Rezoning Penticton Trails Area to Prepare draft amendments to the SOCP and Zoning bylaws Apr 18: revised direction Pending Parks Use such that the city-owned land bound by Penticton Street, May 11: task to be completed in Mackenzie Avenue and Teakerne Street, up to the proposed collaboration with PRC Dept. Manson Avenue extension be changed to park use. (Apr 18, July 18 COTW: Direction to staff to COTW) consider this item more urgent Nov 9: No update provided at time Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 9 of 10 of agenda publication. 50. Affordable Housing Options Identify key City-owned properties that could potentially be Jun 30: meetings being arranged Active provided to not-for-profit housing providers to construct new with stakeholders and ratepayers. affordable housing buildings. (Dec 13 COTW) Nov 9: No update provided at time of agenda publication. 51. Airbnbs and B&Bs Direction to prepare a report that may regulate short-term Jan 17: Open House held Active rentals, including Airbnbs; report shall include public engagement process options. (Aug 15, 2017 COTW) Direction to raise this as a higher priority item; many other communities are engaged in this work and staff could consider retaining consultants to assist with the project. (Oct 3 COTW) 52. Townsite Heritage Conservation Prepare options report recommending ways implement SOCP Nov 9: Action to be initiated when Active guiding principles for Townsite. (May 3, 2016 COTW) higher priority items or time Direction to raise this as a higher priority item. (Oct 3 COTW) sensitive development applications Direction to staff to consider retaining a consultant who completed or when additional specializes in heritage preservation and that a committee be staffing is available considered. (Dec 19 COTW) 53. Steep Slope Bylaw Dec 1, 2015 COTW: Logging/Water Management Above Nov 9: Action to be initiated when Pending Timberland: Council discussed the potential impacts of logging higher priority items or time on land with a slope greater than 30% and the impending sensitive development applications logging on property near Timberlane. completed or when additional By unanimous consent staff was directed to prepare a staffing is available report with policy recommendations, such as a development permit area, to address areas with a slope greater than 30%. By unanimous consent staff was directed to request a copy of any geotech or hydrologist reports from Catalyst and Island Timberlands regarding the area in the vicinity of the Timberlane barracks. 54. ALC Inclusion Proposal Prepare options report for an ALC inclusion application for 30 Apr 18: further work pending Active acres of Airport Land Reserve. (Sep 29, 2015) completion of soil capacity analysis
Page 127 of 133 Direction to raise this as a higher priority item. (Oct 3 COTW) July 18 COTW: Direction to staff to Direction to spend up to $10,000 to conduct an Agricultural consider this item more urgent Capability Study of the non ALR portions of the City’s Airport Nov 9: report scheduled for Nov 16 Surplus Lands, funded from prior years surplus. COTW meeting.
Topics and Information Items for Future Reference Follow Up Action List: Updated June 15, 2018 Page 10 of 10 Item Description Follow Up 55. AVICC/UBCM Resolutions Topics identified for possible AVICC/UBCM resolutions: TBD December 2018 56. Future Strategic Planning Items for consideration: Session Renovations to Dwight Hall (Jan 12, FC) 2018 Renovations to City Hall (Jan 12, FC) Zero Waste (Mar 14, COTW) Options to enhance public transportation and transit (Apr 4, COTW) Strategic Planning session scheduled for June 2018 57. 2019 Financial Plan Process The following were identified throughout the year for consideration in the 5 Year Financial Plan 2019 Budget process: Process Wood Stove Exchange Program (Jul 19, 2015; topic with the Sustainability Committee); New Fire Hall (design in 2017; possible 2018 budget requirements); North and South Extensions to Seawalk; Use of ‘Citizen Budget’ as part of consultation process; 58. 2019 and Beyond Items Identified as Possible, Future Projects and Tasks: Email dated Jan 7, 2017 from Paul Gravette, Animal Control Bylaw regarding Support for the Proposed Heritage Tax City Wellness Program Credit Smoking Regulation Bylaw 2232, 2009 Planning Committee Free Parking at PR Hospital Proposed Timberlane Estates Zoning Amendment Affordable Housing Reserve Fund on Hemlock Street Improve Pedestrian Access from Putters Mini- Grief Point/ Westview Neighbourhood Golf to Marine Avenue Development Permit Area Review of Infrastructure Design and Construction Bylaw Amendments to Regulate Marijuana Bylaw Dispensaries Crosswalk near Tofino Street and Joyce Avenue Community Amenity Contribution Bylaw Curbside Solid Waste Implementation Plan Development and Subdivision Fees and Charges Single-use Plastic Bags Lieutenant-Governor Request to Amend Section 21 Boundaries Council Policy 230 - Civic Facilities Naming 4315 Marine Ave Page 128 of 133 BYLAW TRACKING LIST AMENDMENT PARENT BYLAW SUBJECT MATTER 1ST READING 2ND PUBLIC 3RD ADOPTION COMMENTS BYLAW # READING HEARING READING DATE 2502 SOCP, 2370, 2014 Millsite Industrial April 5 April 5 June 7 2503 Zoning, 2100, 2006 Millsite Industrial April 5 April 5 June 7 2505 Zoning, 2100, 2006 A1 to R2 ZA 86 May 10 May 10 June 7 7345 Warner 2498 Zoning, 2100, 2006 ZA 83 April 19 April 19 May 17 June 7 conditional Alberta Avenue 2499 Zoning, 2100, 2006 ZA 84 April 19 April 19 May 17 June 7 conditional Westview at Joyce 2518 Financial Plan Five-Year Financial N/A Bylaw 2501 Plan 2517 New Bylaw Election Voting N/A 2516 SOCP, 2370, 2014 Townsite Development Permit Area 2513 SOCP, 2370, 2014 Residential Small 17-May Public and builder Lots consultation occurring 2514 Zoning, 2100, 2006 Residential Small 17-May Public and builder Lots consultation occurring 2512 will repeal 2431 Harbour Rates and June 7 N/A Regulations Unanimously Defeated Page 129 of 133
May 10, 2018
To Mac, Tor, Shawn and CaroleAnn,
Thank you for participating in a waste audit. The waste streams of four City facilities were audited; City Hall, Service Centre, North Harbour and South Harbour. A random sampling of two garbage bags collected over 24 hours from each facility was taken and analyzed. As is commonly found, most waste (~90%) is compostable. Specific details from each facility can be seen below.
City Hall
Total weight of incoming garbage approx: 2lbs Material Weight / Volume Notes Organics 1.7lbs 99% paper towel – likely bathroom garbage Paper Recycling 0.2lbs Mixed paper Actual Garbage 0.1lbs Feminine hygiene products and one used paint roller
After diversions, weight of actual garbage: 0.1lbs (99% diversion possible).
Recommendations: • Consider setting up a ‘paper towel only for composting’ collection in the bathroom to divert all paper towels. This collection can be added into the City’s curbside composting pilot program. Encourage use of real dish ware for gatherings or events, wooden or fettuccine noodles for stir sticks that can be added into the compost stream, easy access to paper recycling (at desk and copy centre) and ‘Container’ recycling and compost collection in the lunch room.
Service Centre
Total weight of incoming garbage approx: 9lbs Material Weight / Volume Notes Organics 6lbs Mostly Paper towels with some food scraps Paper Recycling 0.4lbs Mixed paper and cardboard
Page 130 of 133 Other Recyclables 2lbs Coffee cups, lids, 21 unused single-use creamers, 10 yogurt containers, disposable water cups, pen *Laminate Plastic 0.25lbs Candy, chocolate bar and granola wrappers Refundables 2 bottles Actual Garbage 0.3lbs Plastic stir sticks amongst other actual trash.
After diversions, weight of actual garbage: 0.3lbs (97% diversion possible).
Recommendations: • Large Tim Hortons to-go coffee bag in paper carrying box with to-go cups, lids and single-use creamers were found, used for an office meeting perhaps. Just over a litre of coffee was remaining in the foil bag –remove excess liquids before putting in the trash and consider purchasing a larger (250mL or 1L) cream to accompany coffee carafe instead of using single- use creamers. Consider in-house coffee preparation instead of to-go option. • Wooden stir sticks or fettuccine noodles are a good replacement to plastic stir sticks as they both can be placed in the compost. • If a workplace recycling collection for the ‘Container’ stream is not possible, encourage staff to take home lunch items that can be placed into their residential recycling. • Encourage staff to bring to go mugs to work or use real mugs for coffee/beverage distribution if there is access to a sink in the staff room for dish washing. If continued use of disposable to go cups are used, ask staff to put aside unused cups and lids instead of disposing. Reminder that to-go cups and lids, if rinsed clean, can go into curbside or Container recycling.
North Harbour
Total weight of incoming garbage approx: 8 lbs Material Weight / Volume Notes Organics 6lbs 3/4rds of this volume was paper towels Paper Recycling 0.2lbs mixed paper Other Recycling 0.2lbs plastic bags, containers Refundables 0.5lbs Water bottles, alcohol bottles Textiles 1lbs 2 damp t-shirts, underwear and pair of socks Actual Garbage 0.2lbs Dryer lint and dog poo in a bag
After diversions, weight of actual garbage: 0.2lbs (98% diversion possible).
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Recommendations: • If there is access to the City’s curbside organics pilot program, setting up a separate collection for paper towels for composting would divert a significant amount of what looks to be bathroom generated waste. • Adding a Return-It collection container for refundables. If access to container is outside, • ‘binners’ may empty out this collection reducing the need for any staff labour. Free outdoor and indoor Return-It collection containers are available through the Return-It program. • Post information on available recycling options in Powell River including clothing recycling.
South Harbour
Total weight of incoming garbage approx: 3lbs Material Weight / Volume Notes Organics 2.75lbs All paper towels Paper Recycling 0.2lbs mixed paper *Laminate Plastic 0.05lbs Chocolate bar wrappers Refundables 0.1lbs Water bottles and alcohol containers Actual Garbage 0.1lbs cigarette butts, sanitary pad
After diversions, weight of actual garbage: 0.1lb (99% diversion possible). Recommendations: • Same as North Harbour.
* Flex Plastic packaging collection will begin June 1, 2018. Laminate plastics such as candy wrappers, chip bags, foil drink pouches, foil coffee bags, etc. will be collected at all recycling depots to be used for recycling research and development and as engineered fuel. This is a new diversion stream that can be added for collection though reducing this type of packaging will have a more significant impact.
Zero Waste Staff Meetings or Event Considerations: The most common waste generator in the work place comes from single-use disposable items when there is a large staff meeting or event. The seemingly convenient single-use cups, creamers and snacks are a go-to. A simple solution to go ‘Zero Waste’ for these situations is to equip the office place with a Zero Waste tote. Let’s Talk Trash can create a model tote for both City Hall and the Service Centre.
Zero Waste Event totes are typically filled with mugs, small plates, cutlery and pre-made reusable labels for milk, cream, sugar, clean and dirty spoons. If coffee is being served, opting for a reusable
Page 132 of 133 carafe filled with coffee instead of a disposable type carafe would be preferred but the major source of generated waste comes from the single serving items such as cream, sugar, stir sticks, to-go cups and lids.
Choosing bulk sugar and redistributing into smaller containers and purchasing a larger milk or cream for an event to replace single-use serving sized creamers results in a significant impact over the course of a year.
The common hurdle in choosing to eliminate single-use disposable items is dish washing time. Employees that bring personal to-go mugs can assist in reducing this endeavour. Another relatively easy way around this perceived hurdle is to invest in a staffroom dishwasher. Each person can load their dish ware in and once the cycle has completed, the totes can be restocked.
Reconfiguring office culture away from single-use disposable items is a challenge. A first step is to set up well marked and easily accessible composting and recycling collection stations. If purchasing single-use items, choices can be made to select single-use disposable items that are recyclable or compostable. For example, picking up wooden stir sticks or fettuccine noodles for coffee stirring and paper plates and napkins which can all be added to a compost collection. When choosing disposable compostable items, no compostable plastics (glasses and cutlery) are accepted in the compost pilot collection stream.
Waste elimination and diversion can add both a cost savings over the long term and instill environmental values into office culture resulting in team building and fostering a stronger sense of place routed in sustainability.
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