Byelection Planning Spurs Special Meeting

Back-to-back meetings cover a lot of ground

Byelection planning led the agenda at a pair of jam-packed Council meetings on Tuesday evening.

The scheduled Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting was pushed back late last week to allow for a Special Meeting and two closed sessions of Council.

In spite of the loaded agenda, attendance was down as the public part of the special meeting got underway at 7 p.m., with a total of nine residents present online (including Mayor Ken Berry) and none in the gallery.

The meeting opened with discussion about the need for an administrator to oversee the upcoming byelection to fill the vacant Council seat left by the resignation of Marcus Reuter in February.

Councillor Neville Abbott reminded Council that traditionally, with the exception of the byelection held earlier this term, a member of staff has taken on the position of Chief Electoral Officer. He also noted that the budget is also unlikely to exceed $15,000.

However, in light of the continuing state of local emergency taking up staff time, Council directed staff to procure three bids for an external election services provider. Once a chief electoral officer is in place, the byelection must be held within 80 days.

Council also approved a draft resolution to take to the upcoming Lower Mainland Local Government Association (LMLGA) conference on strengthening regional emergency management capacity, of particular concern in light of the recent deadly landslide.

A proposed zoning bylaw amendment to permit Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) in the Village was shot down by Council on several grounds. Abbott argued that the amendment is not necessary as the existing bylaw already allows for cottages and lane housing. He noted that that bylaw was a result of a long and thorough public consultation in 2017, and that changes should not be made without similar public engagement.

Councillor Jaime Cunliffe said that she feels it inappropriate that Lions Bay is being held to the same standards as cities such as Burnaby and New Westminster, and is prepared to lobby to have the Village exempted from this regulation.

Also unsuccessful was an attempt to gain a second reading of the 2025 draft budget, with Abbott and Cunliffe both concerned about specific details that had been discussed in prior meetings but remained unchanged in the current draft. Cunliffe questioned the $140,000 set aside for dangerous tree removal, noting that she didn't want to see this part of the budget become a slush fund for tree removal without Council oversight.

Discussion also included parking fines and legal fees, before the motion to give the draft budget second reading was defeated.

Financial Officer Joe Chirkoff, speaking on behalf of Chartered Public Accounting firm MNP (page 47 of the agenda) said that the firm is satisfied the financial information presented to them is accurate to the end of December, 2023, and that their finalized audit is almost ready to present.

Annual Municipal reports, including financial audits, are required to be submitted by June 29 each year. This audit was due in June of 2024, and similarly, the Municipal report for 2024 will be expected this June.

To close the special meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Ross Blackwell presented what he called a snapshot of highlights from the 2024 annual report for the information of Council. No similar report has yet been produced for 2023.

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In the interests of attending residents, after moving to a new online meeting link, the Committee of the Whole meeting opened by amending the agenda to move the closed portion to the end of the meeting.  

Councillor Michael Broughton reminded everyone that the Celebration of Life for Barbara and David Enns will be held this Saturday from 1 - 3 p.m.

Berry steered the group through the approval of the minutes of previous COW meetings, held on October 15, November 6, and December 3 of last year, along January 7 and February 4, 2025.

Bear Smart Chair Norma Rodgers once again addressed Council with her concerns that the proposed garbage collection bylaw amendment will lead to increased wildlife interaction if enacted.

Rodgers noted that leaving out recycling overnight is problematic when so many residents do not clean their jars or containers. She said that reverting to a 5 a.m. roadside placement time for garbage and food waste exposes wildlife attractants for many more hours, and that similar timing in the past meant that the Village "routinely experienced garbage strewn roads, and bears aggressively guarding this food source and being killed as a result."

She said that the current collection times follow provincial recommendations, and are staggered to further reduce the time attractants are accessible to wildlife.

There was a brief discussion of some of the items found in the Action Log on page 22. Abbott reminded staff that MLA Jeremy Valeriote has offered to help the village in finding and applying for grants as a rural community. Discussion also touched on the province's request to know what steps are being taken in response to the recommendations made by the provincial advisor.

CAO Blackwell advanced the idea of surveying (page 23) residents to judge public satisfaction with Village services such as snow removal and street cleaning. He said surveys such as these give "a snapshot of the temperature" in the community with regard to operations, and to help staff judge priorities for the future.

In a similar initiative, Blackwell asked if Council was interested in seeing staff develop a program to encourage public engagement through the presentation of speakers who could address topics of ongoing interest to residents such as aging in place.

Blackwell called this a "community empowerment initiative" designed to stimulate dialogue and discussion in the community, and said it could potentially bring information forward to help prepare residents for upcoming official community plan (OCP) discussions.

Both these suggestions were supported by Council, with the caveat that neither should be offered during the upcoming period prior to the byelection.

Prior to the vote, bylaw enforcement officer Taj Bindra spoke in favour of amendments to the garbage and recycling bylaw. Bindra said that his discussion with the waste collection company showed that adding extra trucks to the weekly service would be expensive, and overly complicate their staffing procedures, and that in practice, so-called bear-proof bins prove to be anything but.

Abbott noted that bear-proof containers are known as 'meals on wheels' in the Bear Smart community, and said "the only effective way to reduce bear interaction is to reduce the time waste sits at the curb."

He noted that the issue is not as divisive as it is being portrayed and that emails in support of the current collection program outnumber the total of three complaints received.

Broughton said he objected to the tactics of the current Bear Smart committee and was supporting staff by voting in favour of the bylaw amendment. The motion was defeated with Broughton and Berry voting for the new amendment and Abbott and Cunliffe voting to maintain the current bylaw.

At Broughton's request, Blackwell closed the meeting with a brief update of the status of the Lions Bay Beach Park project. He noted that in the recent workshop, Council had an opportunity to work one-on-one with architect Nick Bray and builder EuroHouse. He said he was not privy to the event, but his understanding is that Bray will return with revised plans to bring before Council for consideration. Should that go smoothly, he said he anticipates moving the project toward an end-of-September start date.

The grant deadline is March 31, 2026*.

The meeting then moved into a closed session of Council. The next regular meeting of Council is scheduled for March 18 at 6 p.m.

(Editor's note: Grant deadline is March 31, 2026, not December 31, 2025 as previously stated.)

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