On March 27 Village of Canal Flats Council met for a regular council meeting.
First up for discussion on the agenda was a Temporary Use Permit (TUP) for a property located at 8855 Dunn St. As the property belongs to councilor Anora Kobza, she recused herself while council heard from a third party about the application and the steps that have been taken so far.
The TUP, if granted, would allow animals such as a few cows, goats and chickens to be kept on the property. The previous council had voted on the TUP and tied, defeating the application. The Village’s current council voted to instruct staff to schedule a public hearing about the application.
Council received a letter from Minister of Municipal Affairs Anne Kang informing them the community will receive $817,000 from the Growing Communities Fund. This funding comes from the province with a principal objective to increase the local housing supply with investments in community infrastructure and amenities.
Staff provided reports to council about ongoing work. The report from Fire Chief Zacc Farrell included updates on the recently formed FireSmart Committee, which has seven members.
He also reported they were successful with two grant applications, the first from UBCM for $30,000 will fully outfit all members with wildland fire equipment, which is very different from structural fire gear. The grant will also purchase a training dummy, smoke machine and ventilation fan.
The second grant, from the Columbia Basin Trust, will support the fire department to purchase and begin to outfit a structure protection unit trailer for better storage and transportation of current and future equipment like sprinklers.
Arena manager Mathieu Fournier reported they hosted four out of province hockey tournaments in February in addition to hosting other skating events.
A Development Variance Permit (DVP) which was originally brought to council March 13 was approved unanimously. Staff had informed all properties within a 100m radius and received no responses. The DVP will allow the homeowner to rebuild a garage that was destroyed by fire while re-using the original foundation. A DVP was needed as the previous building didn’t adhere to current zoning setbacks.
After much discussion over a few previous council meetings, council voted to change the time of Committee of the Whole meetings as of April 11. Committee of the Whole will now meet at 2:30 p.m. on the second Monday of each month.
Council then unanimously supported an application to the UBCM Community Emergency Preparedness Fund for a grant to purchase radios to be used by the Village’s emergency management team in the event of emergency.
Finally, council authorized the chief administrative officer to sign a road use agreement with Certainteed that outlines how Certainteed will operate and utilize our roadway between Grainger and Highway 93/95. The agreement includes things like maintenance, access and hauling hours.
