There is a lot happening in terms of municipal politics in Fort St. James — several residents have registered complaints in regard to the 12.5 percent tax increase; All roads into Nak’azdli Whut’en have been blocked and the community has not provided Fort St. James municipal staff including protective services with any prior information leading to the blockades; the 2019 water services report is being discussed in the next regular public meeting and more.
Caledonia Courier staff have broken down all these activities happening in Fort St. James with all the information available via municipal documents dated April 28, 2020.
Nak’azdli Road Blockades
The protective services report prepared by Steven DeRousie, fire chief, provides information to district council in regard to emergency response planning and preparation for Fort St. James, Rural Regional District Fire Protection Area(s), and Nak’azdli Whut’en.
On April 2, Nak’azdli communications office advised of check point signage to be placed on reserve entrance roads on Friday, April 3.
On April 20, mid-day, some roads into Nak’azdli were discovered physically blocked without any prior notification to the fire chief from the band council of their intent to do so.
Late afternoon on April 20 itself all roads into Nak’azdli have been blocked or otherwise controlled.
The fire chief has provided all firefighters, district management team and everyone else involved of maps of the blocked roads.
As a result, the fire chief and emergency operations centre are now following Nak’azdli’s Facebook page to find information or announcements being made by the First Nation community.
Nak’azdli Whut’en’s communication coordinator sent a response to the Caledonia Courier on Monday, April 27 at 11:55 am. Tarina Honeywell said that the following steps have been taken by Nak’azdli during COVID-19:
- Helping members understand the danger of COVID-19.
- Added checkpoints in Nak’azdli, where they have only two access points to the general public and two additional emergency access points which according to Honeywell, has been conveyed to the police, ambulance and fire departments.
- Weekly updates from Chief Alexander McKinnon to band members.
- Band members have also been encouraged to enter into a video contest and win a PS4. Additionally each entry gets a gift card. These videos have to be made at home while in isolation.
“We felt the need for the check points because we spent a weekend observing the traffic flow and found that there were over 700 vehicles that did not belong to Nak’azdli residence’s. We are trying to keep our elders and members safe and with that amount of unnecessary traffic we can’t risk someone falling ill, that is why we have implemented the check points with security. Only essential services are being allowed on Nak’azdli,” Honeywell told the Caledonia Courier.
Budget Comments
Council is ‘receiving’ comments submitted by residents regarding the 2020-2024 municipal budget. However, council will also be approving the budget as presented in the April 28 meeting. It is not clear whether the comments presented by Fort St. James residents will be taken into consideration. The Caledonia Courier has reached out to the District office for more clarity on whether those comments from the public initiated budget changes.
Some residents like Kris Nielsen asked council why they were giving themselves a raise while being in a state of financial crisis. The chief administrative officer is getting a raise as well and Nielsen asked whether any department heads or management staff are willing to take a 10 percent wage or salary cut to assist in the cost saving measures that council may be faced with.
Another resident, Ryan Guenther cited the decline in the forestry industry, downturn in Fort St. James economy, low property rates and COVID-19 as enough reasons to not increase property taxes by 12.5 percent at this time.
Ralph Willick suggested staff cuts as a solution.
Alice Adams said she was concerned with the increase in taxes but also how those increases would affect seniors with fixed incomes. Adams also said that municipal staff getting raises at this time which is not fair. “We respectfully disagree with a lot in this proposed budget and hope with all the hardships we are going through at this time that you will reconsider some of these increases.”
Brenda Gouglas said that this year’s public consultation period in regard to the budget has not met policy and has had a lot of challenges. Gouglas added that there were different versions of the draft budget made available to the public without notice of change.
“There is little time for you to mitigate the shortcomings of the public consultation for the 2020-2024 budget given that there is less than a month for the Financial Plan to be finalized. What will you do in the future to ensure adequate public consultation and review and comment opportunity is provided?” she has asked council.
2019 Water Services Report
The report has been prepared by David Stewart, public works superintendent.
In terms of system upgrades, the project to extend the district’s portable water down Stones Bay Road to the Ministry of Forest building has been completed. This project allows residents living on that stretch to take advantage of hooking to the district’s water supply.
The public works department has also completed phase 3 of a five phase plan to install SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition). The crew is moving into phase 4 and will be able to access the system now remotely through their computer and mobile devices.
In terms of future plans, the district is researching the following:Eventual implementation of a full water treatment system to improve the water’s aesthetics (odour) and lower the levels of iron, arsenic and manganese.
Methods to also clean residential service lines without having to excavate on the property.
Looking at what lines can be looped to improve water flow and assist in keeping lines clean.
The district of Fort St. James operated the Fort St. James Community Water System which provides portable water and fire protection to most of the homes, businesses and institutions in Fort St. James and Nak’azdli Reserve Number 1. In totality, there are 875 service connections. The source of water supply is an artesian well (aquifer). In 2019, approximately 228,247 cubic metres of water was used which is done from the past years consumption of 292,000 cubic metres.
Aman Parhar
Editor, Vanderhoof Omineca Express
aman.parhar@ominecaexpress.com
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