The
town gave notice in May 2012 of its intent to withdraw from the Golden Area Initiatives
(GAI) funding agreement which now terminates on December 31st,
2013. For the first six months of this year a select committee of council
including local volunteers researched, consulted, and deliberated what the
future of economic service delivery could look like for community. In
July its recommendation to Council was a return to a municipally staffed
function based on joint funding with the CSRD.
The Columbia
Shuswap Regional District confirmed in a letter dated October 22nd
2013, that they are unwilling to accept the Town of Golden’s proposal for the
delivery of such services under a municipal “in-house” model. As a result at
its regular meeting held November 5th, Town of Golden Council voted
unanimously to cease all funding for GAI.
For
the past ten years, GAI has been funded by a partnership between the two local
governments to provide economic development services. Each has
contributed approximately $85,000 per year from general taxation with another
$100,000 sourced from the Economic Opportunity Fund (EOF) which is a portion of
BC Hydro’s annual payment in lieu of taxes to the regional district. The
town estimates that without the assistance of the regional district or access
to the EOF account, meaningfully funding an in-house position and operating
budget would at least be in the range of $150,000 annually.
The opinions expressed in this
email are my personal opinions and may not represent the opinions of other
councillors nor the opinions of council.
