The October 17th, 2011 BIM Council Meeting was a brief in Council terms but a lot of ground was covered. This was the first meeting in a long time where the only public in attendance was the media.
BIM CFO, Karen Blow, was first up to do some last minute housekeeping on this year's Permissive Tax Exemption Bylaw which has been before Council (I believe) three times. At the end of the meeting a gentleman from Camp Bowe Isle stood up to thank Council for it's empathy with the previously tax exempt organizations to give them some lead time before they initiate dramatic reductions in tax exempt tax to some of the applicants.
Next up was as brief talk and discussion between Councillor Poole and BIM CFO, Karen Blow on the amount of the "awarded costs" the Muni will receive as a result of the lawsuit brought against them. Councillor Hooper weighed into the discussion towards the end. Typically awarded costs on a lawsuit are significantly lower than actual costs. The discussion was done to bear that out.
The Islands Trust Ferry Fen Management Plan received the most attention in this meeting in terms of time devoted to the subject. Much of the round table discussion revolved around conversation matters and enforcement in dealing with renegade ATV and dirt bike aficionados who rode through the restricted Ferry Fen Land Reserve. Essentially, the issue of enforcement with the Islands Trust was the take away from this portion of the meeting.
Finally, Council dealt with the Belterra Rezoning Application however given the issue with it being late in this Council's mandate, Council along with the Planner, Andy Beaird, in the audience realized that it would probably not see fourth reading until the new Council was instated. Beaird went on that he was concerned about cost overruns and a loss of momentum for the project, if the project approval process was extended too much further. Council appeared to be empathetic.
If you wish to watch the video of the presentation, you can Download the video here [QuickTime - 367.93 MB] ( with Internet Explorer use right-click > save target as, on a Mac use control-click > save link as... ) or you can watch online after the break
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