June 17 2024

Submitted by site_admin on Mon, 07/01/2024 - 04:37

BAMFIELD COMMUNITY AFFAIRS SOCIETY

General Meeting Unofficial Minutes

Monday 17 June 2024 at 6.30 pm
via Zoom - hosted by Jamie Willock (Chair)

Attendees (21): Jamie Willock (Chair), Sheryl and John Mass, Tom Jensen, Louis Druehl, Rae Hopkins, Stacy Denton, Laura Bradley, Bob Beckett, Bob & Robin Schmitt, Mandy Ross, Birgit Gagne, Barry Sills, Clay Steell, Julie Bradley, Jan Teversham, Jerry Gassner, Jaleen Rousseau, Frank Novak, Susan Derasp, Lisa Bye

Regrets: Stella Wenstob, Ben West

Guest Presenters: Karen Freethy, Julian Hockin-Grant

Acknowledgement of Indigenous Lands: The BCAS acknowledges that the land on which we meet is within the Traditional territory of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations where indigenous peoples have lived since time immemorial.

The meeting was called to order at 18.30

Adoption of Agenda.  m/JRousseau, s/JBradley

Adoption of Minutes of May’s Community Affairs Meeting. m/BSills s/JRousseau

PRESENTATION- ACRD Emergency Programme- Karen Freethy

Karen introduced the ACRD Emergency Programme that comprises four main aspects: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. Her presentation covered personal preparedness and the link to this presentation is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JDvOvS0UKUl9WvPBwtFqBD_rOza0rXr3/view?usp=drive_link

Questions:

Louis asked if there were evacuation plans for Bamfield. Karen responded that there is a strategy for the whole of BC for all hazards. It would be our main roads or “shelter in place” but officials would state how the community should respond. The reception centre for Bamfield would be at the school where food, cots, bedding and other supplies are all stored.

PRESENTATION- Allied Certifications- Julian Hockin-Grant

Julian gave an update of the project that he is working on for HFN. The Huu ay aht asked him to look into setting up a similar revenue generating system that has been established in Tofino. Participating businesses there contribute a 1% fee charged for their services that visitors pay and this is used to fund infrastructure projects in Tofino.

The event held at Bamfield Community School last Saturday was not well attended although Julian says that local people all agree that Bamfield is not prepared for the predicted growth. HFN are interested in a joint venture to create a fund here to assist in managing the services/infrastructure we will need.

He asked that people fill in the survey available at:

Huu-ay-aht Sustainability Fee: Community Survey (google.com)

Details about the programme can be found at

Huu-ay-aht Sustainability Fee Program – Huu-ay-aht (huuayaht.org)

Questions:

How will you know whether to continue or not? He doesn’t know yet. He is still at information gathering stage.

What percentage of Tofino’s businesses are participating? There are 130 businesses in Tofino over a range of sectors- restaurants, shops, fishing guides etc. but over 700 business licenses that also included Airbnb.

How does Allied Certifications get paid? He works on a flat fee for initiating the programme. If it launched then someone would have to run it.

ACRD DIRECTOR’S REPORT – by Bob Beckett

  1. Lady Rose Marine Services update

Two months ago, I along with ACRD CAO Daniel Sailland met with 2 senior representatives of BC Ferries to discuss the renewal of the contract with the Lady Rose Marine Services. We discussed the value and importance of the service and how pleased we were with the level of service that Greg Willmon and his staff provided. We did however express our desire to be given an opportunity to engage in a stakeholders process as outlined by BC Ferries. We were assured that ACRD and our communities would be able to participate prior to the next 4 year contract.

I followed up with a meeting with Greg and we discussed several subjects including impact of the Bamfield Road improvements with respect to freight and passengers, scheduled dry dock times, summer schedule, potential other sailing opportunities, emergency means of evacuation, etc.

It was such a pleasure to hear firsthand from Greg about the Lady Rose Marine Services that I asked Greg to do a presentation to the ACRD Board last week. The presentation was well received with a number of questions, and I acknowledged Greg and his staff for their continued service to our communities, up and down the inlet.

  1. House of Huu-ay-aht Appreciation Dinner for Bamfield Volunteer Fire Department

I would like to thank the Huu-ay-aht Nation for hosting the Appreciation Dinner and ceremony in recognition of the amazing service Chief Lavoie and his first responders and firefighters provide. I could not attend in person as I was in Port Alberni attending board meetings, however our Alternate ACRD Director Bob Schmitt attending on my behalf sharing our heartfelt thanks for all their efforts, contributions, and sacrifices

3.        MLA Josie Osborne - meet and greet

Josie Osborne’s office has reached out to me and would like to come to Bamfield on Thursday August 29th for a community meet and greet. I would like to suggest that BCAS executive and I could put a list of questions together ahead of Josie’s visit. We are wondering if 5:30 pm would work for those interested in chatting with Josie.

4.        Community Hall Project

I regret not being available to help with the community hall project, but the photos posted in Facebook were stunning, and I can’t wait to see the progress in person.  Thank you, JP, team, and community volunteers, for this first stage of the building project.                                                                                                                                         

TREASURER’S REPORT (May 31 2024) Susan Derasp

Checking account-                       $12,777.94
High interest savings account - $22,998.91

Member Equity Shares                        $5.21

Donation for trails                           $500

Interest in May                             $24.32

Total Assets                           $35,782.06

The next round of GIA funding will arrive in July.

COMMUNITY REPORTS

  1. Centennial Park - Sheryl Mass
  • It’s been a very busy 2 weeks with the Timber Framers Guild camping at the park. Initially they thought there would be 25 but it was more than 40 sometimes. There were communications issues but the staff did as best they could and it all worked out well.
  • The office building is being reroofed with metal. The shingles will be left by the road for anyone looking for some good kindling material.
  1. Bamfield Harbour Authority – Tom Jensen
  • A dock manager is still needed for the summer. The position has been posted again.
  • It’s very busy on the dock as various commercial fishing boats have been mooring there recently.
  1. Community Hall- Louis Druehl
  • After 18 years there is now a skeleton of the new community hall ! Thanks are due to the societies and members of the community who took the timber framers on trips and showed them around town.
  • The music and food on Friday night at the site was a big thankyou to the Guild by the community.
  1. Bamfield Community School- Robin Schmitt
  • The school closes for the children on Thursday and for the staff on Friday.
  • There are 44 children registered for the fall.
  1. BCSA- Julie Bradley
  • The after school programme is wrapping up as the school closes for the summer. Monday sports will continue. Yoga on the east and west side too.
  • There are six weeks of summer camp for children set up.
  • A grant from Participaction is being used for archery. Instruction is set for the end of June.

NEW BUSINESS

  1. Animals- Mandy Ross
  • There are bears with cubs around. Please remember to keep your distance.
  • The issue of people cleaning their fish and dumping carcasses etc. in the intertidal zone has started again. Mandy will do a survey to try and get all cleaning stations above deep water.
  • Tourists have been removing fish/starfish etc. from Brady’s beach and this should be stopped. A sign is needed at the beach.
  1. Roads: John Mass

Work , at the expense of Mainroad, has been undertaken recently on the east side. Excavations in the MOT allowance cannot be given away and material has been put in the parking area just up from the Grappler Boat Launch area. Debris that remains will be spread out once vehicles have gone in the fall.

  1. Louis asked if the new Bamfield Services Committee can report at the general meetings. Bob Beckett said they will be.

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting will be on Monday September 16, 2024

Meeting Adjourned at 20.01 m/RHopkins s/MRoss