Derek Kilbourn
Sounder News
The Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District has passed Bylaw 108 at a Special Meeting held on November 14.
The Board held the Special Meeting with the sole agenda item being the approval of Bylaw 108, a bylaw to establish four different renewal reserve accounts.
Those four reserve accounts are for capital reserves entitled “Capital Replacement Trucks”; “Capital Replacement Equipment”; Fire Hall Repair and Replacement”; and “Contingency Fund.”
Bylaw 108 was to have been on the agenda for the November 4 regular meeting of the Board.
As reported in the Nov. 13 Sounder, Trustees had adjourned their regular meeting on November 4 after a member of the public, identified as Wayne Mercier, refused to refrain from video recording the meeting.
The November 14 Special Meeting was then called for the purpose of giving reading to Bylaw 108. Bylaw 108 was being put in place by the Board at the request of the Inspector of Municipalities.
According to staff with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, it had received the Fire Board’s proposed budget and levy for 2025 on October 7. That proposed budget would see a 2025 tax levy 38% higher than the 2024 levy.
The bylaw was sent back to the Fire Board by the Inspector of Municipalities – with the Board being asked to pass a bylaw to establish a capital reserve for at least one of the four capital reserves being proposed in the 2025 Levy and long-term financial plan for the Fire Department. Ministry staff said bylaws take an average of eight weeks to be reviewed by the Inspector of Municipalities.
Ministry staff wrote to the Sounder stating, “the Local Government Act requires an improvement district board to establish reserve funds for the purpose of renewal of works. Amounts that are required to be raised for this purpose must be credited to the applicable reserve fund.
“The Act also states that an improvement district board may make a bylaw for establishing a reserve fund for one or more capital purposes.
“An improvement district is required by legislation to establish a renewal reserve (for one or more purposes) by bylaw.”
The Ministry has to approve the 2025 Budget and Levy in order for the District to be receive taxes from Gabriola landowners to fund the Gabriola Fire Department.
As the November 14 meeting began, Board Chair Paul Giffin again asked if anyone was recording the meeting.
Fire Chief Will Sprogis and Derek Kilbourn from the Sounder identified themselves as audio recording the meeting.
Mercier identified himself as someone who was video recording the meeting. Giffin asked him to turn off the video recorder. Mercier said he would refuse.
Trustee Erik Johnson made a motion that recording of the meeting be illegal. Trustee John Moeller seconded that motion.
Trustees voted unanimously to approve the motion.
Mercier again refused to do turn off the video recorder.
Giffin spoke directly to Mercier saying this is the third time Mercier’s actions have disrupted a meeting of the Improvement District. Giffin pointed to the Improvement District regulations, which state in all situations not provided for in the bylaws regarding proceedings of a meeting, Roberts Rules apply. He further stated Roberts Rules provide the Board the right to determine who may be present at meetings and to control the hall while meetings are in place.
“This board, by resolution, does not approve the video recording of this meeting.
“As chair, I am ordering that you terminate the video recording and remove video recording equipment from the hall.”
Mercier said he would refuse because the Board’s authority under Roberts Rules is superseded by sections of the Improvement District Bylaw 97, “which established clearly that all meetings of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District are open to the public unless the resolution is passed closing a portion the meeting or the meeting to the public and stating in general terms for what purpose the meeting is being closed.”
Mercier noted the Special Meeting is a public meeting, was announced as such on the Fire Department’s web site and advertised as such in the Sounder, and the purpose of the meeting was public passage of the bylaw.
Giffin again ordered Mercier to remove himself and his equipment from the meeting.
Mercier again stated he would not do so.
Giffin said, “you realize that by not complying with the direction you have been given, you will be impeding the business of the Gabriola Fire Protection Improvement District.
“The meeting was called to pass a bylaw that has been requested by Victoria. Failure to pass this by law today will have a severe negative impact on the 2025 Levy, and may cause the termination of that Levy.”
Not having that Levy approved, according to Giffin, would mean the District would not have the funds to operate the Fire Department.
Mercier said, “I urge you, therefore, in the strongest possible terms to take up your public duty and pass in public as you have announced you will do bylaw 108 as required by the Inspector of Municipalities, so that they can register your tax bylaw, which will levy taxes against the landowners of the Improvement District, that includes me.”
Chair Giffin requested the Board take a 10 min recess.
After the Board resumed the meeting, Giffin stated the Board would proceed with the reading of the bylaw, starting the process by stating, “we the trustees of the Gabriola Fire Protection District in open meeting assembled…”
No request was made to ask the video recording not take place, other than Giffin saying, “steps will be taken at a later date.” The bylaw was recorded as having received three readings and been approved by the Board.
Giffin was asked by another member of the public why the bylaws had come forward now – pointing out that at the September 18 meeting of the Board, Giffin had cited the Ministry of Municipal Affairs saying there no requirement for a such bylaw.
Mercier had asked at the Sept. 18 meeting for the Board to commit to putting in a bylaw to establish the capital reserve funds for the specific items that the taxes are being collected for.
Giffin said in September that were such a bylaw put in place for specific capital reserve expenditures, “the only way the money can be spent is for what is covered in the bylaw, so you are tying that money up.”
At the November 14 meeting, Giffin said this is the first time the Inspector of Municipalities has sent the levy back, “for reasons unbeknownst to me, asking for the bylaw to be put in place.”
Not mentioned at the November 14 Board meeting was a letter writing campaign launched after the Sept. 18 meeting.
That campaign, communicated out to the public by Mercier, asked landowners to write to the Inspector of Municipalities, noting that the District was not going to put in a bylaw establishing those reserves for those specific purposes. Mercier – and other letter writers – asked the Inspector to require the Fire District to establish the four capital reserve funds by bylaw.
Now that the bylaw to establish the capital reserves has been approved by the Fire Board, the levy is again in the hands of the Ministry.
If approved by the Ministry, the levy increase for 2025 will be 38%.
A property that was assessed at $500,000 in 2024 would have roughly paid $240 dollars for Fire Protection. If the levy goes ahead as proposed, a 38% increase would be an additional $90 dollars for that household. The operations budget will increase 28.22% in 2025, from $803,458 to $1,030,183.
The capital budget will increase 71.35% from $213,000 to $369,840.
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