South Shuswap now Areas C and G in the CSRD
By Paul Demenok
Congratulations and best wishes go to Marty Gibbons and Natalya Melnychuk who are our first electoral area directors for the newly formed CSRD Areas C and G. They will be taking office on November 24 after being sworn in.
The rationale for the creation of a new electoral area has been well-described in the CSRD Area C Governance and Boundary Studies conducted by Neilson and Associates, and was fully endorsed by the Governance Committee and the CSRD Board. A primary reason has to do with representation at the CSRD Board table. Previously there was only one voice at the Board representing the interests of some 9,000 people while other areas with significantly lower populations had an equal voice and vote on all non-financial matters.
Population-wise Area C was one of the largest electoral areas within the province. The 2021 Canada Census shows the following populations in the CSRD electoral areas: Area A 3325, Area B 663, Area C 8919, Area D 4400, Area E 1388 and Area F 3200.
The estimated populations in the new electoral areas are 6154 in Area G (Blind Bay, Sorrento, Notch Hill) and 2765 in Area C (Sunnybrae, Tappen, White Lake, Eagle Bay, Skimikin). We will need to wait a few years until the new Census is done to get a more accurate breakdown by electoral area.
The significance of this relates to the calculation of weighted votes which are used for financial matters at the CSRD Board. One weighted vote is assigned for every 2500 people in population, or less; so going forward, Area G will have three weighted votes and Area C will have two.
The Boundary analysis which determined where the lines were drawn carefully considered a broad range of evaluation criteria. The criteria included: future development, existing settlements and regulations, population and population density, local government services and service areas, potential future infrastructure development, local road networks, property assessment classes, property assessment values, agricultural land reserves, and community input. While it’s impossible to precisely align the two new electoral areas, it was determined that the new boundaries fully met or at least partially met the evaluation criteria as best as possible.
As outlined in the Boundary Study, all individual primary and secondary settlement areas remained intact in the new electoral area. The water service areas and the area for the South Shuswap Liquid Waste Management plan are kept whole in each electoral area. Sufficient land is available to accommodate potential future infrastructure, and both areas contain as much diversity in property types as is practicable. Both areas have an assessment base that is sufficient in size.
A key criterion affecting the final boundaries was the servicing areas for the local fire departments. The goal here was to ensure that existing fire servicing boundaries were maintained to provide the best margin of safety and coverage, and the fastest response times. Imagine the issues and questions that would arise if a fire department from one electoral area was also charged with maintaining fire suppression for a settlement in an adjoining electoral area. It would be very difficult to forecast and budget for expenses, and to reconcile these going forward.
Going forward the Official Community Plan, and all bylaws will remain in place for the immediate future. As described in the Incorporation Study, there may be some advantages to consider for constituents and directors in maintaining several subregional services to be shared between the two new electoral areas, but those will be decisions to be contemplated and assessed carefully over time. In the interim for most residents the division of CSRD Area C into Areas C and G is expected to have little or no impact on daily life.
My sincere thanks are extended to all those who expressed their appreciation of my public service for the last 10 years. It is a challenging job and I hope that everyone rallies behind Marty and Natalya going forward.
