Friday, September 24, 2010

CRD Public Consultation Policy on Regulatory Bylaws is lacking

Last August, the CRD Board passed a new Policy requiring that Regulatory Bylaws be subject to Public Consultation prior to adoption.  So far, the CRD Board has passed a number of regulatory bylaws to which those bylaws haven't made the mainstream media and public discussion forums.

A more recent example of this is on Friday, September 17th, the CRD Board gave 3rd reading to its' new Building Bylaw which updates the requirements for how/when a building permit is sought and expires.  The CRD has failed to actively promote this pending Bylaw except posting it on the CRD's website (http://www.cariboord.bc.ca/) and calling that "public consultation".  That is not public consultation in my mind and I intend to discuss this with CRD Directors' and encourage them to live up of the spirit of their Public Consultation Policy on Regulatory Bylaws. 

While I'm at it - the City of Williams Lake is coming soon to the 1st anniversary of its' vow to change the way it deals with the public vis-a-vis regulatory bylaws (Anniversary on November 24th).  The City will be sending a powerful political message (all talk, no action) if November 24th came and passed with no demonstrated action on a policy with regard to regulatory bylaws in the City of Williams Lake

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw in the paper Williams Lake was doing public consultation for False alarms, was that what you were referring to?

Anonymous said...

Isnt the City of wiliams lake doing something like that with the false alarms ?

Steve Forseth said...

Thanks for the comments...

What the City of Williams Lake is doing tomorrow (Thurs Sept 30th) is gathering public input on a Draft False Alarm which has not been introduced at Williams Lake Council however the CRD has a Policy on how Regulatory Bylaws are dealt with by the CRD Board including how the Public is consulted on these Regulatory Bylaws and the fact that the CRD Policy on Regulator Bylaws has not worked as well as it could and this is the point I was trying to raise and have raised with several CRD Directors' and they intend to re-visit this point in the near future

Anonymous said...

but isnt that public consultation by gathering input from residents? just thought you might want to showcase something the city is doing right and proactive.

Steve Forseth said...

Yes, I agree that the City is being proactive on a "draft" regulatory bylaw but the City still doesn't have a policy, unlike the Cariboo Regional District, on how Council will handle the issue on Public Consultation, "after" Council gives one or two readings to a regulatory bylaw and this will need to be resolved in some way so that the public knows that their concerns are being addressed in the process of Williams Lake Council passing a Regulatory Bylaw