FRIDAY MAY 3, 2013 VOL. 38, NO. 49
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Need a ride?
Caring Circle teams up with group of volunteers to help with transport issues
Invitation to BInSynch
Contests offer chances to be part of a Bowen dance project
What they have to say
Candidates for West Vancouver - Sea to Sky address local issues
D.A.R.E. to speak up
Budgeting for five years
Children learn to make decisions based on the value system
Council adopts five-year financial plan ahead of tax rate bylaw
SUSANNE MARTIN
SUSANNE MARTIN
EDITOR
EDITOR
t takes courage to get up on stage and speak in front of a crowd of peers, parents and teachers. That courage was evident in the Grade 4 and 5 students from the Bowen Island Community School (BICS) who presented at the D.A.R.E. graduation on April 26. RCMP Auxiliary Constable Effron Esseiva has facilitated D.A.R.E. on Bowen Island for four years and believes the kids come away from the program with a sense of ownership of issues as big as alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATODs) as it pertains to them, their lives, their bodies and their health. “[The topic] is very age-relevant as [the students] strive to begin asserting control over their lives. They demonstrate that with their conversations at home and the work they put in to show off what they’ve learned during our 10-week-program,” he says. “They participate enthusiastically in class. Phenomenal! We familiarize them with a decisionmaking tool and a view into sober facts about ATODs and get them to act out skits and how they might make their own decisions based on the value system they learn at home and at school.” And, Esseiva adds, they build a positive, constructive, nonthreatening relationship with police. “We have so many volunteer students who want to be hand-cuffed for fun that we’d have to add more time to the program to be able to do it,” he said. D.A.R.E, stands for drug abuse resistance education and the program’s mission is to provide children with the information and skills they can utilize for living drug-and-violence-free lives. The emphasis is on giving them tools to enable them to avoid negative influences and focus on their strengths and potential instead. Esseiva says that even though the material for D.A.R.E. is not specific to Bowen Island, he contextualizes the statistics and the examples to make it more accessible and relevant. “We work in conjunction
n the evening of Monday, April 22, council held a special meeting to present the 2013 to 2017 fiveyear financial plan. Bowen Island Municipality’s interim manager of finance Kristen Watson explained that the community charter requires council to have a five-year financial plan in place before adopting the annual property tax rates bylaw. A number of guiding principles serve as framework for decision making during the planning and budgeting process and provide the foundations for the delivery of community services, financial sustainability and desirable legacy for generations, according to Watson. Among the principles are being responsible to the needs of the citizens, ensuring that service levels and funding of services are sustainable, maintaining infrastructure in a proper state of repair and protecting the natural environment. Ensuring that property taxes are equitable and striving to strike a balance between customer demand for services and taxpayers’ ability to pay as well as living within our means are listed as additional principles. Watson explained that council considered the distribution of tax among property classes. “There is no appreciable difference between the benefits delivered or demands made on the infrastructure between residential and business properties and recreational/ non-profit properties,” Watson said, explaining a one to one ratio. She added that utilities and industrial properties are subject to an appropriated tax at 4.16 times the residential rate. “Council decided that farm properties would be provided tax relief of 50 per cent tax rate compared to residential to encourage the preservation of the rural community,” she said. Watson said that the five-year plan envisions the property tax levy going up in increments of less than four per cent per year. Rising costs of existing services due to inflation and cost of living allowances are inherent to all financial plans and each budget cycle, council will consider the tax increase required for the ensuing planning period.
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Small fry? It seems like yesterday that the Bowen Island Fish and Wildlife Club released over 200,000 chum fry that leave Bowen streams and go to the ocean within a few days after their release. Hopefully some will return in four years time. Last week, BICS students helped to release coho fry from the hatchery water tanks into a number of Bowen streams. Coho fry are different from chum, in that they stay in local streams to feed and grow for one full year before starting their ocean adventure. This is why it is important to monitor and maintain the health and water supply in Bowen’s fish-bearing streams. Debra Stringfellow photo
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