LOCAL NEWS: FIRESMART TARGETS LANDOWNERS ▼ A3
Times
Thursday, January 28, 2016 ▼ Volume 52 No. 4 ▼ www.clearwatertimes.com ▼ $1.35 Includes GST
THE
NORTH THOMPSON
GIRL GUIDES HAVE FUN:
2014
CCNA BLUE RIBBON
Dance at Upper Clearwater Hall. See A11 inside.
First Place Best All Round Newspaper & Best Editorial Page Second Place Best Front Page All of Canada <1,250 circulation 2014 First Place General Excellence B.C. and Yukon <2,000 circulation 2014
Setting up the shot Left: Clearwater Midget Ice Hawk #9 Patrick Walker forces the Merritt goalie to take a position – before passing to teammate #8 Emmet Collins, who scored a goal. Right: Walker gives Collins a hug after Collins scores on a shot set up by Walker. The Ice Hawks won against Merritt in a closely fought game on Saturday in the Sportsplex. The local squad’s first playoff game will be on Friday, Jan. 29. For more photos from Clearwater Hockey Days, see pages A11 and A12 inside. Photos by Keith McNeill
Upper Clearwater dispute likened to ‘Hatfields and McCoys’ Adam Williams – Kamloops This Week A two-hour discussion that included references to the Hatfields and McCoys, guns and knives, voter intimidation, a privacy breach and a deep rift in the community will have the Thompson-Nicola Regional District surveying landowners about their support for the Upper Clearwater Farmers Institute’s community hall. At issue is the fact a grant-inaid derived from property taxes is being used to prop up a hall owned by a private organization that some residents say is not publicly available. At the conclusion of discussion on Thursday, Jan. 21, the TNRD board decided to survey approximately 85 property own-
ers in the region to determine if it should conduct a public-assent process to eliminate the service. The survey was approved unanimously by the board and will be sent out in February, with the hope of bringing results to the TNRD’s board at the end of April. Its results will be non-binding, but are intended to give directors an idea of how to proceed. Thursday’s debate began with a recap of a public-assent process in 2004, which led to the creation of the grant-in-aid for the hall. The financial contribution from the TNRD is about $5,000 – about $40 per year for the average-assessed property in the area. An Freedom of Information request by residents of Upper Clearwater revealed flaws in the 2004 process, including multiple
extensions to the deadline when proponents of the tax had not yet received enough votes in favour. A major privacy breach also came to light as a list of voters who had not mailed in petitions – in essence, those who responded "no" to having property taxes fund the hall – was released to the proponents. “Those are things we would not do today. We haven’t done them in a long time,” said Carolyn Black, the TNRD’s director of legislative services, when questioned by directors about the process. Black said the privacy commissioner investigated the breach and that, noting while some of the issues were not good practice even in 2004, they were not unlawful.
Highway 5 Little Fort, BC 250-677-4441
“It was carried out in accordance with the local government act,” she said. “Maybe not some good practices and certainly there was a privacy breach that would not happen today.” Carol Schaffer, who represents the region as director of Electoral Area A (Wells Gray Country), painted a picture of tenuous relationship between the Upper Clearwater Farmers Institute and the rest of the Upper Clearwater community, with incidents dating back to 2014. Schaffer said concerns from residents were numerous and included voter intimidation at institute meetings, fears for safety, vehicle windows being smashed while on the property and individuals spying on site users. Schaffer said she doesn’t want
Highway 5 Clearwater, BC 250-674-3148
Located on Highway 5
to see the hall shut down – it has already had $92,000 in gas-tax revenue invested in renovations – but said there is a feeling the hall is a private club supported by public money. Throughout Thursday's discussion, the board referred to the Upper Clearwater feud as similar to that of the Hatfields and McCoys. Shane McGrath, who spoke to the board on behalf of those residents of Upper Clearwater who are unhappy with how the hall is being run, came to the TNRD hoping it would begin a new assent process, saying the 2004 process created a “rift in our community” and has caused relationships to “become increasingly acrimonious.”
Continued on page A5