Regional District Moves to Borrow $1.5 Million

Thursday, August 17, 2006 04:36 PM

The Regional District of Fraser Fort George has taken one more step towards borrowing $1.5 million dollars to buy Exploration Place. The purchase would be part of the Heritage Conservation Plan.

The Regional District will soon enter the “Alternate Approval Process” which calls for eligible voters who oppose the idea to fill out forms. If there are enough forms filed (10%of eligible voters) then the matter would have to go to a referendum.

In this case, the Regional District has determined there would need to be at least 7,717 such forms returned by October 10^th in order to force a referendum.

Forms similar to this, will soon be available at all town and city halls within the Regional District, as well as on line at the Regional District’s web site.

ELECTOR RESPONSE FORM

Heritage Conservation Loan Authorization

Bylaw No. 2293, 2006

I, ________________________________, residing at ________________________________________

(print full legal name) (print full residential address)

hereby declare that I am opposed to the Regional District proceeding with the adoption of Heritage Conservation Loan Authorization Bylaw No. 2293, 2006 without first obtaining the assent of the electors by voting.

I further declare that:

I am a Canadian citizen at least 18 years of age.
I am a resident of British Columbia and have been for at least the last 6 months.
I am a resident of, or registered owner of real property within, the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George and have been for at least the last 30 days.
I have not previously submitted an Elector Response Form in connection with Heritage Conservation Loan Authorization Bylaw No. 2293, 2006.
I am not disqualified by the Local Government Act (or any other enactment) from voting in an election, and am not otherwise disqualified from voting.

_________________________________

(signature)

________________________________

(date)

The forms will be ready within the next couple of weeks, giving residents more than the required 30 days in which to respond.

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Posted on Thursday, August 17, 2006 04:36 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Runner46 on August 17 2006 6:38 PM

Isn`t this a form of voting by negative response type of voting?

Didn`t we go through that with Shaw some years ago on their change of Cablevision service or something?

Posted by: Gofaster on August 17 2006 7:32 PM

I get the feeling that they have already arranged the loan and are hoping not enough people respond and then they can go ahead.
Isn't this underhanded?????

Posted by: Simple Simon on August 17 2006 7:53 PM

Legal but unethical?

Posted by: Chadermando on August 18 2006 1:53 AM

I thought Initiatives PG owns Exploration Place and isn't Initiatives PG owned by the city?

So is it the regional district buying this from the city?

Is it simply a debt swap from the city to the regional district, or does the city have plans to spend this money on say an ice oval or road repairs? lol?

Does this factor into the recent canceling of infrastructure development by the regional district?

Posted by: Chadermando on August 18 2006 2:03 AM

Is this so that Exploration Place as an entity can fund further expansion? That would make sense from a transaction point of view as an injection of funding tied to a change of ownership?

I think the public deserves more clarity.

Posted by: trusted on August 18 2006 8:56 AM

Yep, Chad, interesting points you bring up.
Does Initiatives Prince George own Exploration Place?
Does the city fund Initiatives Prince George?
If not-where does Initiatives Prince George receive the money from to support it?
Is Initiatives Prince George simply another spin off group operated by the city?
What wages are paid to Offet, and what is the cost of the White Elephant on 1st Ave.?
What does it cost to staff 1st Ave?
Does Kinsley chair the Regional Board?
Does Kinsley approve every recommendation when it comes to borrowing money?
You people know a great deal more about this than I do, but I do feel the public should know
what all the expenditures consist of with the city.
Keep us informed as I am certain many of us are curious.
We never really know!

Posted by: owl on August 19 2006 10:04 AM

I am not sure of exactly who owns what and I am with all of you who call for clarification in a single readable and understandable document rather than a bit here and there.

The Exploration Place is owned and operated by a Society. It is a charitable organization, thus can give out tax receipts. The operation is funded by the Regional District, Grants it receives from other levels of Government, and direct fees for service. The Society's Financial statements would be available to the public. They are run by a Board of Directors which are posted on their site at:

http://www.theexplorationplace.com/about.shtml

Not having seen the financial statements - it would be nice if the annual report were available on the web site - it appears that the Museum still owes money on its facilities, or that it is in debt for some other reason. In either case, it sounds that to carry the debt, the museum is paying more in interest than the RDFFG would if it had the debt. Since the RDFFG is a key funder, it would make sense to reduce expenditures of the museum wherever it can.

It looks like the RDFFG proposes to buy the facility and rid the museum of its debt. What we do not know is whether the RDFFG will also reduce its operations funding accordingly. I would think that would be taken care of by the museum paying rent to the RDFFG.

The one thing I am unsure of is whether the Feds are happy with that arrangement since it looks like they provided funding to a Society to assist with construction. That funding did not go to the regional district.

Of course, the RDFFG is funded about 60% by the taxpayers of the City. I am not sure whether we have a vote as well as those who live outside the City.