The regular meeting of the District of 100 Mile House Mayor and council was held Oct. 10, 2023.
Mayor Pinkney reported the district received four blooms out of a possible five in the last Communities in Bloom assessment, a significant accomplishment as they were down two gardeners last summer. A bloom is earned based on how a community scores on the various criteria. There was a special award given for the district’s notable sani-dump station. Pinkney said that according to officials it is the prettiest one in the world.
A delegation from TRU Students’ Union made a presentation to council on their goal of modernizing the academic governance system to give students more input into decision making. TRU has grown significantly since 1970, council heard. In 1989, the first education senates were created, with TRU having four students on their senate. The mission is to revamp the system to have 15 students representing each faculty. The delegation asked council to pass a motion of support, given that 100 Mile has a satellite office of TRU, and share it in a letter to the student union.
An email was received from a resident questioning the high price of gasoline in the 100 Mile area. Council did an analysis of gas prices. Coun. Fossum noted that prices outside the 100 Mile area are from $.02-$.17 cheaper than in the district. He also found it interesting that prices went down $.03 following the long weekend. He said that while these are private enterprises and council has little power over prices, they also have responsibility for the health and well-being of the community. At his suggestion, a motion was passed to write a letter to the various local businesses and ask for their input on why their prices are higher than the surrounding areas.
The results of the Basket of Goods Project were presented to council. The project consists of comparing prices of various goods in 100 Mile House, Williams Lake, and Kamloops, the three locations that area residents said they shopped most often, according to the shopping survey conducted by the district over the summer. The premise was to evaluate how much money is actually saved by shopping out of town. Travel costs were factored into the pricing to help demonstrate shopping locally may actually be more cost-effective.
Council endorsed the Union of BC Municipalities’ Community to Community program application for the purposes of hosting a relationship-building forum with First Nations. This is an expansion of the program this year to support the advancement of First Nation and local government reconciliation and relationship-building through the development of agreements such as protocols and service agreements. Up to $10,000 in funding is available.
