The District of Sicamous and the Columbia Shuswap Regional District have fine tuned some of their mutual agreements.
District of Sicamous (DOS) chief administrative officer Kelly Bennett reviewed cost-sharing agreements between the DOS and the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD), in which Sicamous provides services in the regional district that are paid for by the CSRD.
The agreements covering fire suppression services, mosquito control and parks maintenance for Finlayson Park and Sicamous Beach Park, including the boat launch, have been in place for about 25 years, Bennett said at Sicamous council’s Jan. 25 meeting.
Each agreement will last another five years, with updates that include new detailed descriptions of the service provided and cost contribution. Maps from the bylaws within the agreements are included to ensure understanding of the service area each agreement covers.
The parks agreements are changing from a service agreement model, where one party provides a service to an area, to a contribution agreement, which means the CSRD will give a contribution to the DOS to do maintenance in regional parks. Bennett said the service agreement area didn’t include any parks that the DOS actually maintains, so there was confusion as to what service they were providing.
It was also discovered the DOS provides mosquito control services to a larger area than originally identified on the agreement’s map. Budget plans will need to include an expanded map of the service area, but changes to the map must be done through a CSRD bylaw so they will come into effect for 2024’s budget, Bennett said.
Annis Bay entered into an agreement with the CSRD for fire suppression services this year, adding to the total cost and revenue associated with the agreement between CSRD and the DOS. The Sicamous Fire Department will provide and maintain fire suppression services in Annis Bay, but the agreement does not include building inspections or medical first responder services.
For fire suppression, total revenue is calculated at $51,603, and the cost is $372,498. Mosquito control costs $120,000 and makes $7,630 in revenue, and the parks contribution agreement costs $344,991 and is projected to bring in $20,786 in revenue.
Costs and revenue associated with these agreements have been included in the 2023 Financial Plan. Bennett said these amounts will go up as the areas covered by the agreements expand in 2024.
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