SPC Monthly Meeting Minutes (draft) - Oct 23, 2017

SPC Monthly Meeting Minutes (draft)

Oct 23, 2017 - 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Location: Community Futures Office

In attendance (from sign-in sheet): Ashlee Hyde, Linda Berg, Larry Stranberg, Diane Wright, Anne Burrill, Bruce Mack, Jessica Dunn, Kathie Vilkas, Rosanna McGregor, Shannon Thom, Trevor Kier, and Carla Bullinger.

Accept Minutes & Agenda

During lunch we:

·   Reviewed meeting agenda for Oct 23, 2017

Motion to accept agenda as presented - MFSC

·   Review meeting minutes from Sept 25, 2017

Motion to accept minutes as presented - MFSC

Meet & Greet - Trevor Kier

Meet Trevor Kier, hired by the City of Williams Lake to complete an economic assessment related to the impact of the wildfires this summer.

Trevor is currently keeping an "ear close to the ground", mostly within the business community, finding out - how does the future look for them. Recommendations will be made to the City of Williams Lake.

Primary focus - fact finding with businesses as currently, there is no entity doing this. Questions being ask include: How did you make out, how long you were closed for? How did your employees make out? Did you have insurance, what are your losses, and how are you feeling about the future of your business? Are you aware of the supports available (e.g. Red Cross)?

Gathering this information and will summarize the results and present this to the City of Williams Lake so they can make decisions moving forward.

Spoke with Community organizations, Banks, businesses.

After Trevor's job is completed, the City will move into phase two.

 

Comments, questions and discussions generated are below:

Q: Emotional supports are required. Who is expected to do this work?

A: Some organizations are already working on this. There is a mental health working group (with the assistance of the ministry of health) coming down the pipeline.

Comment - for people already living on the margin (working poor). How do we reach these people and what types of supports are available to them?

The potential pool of employees has declined approx 10%

There is no data collection on how individual people have been affected.

Donations to our community are coming in from a number of sources, but most people only know about the Red Cross.

Currently there is no central collaboration.

Is this something the SPC could help with? Our network is large. Yes, but our capacity for that scope of work is limited.

The SPC would like The Red Cross to come speak with our table. 

ACTION: Ashlee Hyde will ask her contact at the Red Cross.

Red Cross Community Partnership funding - opportunities are available (e.g. lost fundraising opportunities, or addressing an identified need).

Are there examples from other communities - e.g. Fort Mac?

Some businesses experienced a simple interruption in business versus others who almost lost everything.

An anecdotal example from Fort Mac - 6-8 months after the fires is when banks found a high level of need.

Fort Mac Alberta - one town versus our situation which was an entire region

The anticipated retail Xmas season is a big unknown.

Q: How are businesses finding staffing issues currently? How do we attract people back to Williams Lake? Are there things we can be doing?

A: Yes this is an issue - many places are still running on shorter hours. But not all businesses have lost their employees.

Our particular community - can we get funding to advance the skills of our work force (build our community capacity). e.g. Employers who don't mind training people without experience, but they need to have some skills coming into the workplace.

Childcare is also an issue for many potential employees.

Many local immigrants are highly skilled, but are finding it hard to find employment.

Rosanna - the working relationship between the local bands and the CRD has changed over the past ten years. This year, no emergency notifications were sent to people who live on the reserve. Communication and preparation is still the topic of concern.

You cannot live here, and not have felt an economic impact.

Real estate is still selling - surprisingly.

There are a lot of moving parts. Multi layered impacts.

Comment regarding Economic Development - the not for profit sector needs to be considered when thinking economics, because the sector is a significant driving force in the local economy (brings a lot of dollars to the community for programs and employs many people).

Is there a role for the CRD to play in recovery efforts?

Concern - multiple groups doing the same work (duplication of work). There needs to be one coordinated approach.

Coordinated debriefing is required.

Recovery efforts are very "silo-ed" at this time. The SPC needs to act on this immediately and "pull the threads together". Step one is getting everyone together for information sharing.

MOTION - The SPC will host a meeting with key main players working on post wildfire recovery efforts including the City, CRD, Red Cross, United Way, Mental Health Working Group, Emergency management BC) to find out what each organization is currently focused on, and to identify potential gaps and promote a coordinated approach. The goal of this meeting is action towards the completion of a post-wildfire social needs assessment - MFSC.

ACTION - Jessica & Ashlee will invite the key organizations, and the SPC will plan a meeting for as soon as possible.

SPC Bylaw Review

Start creating new bylaws, for future adoption, in accordance with the new Societies Act.

Copies of new draft bylaws (modified from the Model Bylaws, Schedule 1) was distributed, as well as copies of the current bylaws. There was no major objections to any bylaws presented in the draft, however a few items were identified as missing.

Action: Jessica will make changes to, and incorporate any missing bylaws. These will then be presented at the Nov 27, 2017 AGM for review by the membership.

Roundtable Updates

Due to time constraints the roundtable was postponed.

Motion to adjourn the meeting at 1:06 pm - MFSC

Funding support for the Social Planning Council is provided by the United Way & City of Williams Lake