The Cariboo Regional Hospital District and the Cariboo Regional District 2014 provisional budgets and business plans were endorsed by the board at their regular meeting Friday.
The provisional budget will then be presented to CRD residents in 2014 through three sub-regional consultation meetings taking place in the north Cariboo (Quesnel council chambers) on Tuesday, Feb. 25; the south Cariboo (100 Mile House in council chambers) on Feb. 27; and the central Cariboo (Williams Lake CRD board room) on March 1.
The CRD’s traditional town hall meetings for 2013 were held at the beginning of the budgeting process in September and October in each of the electoral areas and municipalities. The budgets are currently listed on the CRD website on the Friday, Dec. 13 agendas at cariboord.bc.ca.
CRD chair and
vice-chair elected
The CRD’s Area G Director Al Richmond, and Area A Director Ted Armstrong were re-elected during today’s meeting as chair and vice-chair respectively. This marks the sixth consecutive terms as chair and vice-chair for Richmond and Armstrong.
Ground Water
Chlorination
Roger Parsonage, Regional Director — Health Protection, from Interior Health, presented information to the regional district board regarding chlorination of ground water drinking water systems. The presentation provided a picture of the drinking water systems within the region. Some of the issues included the number of water systems currently on boil water notices and how these challenges are being addressed, secondary disinfection, and the role of IH in emergency response issues related to environmental matters.
Economic development
funds authorized
A total of $1,500 will be shared equally between Electoral Area D and F Economic Development services.
These funds will be used to help support the Cariboo Growers Association for funding assistance to a guest speaker during their annual general meeting in January.
The Association has invited Marty Frost as their facilitator for the planning session workshop during their AGM.
More information at cariboogrowers.ca.
The CRD will be sending a letter to Telus and the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Company (CRTC), requesting that rural customers who reside in an area with no cell phone service get priority restoration of their land line phone services in the event of outages.
Interior Health update
Catherine Whitman, from Interior Health (IH) appeared before the board to provide an update on health issues in the Cariboo Chilcotin administrative area.
The presentation focused on chronic disease management, changing demographics in the region, as well as the complexity of health care for seniors.
One of the key elements of the IH strategy is moving from reactive to proactive types of care to help reduce the costs for medical facilities and provide a better quality of life for residents of the Cariboo Chilcotin.
Whitman also spoke about new initiatives including “Breathwell,” “Home First” and integrating mental health and substance use with primary health care in the region.
Further information about chronic disease management or the new initiatives is online at interiorhealth.ca.
Happy holidays
The board of directors and staff of the Cariboo Regional District wish residents of the Cariboo Chilcotin a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
The CRD offices will be closed from December 25 through to January 1, 2014.
CRD offices will re-open on January 2, 2014.
The next CRD board meeting is Jan. 17, 2014.