Valemount Council: Development cost charges, financial plan, traffic regulation
By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
Valemount Council discussed a traffic bylaw, the Village’s five-year financial plan, and 2025 tax rates during their meeting on April 22nd.
The Village’s livestream of the meeting did not begin until councillors were giving reports on the events they had attended since the last meeting. The Goat was unable to attend the meeting in-person due to covering an event in McBride that evening.
Quarterly Report
Council received the January-March quarterly report for information. The report covers the progress staff have made on projects over the last quarter. For example, staff say they are seeking grants for phase two of the groundwater project, which will involve installing a groundwater well over an aquifer near Swift Creek. Additionally, the report says staff have made progress on increasing the capacity of the cemetery, since building a columbarium to store urns is included in the 2025 draft budget.
The report also tracks how many bylaw amendments and rewrites council has approved in the last quarter. There has been one zoning bylaw amendment, one amendment to the official community plan, and three bylaw rewrites, according to the report.
Finally, the report gives an update on emergency management in the Village. The emergency working group met in March 2025 and the Village has hired a FireSmart coordinator.
New development charges
Council approved staff to create a development cost charge bylaw, a type of policy which allows municipalities and regional districts to add a charge on the cost of new developments. That money is then used to pay for new or expanded infrastructure – such as sewer, water or fire protection facilities – that will service the new development.
While Valemount adopted a development cost charge bylaw in 2002, the bylaw names infrastructure projects that have already been completed such as upgrades of the sewer treatment plant, according to the staff report. Additionally, the report says the Village has new, different infrastructure needs than the ones outlined in the 2002 bylaw. In an email to The Goat, CAO Anne Yanciw named the washrooms at Centennial Park, the water treatment plant, and the Visitor Information Centre as examples of new infrastructure, among other pieces of Village property.
Staff will hire a consultant to create the bylaw, using funding from the B.C. government’s Local Government Housing Initiatives Funding Program. Additionally, staff budgeted $55,000 from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs’ Northern Capital Planning Grant for the development of this bylaw.
Traffic Regulation Bylaw
Council gave third reading to the amended Village’s traffic regulation bylaw. The amendments include changing the speed limit on 5th Avenue from 30 kilometres per hour to 40 kilometres per hour, unless otherwise posted. Additionally, staff added definitions for the public works officer, traffic control devices and other terms to the new bylaw.
Five-Year Financial Plan
Council gave third reading to the five-year financial plan bylaw, which local governments must update and adopt annually according to the Local Government Act and Community Charter. Since council gave first and second reading to the plan during its March 25th meeting, staff have made three amendments to the bylaw. First, tax rates from other jurisdictions such as the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George have been updated to reflect new maximum requisitions. Second, the public works shop now needs a new furnace and power upgrades, which were added as budget items to be paid for with asset reserves. Finally, the staff report says computer software and hardware upgrades are needed due to recent failures, which will also be paid for by asset reserves.
The financial plan was open for public comment from April 4th through April 22nd. Staff did not receive comments during this period, according to the report.
The five-year financial plan bylaw will be considered for adoption at a special meeting of council on May 8th.
Tax Rate bylaw
Local governments must pass a bylaw before May 15th each year outlining the tax rate on land and improvements. The bylaw says this year’s tax rates will be based on the five-year financial plan, which increases tax rates by 5.5 per cent in line with the Village’s Improving Asset Management Planning Report adopted in 2020.
Public Comments
Resident Junior Osadchuk asked when the tax rates bylaw will be approved. Torgerson said it will be considered for approval at a May 8th special meeting.
Osadchuk said he believes the development cost charges bylaw will have quite a few changes to it, and Torgerson said the bylaw will not be considered for adoption until some time in 2026. CAO Anne Yanciw said staff have not yet made recommendations on what the bylaw will include.
“We’re looking for Council permission to work on that project. It’s a big job,” she said. “We didn’t want to put in that effort if Council wasn’t supportive of that direction.”
Torgerson thanked Osadchuk for his comments.
In-camera
Torgerson adjourned the open session of council to proceed to an in-camera session for consideration of two items per Section 90 (1) (d) and (k) of the Community Charter to discuss matters related to:
(d) the security of the property of the municipality; and,
(k) negotiations and related discussions respecting the proposed provision of a municipal service that are at their preliminary stages and that, in the view of the council, could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality if they were held in public.
