McBride Council: aircraft restrictions, Rec Centre, provincial meetings
By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
McBride Council discussed BC Parks aircraft restrictions, reduced hours at the rec centre and advocating for local forest service roads during its regular meeting on Tuesday, June 10th. Mayor Gene Runtz called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m.
McBride Housing Society
McBride-area resident Jackie Edwards provided an update on the McBride and District Housing Society. She said the Society has chosen a plan for their Horseshoe Lake Road project which is three stories tall with 30 units. The building will have an elevator, and people with mobility issues will be given units on the main floor. The Society may have to amend its zoning application depending on if the building is taller than 50 metres, she added.
Additionally, the Society has contracted a firm to conduct geotechnical studies in the area to determine what kind of foundation they should use. The Society is preparing to apply for BC Housing’s Community Housing Fund.
The Society has also created a memorandum of understanding with Robson Valley Community Services, who can help manage the building, Edwards said. She hopes this agreement will make their application to BC Housing more competitive, since the Society has previously been denied funding for not having staff with enough building management experience.
Runtz thanked Edwards for her presentation.
“We’re fully in support of you, and you know that,” he said.
Edwards thanked councillors for their support.
Snowpack and hazards
University of Northern BC researcher Joseph Shea gave a presentation about his research on climate change in the Robson Valley. In the McBride area, Shea and his colleagues have been focusing on drought. He plans on installing a weather station in the Dominion Creek watershed by August, to track snowpack in the area throughout the next winter.
Shea also highlighted the research of Mackenzie Ostberg, who recently defended her master’s thesis. Ostberg spoke to dozens of Dunster- and McBride-area residents about water access in the valley.
Runtz thanked Shea for his presentation.
RCMP statistics
Corporal Kelly Barrie presented information on the McBride RCMP’s crime statistics for the first quarter of 2025. She said there have not been significant changes in crime numbers since last year.
However, the detachment has reduced its traffic patrolling by 50 per cent, Barrie said.
“In our traffic violations and tickets, there’s been a big decrease, which speaks to running with only 50 per cent of the detachment’s strength for a while,” Barrie said. “We’re hoping to be fully staffed again come this fall.”
After Barrie went over recent crime and traffic statistics, Runtz asked councillors if they had any questions for her.
Councillor Joe Kolida asked for clarification on whether residents can smoke cannabis in public. Barrie said most municipalities have their own bylaws on the use of controlled substances in public places. She added that she is not aware of a bylaw on cannabis use in McBride, and has only encountered people smoking cannabis at big events in the village.
Councillor Tina Bennett asked if having additional traffic cameras would help the RCMP keep track of traffic violations despite being understaffed. Barrie said the cameras and dash cams do help, but the detachment will need to address its staffing issues regardless.
“When we have more people here, then it’s easier to get out on the road and do more traffic enforcement,” she said. “We also need to focus on calls for service [in town] and be involved in the community for other stuff as well.”
Kolida asked if the RCMP would be able to patrol stop signs, as he notices lots of people do a slow roll instead of coming to a complete stop. Barrie said officers could watch stop signs around the community to make sure people come to a complete stop.
Bennett asked if crimes against property are typically done by residents or people outside the community. Barrie said most of the recent crimes have been from people passing through McBride, though last year there was a rash of vandalism from local teens.
Runtz thanked Barrie for her presentation.
Heli-ski business support
President of Crescent Spur Helicopter Holidays, Mark Aubrey, wrote to Council requesting they send a letter of support to the Ministry of Environment and Parks. The ministry is currently considering aircraft restrictions in parks including Bowron Lake, Ptarmigan Creek and West Twin – the three parks where Aubrey’s company provides heli-skiing, heli-boarding and heli-hiking services.
According to Aubrey, the company had 12 full-time employees and contributed $1.2M to the local economy last year. By his calculations, the aircraft restrictions could result in the loss of nearly $2M to the local economy annually.
Aubrey added that he has consulted with wildlife biologists who say the aircraft restrictions would be of little benefit to the local caribou population.
Runtz said that during his time working in forestry, he often came across heli-skiers in high elevation areas that caribou frequented. The heli-skiers and caribou were able to coexist, he said.
“The caribou, because they were so used to these helicopters flying, 99.9 per cent of the time they didn’t pay any attention,” Runtz said. “These animals are not stupid. And [helicopter pilots] went out of their way not to come into the areas where [caribou] were at.”
Kolida said he believes the caribou move lower into the valley during the winter when the heli-skiing business is operating. Runtz agreed and emphasized that in his experience, heli-skiers stay away from areas where caribou are found to avoid disturbing them.
“They’ve done that for years and years, and they’re very strict about it,” Runtz said. “I think we need to give them a pretty strong letter of support.”
Runtz and Kolida both said the Village should continue supporting the heli-ski business after sending the letter. Council voted to write a letter of support.
Plasma donation centre
Prince George-based group Our Blood Counts is advocating for the building of a plasma donation centre in Prince George. Committee members Mark Karjaluoto and Chantelle Messier wrote to McBride Council requesting that they write a letter to Canadian Blood Services expressing support for a donation centre in Prince George.
Council passed a resolution to provide a letter of support.
Rec Centre hours
The Robson Valley Recreation Centre is operating with reduced hours through August. The centre used to be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., but now will only be open Monday-Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and closed on statutory holidays. Additionally, the centre is open in the evenings Monday-Thursday from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Local physician Jessica Burian wrote an email about the reduced hours to the regional district’s CAO, Chris Calder, and cc’d Runtz. The centre’s gym is especially important during summer, when people need a cool place with clean air to exercise, Burian said. She also said a lack of amenities could cause residents to leave for larger municipalities.
“I believe that if the broader implications of reduced services – such as the potential loss of essential professionals and long-term impacts on community vitality – were more clearly communicated, many residents would be open to a modest increase in taxes,” Burian wrote.
CAO Jeanette McDougall said she has spoken with Calder from the regional district. Calder suggested closing the centre for one month out of the year, which would give time for staff to take a vacation and for the regional district to do maintenance on the building. However, the regional district has not decided if it will do this, and Calder said he is open to alternatives, according to McDougall.
Councillor Tina Bennett suggested using key fobs which would allow access to the gym after hours. Kolida said recreation centre staff are often doing tasks away from the gym anyways, and a key fob system could replace the sign-in sheet for the gym since each key would have an identifying number that would track who entered the gym.
Frear said he was concerned that the key fob system would result in people staying in the gym overnight, but Kolida said the system may not allow 24/7 access, just let people use the gym later in the evening.
Runtz thanked Bennett for her suggestion.
Bennett asked how staff choose which letters and emails are put on the council’s agenda under the “Reports for Information” section. She said a resident had recently sent an email to council about selling some items from their property on Main Street, but this email was not included in the agenda.
McDougall said she has been in touch with that resident discussing the permitted uses of their property. She said council cannot make a decision on the issue until staff have determined if selling items is permitted on the property.
Tax rates bylaw
Council gave first, second and third reading to an updated 2025 Tax Rates Bylaw. While Council had previously approved the 2025 Tax Rates Bylaw during its May 8th meeting, staff later realized that the bylaw had inaccurate tax rate calculations because the numbers had been drawn from the wrong spreadsheet. However, tax notices sent to residents had the correct numbers, according to the staff report.
“There was a clerical error made for the calculations that were included in the original tax rate bylaw,” McDougall told councillors. “But the tax notices are accurate and I checked with legal and our procedure here to correct is perfectly fine.”
Council will consider adopting the corrected bylaw during the June 24th regular meeting. According to the staff report, the errors will not impact the 2025-2029 Five Year Financial Plan, which also had to be adopted by May 15th.
UBCM meetings
McBride councillors and staff will attend the Union of BC Municipalities’ (UBCM) Annual General Meeting in September. The meeting also allows municipal representatives to meet with officials from the provincial government – for example, last year McBride councillors met with the Ministry of Forests to discuss forest service roads, among other ministries.
McDougall asked councillors to send her suggestions for other meetings they’d like by June 18th, so that she can submit requests to the meeting organizers on time. Frear said he would like to meet with the Ministry of Tourism to discuss reopening forest service roads which provide access to several outdoor recreation activities such as hunting and hiking.
The Ministry of Forests has not made progress on re-opening the Dore River Forest Service Road, Frear said, but he hopes the Ministry of Tourism will be more helpful. Kolida and Runtz agreed, but added that they will continue to discuss the issue with the Ministry of Forests in the meantime.
Kolida said he’d also like to speak with the Ministry of Transportation about affordable gravel for the Village to use on its roads, and the Ministry of Health about getting more equipment for the hospital.
McDougall said she will draft a staff report based on councillor’s suggestions, and council can review and approve the requested meetings during the June 24th regular meeting.
Kolida suggested getting in touch with the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George to see if they could have some joint meetings with provincial officials. Bennett agreed and said they could contact the District of Mackenzie as well, because she knows a councillor there who successfully convinced the Ministry of Forests not to decommission a local bridge.
Runtz said he will try to add an item about teaming up for UBCM meetings on the agenda for the next Regional District board meeting.
In-camera
Runtz adjourned the open session of council at 7:13 p.m. Council entered a closed meeting for consideration of matters related to section 90 (1) (c) and (k) of the Community Charter:
(c ) labour relations or other employee relations; and
(k) negotiations and related discussions respecting the proposed provision of a municipal service that are at their preliminary stage 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.
