It’s a sign of the times.
Large projects undertaken by the Columbia Shuswap Regional District that are funded through the Community Works Fund will have signage that indicates where the money has come from.
In her report to the board of directors in June, Jodi Pierce, CSRD’s manager of financial services, advised directors that staff had attended a webinar on the fund and learned it’s imperative to start using approved signage to identify projects that are funded with Community Works Funds.
“The signage is an eligible project expense for these funds and staff are recommending that the appropriate signage be funded from a single project as opposed to ensuring adequate funds exist for each application,” Pierce wrote in her report to the board.
“This will better facilitate transparency of sign usage and ensure that the signs being used conform to the requirements within the agreement between the Government of Canada, the Province of B.C., UBCM and the CSRD.”
Formerly known as gas tax funds, the money is received annually under a tripartite agreement between the federal, provincial and municipal governments.
“Administered by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, the fund is essentially for construction or acquisition of a tangible capital asset for public use and benefit,” said Pierce.“Under this agreement they want signage that this infrastructure money has come from the Community Works Fund.”
Several projects across the regional district have seen the benefit of the Community Works Fund, including the Golden Museum, which received $23,000 in April.
Signage will not be applied because of the lower cost compared to other projects, with the idea that signage will be included for projects of $50,000 or more.
“A decision on limits hasn’t been enshrined in policy but is a staff recommendation because we have so many different projects,” said Pierce.
“Trying to manage signage for all the projects, especially the small ones, is less impactful.”
On a much larger scale, money from the Community Works Fund and the Golden and Area A Economic Opportunity Fund was approved for a significant project to improve Internet service in Electoral Area A.
CSRD”s portion of the project to provide broadband service in Area A, which involves several organizations, is $900,000.
At the July board meeting in Salmon Arm, directors approved another $41,539 as CSRD’s portion of meeting the Ktunaxa Nation Council’s shortfall of $105,000.
This Indigenous portion will be funded by the Community Works Fund in order to provide a mixture of fibre optic and wire connectivity infrastructure for 273 homes.
Pierce says overall, the CSRD has approved a total of $966,000 of the total estimated cost of the project, which is budgeted at $78 million.
