Valemount Council: staff compensation, water meter program, byelection policies
By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
Valemount Council discussed staff compensation, applying for a water use measuring system and how to finance byelections during their January 14th meeting.
Mayor Owen Torgerson called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.
After adopting minutes from Council’s December 10th meeting and the December 12th Committee of the Whole meeting, Council heard from the evening’s delegation.
Delegation: staff compensation review
Village staff are preparing to review the Village’s compensation practices for staff and Council. To get an overview of the goals and process of a compensation review, CAO Anne Yanciw asked Julie Case – a consultant with Drive Organizational Development, a consulting agency that specializes in compensation reviews – to give a presentation on the proposed review process. She selected 12 communities close to Valemount’s size which will be used to gather data on how government staff are paid in similar communities.
Economic Recovery Strategy
Valemount Council hired Kamloops-based consultancy firm Strategies North in November to create a business recovery plan in the wake of the nearly month-long closures of Highway 16 and Highway 93 during the Jasper wildfire. The $56,500 contract was paid for with a grant from the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness, according to a staff report from the November 12th Council meeting.
Since then, consultants from the company have visited seven businesses in town, consulted with 11 via email and phone and held one community meeting with business owners, according to the report the firm submitted to Council. These conversations, along with two surveys – one created by the Village, and another created by Strategies North – have culminated in an economic recovery strategy which outlines the economic impacts of the highway closures and makes recommendations for recovery.
Strategies North estimates that $1.5M must be raised to meet the community’s recovery needs. The firm recommended that the Village work with the B.C. and Alberta governments, as well as the federal government, to access funding.
Comparison communities for Council remuneration
Council approved of using the 12 communities Case suggested as comparisons for a Council remuneration review.
Staff compensation review
Council approved a $16,000 contract with Drive OD Ltd, Case’s consulting agency, to carry out a compensation review. Councillor Pete Pearson raised concerns about the additional workload Village staff will incur during the review, and Councillor Hollie Blanchette said she was worried about the comparison communities, many of which are bigger than Valemount. Yanciw said most of the work will be carried out by Case. Additionally, Case chose larger communities because smaller communities may not have appropriate positions to compare to Valemount staff, according to Yanciw.
Community Foundation Board
The Village raised $150K for a community foundation fund through a partnership with the Prince George Community Foundation from 2008-2010. While the fund was intended to be distributed for grants, it has not been used due to a lack of volunteers for a board. Since being created, the fund has accrued interest and currently has about $395K total, about $230K of which is available for grants.
Staff asked Council to approve the development of a Community Foundation Board, and to allow staff to advertise for board members. Similar boards are found in municipalities throughout Canada, organized under Community Foundations of Canada, the national leadership organization for these community funds.
Pearson said he has seen other communities with similar funds, and was happy to find that Valemount has one as well.
“I’m curious what we’re looking at for the makeup of the board, [and its] size,” he added.
Staff still doesn’t know what the size of the board will be, Yanciw said. She added that she is unsure whether board size and makeup can be determined by Council, or if it needs to be approved by the Community Foundations of Canada or the Prince George Community Foundation.
“We’d like to bring back some terms [for board development], but we’d like to start advertising while we do that,” she said. “I just received information for the last quarter in 2024 and we accrued another $15,000 on top of what is reported here. It would be nice to get going with creating a board so this money can be dispersed.”
Pearson said he was impressed with the amount of money accrued and thanked Yanciw for her response.
Councillor Donnie MacLean asked how the grants would be used. Yanciw said local community foundations can set their own criteria, but Community Foundations of Canada requires the grants to be given to nonprofits rather than individuals – for example, the grant money could not be used to create a scholarship. MacLean thanked Yanciw for her response.
Council approved staff to begin developing a board and advertising open board positions.
Water Meter Pilot Program
The Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs recently sent staff an email about a water meter pilot program, an up to $5M fund to cover the cost of measuring water use in municipalities with fewer than 5000 connections.
Staff asked Council’s approval to submit an expression of interest and application to the program. Universal water metering would allow the Village to charge consumers according to their water consumption rates – as opposed to the flat rates currently set out in the Village’s Fees and Charges Bylaw – and would provide data so staff can identify areas of improvement in the water system, according to the staff report. The program could cover up to 100 per cent of the project cost, including meter procurement and installation.
Torgerson said he remembered a similar program from his time as a councillor in 2014 or 2015, when the cost of installing a water meter would have been around $1.2M. He said costs have risen since then.
“We’ve been looking at costs. We’re still waiting on costing from one company, but it looks like between $1.5M to $2M,” Yanciw said.
Council approved staff’s recommendation.
Government Association call for resolutions
The Association of Kootenay and Boundary Local Governments, which represents municipalities and electoral areas in southeastern B.C. – including Valemount – sent an email requesting that members submit resolutions to be discussed at the annual convention by the end of February.
Torgerson asked if it would be useful to write a resolution on the cost of holding byelections after a member of local government is elected to provincial office, leaving their local position vacant. According to the Union of BC Municipalities, 25 local government officials were elected as MLAs in the most recent provincial election. This means 25 governments are left to cover the cost for a byelection to replace these officials, Torgerson said.
“Elections are not cheap,” he said. “If a candidate runs for provincial election and is successful, which forces a local government byelection, who should cover that cost? Should it be the Province, should it be the party, or should it be the municipality?”
He added that the former mayor of the District of Barriere, Ward Stamer, left his position after being elected as MLA in October. According to Torgerson, the subsequent byelection likely cost $8,000 to $10,000 – a significant cost for a government of Barriere’s size.
Torgerson asked Council if the issue seemed important enough to bring up with an association of several local governments.
Blanchette said she’s inclined to have the candidate pay for the byelection. She asked if holding byelections as a result of officials being elected to provincial office was a frequent issue for municipalities.
“I think it was a one-off,” Torgerson said. “There’s been a mayor here, a councillor there in previous elections, but this was a big turnover.”
Pearson said holding successful provincial candidates responsible for financing local byelections may discourage good candidates from running.
“I love the idea of uploading to the Province. They throw enough our way, it’d be nice to throw something back up the hill,” he added.
Blanchette said she still believes individuals should be responsible for financing byelections.
“What’s the difference between that scenario [running for provincial office] and me deciding to move to Timbuktu tomorrow… so I’m causing a byelection?” she said. “I don’t think that the municipality should be on the hook for something that somebody’s choosing to do.”
Torgerson said he could work with staff on a resolution regarding financing local byelections after provincial elections, so councillors could hear other municipalities’ opinions on the topic at the annual convention. Council unanimously carried a motion directing Torgerson and staff to write the resolution.
Falling property values
State of the Basin, a research group at Selkirk College which gathers data on well-being and living conditions in the Columbia Basin, recently compiled the 2024 and 2025 median assessed property values for communities across the basin. The newsletter regarding this research was sent to Village staff and included in Council’s reading file.
Valemount was one of two communities which saw falling property values: the median value fell from $337,000 in 2024 to $320,000 in 2025, a five per cent decrease.
Torgerson said it was interesting that property values in Valemount decreased, whereas 24 municipalities saw increases and two remained the same.
In-Camera
Torgerson adjourned the open session of Council at 7:45 p.m. Council moved to an in-camera meeting for consideration of four items per Section 90 (1) (a) (c) & (d) of the Community Charter to discuss matters related to:
(a) personal information about an identifiable individual who holds or is being considered for a position as an officer, employee or agent of the municipality or another position appointed by the municipality (2 items), (c) labour relations or other employee relations (1 item), and (d) the security of the property of the municipality (1 item).
