The Ashcroft Committee of the Whole meeting had an agenda package of 55 pages and started promptly at 6pm on February 24th 2020. The Gallery was pretty full with 14 people in the audience. The council adopted the agenda, adopted the minutes from the previous committee of the whole. This meeting had no delegations, discussion items, or by-laws to amend.

At this point the council moved onto item 7.1 the NDIT Economic Development Capacity Grant Application, which is 53 pages long and can be read in its entirety on the Village of Ashcroft’s website ashcroftbc.ca. The mayor mentions that there are couple of options that can be done in regards to this but the council chooses to go with option “A”, which states, “Consider contracting an Economic Development and Tourism position at $25,000 and use the remaining $25,000 for implementation of selected priority and short- term objectives from the draft Strategy. This position could also oversee the Visitor Info Centre, adding this function to the position will require adapting the funding allocation.”

Moving on to item 7.2 which is the “Asset Management Presentation and Demo,” Chief Financial Officer Yogi Bhalla takes to the podium and presents a power point presentation in regards to the villages finances and proposed budget, as well as a demonstration of a new mapping system that he has developed for the village of Ashcroft.

Starting with the budget, Yogi shows what the possible 5-year plan is, how much money is put aside for up coming projects, how the new water treatment facility is being paid for, how the current plan is looking, and what the current plan is for the upcoming annual tax raise. Some of the proposed projects for Ashcroft include: a renovated hot tub at the pool, two more water treatment plant related items, including a new water pump system for the river and a back up power system for the reservoir on the mesa, renovations for the Ashcroft curling facility and a few others.

Then the CFO shared a new mapping system that he created himself, using open source programs. This system can give any information that you may be looking for in regards to sewer system, sizes of properties, how much each property pays in taxes each year, the assessed value, and where all other Village of Ashcroft assets are, right at the click of a button.

With one question from the public “Is this map system available online?” from Gloria Mertens, “Yes, it is on the village website.” From the CFO. With no further questions, The Committee of the Whole Meeting Ended at 6:59pm, just in time for the regular council meeting that starts at 7:00pm