Over the past two Council meetings, the Village of Witset has asked for 3 letters of support from the Town of Smithers.
Morally, it would seem right as community partners to support any initiatives that come across the desk of Council.
Unfortunately, these letters have been coming to Smithers more frequently and cost staff time in investigating each individual case.
Here’s Smithers Mayor Taylor Bachrach with his take on things.
“Letters of support are needed to demonstrate community involvement for any public initiative. I cannot stress enough that Council fully supports the development efforts taking place in Witset. Over the past little bit, we’ve had a significant amount of support letter requests come from the Village. To counter this, we have now directed staff to have conversations with the officials out at Witset. Hopefully, by establishing this line of communication, we can have more a more streamlined way of dealing with these cases.”
Although Councilor Frank Wray hasn’t always been in favor of letters of support, he really encourages the work being done by Witset.
“I’m always telling community leaders to apply for as many grants as possible and they typically require letters of support. In this case, I feel like Witset has different challenges than what the Town would deal with. Not only do they not have the same taxpayer base, but they also don’t have the business support like Smithers does. Sending letters of support hasn’t impacted our applications for the BC Rural Dividend Program so why not? From the Town’s side of things, I think it’s important to support the great economic development happening out there.”
The two latest letters of support were in regards to a Kyahwood Buy Local Campaign and Domestic Market Expansion Project.
Kyahwood Forests Products employs 58 people (99% Indigenous) and generates $2 million in annual payroll.
On July 10th, Witset Officials asked for a letter of support to develop the Widzin Kwah Canyon. That story can be found here.
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