Cultus Lake – Recently (March 25, 2019), Bill 3 – Proposed Changes to The Cultus Lake Park Act received Royal Assent from the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. This means that the updates to The Cultus Lake Park Act that the Cultus Lake Park Board and staff have been working on amending since 2015, with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, have become law. (Bill 3 – 2019: Municipal Affairs and Housing Statutes Amendment Act, 2019 can be found here: https://bit.ly/2Urqu1J.)
The Cultus Lake Park Act has been in existence since 1932. The legislative changes made relate to board member conduct, board procedures, and corporate, regulatory and bylaw enforcement powers. Some of the language in the Act was updated or modernized with the content/intent remaining unchanged.
The amendments modernize rules governing the conduct of Park Board members by providing clear confidentiality and conflict of interest obligations based on the Community Charter. With the passing of these amendments, the Park Board is now authorized to hold in-camera meetings with the same safeguards as local government and has the ability to set remuneration of its members instead of relying on the City of Chilliwack for approval. In short, more autonomy for Cultus Lake.
The amendments provide the Park Board with many of the corporate powers available to municipalities under Part 5 of the Community Charter. This provides the Park Board with modern tools for bylaw enforcement, such as adjudication under the Local Government Bylaw Notice Enforcement Act, municipal ticketing, and the ability to impose higher fines from the current $50 to a maximum of $2,000.
