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Commercial properties (light industrial, business, and recreation/non-profit) in Cranbrook will have an extra three months to pay their 2020 property tax to the City without penalty up to October 1, 2020.

The due date for all property owners remains July 2. Late payment penalties will be applied to unpaid balances on July 3rd for residential, utility and farm properties. The later penalty date of October 1 enacted by the Province, applies to commercial properties only.

In a communique issued on April 16, 2020, the Province announced temporary changes to the property tax framework including measures to provide financial support for businesses. The Province has postponed the application of late payment penalties for property tax on commercial properties to October 1, 2020. The Province has also reduced the school tax rate for commercial properties resulting in a tax savings of approximately 11% for a typical commercial property in Cranbrook.

Council reviewed the temporary changes to the Provincial property tax framework at their regular meeting Monday night and endorsed a July 2 property tax due date for all properties.

The City is strongly encouraging all property owners, including businesses, who can pay, to pay their taxes by the July 2 due date.

The Province has indicated that these are initial steps. They will continue to monitor the situation closely and will make further adjustments or take additional action to ensure the right tools and measures are in place to maintain service delivery of critical local government services and that all local governments remain financially sustainable.

“As about 62.5% of the City’s operating costs are paid for by tax revenue, the timing of the receipt of that revenue is very important. The City has several large contractual obligations including remittances to other public authorities, that have been structured for payment after July 2^nd. The City needs to ensure that adequate cashflow is available to meet those obligations and to continue to fund operations for, not only the next six months to December 31, but also to fund operations for the first six months of 2021,” says Charlotte Osborne, Chief Financial Officer for the City of Cranbrook.

“Keeping with a property tax due date of July 2nd and penalty date of July 3 for non-commercial property owners and incorporating the Provinces October 1^st penalty date for commercial property owners, will help to minimize risks to the City’s cash position and ensure its financial sustainability,” Osborne adds.

If you have questions, please contact our Finance department by calling 250-489-0233 or 311.

All City property tax notices for 2020 are scheduled to be mailed out in mid-May.

In an effort to help reduce costs in the municipality during the COVID-19 pandemic, Council endorsed a plan Monday night which defers more than $7.3 million dollars in projects. Most of these projects will be carried forward to 2021.

The Industrial Land Development (ILD) projects, which included construction of deep and shallow utilities, and gravel road installation, have been removed from the 2020 budget, for the time being, due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 situation. Approximately $566,000 of that budget will be reallocated back to the 2020 Capital Works Program. The City is diligently working to complete the subdivision and environmental assessment processes of this project. The ILD project will come back for discussion during the 2021 – 2025 budget deliberations.

“Council and staff worked diligently on identifying the essential and non-essential items or projects for the balance of this year. We know that some decisions are not going to be popular, but rest assured they were necessary. The citizens best interests were always considered,” says Mayor Lee Pratt.

Key projects that will continue in 2020 are the capital works program, which includes the annual road rehabilitation program, water, sanitary and storm sewer works. Western Financial Place roof, replacement of the brine chiller, and the replacement of boards at both WFP and Kinsmen arenas, will move forward. The water quality asset management plan, wheeled excavator replacement, and the Joseph Creek sediment control and channel construction will also be completed.

“While a lot of work went into identifying priority projects for the 2020 – 2024 Five Year Financial Plan, the City needed to take steps to ensure that sufficient liquidity levels could be maintained to protect against reduced cash flows due to COVID-19,” says Charlotte Osborne, Director of Finance with the City of Cranbrook. “Projects that could be temporarily deferred without increasing risk to people or other city owned assets, and where the City would not lose out on grant funding, were identified and reviewed with Council.  These projects will not be acted on in 2020 but will be carried forward to 2021.  If it becomes necessary to free up funds to temporarily finance operations until cash flow improves, some of these projects may be eliminated from the budget and would need to be brought back during a later budget cycle for reconsideration.”

“This move represents good financial management and will help the City be able to continue to provide services to the residents, meet its contractual obligations and be better able to deal with potential emergencies such as flood or wildfire events,” Osborne adds.

In all, $8.54 million is earmarked for projects to proceed, with another $6.36 million to be expended on projects that are already underway or will be completed in 2020. $4.71 million in new projects have been deferred. $2.62 million in other projects are being monitored and if the situation changes or is not as bad as anticipated may be brought forward for completion in this year.

“I am extremely happy with the Council and staff on all their efforts put forth in this exercise. I also ask the citizens and general public to be patient and understanding during these unprecedented times,” says Mayor Pratt, adding, “together we will get through this.”

Customers who lease parking spaces downtown Cranbrook will have their monthly fees suspended retroactive from April 1 until June 30, 2020, after a decision of Council at their regular meeting Monday.

The decision was made in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic and is to help reduce the financial burden on residents who work downtown and may have had their work hours reduced or have been laid off. The City will also be suspending the need for payment at all metered parking spots through the downtown for the same period.

The current cost of a monthly parking stall downtown is $35 plus tax per month and this decision of Council waives that fee temporarily.

“The Council is pleased to provide this relief and exemption for parking fees during this COVID-19 crisis,” says Mayor Lee Pratt.  “We are deeply concerned for our business community and their employee’s success and well-being during this time. We are endeavoring to help where we are able to under the Legislation and Community Charter guidelines.”

For more information or if you have questions about the parking fee suspension, please call us at 311.

his COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all into unprecedented and uncharted situations.

I want to assure you that our City staff are doing everything they can to provide the services our business community and our residents deserve. We want to make sure all our staff are kept safe and have closed City Hall to the public and some employees are working from home. Those that are not, are practicing all the suggestions from the BC Public Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry. I want to thank our staff, our emergency responders, such as paramedics, fire department employees and local RCMP for their efforts. Also, a big thanks to our health care workers who are under a lot of stress and working diligently for all of us.

We have been receiving a lot of calls and correspondence demanding we do some things and asking us why we are not doing or enforcing some others. Most of these are under the jurisdiction of the provincial and Federal Governments and their respective Public Health Officers. We do have limited authority.

We must abide by the rules and directives these authorities provide. Complicating the issue is that we have no idea how long this is going to last and consequently cannot answer a lot of the questions we are receiving. This is not that we are ignoring these calls – we just simply do not have any answers currently.

The Emergency Operations Centre is doing a very good job coordinating all the efforts of everyone involved and keeping the public informed. You can receive daily updates on our website.

We have also set up an Economic Resiliency Task Force with several working groups. These groups have all the necessary stakeholders involved. The goal is to help our business community with the necessary information during the pandemic and establish a plan to help everyone get back to normal as quickly as possible after the pandemic. In the meantime, we ask for your patience and cooperation.

Last night (April 7) Council passed a bylaw regarding the payment of our utility accounts which were due April 30, 2020. We have extended the deadline for payment to June 30 and have waived the 2% late penalty charge to after June 30, 2020. This will provide relief for residents and businesses by allowing two additional months to make payment. The next utility bill will be mailed out at the end of July.

Council and staff are also drafting a bylaw to deal with the payment of property taxes and giving some relief. We are restricted by legislation as to what we can do. We will do what we can. We are also in daily contact with the Province encouraging them to possibly change the restrictions that are in place today. Hopefully they will announce something before the end of April.

A big thank you to all the citizens of Cranbrook who are social distancing and implementing the good health practices given by our Public Health Officers.

Let’s continue to practice the protocols in place and get through this together.

Mayor Lee Pratt

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt by all businesses in the Cranbrook and Kimberley region and it is important that steps be taken and support mechanisms be put in place to minimize those impacts and ensure economic recovery resumes quickly.

That’s the mandate of a new joint Economic Resilience Task Force (ERTF), a collaborative initiative intended to create and implement strategies to help our business community now and recover once this situation has passed.

Many local and regional partners represent the ERTF including: Mayor Pratt and the City of Cranbrook, Mayor Don McCormick and the City of Kimberley and includes representation from the Ktunaxa Nation, the Cranbrook and District Chamber of Commerce, the Cranbrook Downtown Business Association, Community Futures, the Columbia Basin Trust and Cranbrook Tourism. The ERTF also has support from Kootenay-Columbia MP Rob Morrison, Kootenay East MLA Tom Shypitka, the Regional District of East Kootenay, the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (MFLNRORD) and the BC Economic Development Association.

The ERTF will be exploring all possibilities in full co-operation with local government to minimize the impact and see an economic recovery take place as soon as possible.

“We know there are tough times now and in the future for our business community and we decided to be proactive and formed a committee of all stakeholders to help these businesses. The City of Cranbrook and all our stakeholders has committed to help our business community weather these tough times,” says Mayor Lee Pratt. “We will also be working together with all the stakeholders during this crisis and after to help out wherever we can to get them back on track to being successful. A healthy community requires a healthy business community and we are committed to do what we can to achieve this.”

The focus of the task force will be on quickly determining what current supports and stimulus work needs to be completed. We will work as a team to identify actions to support businesses, workers and residents. The task force will enable the community to better respond to the evolving challenges this pandemic pose.

“These are unprecedented times for our community, and we must take steps immediately to help our residents and economy, during and after the pandemic,” says Darren Brewer, Business Development Officer for the City of Cranbrook. “We are confident we can, together as a community, get though the economic impact of COVID-19. We want every resident and business in our community to know that we are working for you.”

If you need support, would like to be involved or would like more information, please contact Darren Brewer at 250-919-9792 or email [email protected].

As part of the City of Cranbrook’s continued commitment to deliver a high standard of customer service, we will now be offering customers with a convenient way to view, print, and pay bills, licenses and notices online effective today.

Residents and businesses can visit the City’s website at www.cranbrook.ca and select the ‘Online Payments’ option. This secure service allows you to view your account balances and make payments for property taxes, utilities and business licenses, along with downtown parking invoices. You can also make payments for municipal fines like parking tickets online by selecting the “Parking Ticket Payments” option.

“I would like to thank Council and staff for their input and support on this initiative which addresses a number of requests we have had from our citizens,” says Mayor Lee Pratt. “It will be well received and adds to our goal of improving our customer service.”

Dog license renewals can be viewed, but payment must be made in person at City Hall for issuance of the tag.

You will need your account number and your access code for each bill you wish to register. The access code will be printed on each bill as they are sent out, or you can contact City Hall at (250) 489-0233 to obtain your access code right away.

As an added customer service improvement, City Hall will also now be accepting credit card payments. It is important to note that a 2.4% convenience fee will apply to all credit card payments made online and in person at City Hall to cover the cost of this service.

Looking ahead to build for the future, is one of the biggest reasons the City of Cranbrook purchased the previous Tembec property in 2018. This has added 99 acres of industrial zoned land supply available for development in the City. The goal of the purchase is to attract employment rich, diverse, value-added industry to the community, enhancing our economic base.

The largest focus in 2019, was the three engineering studies initiated by the City. The first was an environmental engineering study, the second was a civil engineering study, and the third was a geotechnical study. It is anticipated these studies will be completed early in 2020.

City staff are also working on the overall concept and strategy for the former Tembec property with a focus on marketing to investors, developers and other business interests in 2020 and beyond.

“Over the past few years we have had a number of enquiries regarding availability of investment ready industrial land. This will fill that void we have had and make this area attractive to new industries and the relocation and expansion of existing businesses,” says Lee Pratt, Mayor of the City of Cranbrook.

For the development of the property, $2.5 million is included in the 2020 budget for installation of deep utilities, and $2.75 million for installation of shallow utilities and a road.

Below is a breakdown of costs associated with the Cranbrook Industrial Lands (former Tembec land) to date and the budget and development projects slated for 2020:

Cranbrook Industrial Lands

Year	Item	Components	Cost	Totals
2018	Land Purchase	Land Acquisition Costs	$ 3,069,862	$ 3,069,862
2019	Studies	Engineering & Geotechnical Environmental Property Analysis	$ 200,000 $ 244,000 $ 85,000	$ 529,000
2020	Land Development	Remediation Deep Utilities Shallow Utilities and Road Fibre Conduit Marketing Costs	$ 370,000 $ 2,500,000 $ 2,750,000 $ 30,000 $ 30,000	$ 5,680,000

Upon the successful development of the Tembec lands, we expect new lease and sales revenue, property tax revenue, the creation of more jobs and many other important spinoffs which will positively impact the overall economy of Cranbrook.

“Our vision is to provide a sustainable development that will foster new and innovative investments in our community. We’re exploring ideas in sustainability, design and economic modelling to create a long-term strategy for economic development,” says Darren Brewer, Business Development Officer for the City of Cranbrook. “We hope to pilot new ideas and strategies to build our competitive advantage and grow our economy.”

“We want to achieve a new standard for development in the Kootenays, providing new and innovative opportunities for economic growth for our citizens, while creating the blueprint for an ecologically-friendly industrial culture,” Brewer adds.

There have been some early successes on site, with the introduction of C & C Wood Products and Caliper creating good paying jobs and restoring life into the former Tembec lands.

Looking ahead, the economic outlook and overall goals for the property are strong. New investment and growth will create positive direct and indirect impacts in the local job market and in the local business economy. Work is underway from an economic development perspective to build on the historic strengths of the area, foster local innovation and investment, and help diversify our economy and create jobs.

“Once this development is completed and fully occupied, it will be a large complement to the existing business community of Cranbrook,” Mayor Pratt notes, adding, “over time this will be a huge economic driver for the City and adding to the services we provide to the surrounding area.”

Three contracts have been awarded and work under way for the engineering of the Tembec Lands Development in Cranbrook.

“It is good to see we are moving forward with the plans for the development of this industrial land,” says Mayor Lee Pratt. “With the interest we are receiving regarding availability of these lands, it is important that we get moving on it. There have already been 40 new jobs created in the two leases that we have entered with the existing buildings that were on site and sitting dormant for many years. I am looking forward to more great opportunities which will present themselves to this project.”

The first contract is the Environmental engineering which was awarded to SNC Lavalin to undertake a Stage 1 Preliminary Site Investigation update, update previous tables and drawings, and then complete a data gap assessment and work plan to move forward to address environmental issues which will need to be completed for the proposed development to occur.

The second contract (civil and transportation engineering) was awarded to Urban Systems Ltd. This contract includes the transportation network study and conceptual design, survey work, civil design and cost estimates, and contract administration and field inspections when construction occurs. The transportation plan will be complete in the fall of 2019 and the final civil design being complete in the fall of 2020. Deep civil utilities (water, sewer and storm) could be installed in the summer of 2020 and road construction and shallow utilities constructed in 2021 at the earliest.

The third contract was awarded to VAST Resource Solutions Inc. for geotechnical engineering to complete a geotechnical and hydrological assessment to evaluate and reduce the area currently under restrictive covenant (no build/no disturb zone) regarding potential geotechnical and drainage hazards to future development and to provide geotechnical/drainage recommendations for subdivision road construction and utility services. The geotechnical study will be complete the summer of 2019.

Staff continues to work on the concept and the strategy for the former Tembec lands specifically around marketing and branding of the property. The City is planning to launch a new economic development micro-site in the fall of 2019 within the City current corporate website – www.cranbrook.ca, with the Tembec lands as a central point and driver to garner interest from investors and other business interests.

Several City projects are expected to save taxpayers millions of dollars, thanks to innovative thinking, collaborative efforts, due diligence and applying sound asset management principles of City staff.

The environmental assessment review on the recently purchased Tembec lands, which has just been received by City administration, shows that the land may not require any significant additional clean up or site remediation.

Tembec had previously conducted significant environmental investigations starting in 1998 and site remediation beginning in 2002. Over 10-year long soil sample testing confirms that most regulatory standards will be met. Not needing extensive site remediation will translate into a projected cost saving around $2 million and will expedite the realization of the vision of those lands, creating economic diversity, job creation and the intermodal transportation hub.

Another great news item is around the Western Financial Place (WFP) roof replacement. It had been identified and reported that the roof needed full replacement due to leaking in various locations of the building. The full roof replacement would have cost approximately $3 million dollars to complete.

After several attempts to identify the cause of the leak, the City’s consultants report that condensation and humidity buildup is behind most of the water issues. With the problems identified, we are looking at multiple options which will extend the longevity of the roof assemblies including the aquatic centre and the arena barrel roof. The City expects to alleviate the water issues at WFP at considerable cost savings to taxpayers, creating a budget saving of potentially over $2 million.

And finally, on the 2nd Street South reconstruction project now completed, improved Asset Management processes and project delivery structures that the City implemented were able to reduce the actual project cost in the range of $2 million, or 30% of original estimates, which then went towards other priority infrastructure and road projects. This was a result of maximizing the lifespan of some assets rather than replacing them prematurely, as well as optimizing the asset investment based on the current and future demands.

Understanding the exact conditions of our tangible assets, through sound asset management principles, innovation and due-diligence improved the fiscal accountability of the City, as demonstrated above while working closely with local consultants and contractors towards a common goal.

The purchase of the former Tembec lands by the City of Cranbrook will bring strategic opportunities to the City’s sustainability. One of the biggest hurdles for attracting new industry and jobs to the City has been the availability of Industrial zoned land.

The Tembec land purchase has been an important goal for Mayor Lee Pratt, one that he has been spearheading for over 2 years and is proud to see it come to fruition.

The ongoing cooperation and assistance of Marcus Moeltner of Tembec and Tembec/Rayonier has been fundamental for the final transactions regarding the acquisition of these lands.

This purchase adds approximately 100 acres of properly zoned land supply to the City and provides a very positive step in the Economic Development Strategy of the City as well as our transportation hub strategy and vision for the City’s future.

The City projects this will help in attracting new diverse industry and much needed jobs for our citizens. Mayor Lee Pratt says he is already in discussion with six interested parties that are suited for the lands and will have an announcement soon on at least one of these opportunities.

Mayor Pratt would also like to thank the rest of City Council for their support and foresight regarding the Strategic Plan and long term vision for the future of Cranbrook. Chief Administrative Officer David Kim’s expertise and experience in these type of developments will also be a huge benefit to the success of this project.

This is a strategic move for the citizens of Cranbrook and will bring many benefits to the business community, and sustainable economy and growth of the City.

Mayor Pratt and the Council members are confident the citizens will all be pleased with the future development and outcome of this project.