Nanaimo Marina Association wants to jettison the Nanaimo Port Authority.
Odai Sirri, association spokesman, called on council on Monday to support efforts to form a non-profit society that would replace the port authority as the official steward of Nanaimo’s water lot properties.
Nanaimo Port Authority and Nanaimo Marina Association have been locked in a dispute over foreshore lease-rate increases and the formula the port authority uses to appraise properties. Sirri said the port changed the lease-rate formula in 2012 in favour of a private appraisal model that used upland property value to determine values of water lots. In some cases, marina operators have seen lease rates go up by more than 450 per cent, claims Sirri, whose association has been in discussion with Transport Canada about the issue.
Bernie Dumas, president and CEO of the port authority, told the News Bulletin it manages 10 properties in the Newcastle Channel on behalf of the government and every five years it’s required to assess fair market rents.When it did the evaluation in 2012, he said there was a substantial increase in rents and they’ve been working with tenants on that, but he also sees that year as a hiccup. Another evaluation will be done this year with the same methodology and Dumas doesn’t expect the spike will continue to go up drastically going forward.
The association, however, is ready to set in motion the creation of a Greater Nanaimo Waterfront Association, a non-profit society like the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority, that would replace the port authority.
Sirri said it would focus on economic development along the harbour for all industries and would see financial benefit mandated to stay in Nanaimo with revenues reinvested in the local harbour. Among the benefits would be community say on waterfront growth and enhancement and a fair economic playing field where industries and businesses have an equitable relationship and fee structure, he said.
“Businesses operating along Nanaimo harbour have been emboldened by the real peril that our businesses face today. So from Departure Bay to Duke Point, from north to south, the community is united in dispatching the NPA model,” Sirri said. “We have no confidence and no faith that the port will work in the best interest of the local public good.”
Transport Canada has told the association the solution it puts forward has to be something the community can rally behind and support. Sirri asked council to support an effort to work with Snuneymuxw First Nation and other parties to form the new non-profit. It’s not something that would happen overnight, Sirri said, but would acknowledge the model in Nanaimo is ‘broken’ and ‘fundamentally flawed from the core.’
“So we need to move away from that model and develop a better strategy,” Sirri said.
Nanaimo Port Authority was scheduled to speak to council in camera Monday.
Coun. Ian Thorpe said he appreciated what Sirri said about the need for fairness and equity and understands it needs to be addressed.
“On the other side, what I am hearing from you is a request for support that council, in my opinion, has to really look at very carefully because it involves basically unfriending a major partner with the city in a number of projects and would possibly jeopardize working agreements that we might want to have in place,” he said.
Coun. Bill Bestwick said it’s all about the uncertainty, fairness, equity, time and business lost and it was abundantly clear to him the direction in which council should proceed. He initially proposed a motion about the association’s request for support to form the non-profit, but later withdrew it after a recommendation from chief financial officer Victor Mema to go to the in-camera meeting with the port authority. Mema said the motion could be brought back for consideration at the next open meeting.
Dumas said they’ll see where the non-profit, tabled by the association, goes but they’ll also talk to Ottawa.
“For the time being, they are under the control of the port authority and we’ll be using the system we have been until such a time as it needs to be changed,” he said.
He said the port has a good relationship with the city and they interact on a lot of issues, but the city can do as it wishes.
“We explained it all to them last night, so we are doing fair-market rents here and they can make any resolution they wish,” Dumas said.