eos COUNC

AUG 28 1978

Mayor and Council August 25th, 1978

L.D. Pollock
City Administrator

Re: Soil Conservation Act

The Provincial Soils Conservation Act passed in 1977
controls the removal of soil or the placing of £111 on land in the
Agricultural Land Reserve areas. Permission to remove or place fill
requires approval from the Provincial Land Commission and a permit
from the Local Authority.

Under the Act, the Local Authority is the Regional District in
which the land is located, however there is a provision whereby the
municipality can give notice to the Regional Board that it wishes to be
the Local Authority. As Local Authority, the municipality would be
responsible for processing applications, collecting the permit fee, and
forwarding the application to the Land Commission. After approval by
the Land Commission, we would be responsible for issuing the permit and,
I assume, be responsible for enforcement within our area, although there
is provision in the Act for the Lane Commission to appoint Inspectors to
also enforce the provisions of the Act.

In view of the fact that the Regional District is officially the
Local Authority under the Act, they have contacted us to see if we wish
them to act on our behalf, or whether we wish to become our own Local
Authority and they would like Council's decision on this question. It
occurred to.me that as there ‘are so few applications in the course of a
year, and that we do have our own Soils Removal By-law to deal with, that
we might just as well act as Local Authority and appoint the City Engineer
to administer both pieces of legislation. It might avoid the situation
where a person obtains a permit from the. Land Commission and proceeds to
remove soil without obtaining the necessary approvals under our own Soils
Removal. By-law.

I would therefore suggest that we notify the Regional District
that we wish to be the Local Authority and that we appoint Fred Peters,
City Engineer, as the Officer within the City to administer and enforce
the Act and Regulations.

aE OS EOE Norm

L.D. Pollock