Some Powell River councillors say Tourism Powell River’s name change does not violate a service agreement.
In a delegation Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 2), resident George Orchiston alleges the name change to qathet Tourism Society breaks a covenant to promote the city as a tourism destination.
He called on the city to terminate the four-year agreement, which is in place until the end of 2028.
But Councillor George Doubt says they received a legal opinion.
“My opinion and the opinion coming from reading a legal opinion that city staff has shared with us, reading the agreement between the City of Powell River and qathet Tourism, having read those things that there isn’t a breach, including annual reporting or quarterly reporting,” Doubt said.
Doubt adds the society is capable of paying for the name change without using city money.
Councillor Earl Almeida, the city’s tourism liaison, says the society’s name has changed but Powell River is still on the visitor’s center and the website.
“I had asked staff at the time if that change impacted the agreement that was set with the city. A legal opinion was garnered in June and while that legal opinion wasn’t shared publicly, it did come back saying that in the eyes of the legal team, nothing had been breached,” Almeida stated.
But council committee chairman Jim Palm called the whole thing a “messy situation” with the timelines of notification to the city a “little vague” about what was carried out over the last year.
“We were never formally notified that this had happened,” Palm said.
The chairman stated he didn’t know about the legal opinion other councillors were privy to until yesterday before the committee of the whole meeting (Sept. 2).
Palm was shut down procedurally by a couple of other councillors but he vowed this wouldn’t be the end of the discussion.
