2015-10-19 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                              19 OCTOBER 2015


2.   Funding Commitment – The second element of the request from NBRF relates to the
     process by which future funding to the NBRF is decided by Council. The NBRF Board has
     asked whether the Council would consider funding over and above funding that will be
     available from Council in the future as the NBRF Board would presumably be reluctant to
     commit all future funding just to these multi-year projects. In other words, the Board is
     probably concerned that if it ultimately approves some major multi-year projects, will this
     absorb a lot of its future funding and limit its opportunities to fund other projects that may
     emerge in that period.
     This raises some issues for consideration by Council:-
         Under the funding deed, the Council agreed to pay the amounts set out in section 4.1
           (c) in the 2015/16 financial year.
         The amounts to be paid in future years are not prescribed.
         The funding deed sets out a process for determining funding in future financial years
           through to 30 June 2018.
         That process requires the NBRF Board to provide Council with an indicative budget
           and submit it to Council for review as part of the Council’s annual budget process.
         The funding for each subsequent financial year is then negotiated between the
           Council and the NBRF through the Council budget process.
         Just because the Council provided $250,000 (from the environmental levy) and
           $80,000 (for economic projects consistent with the purposes of the Trust) in 2015/16
           does not mean that such amounts must be applied in the future. It is up to the
           Council each year to determine how much to apply.
         Presumably, the Council will examine the program proposed by the NBRF Board
           each year in determining the amount of funding to allocate. This consideration would
           take into account the proposed program and projects put forward by the NBRF at that
           time and could consider funding already committed in future years (if that is ultimately
           approved by Council).
My advice to Council is that Council could not at this stage commit to guaranteeing that it will
fund additional amounts to the NBRF for future years. That should occur through the process set
out in the funding agreement and form part of Council’s overall budget deliberations. At that
time, the Council can consider the context of its own budget and the details put forward by the
Board at that stage of its proposed program for the relevant financial year.
About the Multi-Year EOI Proposals
There were a number of multi-year projects submitted under the EOI process to the NBRF.
There are some in particular that the NBRF Board may wish to progress subject to “in principle”
agreement from the Council for them to consider multi-year projects.
The three EOIs all relate to the Noosa River. The EOIs relate to:-
1.    Further development of the Oyster Reef Project – focus on the lower reaches of the river
2.    Development of the science behind a Prawn Restoration Project – focus on the middle
      reaches of the river
3.    Catchment management in the Kin Kin Creek - focus on the upper reaches of the river and
      including a LiDAR project identifying sediment issues.
The intention of this report is not to set out details of those EOIs. They are matters currently
before the NBRF Board and are yet to be made public through that process. If those EOIs are
developed further into projects that the NBRF Board recommend, full details would be provided
to Council at that stage so that the Council can consider any request from NBRF for multi-year
funding.
The NBRF Board has advised that these applications would involve financial and in kind support
from other parties in addition to Council. Based on advice from NBRF Board, the financial and in
kind support contribution from other parties to these projects is approximately $309,000pa for 3
years. The amount of funding being sought through the NBRF is $142,000pa for 3 years. This
may change as the EOIs are worked up into detailed projects.

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