Minutes of Cyclone Recovery Committee - Wednesday, 24 May 2023

1. Welcome/Karakia /Apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and T Hokianga opened with a karakia and general opening remarks.

Resolution

CRCCC1/23 That the apology for lateness from Cr Charles Lambert be accepted.

Siers/Mackintosh

CARRIED

2. Conflict of interest declarations

There were no conflicts of interest declared.

HB Future Farming Trust presentation

Tom Belford and Phil Schofield from Hawke’s Bay Future Farming Trust gave a presentation in support of their annual report, which was taken as read. The presentation and discussions covered:

· The connection between the Trust’s work and building resilience and the work of the Cyclone Recovery Committee.

· Faced climate change famers require resilient methodology and a good environmental story for markets.

· The role of the Trust is to build evidence that supports alternatives to current best practice and to be a provocateur.

· Council can reach farmers though the extension to Land for Life and existing catchment groups and potentially invite FFT to overlay soil carbon benchmarking.

· Matuaranga Māori is incorporated into the Trust’s work and would work in a commercial environment for Hill country sheep and beef farmers.

CRCCC2/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the HB Future Farming Trust presentation.

Williams/Harding

CARRIED

Confirmation of membership

The Chair introduced the item with a brief explanation of the Committee’s establishment to deal with Council’s recovery work as well as what would have been dealt with by the Environment & Integrated Catchments Committee. Discussions covered.

· The appointment of up to 2 Post Settlement Governance Entity (PSGE) appointed members of the RPC to the Cyclone Recovery Committee was provided for in the Terms of Reference. The four PSGEs most impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle would like to make appointments directly to the committee rather than via the RPC.

· To fundamentally change the membership of the committee an amendment to the Terms of Reference requires a resolution of Council.

· The Māori Committee resolved representation at their 3 May 2023 in order to pragmatically bring forward the voice of the most affected communities.

· It was suggested this Committee is different than other Council committees and warrants a different approach to membership.

CRCCC3/23

Resolutions

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee:

1. Receives and considers the Confirmation of membership staff report.

2. Recommends that Hawke’s Bay Regional Council confirms the Cyclone Recovery Committee membership appointments of Peter Eden and Katarina Kawana representing the Māori Committee.

Siers/Williams

CARRIED

Rapid rebuild process update

Chris Dolley and Jon Kingsford spoke to the item which updates the Committee on the status of the work to repair stopbanks.

· As of today, 24 breaches have been repaired.

· A dashboard Situation Report is being updated twice each week.

· Phases of the repair work include temporary repairs, enabling works, dewatering, site preparation, material identification, rebuild to ground level, stopbank rebuild, topsoil and finally hydroseeding.

· Scour sites will be reported as completed rather than waiting until all are finished, e.g. 18 scour sites in Omahu.

· IRG work under way at Moteo and Omarunui pre-cyclone will be recommenced if HBRC can get an extension on the funding from central government.

· 30km of stopbank was overtopped by up to 1 metre for hours resulting in breaches.

· Currently no flood protection in Wairoa despite Cyclone Bola evidence that higher level of protection required. HBRC is working with central government and Wairoa District Council on funding options to get a comprehensive flood protection scheme built for Wairoa.

· A technical review of HBRC’s schemes and how they performed during the cyclone will commence shortly.

Cr van Beek left the meeting at 12:44pm.

CRCCC4/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Rapid Rebuild process update.

Kirton/Eden

CARRIED

Asset Management operational recovery

Chris Dolley and James Feary spoke to the update on operational response work. Discussions covered:

· The dedicated operational response and recovery team has created a tool and programme to plan, investigate, assess, scope and prioritise works for delivery.

· Work includes drain clearing (woody debris, rubbish, trees) and re-seeding, river edge protection, and fixing culverts.

· The importance of access to information for landowners carrying out their own repairs – with maps and status updates available on the HBRC website.

· The criteria to access the $70m fund from central government for residential silt removal will be announced later in the month and will not impact on the Council’s work.

CRCCC5/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Asset Management operational recovery update.

Williams/Mackintosh

CARRIED

Councillor Lambert joined the meeting online at 1:05pm

Update on rural and primary sector recovery

Iain Maxwell and Richard Wakelin presented the update, which highlighted:

· The objective of the HBRC Rural Recovery Strategy, developed with teams right across the Council, is to support the recovery of rural areas working collaboratively with communities, the primary sector and government agencies.

· Opportunities for future proofing planning, e.g. freshwater farm plans, within the HBRC planning framework.

· Responses to the impact assessment survey revealed 92% fencing losses (~3,600km), 75% track damage, 71% irrigation/water supply damage (762 dams and 71,785m of water reticulation lost), 68% had slips (in total ~10,705ha lost to slips, average of 39ha per impacted property), and 64% had culverts damaged.

· Many respondents also expressed frustration at delays caused by a lack of information, concerns or issues with funding (access, amounts, criteria), a need for answers/ clarity before they can move forward, and concerns that lifestyle farmers not qualifying or being eligible for support.

· Aspects of rural communities and their wellbeing, safety and resilience, Māori tourism businesses, and Māori land more broadly need to be addressed.

· Need to keep community hubs operating as part of building community resilience.

CRCCC6/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Update on Rural and Primary Sector recovery.

Roadley/Harding

CARRIED

The meeting adjourned at 1.27pm and reconvened at 2pm.

Cr Hinewai Ormsby extended her apology and left the meeting during the adjournment.

Land for Life project update

Michael Bassett-Foss introduced the item, which was taken as read. Discussions covered:

· This is about recovery. It’s important to build back better and the conversation needs to shift to land management where the focus is keeping farming and forestry in HB open for business.

· A workshop would assist to understand the role of council as a facilitator and how to capture expertise in the region.

· MPI supports this cornerstone component of regional recovery and a catalyst for farm planning.

· Option to scale project to 600 farms over 3-years

Councillor van Beek re-joined the meeting online at 2:10pm

· Project has been very focused on-farm but recognise the need for wider community and te ao Māori engagement.

· The need to take the community on the journey rather than delivering a finished product; to provide support for landowners to make informed decisions about the use of their land.

· There is an extensive communications and engagement programme planned for scaling up the project with the recovery including more broadly with the Māori community.

CRCCC7/23

Resolutions

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee:

1. Receives and notes the Land for Life project update staff report.

2. Considers and provides feedback on the draft strategic drivers, problem statement and critical success factors outlined in the strategic case section of the item.

3. Requests that a workshop on the role of the Council as an enabler and options to scale up Land for Life be held for committee members.

Williams/Harding

CARRIED

Hawke's Bay Regional Council Recovery Manager's update

Louise McPhail introduced the item and discussions covered:

· Working at pace with the Hawke’s Bay Recovery Agency and the other councils to prepare for the central government announcement on land categorisation next week.

· As Environmental Resilience Regional Pou lead, contributing to the Regional Recovery Plan for submission to central government by 30 June.

· The second edition of the plan is tentatively due for submission on 1 September; a month earlier than previously understood and involves significant community engagement.

· The team needs to establish the priority land categorisation engagement and then what other engagement fits around this, in collaboration with other councils as much as possible.

· The HBRC Recovery Manager’s role is focused on being a conduit between the Regional Council and the Recovery Agency as well as working with the Recovery Taskforce and coordinating internal workstreams that are part of the Environmental Resilience Plan.

· The HB Recovery Agency is the umbrella for the entire recovery.

· The Regional Council is the administrating organisation for Civil Defence and Emergency Management and an update from HBCDEM was requested for the next meeting.

· The Regional Recovery Plan will pull together the locality plans under the pou headings (chapters or topics).

· The second edition of the Resilience Plan will likely include the community response and understanding feedback from those involved.

CRCCC8/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Hawke's Bay Regional Council Recovery Manager's update.

Siers/Kirton

CARRIED

Silt & debris verbal update

Bill Bayfield provided a verbal update on Silt and debris which covered:

· The agreement with Hastings District Council has been extended to include all the region’s councils with the taskforce being led largely by Hastings District Council.

· Three tranches of central government funding (tranche 1 = $70M residential, tranche 2 = $70M commercial properties by grant – criteria to come, and tranche 3 = for marae through Te Puni Kōkiri actioned by the Taskforce).

· The definition of sediment had been broadened to include anything up to the size of a boulder.

· The commercial grants board/taskforce will include a representative of central government alongside representatives from local government and industry.

Discussions covered:

· Lifestyle properties, Māori land and marae applications will be the same as what was used for the Regional Relief Fund.

· Important to have central government representation in the commercial grants process in order to feed back up to government.

CRCCC9/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Silt & debris verbal update.

Harding/Siers

CARRIED

Central government updates

Bill Bayfield introduced the item and discussions covered:

· The next big area of interest is land categorisation announcement by the Minister on 31 May. Engagement with effected groups will take place over the ensuing 8 weeks in a staged approach. Who funds what is still not known.

· The Ministerial enquiry into land use was released 12 May. A review of the Outrage to Optimism report will go to Council.

· The land categorisation briefing for elected members on 30 May is to prepare for the ministerial statement on 31 May.

· A question was raised about the role of the Regional Council in administering the NPS for Plantation Forestry.

· A question was raised as to whether large woody debris study commissioned by HBRC will be revisit the missed sites in Wairoa.

CRCCC10/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Central government updates.

Harding/Roadley

CARRIED

The meeting adjourned at 3.18pm and reconvened at 3.28pm.

Administering the Recovery Agency and recovery funding

Susie Young introduced the item and discussions covered:

· Until the Regional Recovery Agency is set up as a legal entity able to sign agreements and distribute funding, HBRC is acting in the role of lead funding agency for the recovery.

· Significant amounts of paperwork involved in this – Heads of Agreement, funding agreements, SLAs, etc. and funds are ‘on hold’ pending approval of all councils, DIA, etc.

· At this stage Council is only administering the silt and debris funding.

· Recovery of response money from NEMA has been raised with central government.

· The commercial grant application assessment for silt and debris is outsourced to Price Waterhouse and this, combined with a trusted process, has taken pressure off HBRC staff.

· The Recovery Agency will determine how funding is distributed.

CRCCC11/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Administering the Recovery Agency and recovery funding staff report.

Siers/Hokianga

CARRIED

Cyclone event science impacts

· The Science team refocused from BAU since day 1 of the critical response to support the decision making of agencies with the provision of scientific data and assessments.

· To support the recovery, the science work has been split into four focus areas of resilient land, climate resilience, water security and health, and integrated ecological assessments.

· Science funding is working with partner CRIs, Ministries and others to guide the funding into for the region to answer questions we have about how Cyclone Gabrielle impacted our natural systems and how we can build resilience into the future.

· Core samples from Lake Tūtira demonstrated a 35 year recovery period for algae after a flood event in the 1700s.

· NIWA brought the RV Ikatere to Hawke Bay to investigate silt inundation on some areas of the Wairoa, Tangoio and Clive Hard. This was a limited project due to a lack of funding.

· A piece of work is being looked at for next year to use the RV Tangaroa to carry out coring to allow comparisons to past events such as Bola. Also, a hydrodynamic model of Hawke Bay developed by a PhD student may be able to be used to provide an estimate of depth of silt at the river mouths.

· Impacts of silt deposits on reef environments will also be investigated by an integrated ecological assessment.

· It is hoped that land damage data from Manaaki Whenua will contribute information about how different land uses were impacted by the cyclone event in relation to soil, geology and rainfall to support decisions about land use change in places like upper Mohaka.

· Where possible work is happening at speed however some information will be subject to change; trying to front-end the provision of information for decision making in recovery and is a source of truth of what we know right now.

CRCCC12/23

Resolution

That the Cyclone Recovery Committee receives and notes the Cyclone event science impacts staff presentation.

Eden/Williams

CARRIED

Closure:

There being no further business the Chair declared the meeting closed at 04.05pm on Wednesday, 24 May 2023.

Signed as a true and correct record.

Date: by resolution 21 June 2023 Chair: Councillor Sophie Siers