B.C. voters will be choosing more than councillors on Saturday. Here's what else might be on your ballot

When you're voting in B.C. this Saturday, you may see something tacked onto the end of your ballot — perhaps a yes/no referendum question, or a request to nominate a regional district director.

While municipal referendums are a relatively regular occurrence across Canada, seeking residents' assent on critical issues, B.C.'s regional districts are unique to the province.

What is a regional district? What are its powers? And what are some of the most interesting referendums that'll be part of the municipal elections on Saturday?

CBC News breaks it down here.

What even is a regional district?

There are 162 municipalities across the province that will seek to elect new mayors and councils — if those races haven't already been decided by acclamation.

But what if you live just outside municipal boundaries? And what about services that need centralization in large areas, like sewage and garbage disposal?

Enter the regional district. There are 27 regional districts in the province, and one large area governed directly by the province.

"[Regional districts] work on co-operative projects between the country folk and the city folk, if you want to call them that, on things that make sense for them to partner on," said Tyra Henderson, chief election officer for the Peace River Regional District (PRRD).

In addition to centralizing services like sewage, they also maintain regional parks, levy taxes to create cultural and community services and have oversight over 911 services.

People living in different communities are taxed based on the services they receive.

How are they elected?

Regional districts are headed by a board of directors who are largely selected from elected councillors, as well as from local First Nations. There are also sub-committees and boards dedicated to specific issues.

Larger municipalities send more directors to regional districts. In the Capital Regional District (CRD), for instance, there's one director for every 25,000 people residing in a city.

People living in unincorporated areas outside municipalities, also known as electoral areas, elect directors as part of the local elections.

Their local issues — like fire services and garbage collection — are handled directly by the regional district. Usually, the elected director co-ordinates with a sub-committee, dedicated to the electoral area, when making decisions.

What's a referendum?

Also called an "assent vote," a referendum is a binary yes/no question that seeks citizens' opinions to pass certain measures.

An "alternative approval process" can be used for non-legally binding decisions. These are often colloquially called "plebiscites."

Both can be required by local bylaws, such as Vancouver's capital plan borrowing decisions, or to test citizens' appetite for broad questions like "should we host the Olympics?"

You can find a full list of referendums and plebiscites for your community at this link, and for your regional district at this link.

3 interesting referendums

Most referendums this Saturday are to approve capital plans, largely involving funding community centres or similar initiatives

But here are three regions with interesting local questions for their voters.

Assured funding for dinosaurs

Voters in the PRRD have the largest number of referendums to deal with on Saturday — four for most voters, and five if you live in Electoral Area B.

Two of those are concerned with funding the UNESCO-recognized Global Geopark, as well as the Tumbler Ridge Museum and its extensive fossil collection.

Henderson said there is a policy on the books stating that if a project has to be funded for three years or more, a "function" has to be created within the district's bylaws, and that requires assent from the voters.

"What we're trying to do … was bring some more legitimacy to it, to create a new function so that it's region-wide," said Keith Bertrand, the outgoing Tumbler Ridge mayor.

"I think it works out to about $1.50 a household per year."

Bertrand said this won't be new taxes, but rather an attempt to formalize funding that has already existed for years.

Council expansion on the beach

In the community of Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island, voters will be asked if they want to expand the council from five to seven members, including the mayor.

"Nine out of 10 B.C. municipalities with the closest population to Qualicum Beach have councils with seven members," reads a notice from the town explaining the plebiscite.

Residents in the community of 9,000 previously voted down council expansion in 2008 and 2014.

A transit and community commission

The CRD is responsible for three areas in southern Vancouver Island, including the Southern Gulf Islands and Salt Spring Island.

The former will see residents answer a question about getting better transit, so long as they don't mind a small tax increase.

The latter will answer a question about establishing a "community commission," which will have four elected commissioners in addition to the already-elected regional director.

"Salt Spring had tried to incorporate a few years ago and residents turned it down," said Andy Orr, senior manager of communications for the CRD. "This is seen as an alternative governance motion."

If the vote succeeds, the commission will be responsible for, among other things, "compensation for livestock injured by dogs."