Studies should be looked at with extreme cynicism: especially those 
paid for with your tax dollars. Not long ago in this space we harshly attacked a $500,000 water study being done by the Okanagan Basin Water Board. We asked why the region needs yet another study to tell us that we must conserve water. Not long after, Greg Armour and Anna Sears of the board called to argue its value. They explained that the study would take all the fractured information – tiny pieces of the puzzle – from around the Valley and create an overview of how the entire region works so that planners can look at the big picture. More important than their well-argued points, however, was their promise that this study will help communities work smarter and will result in many tangible spin-offs; in other words, the $500,000 document will not gather dust on a shelf somewhere. That’s all background. Now, a similar case has come up at city hall. The city may soon embark on a $2 million study into transit. The cost will be shared with Central and North Okanagan governments, and our bill would be about $200,000. Curmudgeonly councillor, Barry Beardsell, and gushing councillor, Buffy Baumbrough, personified both sides of the debate. Beardsell: “I don’t want it to see it become one of the studies that ends up in the basement with the millions of other studies we’ve got.” Baumbrough: “We have to be able to say to the community, ‘these are our goals and this is how we are going to get there.’” The responsibility is squarely on the local government to show us we’re not wasting our money. And we again raise the question, what’s wrong with the other studies that have been done on transportation? The Regional District of the North Okanagan completed a study as recently as 2004 and the City of Vernon published one in 2001. We dare say throwing the word “sustainable” into the mix does not a fresh, new, relevant study make. Besides $200,000 could buy some nice bike trails, a fancy new bus or kill the need for another city tax increase. Now wouldn’t that be money well spent?
paid for with your tax dollars. Not long ago in this space we harshly attacked a $500,000 water study being done by the Okanagan Basin Water Board. We asked why the region needs yet another study to tell us that we must conserve water. Not long after, Greg Armour and Anna Sears of the board called to argue its value. They explained that the study would take all the fractured information – tiny pieces of the puzzle – from around the Valley and create an overview of how the entire region works so that planners can look at the big picture. More important than their well-argued points, however, was their promise that this study will help communities work smarter and will result in many tangible spin-offs; in other words, the $500,000 document will not gather dust on a shelf somewhere. That’s all background. Now, a similar case has come up at city hall. The city may soon embark on a $2 million study into transit. The cost will be shared with Central and North Okanagan governments, and our bill would be about $200,000. Curmudgeonly councillor, Barry Beardsell, and gushing councillor, Buffy Baumbrough, personified both sides of the debate. Beardsell: “I don’t want it to see it become one of the studies that ends up in the basement with the millions of other studies we’ve got.” Baumbrough: “We have to be able to say to the community, ‘these are our goals and this is how we are going to get there.’” The responsibility is squarely on the local government to show us we’re not wasting our money. And we again raise the question, what’s wrong with the other studies that have been done on transportation? The Regional District of the North Okanagan completed a study as recently as 2004 and the City of Vernon published one in 2001. We dare say throwing the word “sustainable” into the mix does not a fresh, new, relevant study make. Besides $200,000 could buy some nice bike trails, a fancy new bus or kill the need for another city tax increase. Now wouldn’t that be money well spent?CLICK ON CARTOON TO ENLARGE:
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