Rural taxpayers will be paying for elected officials to drive around on their business. The Electoral Area Services Committee of the North Okanagan Regional District has decided that each of its five directors should get $400 a month for a vehicle allowance. “There’s a discrepancy between what we’re putting in and what we’re getting reimbursed,” said Rick Fairbairn, EASC chairman and rural Lumby director. Directors have traditionally been paid a per kilometre rate for attending meetings at the NORD office, but they got nothing for travel and other costs in their own jurisdictions, many of which are geographically quite large. “If you go out to Mabel Lake from where I live, it’s 35 kilometres each way,” said Fairbairn. “And there are days where I have to go into the regional district office on constituents’ business.”
All of the directors use their private vehicles for EASC business. “Vehicles are not inexpensive to run these days,” said Stan Field,

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