The sterile insect release program is proceeding full speed ahead for 2007, says SIR program chair Colin Day. “We‘ve got our financial plans in place and approvals are in place until the end of 2007,” the Kelowna city councillor said after a four-hour board meeting Friday in Kelowna. The 2007 budget is $3.4 million, a slight increase over 2006 as a result of inflation, but the goal is to eventually have fruit growers pay the entire cost without contributions from the three Okanagan regional districts. Kootenay Regional District earlier withdrew from the program on the basis it cost twice as much for the release program there as the SIR board collected.
Kootenay Regional District is three valleys to the east, so it is not contiguous to the Okanagan and the majority of the Creston fruit is sold through fruit stands or through their organizations, not through Okanagan packing houses, said Day. There will be a bin quarantine so codling moths don‘t move between Creston and the Okanagan. The board dealt with 10 fruit removal appeals on Friday, but that isn‘t unusual, said Day. “We‘ve got quite a few because we‘re reaching the steady state, the point where the system will basically carry itself with less intervention, so we‘re really trying to deal with the hot spots. Fruit removal is just part of the process,” he explained. “We‘ll still be doing (sterile moth) release, but at a much lower level, so that means we‘ve got to get it cleaned up to the point where not as much intervention is required.”
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Don Quixote Note: The Nord budget passed last week indicates that the Vernon Taxpayer will be taxed $179,096 in 2007 ($157,131 in 2006) plus a parcel tax of $15,234 in 2007 ($15,199 in 2006). The total SIR Requisition for NORD is $276,267 in 2007 as compared to $256,253 in 2006.
Vernon contibutes 70.34 % of the NORD SIR program in 2007 compared to 67.24% in 2006.
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