http://www.theotherbeaver.com/ October 11, 2007
excerpt :
Democracy fails us when the people who we elect to represent us subject it to secrecy.Rumours abound as theories surface about the proposed merger of the three Okanagan regional districts into one.Could it be possible that part of the North Okanagan might pack up and hang its governance with the Columbia Shuswap Regional District? Some local observers speculated such a rumour might have driven the District of Spallumcheen into discussions about regional governance behind closed doors.But according to Spallumcheen Mayor Will Hansma, the directive to go in-camera came from the provincial government.“It’s been asked by senior government that we deal with those matters in-camera,” he said Monday after the regular council meeting.But Hansma added that council would have still discussed the matter in-camera even if the provincial government had not instructed them to do so.“We would have not talked about this in the open because there are so many ramifications when you change a governance structure.”
The Okanagan appears to be headed for a phase where the foundation of local democracy will be discussed behind closed doors. One would hope that as local councils gather to discuss governance that they seek to address clarification on a couple of key issues that brought them to this point in the first place.
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