By J.P. SQUIRE Monday, November 26, 2007 Kelowna Courier
A gentle push from the province has all of the major politicians and bureaucrats in the Okanagan thinking about how they want to govern and provide regional services in the future. On Monday, the mayors of Kelowna, Penticton and Vernon joined a new committee of regional district representatives studying governance options and which services to include. The meeting included Dale Wall, assistant deputy minister of community services, since his boss sparked the review. “We are here to develop a work plan by Nov. 30, we‘re about there, and to have a process for consultation on governance and services by March 31, 2008,” said Robert Hobson, committee chairman and chair of the Central Okanagan Regional District. Community Services Minister Ida Chong has expressed interest in exploring new governance models, including the potential for a single regional district for the Valley. “We‘re going to look at what works elsewhere and see which model best addresses the issues we have in the Valley,” said Hobson.
On Monday, the committee agreed to establish a governance sub-committee under chairman Graham Reid (Peachland mayor) that will focus on different regional government structures. He has friends in Ontario, where numerous local governments have combined forces into regional governments. The ministry also has experts. Mayors, regional district politicians and managers also agreed they need technical committees, each with a committee member and staff experts to document the current status of regional co-operation on three key issues: air, water and transportation (including transit). Each technical committee will make a presentation to a Jan. 11 workshop in Vernon involving the boards of the four regional districts in the Okanagan and Valley MLAs. “The province is indicating they want to see more effort made in working together on these things. The province has also established an inter-agency committee, which is looking at the provincial position on issues in the Valley, and that includes MLAs and ministry staff,” said Hobson.
Committee members also discussed Monday how to bring the public into the process. Staff will bring back recommendations on that, but committee agendas, minutes and reports will be posted on regional district websites immediately. One of the first committee resolutions Monday was to make the meetings public and the process transparent, he noted. A meeting of all the city, town and regional councils and boards could be the next stage, but that would involve more than 100 elected people, noted Hobson. “I think we would probably like to have a council of councils. That is something that happens at GVRD (Greater Vancouver Regional District) from time to time to discuss shared topics of interest. I think that will be an outcome,” he said.
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