Directors fear governance reviewwill override rural area’s concerns

By Tracy Clark - Penticton Western News - January 06, 2008

The eight rural directors of the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen say the fate of their areas could be in jeopardy. In a letter to local media, the directors say they are concerned they are being ignored by the regional governance review process currently underway in the Okanagan Valley. Tom Chapman, director for Naramata, said the regional governance committee is comprised of representatives from each of the three regional districts, but said the voice of a few seems to be overriding everyone else. Chapman said Gerri Logan, the rural Princeton director who sits on the board, has repeatedly suggested alternate models of regional governance for consideration but has yet to see them discussed. “They are totally ignoring her,” he said, pointing out that the option preferred by the RDOS is maintaining the status quo in this end of the valley and uniting the north and central districts.

Chapman said the rural directors banded together to write the letter to media in order to inform the pubic as to how “driven this process is.” “The province and maybe some of the people in the municipalities have found a solution and now they are running around looking for a problem,” said rural Oliver director Allan Patton, whose name is included in the letter.
Echoing the sentiments of the letter, Patton said he fears that the dominating force of a handful of people, mainly from the central and some from the North Okanagan, is trying to quash the voice of rural areas by forcing them to create one regional district. As such, they are concerned the rural areas would be forced to amalgamate with neighbouring municipalities to create district municipalities, thereby centralizing the decision-making process.

“We don’t want to move to district municipalities,” he said. “The (existing) system works fine for us. To me this is just a big waste of time.”In the letter, the rural directors say the operation of the RDOS is already “pro-active and provides good solid governance” to constituents.The directors are encouraging the public to speak up now with their concerns about the process.“People should start speaking out now and not stop until they can ensure that the rural areas can still have a choice,” said Chapman.Patton suggested people write letters to their local and provincial representatives voicing their questions and concerns on the issue.“Time is of the essence and we have to get it out to the public that this is of concern to all the residents in the area,” he said. A website with information on the governance review will be up and running this month. The RDOS will provide a link to the site from