No Decisions Yet on Regional Governance

Starlee Speers Astral Media Radio (Vernon)

BC's Community Services Minister says, she hasn't made a decision yet as to what direction she wants regional governance to take in the Okanagan. Ida Chong says, she's glad to see the region's four largest municapilites are taking steps to collaborate as announced in an inter-municiapal service and regulation bylaw yesterday. "So the fact that they wanted to embark on this initiative I would commend them for doing so. Does that have an impact on my decision in the end? I will take a look and see if it offers some solutions going forward."Chong says, she's still waiting to hear from some electoral area directors and has given them until May 18th to submit their opinions.She says, she'll release her decision at the end of this month.
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Mayor Says Proposed Bylaw Won't Undermine Governance Review
Starlee Speers Astral Media Radio (Vernon)

Vernon's mayor says, a new bylaw in the works that would see the four largest Okanagan municipalities cooperate on mutual issues, isn't an attempt to undermine the governance review. Wayne Lippert says, it's just a way to share ideas while saving taxpayers money. "The idea is to give good policies to harmonize and work together with and save taxpayers money because we already have staff in place to do it ourselves. So it would be local service delivery done with local people. The four CAO's from Vernon, Kelowna, the Westside and Penticton have been instructed to identify how the entire valley and their jurisdictions could benefit from a collaboration on issues like affordable housing and water.