Regional governance on hold – for now

J.P. SQUIRE June 17 Kelowna Courier
Joe Rich won‘t join Kelowna anytime soon, and regional governance is dead, at least in the short term. However, the recent governance study has spurred the mayors of the Okanagan‘s four largest cities to work on a memorandum of agreement on common issues. Kelowna city council received the official word Monday from Community Services Minister Ida Chong: no change to the current Okanagan governance structure. That would also appear to end Joe Rich‘s request for a boundary extension ending regional district control. “I don‘t think the process was wasted,” said Kelowna Mayor Sharon Shepherd following the council meeting. “For the first time, I attended a meeting where there was representation from up and down the Valley in one room. That was, I think, a very positive step.”

Even though she regularly meets with the other mayors, “we had not officially decided that we needed a memorandum or bylaw on things that we would work on together, a consistent commitment between the larger municipalities as we take leadership in some of the areas that have been identified.” That step would certainly help decide what a future regional governance structure should look like, she said. Although some were disappointed Chong didn‘t make a change, “in fact, I think it would have been very difficult for her to make sweeping changes when we even felt, as a committee, that there needed to be more analysis done,” said Shepherd. “In the meantime, we‘re not sitting back and ignoring the process. We‘re trying, in fact, to see how we can work together better.”

The mayors of Penticton, Westside, Kelowna and Vernon have prepared an informal list of common issues, and have even discussed synchronizing similar bylaws, said Shepherd. “One is a good-neighbour bylaw that I think Vernon is developing. We‘re looking at the opportunity for municipalities to work on that kind of initiative.” In the meantime, Chong‘s ministry is analyzing the costs and benefits of alternative governance structures, representation and voting, finances, and the authority to make and implement critical decisions. “Because of the uncertainty and no change in the governance structure, we will be responding to Joe Rich that, at this time, we‘re going to just wait until further analysis is done,” said Shepherd. In addition, “there is no money available at this point in time for our municipality to do surveys and research to see how many people are interested if we were to extend our boundaries, especially to a larger area,” she said. Coun. Robert Hobson, who sits on the Union of B.C. Municipalities, said there is a UBCM committee evaluating regional governance. “We‘ll likely hear more about that at the UBCM annual convention, which is being held in Penticton in September,” said the mayor.