GVSC officially scrapped as agency

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: August 07,

The final nail has been put in the coffin for Greater Vernon’s separate governance model. On Wednesday, the North Okanagan Regional District board adopted bylaws that repeal governance activities for the Greater Vernon Services Committee and the Electoral Area Services Committee. “We will still have water, parks and recreation and economic development’ It’s how we provide oversight that we’re talking about,” said Jerry Oglow, NORD chairman. The concept of individual governance for Greater Vernon arose when GVSC was created as a commission in 2001. It was supposed to have the authority to deal with some issues although it still fell under the NORD umbrella. However, internal conflicts and differences of opinion occurred, and NORD downgraded GVSC to committee status in 2006, meaning it lost its separate authority. Since then, NORD’s administrator has looked after GVSC.

Representatives from Vernon and Coldstream voted against adoption of the bylaw Wednesday. They wanted the entire issue delayed until a legal report looking into the problems related to GVSC is completed. “For city constituents, there are a lot of issues about what’s been happening at GVSC,” said director Juliette Cunningham. Stan Field, BX-Silver Star director, believes it is time for all jurisdictions to move on and focus on providing services to residents through the regional district. “It (GVSC) was a good idea, but for many reasons, it didn’t pan out,” he said. It’s likely that new advisory committees for Greater Vernon and the five electoral areas will be formed. Those groups would make recommendations to the NORD board for consideration, and could not make decisions themselves. “It would go back to the way it was before GVSC,” said Field.

But NORD’s new procedures bylaw, which would create these committees, has been referred to all member municipalities for input. Until that happens, the procedures bylaw cannot be finalized by the regional district. Oglow is hopeful that the new procedures bylaw will end previous conflicts. “There’s been some significant communication gaps and lack of understanding of who does what,” he said, adding that the former governance structures for Greater Vernon and the electoral areas fractured regional co-operation. “That exclusivity system led to the lack of communications we are struggling with.” The proposed procedures bylaw also calls for the regional services, regional growth and finance committees to be merged into one committee of the whole. “It’s a cost-saving factor because we will be moving from three large committees to one,” said Oglow. “The big saving will be in staff time and productivity.” It’s been suggested that NORD’s vice-chairman be the chairman of the committee of the whole.