Mayes focus of questions

Morning Star Published: October 10, 2008

A proposed commercial development for the west end of Salmon Arm, very much in the spotlight for civic politics, has also been highlighted in the federal election campaign. At an election campaign forum in Sorrento on Sept. 24, incumbent MP Colin Mayes was asked about the SmartCentres development proposed for the vicinity of the former Petty’s Meats property. Blind Bay resident Don Cavers asked Mayes at the all-candidates meeting if he’d been involved in getting the SmartCentres lands out of the Agricultural Land Reserve. Cavers later said he is interested in the issue both from an environmental perspective and a community perspective. “It’s going to impact fisheries in terms of being a federal issue. More particularly, it’s a local issue and it relates to when he was in municipal politics...”

At the forum, Mayes stated he wasn’t mayor when the property came out of the ALR. Cavers said he wasn’t impressed with how Mayes answered the question. “He really took an attack position to it, that I had questioned his integrity.” Asked in an interview following the forum about the issue, Mayes reiterated that he was not mayor when the land was removed from the ALR. “What happened was, we had a submission to take that out, Bob Holtby actually made the submission on behalf of a group. Council decided to approve that and the ALR said no. I was off of council and council appealed to the ALR – the new council, this one – and asked that they reconsider and they came up and had a look at the properties, they did reconsider and took it out. So I was not there when it was taken out.”

However, Mayes’ recollection does not fit with city documentation. The land was removed from the ALR in July 2005, and Mayes finished his term as mayor in the fall of 2005. The current council was sworn in in December 2005. In an earlier letter to the Agricultural Land Commission on Oct. 18, 2004, Mayes expressed his disappointment with the first ruling: “With reference to your letter of October 5, 2004, advising of the Commission’s refusal in its decision recorded as Resolution #418/2004 with respect to the subject application for exclusion, I would appreciate if you would pass on to the Commission my disappointment in that decision. “It would appear the Commission did not recognize any of the issues identified in the District of Salmon Arm report which accompanied the application, in particular, the lack of availability of large tracts of commercial land and the Municipality’s vested interest in improving this important gateway entrance west of the town centre as well as resolving major transportation issues with the Ministry of Transportation.”