The future of Greater Vernon’s parks, recreation and culture service has been left in limbo. In a 10-3 vote Wednesday, the North Okanagan Regional District board shot down a motion that called on Vernon, Coldstream, BX-Swan Lake and BX-Silver Star to wind down the function by Dec. 31. “The next step is withdrawal from the service,” said Mike Macnabb, BX-Silver Star director, who made the motion to end the current structure. He says he could initiate a formal withdrawal notice soon, which would lead to a review of the service and eventually his jurisdiction possibly not being a participant.
Macnabb defends his original motion to wind the function down. “The function has Band-Aids on Band-Aids and it needs to be taken apart and put together again,” he said. It has been suggested that a restructured service would only include the Performing Arts Centre, Wesbild Centre, the recreation complex, Kal Beach, the Grey Canal trail and Kin Beach. Other facilities would be operated by the individual jurisdictions. Macnabb is not convinced a compromise can be reached to keep the service together. “Vernon doesn’t want to move on governance,” he said. “The city has clearly said it wants an extra vote after the next census. What ever they said would go and the others would be dragged along.” Coldstream has also suggested that it could withdraw from the function if restructuring fails. “We’re not tearing it apart. It’s a matter of fixing it,” said Jim Garlick, Coldstream director, of developing a new model. “In the end, we will have parks as we have had before. It will just be changed somewhat.” Coldstream has sought increased financial and operational control over parks in its jurisdiction.
But while Macnabb and Garlick insist winding down the current function would encourage negotiations for a new service, Vernon directors disagree with that approach. “The implication of the wording ‘winding down’ means you are ending the service,” said director Buffy Baumbrough. Director Patrick Nicol believes the current structure has a lot of merit. “In essence it has served the community well,” he said, adding that it’s not known how a new structure would operate. “You’re going into something that’s a huge question mark.” City officials claim the current dispute can be resolved through service contracts. But when it comes to governance of the function, it appears unwilling to budge. “There is already one director, one vote so I don’t see a need to change it,” said director Wayne Lippert. BX-Swan Lake director Mike Gavinchuk also opposed Macnabb’s motion. “What does wind down mean? Why can’t we just adjust what we think is wrong (with the function)?” said Gavinchuk.
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