Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Kelowna's mayor says rules about mandatory city advertising are outdated

By Alistair Waters - Kelowna Capital News Published: March 04, 2013 5:00 PM

The prospect of the city producing what Kelowna's mayor predicts will be the biggest and "most boring" advertisement ever has prompted him to suggest municipalities in B.C. lobby the province to change a requirement in municipal law that makes it mandatory for cities and towns to advise their business in local newspapers. Walter Gray said in the Internet age, municipalities should not be forced to run advertisements such an upcoming eight-page ad listing hundreds of statutory rights-of-way it plans to transfer to Fortis B.C. as part of its deal to sell the assets of its electric utility to the company. Council was told about the plan for the ad Monday. It will run over eight pages in the Capital News and will be the biggest city news advertisement Kelowna has ever run, said general manager of community services John Vos. Vos told council that under the Community Charter, the provincial law that governs how municipalities operate, there is a requirement to advertise when city land is being sold or transferred. The newspaper advertisement will consist of eight pages of rights- of-way addresses. In a city report the list covers 29 regular letter-sized pages. That prompted Gray to question why such a requirement still exists. "It's about time we saved some trees," said the mayor. "This is the epitome of stupidity." He wants the city, through the Union of B.C. Municipalities to lobby Victoria to allow such advertising to be done solely on the city's website. (more)
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Don Quixote Note: When (and if) the Parks MOU gets resolved the Parks under RDNO ownership that will be transferred to local partners (If they are considered Local Parks) will require a similar advertisement. Also, the local jurisdiction that is compelled to transfer ownership of Parks to RDNO   (Parks considered Sub regional such as Kin Beach, Kal Beach and Marshall Fields) will also have to post ad(s) in the local newspaper.

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