Campaign Set For $70M Water Vote

Written by Peter McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM Friday, 04 July 2014 12:18

Pictured: Gyula Kiss,
 Coldstream councillor

Media adds, a flyer in utility bills, community presentations, and a web page dedicated to the issue, Those are ways the Regional District of North Okanagan will use to inform Greater Vernon residents on the pros and cons of this fall's 70 million dollar water referendum. Coldstream Greater Vernon Advisory Committee director Gyula Kiss was the lone opponent to the campaign, feeling it's biased toward the Yes side, and he plans to vote No in November. "I can't tell somebody how to vote. I'm telling them how I will vote, and why I am voting that way, and then they can make up their mind if they want to vote against or for," Kiss tells Kiss FM. Kiss is opposed to the direction of the plan which includes $26 million in filtration at the Duteau Creek water treatment Plant, which he feels is wasted spending when most of the water will be used for agriculture. Kiss also wanted the plan put to a peer review, believing it would be beneficial to get another opinion on it, as he says the same consultants have worked on it since 2002. BX-Silver Star director Mike Macnabb calls it a good communication strategy that is simple and clear enough for the public to understand. "What we're trying to do is have some certainty going forward," said Macnabb. RDNO administrator David Sewell say both the Yes and No sides are presented in the campaign, and they are trying to be as factual as they can. "We're not trying to have dire consequences of a No vote," said Sewell, in response to Kiss's comment the information is like "threatening people with hell-fire" if they don't vote Yes. As for how much a Yes vote would cost the average household, that's described in the material as "below a dollar a day, less than the cost of one litre of bottled water between 2015 and 2020."