To many, the
recent decision by Coldsream municipal district council not to ask the
provincial government to study the single municipal government model for
Greater Vernon came as no surprise. However, I was surprised that the elected
officials of the Municipal district gave more credence to a group of fifty or
so vocal residents opposed to even considering issue and less or no credence to
the over 800 hundred Coldstream residents who signed the recent Greater Vernon
Governance Society petition. This current Coldstream Council was unwilling to
risk their political capital in an election year for what they perceive as an
unnecessary move. Perhaps their lack of action is understandable but their lack
of fortitude is unfortunate for the area. I believe is better to really know
than think you know.
Following
the rejection of the recent petition’s premise by the acclaimed representatives
of Electoral Areas B and C one could be forgiven for thinking that the recent
few months of political action by the Greater Vernon Governance Society while
admirable has been futile. The need for unanimity among Greater Vernon’s
regional partners certainly made the task seem doomed from the start. The
question has recently been asked of writer; if you knew all along that they
could pull the plug on your whole effort why did you even bother? Indeed. But I
believe this issue will not and should not go away.
People who move to Greater Vernon think that
we need to give our heads a shake when they become aware of how many
jurisdictions exist in our area: a system that we have inherited from the old
ranching days of the North Okanagan. Change needs to come and will come
eventually when elected officials have the courage to ask of the provincial
government is there better way?
There yet
remains one more voice to be heard; that of Vernon City Council. While the
reception the Governance Society Leadership received when they presented the
petition was warm and supportive no decision was taken at that time. It
appeared that Council didn’t want to take that first step at the risk of
offending our regional partners. This was certainly consistent action on the
part our present Vernon City Council particularly when one considers the
concessions made by Vernon in the new parks agreement. However let us return to
the concept of political capital.
A very
credible sample of the Vernon electorate supported a detailed look at how
Greater Vernon is governed with a viable option put to a referendum. Our city
council may choose not to offend the sensibilities of our neighbours by
declining to make a request to the provincial government to look at the
possibility of one municipality for Greater Vernon; but in so doing they would
be forgetting that it was not the residents of Coldstream and B and C who
elected them but rather the citizens of Vernon. Will our council be willing to
ignore the petition as did Coldstream and face the criticism and perception
that Vernon now dances to the tune of its regional partners? I think that
Council certainly has better political option.
I believe
that Vernon Council should respond to their own citizens by forwarding a
request to the Provincial Government to look at the way the Greater Vernon is
governed. Yes I know our Mayor thinks it would be illogical to make such a
request without regional support but in light of the recent attention this
issue has drawn, not to make the request would send the message that the
citizens of Vernon think that things are just fine the way they are. This is
certainly not the case as evidenced by the recent petition. Even if the request
results in a polite letter from the ministry declining a study it could not
hurt to ask. Making the request to truly understand the issues can only result
in closer provincial scrutiny of the goings on at our Regional district and may
lead the province to look at their own financial policies that help to
perpetuate of our cumbersome system of local Governance. All in all a better
way, I think, to spend political capital in an election year.
Cheers Shawn
Vernon
Taxpayer
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