It is a rare
thing for politicians to draw praise; they usually draw fire, so the recent banner
in the letters to the editor praising the rural Directors of Electoral Areas B and
C certainly deserves attention. Directors Fleming and Macnabb received accolades
for their decision not to look at the possible benefits of one municipal
government for Greater Vernon. The writer, Mr. Chris Edwards refers to study
completed in 2008 that supports the areas director’s action to ignore this
issue. Mr. Edwards reported that incorporation was the preferred option. The
possibility of another mayor and 6 councilors added to an already crowded
political landscape sent shivers down my spine and was my motivation to obtain
a copy of the “study”: which in fact was a mail out survey. From my experience,
things are always more complicated than they first seem especially when it
comes to politics.
The survey
was sent out by the RDNO to over 5000 households within the boundaries of
electoral areas (B,C,D,E,F). The recipients were asked to respond by return
mail to each of following two questions regarding governance.
1. Do you want to change the way your
Electoral area is governed, either by joining an existing Municipality or
becoming a separate Municipality. Yes or No.
2. If changes happens, which option
would you prefer? Join an existing an existing Municipality or create a new
Municipality?
Of the 5709 surveys that were delivered the RDNO received
1103 replies; nineteen per cent. To the first question 20% responded Yes and
80% responded NO. I will leave it to others to debate the ambiguous and dilemma
producing nature of the initial survey question. To my mind the structure of
the first question was likely to produce a negative response. Proceeding to the
results of the second question we discover that if change in governance were to
be somehow imposed, the respondents were split 49% against joining an existing
Municipality and 51% for creating a new Municipality.
Despite the almost even results to the second question we do
see the source of data that inspired Mr. Edwards’ comment about the
incorporation of Electoral Areas. So where does this all lead?
Well for those who agree with Mr. Edwards it justifies the
end of any consideration of governance changes here in the sunny north Okanagan
particularly when it comes to Electoral areas. Well perhaps not. Remember that
we know from experience that things often more complicated than they appear.
The RDNO fortunately broke the results the down into logical
groupings of EAs to illustrate some interesting variances. The variant results
of most interest to residents of Greater Vernon are found in the EA grouping of
B and C (Swan Lake and BX). To question one 75% were not favor of any change in
governance. Results similar to the whole survey .To question two however, which
assumes a governance change: 56% of who answered this question (70% of
respondents) preferred the option of joining an existing Municipality over
incorporating. The total survey results had initially masked the surprising preference
to amalgamate by a small but clear majority of respondents in BX-Swan Lake to
the second question in the 2008 RDNO survey. Interesting…
This finding is uncomfortable for those who point to this
RDNO survey and claim there is no support or interest for looking at governance
in the EAs. Certainly in areas B and C this may not be the case. Perhaps some
of those 56% signed a more recent survey on governance. That would make things
really complicated! (Read the whole report on the survey. Decide for yourself
who deserves praise: at my blog Shawn Lee a Vernon Taxpayer)
Cheers Shawn Lee
A Vernon Taxpayer
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