Frustration at the GVAC table.

I believe that our Vernon elected officials thought they could have it both ways. Ownership and management of recreational facilities with all the efficiencies that could bring but leaving the borrowing function for such facilities at the RDNO. Apparently the province disagrees. Ownership and debt are to be linked. What is caught in all this is the referendum question for borrowing for the proposed new ice surface attached to Kaltire place. There will be no voting on this question in the fall but questions do remain.

           Why would this process get so far along without someone questioning the borrowing authority?

           Was it because in spite of all the effort at restructuring and getting along they could not let go of the main advantage of the old recreation structure which  was the shared costs particularly for borrowing?

            Why did staff not alert the politicians to the potential concerns the Province would concerning ownership and borrowing?

You can sense the frustration of our elected officials. They thought they had got right. They had tried to definitively answer the questions of who owns what, who pays for what and who ultimately runs what? These have been the nagging questions that have occupied the folks at the GVAC table for a long time.

This latest complication is evidence that perhaps the wrong questions are being asked by the four separate jurisdictions at GVAC. The tangle they find themselves in would not exist if there was one municipal government in Greater Vernon. Who owns what? Who manages what? Who pays for what? And who can borrow for what would be questions with clear answers. Clear answers would lead to good government.

Mr Rolke’s conclusion is that next time they need to get their ducks in a row. That would be a lot easier if there were only one duck.

 Cheers Shawn Lee Candidate for Vernon City Council