Are we over-governed?

“No one can argue that we are over-governed for the size of the North Okanagan population,” said Jack Borden, society spokesman.

An interesting comment from a former Councillor of Coldstream who was considered to be the brain behind the Greater Vernon Services Committee. No one can argue that the GVSC was an additional government agency that proliferated the bureaucracy for Greater Vernon.

What Mr. Borden and his group are advocating is that those of us wishing to have our own governing agencies should forget it. Imagine, what would have happened to the Spicer Block in Coldstream if we were part of Vernon. The recommendation to the ALC from Council would have been a foregone conclusion.

Mr Borden points out that the entire North Okanagan has 45 elected politicians for a population of 77,301. What he does not mention is that 26 of those politicians are elected for Armstrong, Enderby, Lumby and Spallumcheen. Each of those communities could elect to join an adjacent community if they desired but they likely prefer to maintain their unique identities.

The commonly held belief that we are governed by several layers of government is erroneous. A brief review of the legislation should clarify the role of the Regional Districts (or regional governments) as intended by the legislation. The following summary should provide a basic information.

“Prior to the introduction of the regional district (RD) in 1965, land use and planning were done directly by the British Columbia (BC) government, whereas local services (such as fire protection, lighting, water management) were provided by independently incorporated improvement districts or municipalities under contract with the province. Rapid expansion in urban and outlying rural areas highlighted the resulting fragmentation in the provision of—or planning for—services. There was no general-purpose local government, or any statute or procedure facilitating aggregation to achieve benefits of regional service delivery. In 1964, the Municipal Act was amended to authorise the incorporation of regional districts and over the next three years, 28 would be created. Due to restructuring and further amalgamation, at this time there are 27 regional districts in British Columbia.” (Regional District governance in British Columbia: A case study in aggregation. By David Cashaback, 2001).

For a more detailed review please visit the entire document (click).

The RD’s have taken over the provision of services for unincorporated areas (Electoral Areas or EA’S) within the province. Political leadership of these RD’s are provided by elected Directors from the EA’s and appointed Directors from member municipalities. Voting power is based on the size of the population each Director represents. For instance, Coldstream’s population is just under 10,000. It is represented by one Director with five votes. When Coldstream’s population surpasses 10,000 an additional Director will be appointed and the voting power will increase to 6 and will be shared by those two Directors (2,000 is the magic number, representing one vote).

Services are delivered through “functions”. Each Director votes on wether they wish to join any particular function on behalf of their constituents. Cost of functions are shared equally by the members (mill rates are the same for each property). As an example, the Multiuse facility is taxed on improvements alone (land values not included) and in 2007 the mill rate was 0.4181 for all participants. Obviously, properties with higher values were assessed higher costs regardless of location.

So, are we really over-governed?

Joining a function is voluntary and is based on (perceived?) cost effectiveness of the given service. Naturally, there are debates and arguments as each Director has his/her opinion and tries to get the best deal for his/her constituents. Often these healthy debates are overblown by some members of the media. If every politician had the same idea all the time we would only need one person running the show.

Each community is governed by its democratically elected Council or Electoral Area Director. NORD is governing only the Electoral Areas and carries out the functions that were agreed upon by the participants.

If a community decides that they no longer wish to be autonomous they can call a referendum and decide to join an adjoining municipality (provided the taxpayers of that municipality agree). That’s the freedom of choice and that’s the democratic process and Mr. Borden is right that it should not be forced upon any community. If they are willing to pay the extra cost of having their own Council and administration they have the right to do so. The larger the community the less say an individual has in the communities affairs.

One statement from Mr. Borden puzzles me. He states: “Efficient and effective service delivery starts with minimizing bureaucracy and minimizing the number of elected officials throughout the region”. Is there anyone who feels that Greater Vernon Services, especially Greater Vernon Water provides an efficient and effective service delivery?

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