Last night's Council meeting was a short one with little mostly day-to-day Council stuff. I found one unique issue of interest brought up by Councillor Mallerby. She attended the "super council meeting" in Kelowna hosted by the all mighty Ida Chong.Councillor Malerby was quite taken by the idea of creating a valley wide single regional district. Of course, I still remember the enthusiasm Councillor Malerby showed for the Master Water Plan shortly after her election to Council. She provided a Power Point presentation to members of the Ratepayers Association explaining how wonderful the plan was. Unfortunately, the reality turned out differently as the MWP is now in limbo.
Since I did not attend the meeting I am at a disadvantage when debating the issue. However, I know that any time a larger entity incorporates a smaller one it is generally the smaller entity that will draw the short stick. Observe the MWP. While we all paid dearly for our water the ONLY beneficiary to date is Vernon. Vernon, having achieved its goals, is now in the process of trying to partially withdraw from Greater Vernon Water.
It is reasonable to assume that the center of the new super region would be located in Kelowna. The Central Okanagan Regional District was gutted by the creation of Westside. The large bureaucracy must be reassigned to new ventures. It's natural to provide them new employment as the bureaucrats of this new super region.
So how would this new super organization treat little old Coldstream, Lumby or Cherryville? Would they even know where they were, what they were doing? The answer is quite obvious. They would be very low on the list of importance. Thus, it is a mystery to me why a Councillor we elected would be so quick to sign on to something that might be quite inferior to our present system.
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