Local Government Priority
Spending
There has been a lot of media attention
around local government priority spending lately. Our community is in need of a
track and field facility, a new art gallery, museum, public parks and
greenspace, trails and environmental protection of wildlife habitat and
eco-systems and last but not least domestic water quality and quantity.
The public and government should recognize
the need to spend our tax dollars wisely, in priority sequence that best benefits
our health, the natural environment and our community’s economy, culture and
lifestyle.
As for the latest debates over spending and
referendums, Sports Complex at Okanagan College for $ 8M when we don’t have a
track at the new VSS (a hi- school track could costs less than $ 2M). If the
College needs their own sports facility I think the Provincial Government
should pay for it. The Art
Gallery and Museum both
need new facilities and both want to be close to the City Hall in the downtown
core. Combining the facilities will enhance and support each other and cost
less to build.
Our community needs to consider the health
of our 4 main creeks (Upper & Lower BX Creeks, Vernon Creek and Coldstream)
for the sake of the fish and wildlife that depend on them, as well as the lakes
that they discharge into (Swan, Okanagan, Kalamalka). We also want more parks,
greenspace and trails to encourage a healthy lifestyle. If government focuses
their spending on acquisition of lands that encompasses sensitive habitat i.e.
creeks, wetlands, lakeshores, ravines, grasslands, etc., the community will
have most of the parks and greenspace that it will need for decades to come.
With our continuing population growth, our
need for more water for domestic and agricultural use will be more of a challenge.
Our domestic water sources need to be clean and our agriculture use needs to be
efficient. If the drinking water source is not naturally suitable, we either
need to find natural solutions (not simply and expensively treat and filter
that water) or find a better source. As for the agricultural industry that
consumes the largest percentage of available water, needs to find methods of
irrigation that are more efficient and water conservative.
Brad Foster
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Response:
Hello
Mr Foster
I
forwarded your email to Gyula Kiss and Bob Flemming who also sit on GVAC in
making these decisions.
I
agree with you on the land purchase for parks and this may come to be. The inclusion of the art gallery and museum in one building is a problem due to the
size requirements (height) on the land provided but it may be possible to have
them in close proximity with the pieces of land now being considered.
The
sports facility is a local public facility that the province would only fund in
part as a possible grant to us. This is being hoped for but not likely at this
time. The college is no different than our schools and is not a provincial
government facility directly. They have their own challenges with their facility
to care for with limited budgets. I see this as a partnership as has taken place
in Penticton and Kelowna with OC and UBCO to enhance those institutions in those
centres. Schools in the area were considered but face problems due to removing
existing needed facilities and lack of space for facility and parking. The price
of the facility does need work as it has climbed significantly since this
started. We need to look at how we can reduce it back to something more
reasonable.
Thanks
for taking the time and giving your input.
Jim Garlick
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