Challenging times, creative solutions

In this time of penny pinching, we have a suggestion for the City of Penticton to save a few dollars. Take all those groups that are working to promote local business and roll them into one entity.

Off the top of our head, there's Travel Penticton, which gets $300,000 per year from city taxpayers; Downtown

Penticton Association, which is funded by an automatic tax levy; and the Penticton and Wine Chamber of Commerce, which is self-supporting through memberships.

Those three groups have three boards, three executive directors, three buildings, three sets of staff, three utility bills.

While you're at it, throw in the city’s economic development department, which is also supposed to be supporting local businesses. At this time, economic development really isn’t an essential service.

Amalgamation would save a lot of money right off the top.

Meanwhile, many city staffers have been given temporary layoffs, the same should apply to organizations which contract out their work to the city. In the case of tourism, for example, tourists are being told to stay home. Most of the hotels have shut down and the Lakeside Resort has reduced its staffing significantly because there are very few rooms being rented.

Downtown Penticton is no longer offering special events (and even if they wanted, they wouldn't be allowed) and just cancelled its community market for 2020.

Not withstanding the fine work these groups do in our community, we’re living in challenging times. Once we come out of COVID-19 and the economy gets kick-started, the City will find itself strapped for cash. There’s been no revenue from the casino and all of the money-making facilities which generate revenue are shut down. It's going to get ugly.

There is federal money and rapid relief available to those who are experiencing temporary layoffs.

And if you don’t think boards are expensive, we refer you to Travel Penticton's $11,000 retreat to Sparkling Hill near Vernon in 2018.

Challenging times call for creative solutions.

We can no longer say, “it’s always been done that way.”

—Penticton Herald