Ongoing saga of Skaha Park marina

Well, the June byelection is passee. James Miller was the successful council candidate. Congrats to him.

The wishy-washy quasi referendum in reference to Skaha Park was a resounding success.

Or was it?

Who benefits? Is it city council and staff? Is it we taxpayers who are going to be paying for upgrade development and that some private entrepreneur will be doing our bidding for up to 25 years? Too many questions and no definitive answers.

We are led to believe that democracy was well served as stated in a recent news release published in the The Herald.

The possibility of offering a privatesector operator a contract to improve and run the facility was narrowly endorsed by the public through a referendum question attached to the June byelection. The final vote was 2,453 in favour and 2,416 opposed. Wow, what a resounding whitewash. We should all be impressed.

Nonetheless, irrespective of outcome, democracy has been duly served, or has it?

The wording of the quasi-referendum question was slanted, non-informative and somewhat vague. Nothing was definitive. The question was nothing more than a closed question to give the city carte blanche exploration for park development. Too bad something this important had to be a “yes-or-no type question where subjectivity could not be addressed.”

The mayor, in a press release published in The Herald stated, “The city is acutely aware of the interest surrounding this park and has therefore prepared a multistep process that aims to keep the public fully informed of the steps being taken to secure a successful long-term operating management agreement for the marina lands at Skaha Park.”

This is all well and good. However, still nothing definitive. Pie-in-the-sky promises seem to be the order of the day.

The following questions need to be answered:

• Successful long term management (How long?)

• How much entrepreneurial investment will be involved (How much will we pay?)

• Will there be liquor sales involved? (Will the true meaning of park be followed?)

• Will business status quo be maintained (i.e. Nautical Dog and marina service?)

• Will there be a manager or operator (there is a distinct difference)

Like anything, else accountability and openness seem to have fallen by the wayside.

Ron Barillaro Penticton