Mayor sees opportunity in pandemic
Colin Basran tells council he’s not interested in ‘business as usual’ in Kelowna
The “negativity and doom and gloom” of COVID19 will give way to a better and more equitable Kelowna, Mayor Colin Basran says.
Current social and economic challenges could lay the groundwork for changes in the ways in which the City of Kelowna operates, Basran said Monday.
Referring to a staff report that listed pandemic effects such as a 32 per cent rise in local business closures and a 50 per cent drop in transit ridership, Basran and other councillors nevertheless found reasons for optimism.
“The takeaway from me was that, while, yes, this is not a good time for a lot of people, I think we have a tremendous opportunity right now to build an even better city and not go back to business as usual,” Basran said at Monday’s council meeting.
Across greater Kelowna, there were 5,381 active businesses in June, the latest month for which information is available from Statistics Canada. That was down 10 per cent from January, with the drop attributed to the economic downturn associated with the pandemic.
The current jobless rate in Kelowna is eight per cent, having peaked at 10.2 per cent in May and above the pre-pandemic level of 5.9 per cent in March.
Although the staff report sought to outline the impacts on Kelowna of the pandemic, a public health crisis that’s been declared to be a state of emergency, it made no mention of the fact that 283 people in the Central Okanagan have been infected by the disease.
“I loved reading this report,” Basran said. “And I think part of it is because of the negativity and just the doom and gloom of just the time that we’re in. I actually read this report and went, ‘We can actually emerge as a city better’.”
Pandemic-recovery descriptions contained in the report contained such things as trying to encourage the creation of more shops and services closer to where people live to limit the distance they have to drive; discouraging the proliferation of big-box stores and shopping centres, with the specific mention in the report of Costco and Orchard Park mall; building more sidewalks and bike lanes and public plazas; directing more money for transit into lowincome areas rather than trying to ensure the service is balanced across Kelowna; discouraging the proliferation of big-box stores and shopping centres.
Another report suggested the city should spend more money trying to reduce the one-per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Kelowna that come from municipal buildings and vehicles.
Some of these objectives already constitute official city policies but the suggestion was that their pursuit and funding levels should be accelerated in the post-pandemic era.
“I really see this report as a tremendous opportunity,” Basran said. “I too agree that we’re on the right track, but it almost makes me want to accelerate some of those things that we’re trying to do right now.”