Kelowna sends small group to municipal convention

Regina may be the Queen City of the Canadian Prairies, but it’s no Quebec City.

Only Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran, along with city councillors Loyal Wooldridge and Ryan Donn, attended the annual convention of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities held over the weekend in the Saskatchewan capital.

The last time the FCM convention was held in person, in 2019 before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was staged in Quebec City. Seven of the nine Kelowna city councillors attended that convention.

For many years, the City of Kelowna had a policy limiting the number of local councillors who could attend such conventions at taxpayer expense.

But that restriction was lifted in 2007, and councillors can attend as many gatherings of organizations like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Union of B.C.

Municipalities, and the Southern Interior Local Government Association as they like while they are in office.

Five West Kelowna councillors attended the FCM. In a news release, Mayor Gord Milsom said it was important to lobby the federal government.

“In West Kelowna, we cannot sit back and not have our voice heard by the federal government about affordable housing when the housing market clearly demonstrates that the term ‘affordable housing’ is neither accurate nor realistic.

“And offloading back-pay by the federal government to our 14-year young municipality for the RCMP to unionize is simply unreasonable,” said Milsom.

“Thankfully, we are moving away from virtual advocacy and we can continue to press on to have important solutions discussed in-person.”

Councillors attended various workshops and caucus meetings, the release said.