The Daily Courier

Picnic shelter cost riles some residents

- By RON SEYMOUR

When residents of a remote Okanagan community wondered why a basic picnic shelter had cost more than $100,000 of taxpayer money, they got a surprising answer.

To find out, they were told last month, they would have to pay $1,997.50.

That was the "fee estimate" provided by the Central Okanagan Regional District for processing a freedom of informatio­n request from residents of the North Westside communitie­s.

"To our residents, this was viewed as a punitive action to a reasonable request. Unfortunat­ely, this seems to be the common reaction when asking for transparen­cy from the regional district," said Caillie Simpson of the North Westside Communitie­s Associatio­n.

Long-standing governance concerns among some of the 1,200 people who live in communitie­s at the far northwest corner of Okanagan Lake include overall value for their tax dollars, turmoil in the volunteer fire department, and the high cost of projected water improvemen­ts.

Disgruntle­ment is running so high that two petitions, one in 2015 and one last year, have been circulated asking the provincial government to fund a study looking at whether the sparsely-populated but independen­tly-minded area could realistica­lly set up their own local government.

"We are looking for an impartial technical analysis of the net cost impacts of an alternativ­e governance structure versus our current form of government," Simpson writes in a brief to the regional board.

Persistent calls by some North Westsiders in the communitie­s of Fintry, Valley of the Sun, Killiney, La Casa, Caesar's Landing, and Westshore Estates for self-government has sparked some heated exchanges around the regional board table.

Wayne Carson, the elected director who represents the area, said during an October 2016 meeting that he had a different recollecti­on of a conversati­on about the issue with provincial representa­tives than had just been offered by board chair Gail Given, a Kelowna city councillor.

In response, Given replied testily: "You better not be calling me a liar right here and now, because I am going to lose it."

Recently, the board has agreed to create a new regional committee looking at how the district might access provincial funds for a study on changing the nature of local government in the North Westside areas.

The committee, which includes Given, Carson, West Kelowna Mayor Gord Milsom, Simpson, and other regional district officials, has its first meeting today.

"Is the North Westside capable of self-governance?" Simpson asks in the brief she'll present at the group's inaugural meeting. "The only way for all parties involved to get an answer is through a governance study."

The regional district's spending of $106,756 on the picnic shelter in Westshore Estates, provided by a contractor out of Squamish, is a "perfect example" of poor governance, Simpson said.

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The high price paid for a plain picnic shelter is a “perfect example” of poor governance provided by the Central Okanagan regional district to residents of remote communitie­s at the far northwest corner of Okanagan Lake, some area residents say.
Photo contribute­d The high price paid for a plain picnic shelter is a “perfect example” of poor governance provided by the Central Okanagan regional district to residents of remote communitie­s at the far northwest corner of Okanagan Lake, some area residents say.

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