Governance vote on hold

Photo: Contributed

Central Okanagan West director, Wayne Carson

Who will pay for a study to determine governance for residents of the North Westside Fire Protection area?

That's the question the Regional District of Central Okanagan will ultimately have to decide when it meets again Dec. 12.

A motion put forward by area director Wayne Carson, asking the board to support a governance study for the area of about 1,500 residents, was deferred by the board earlier this week.

The deferral came after more than two-and-a-half hours of debate, discussion and questions of Marijke Edmondson, a representative of the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development.

The ministry is in charge of governance requests.

The board wanted to know how much the regional board would have to pay for the study.

While the province will pay for the study itself, the district is on the hook to pay for any staff time involved.

Staff will determine what that cost will be, while the board will decide if that cost is spread out amongst the entire region, or remain solely with the Westside area.

Carson said it is his understanding the entire board paid for previous governance studies for Lake Country and West Kelowna, and expects the same treatment.

"That's what I'm expecting in the staff report," said Carson.

"I believe the staff time was paid for by the entire region in the other cases, and all I'm asking for is no more, or no less, that what the other guys got."

Board chair Gail Given said it's not that simple.

"What was identified in the meeting on that particular item is that many things have changed since those two communities incorporated," said Given.

"There was no commitment the rest of the board would pay. If that's going to be the case, that could influence how board members vote on this. If you listened to the entire two-and-a-half hours, you would not come away believing the whole board would pay."

Either way, Carson feels this will not be a large, or labour intensive study.

"It's not West Kelowna, it's not $400,000. They estimated the cost of the entire study will be $10,000 to $20,000 and staff time is probably a few days.

If the staff report comes back answering the funding questions, Carson said he will bring back the motion and expects the board to pass it.

The area in question includes Westshore Estates, Killiney Beach, Fintry and Caesar's Landing.