No hard feelings

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

If there's still bad blood between Osoyoos town hall and the Ministry of Education, it's eased since last week.

Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff said a meeting with Education Minister Mike Bernier and Premier Christy Clark brought some new understanding between the governments.

"We seriously had a heart-to-heart with (Clark) and said why we were so interested in doing this, why we felt it was something that we had to do because of our town, our students, our businesses," McKortoff said.

She said Clark and Bernier were impressed with the town's passion in keeping the school's doors open and with the presentation, a copy of which was given to each of them.

McKortoff said there were some hard feelings toward the province over the debacle leading into their meeting at the UBCM convention.

"Absolutely. Were we concerned because it took six months and the decision was not timely made until the 30th of June at four o'clock? Absolutely," she said, noting that she did relay those concerns to Clark during their meeting.

She added that she understands that part of that hold-up was due to the unprecedented nature of the rural enhancement fund.

"We acknowledge this is something fairly new," she said. "We actually said to them all, 'thank you very much for doing this.'"

Osoyoos's mayor had a chance to share some good news with other small communities at this year's Union of B.C. Municipalities convention.

At a small communities forum at the UBCM, McKortoff got a chance to tell the tale of Osoyoos's efforts to keep its secondary school running, despite being slated for closure over the summer.

The presentation included some background on the issue, the city and community's efforts to keep the school in place, and the community's next steps.