Upset at city spending

Re: Kelowna's review of police force just due diligence, says mayor (Castanet, May 22)

The city of Kelowna has set aside $350,000 for a review of the RCMP policing model versus a municipal model.

Kash Heed is a former police chief and a former Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General of B.C. and currently a member of Richmond city council. On May 20, Heed was asked in a radio interview what advice he had for Kelowna.

"Surrey's transition [to municipal police] will be about a half billion dollars before it actually is completed.... So there's so much that can be learned from the chaos that was created between a municipality and the province on the Surrey transition, that you can certainly look at this and say this is wrong. It's a waste of a quarter million dollars to explore this."

I'm going to side with Heed—with his decades of policing experience—over the opinion of Kelowna’s Mayor Tom Dyas and city council.

Then there’s the recent decision to spend $300,000 from reserves on two new artificial Christmas trees.

The city's last annual report (2023) showed an accumulated surplus of $2.51 billion. How many find it shocking Kelowna, a mid-sized city with a population of about 166,000 residents, has such a large surplus? So, why are Kelowna property taxes continuing to go up every year?

In ancient Rome, emperors used the “bread and circuses" strategy in order to distract Romans from problems and to maintain social order. For example, all Roman citizens, regardless of status, were allowed to attend gladiator games. Today, our city government is using a similar strategy to distract Kelowna residents from municipal problems and issues, such as:

• More frequent traffic gridlock. Building more roads or extending roads doesn't prevent traffic gridlock.

• Crime

• The drug crisis

•Homelessness

*The lack of affordable housing—costing no more than 30% of household income before taxes.

The city is so flush with cash city staff and council are coming up with projects to spend it on, whether the project is frivolous or not.

Kelowna also has money for:

• A new City of Kelowna "signature” sign to be constructed on greenspace between Stuart Park and the Kelowna Yacht Club ($500,000)

• A new dog run within City Park ($750,000)

• A "Welcome to Kelowna" sign, along Highway 97 (more than $800,000)

• Upgrading Prospera Place in time for the Kelowna Rockets to host the 2026 Memorial Cup ($5.1 million)

• The purchase of Michaelbrook Golf Course to eventually convert the property into ball fields ($8.37 million)

• A new Parkinson Recreation Centre, decided without a referendum (more than $242.2 million). The similar sized New Westminster Aquatic and Community Centre was constructed in 2024 for $114.6 million, with a total floor area of 114,571 square feet and a 50-metre swimming pool with eight lanes. The new Parkinson Recreation Centre will have a 25-metre pool with 10 lanes.

Why doesn't the city have funds available to assist displaced Hadgraft Wilson Place residents or for Kelowna's youth homeless shelter? Without a long-term funding path, the shelter is facing a $380,000 funding shortfall.

Municipalities need a watchdog to hold them accountable. The B.C. government eliminated the position of auditor general for municipal governments in 2020. The reasoning was municipalities did not support the office. That’s like retiring the farm dog because the fox doesn’t like having him around.

Accountability and transparency need to be brought back to B.C.’s municipalities, including (Kelowna).

David Buckna, Kelowna