Issues

The most important goal for local government should be to improve the day-to-day lives of its residents. That means putting people first. Historically, putting people first meant providing local residents with clean drinking water, sewage systems, garbage disposal, and public parks and community spaces. None of these functions were originally considered areas of municipal responsibility but local governments took them on because they were too important to ignore. It was recognized that it’s the local level where policies and actions can most directly affect the health and well-being of citizens. Today, more so than ever, people are reflecting on what matters most to them and increasingly this extends to include quality of life issues such as access to housing, healthcare, childcare, public safety, local food, the natural environment, recreation and cultural opportunities, and other social connections. Communities thrive when their residents are socially and physically healthy and active, when they attend events and volunteer their time for local causes, when they shop locally and even start their own businesses. To this end, there is a strong correlation between quality of life and economic development. Retirees, young families, entrepreneurs, skilled knowledge workers, and creative people of all sorts want to reside in a safe, clean and vibrant community with a range of amenities. To ensure Summerland remains a great place to live, work and play, the mayor and council need to invest in residents’ well-being and put quality of life at the forefront of its decision-making.

When we talk about growth and development, we usually think in terms of making room for more people and more housing. But growth also means more business, more agriculture, more green space, more recreation and amenities, and more infrastructure. Change in the community is inevitable, especially in highly desirable locations like Summerland. The concern is that allowing growth to happen in a haphazard way with obtrusive buildings plonked everywhere and anywhere will erode Summerland’s character and destroy everything we love about our community. But rather than resist change, we need to ensure we shape growth in a way that improves our quality of life and charts a course towards becoming a more sustainable and resilient community. This requires planning in a fiscally, socially and environmentally responsible manner in accordance to a community vision. An Official Community Plan, or OCP, together with accompanying neighbourhood plans, are the most common tools used by local government to express a community’s vision for change. Most of the policies set out in Summerland’s OCP were written in 2008 and are in need of a refresh to better reflect changing community values and recognize the connection between growth and quality of life. We also need to update our neighbourhood plans, particularly for Trout Creek and Lowertown, much like the recently completed Downtown Neighbourhood Plan that establishes new policies and zoning for higher residential density in Summerland’s core. More people living downtown will create a more dynamic and sustainable community that will benefit everyone.

More housing is being built in Summerland than ever before. We are building faster than the trades can cope and faster than public infrastructure can be upgraded. In the last decade, the number of new homes built in Summerland has exceeded the number of new people coming here to live. Yet many residents still struggle to get on the housing ladder, or move up it, or even down it to a more appropriate size as they age. Summerland has a disproportionate amount of high-end, low-density housing so we need to zone more multi-unit housing that’s attractive to both seniors and young families. We can encourage more rentals, infill, densification and redevelopment by removing administrative burdens and streamlining the planning approvals process to save developers time and money. We also need to enforce new short-term vacation rental regulations to reconnect the housing supply to the local economy and ensure residential neighborhoods are kept residential. For people in core housing need, we need to work in collaboration with the provincial and federal governments to address the myriad of challenges. Local government’s primary role is to ensure adequate zoning is in place and to facilitate partnerships between BC Housing, developers, and local non-profit housing providers. We can’t have local groups competing against each other for limited government funding; we need to get them working together. Local government is under tremendous pressure to support housing for low-income households by providing free land or favourable financing, and to waive development charges, application fees and property taxes. We should consider each request for financial support on its own merit while keeping in mind that Summerland doesn’t have the same fiscal capacity as larger urban centres.

Many of Summerland’s roads, water pipes, dams and reservoirs, electrical system, and municipal buildings are showing their age and are in need of upgrade. We struggle today with an ‘infrastructure deficit’ mainly because replacement costs previously were never factored into financial planning. We need a long-term financial plan that considers the cost of infrastructure over its entire life, from construction to replacement, and establish timeframes for their upgrade or replacement. We have to look at infrastructure as a whole, in order to prioritize the upgrades and avoid situations where we repave a road one year only to go dig it up the next to replace a broken water main. Neither can we simply replace like for like, we have to adapt our infrastructure to the new realities of climate change. The last two councils have focused on replenishing previously depleted municipal reserves and many future infrastructure upgrades can now be paid for through these reserves, while we also continue to seek grant opportunities from higher levels of government. The federal and provincial governments provide support based on their own priorities so to maximize opportunities we have to establish which projects already in our capital plan are eligible for grant funding. On rare occasions, we will need to take on long-term debt to help finance a major capital project. Municipal borrowing is not a new or radical concept and it makes sense for the right project. Debt financing is probably the most equitable means of financing long-term capital assets because it ensures infrastructure costs are not paid solely by today’s taxpayer but by future users of the infrastructure as well. Yet it’s the taxpayers of the day who decide whether or not to take on long-term debt and that will be the case, through a community-wide referendum, for the proposed new swimming pool.

As the climate changes, we are seeing more disruptive weather patterns that result in severe storms, flooding, drought, and wildfires. We need to build infrastructure to not only withstand such disasters but to enable us to bounce back afterwards and emerge as a stronger and more cohesive community. We need to twin our water mains so we’re not using scarce and more expensive treated water for agricultural irrigation. We need to invest in infrastructure for alternative means of transportation like walking, biking and public transit. We need to electrify the local economy, starting with making long overdue investments in our municipally-owned electricity utility. We need to do our part to mitigate green-house gas emissions, starting with ensuring all new buildings are net zero and include EV charging and rooftop solar in their design. We also have to reduce emissions from existing buildings through incentives for retrofits, and we need to expand our net metering program to encourage further uptake of rooftop solar.

Transparency in local government essentially means that business is conducted in public at open council meetings rather than behind closed doors. By default, members of council prefer open meetings because they want their views to be widely known. The only matters allowed to be discussed behind closed doors are set out in the Local Government Act, such as legal or labour issues where the protection of an individual’s privacy is required. As it’s the mayor who approves the council agenda, it’s the mayor’s role to ensure transparency standards are being met. As added insurance, Summerland Council should appoint one councillor as deputy mayor who can sit in on the meetings to review the council agenda. Transparency also means reporting back to the public at an open council meeting on any external meeting or conference that the mayor or councillor has attended. Time must be allotted at council meetings for this purpose. It’s not good enough for the mayor to simply provide a shopping list of the meetings and events they attended; they need to provide details of their discussions and explanations of any decisions taken.

Trust and integrity are about saying what you mean and meaning what you say. The mayor always needs to act ethically and communicate honestly, and they need to understand they represent all of council not just themselves. The mayor is the spokesperson for council and as such they must speak in support of council decisions, even those they do not personally endorse. To offer their own perspective rather than council’s, or to misrepresent a council decision or not speak to an issue at all, is contemptuous and serves to undermine public trust in council. People also need to trust the mayor will be competent in the job. They need to have confidence the mayor can grasp complex concepts, handle difficult situations and manage unforeseen or emerging issues. The mayor should have proven experience and a full understanding and knowledge of issues across the breadth of the community, not just in one or two areas of speciality. People need to trust the mayor to speak intelligibly and represent the community effectively and faithfully at meetings and forums with regional, provincial and federal officials. They need to know the mayor will make the right decision on behalf of the community.

It used to be only at the highest levels of government where leaders had to make decisions under duress and pressure. Today, everyone does. Even the leaders of small, rural communities like Summerland. We’re on the front lines of just about everything — climate change, the pandemic, economic upheaval, shifting demographics, First Nations reconciliation, you name it. We’re the most affected, so we will need to come up with solutions. Now is the time for clarity of direction and conviction of purpose. We need a mayor who can grasp complex concepts, handle difficult situations, and communicate effectively. We can’t afford to elect someone with an axe to grind who makes decisions based on dogma and temperament. The old top-down, us-versus-them style of governing doesn’t work any more. We need to embrace a modern concept of leadership where the mayor seeks to empower and unite those around them to solve problems and build a thriving community. Lively debate and disagreements on council need to be seen in a positive light. If all councillors thought and voted the same way, it’d mean the community wasn’t being fully represented. (People in the community have different opinions so members of council should also have different opinions.) The mayor, however, needs to be the one person on council who seeks to build consensus. They shouldn’t be undermining councillors and running council meetings in a domineering way. For council to respect the mayor, the mayor needs to respect council. By extension, for the community to respect the mayor and council, the mayor needs to respect the community. The mayor needs to be the one working to bring the community together on contentious issues. They shouldn’t be out there sowing deeper divisions. That mutual respect is how we build community.