Issues

Summerland is facing unparalleled challenges that will define the well-being and character of our community for generations to come. With the impacts of the Bald Range wildfire coupled with global economic uncertainty and societal divisions, our mayor needs to competently handle difficult situations, grasp complex concepts, and communicate effectively. They need to be someone who builds relationships and co-operates while standing up for Summerland. Someone who has the whole community’s interests at heart rather an axe to grind. Someone who brings the community together rather than sow divisions. The mayor needs to be the person on Council who seeks to build consensus, rather than run bully and undermine other Council members. The community wins when the mayor respects Council and Council respect the mayor. The old top-down, conquer-and-divide, us-versus-them style of governance doesn’t work. We need wholesome discussion and debate facilitated by a mayor who seeks to engage, empower and unite people to build a thriving community.

Every resident of Summerland and surrounding area has experienced loss from the Bald Range Wildfire. Healing will take time and each our recoveries will be unique. A recovery plan for the most impacted residents, businesses, farms and public infrastructure needs to be developed, overseen by a mayor who understands the seriousness of the situation. While everyone will have their own ideas of what recovery should look like, and there may be challenges in addressing needs versus wants, the goal should be to return life to normal as quickly as possible. This is new territory for us all. The mayor needs to ensure we find strength from within the community so that we may travel the road to recovery together the same way we faced the evacuation together.

While our hearts continue to be with those who lost their homes, the fact that most of the town was saved is a testament not only to the commitment of the firefighters but also to the FireSmart program put in place by Mayor and Council to help protect the community. As Summerland is surrounded by wildland, it is important the new Council continues with preventative wildfire mitigation and encourages more neighbourhoods to pursue FireSmart Canada certification. As we saw with the Bald Range Wildfire, even homes and structures not located near a forested area are at risk of igniting due to wind-driven embers. By taking proactive steps to protect our properties, we can all play a part in keeping Summerland safe.

Population growth, agriculture and better protections for endangered fish populations are putting increased demands on a decreasing supply of water. Rather than simply managing water supply, Council will need to start managing water scarcity, with greater emphasis on allocation priorities and securing alternative sources of water.

Summerland relies primarily on the upper reaches of the Trout Creek watershed for its drinking and irrigation water. The Bald Range wildfire burned through many of these areas, raising concerns about long-term slope stability, landslides and spring runoffs that could bring increased turbidity and sedimentation into the Water Treatment Plant. Even before the wildfire, a single source of water made us vulnerable because of successive years of drought, reduced snowpack, declining forest health, changing runoff patterns, flooding, algae blooms, and new dam safety restrictions.

The District of Summerland does hold a licence to draw 6,100 ML per year from Okanagan Lake and the next Council will need to look to build the infrastructure to use the lake as an alternate water source. And as irrigation accounts for about 80% of all water consumed in Summerland, the new Council must also continue to invest in separating irrigation and domestic water systems so that agricultural water can bypass the Water Treatment Plant. A fully twinned water system could divert about 14 million litres of water per day from the Water Treatment Plant. Together, water separation and drawing from Okanagan Lake would make better use of available water sources, and help balance agricultural irrigation reliability with drinking water needs and environmental flow requirements.

Most of our source water is in Crown land over which Mayor and Council has little regulatory control. But because we are responsible for providing clean drinking water to our residents and irrigation water to our farmers, we need to take the initiative to bring together the various government agencies, First Nations, and industry stakeholders including forestry and agricultural interests. Given the competing interests, the challenge will be to establish a common understanding that everyone shares a responsibility in protecting our source water. By creating strong and lasting partnerships, we can protect our source water not only for current use but for well into the future.

Council’s most important task is to provide the critical infrastructure needed to ensure a high quality of life, economic growth, and public health and safety for the community. It has been Council’s priority to invest in core infrastructure, including paving more roads, and we must not return to the days when our public assets were left to deteriorate. Our ‘infrastructure deficit’ was caused largely because replacement costs for roads, water mains, dams and reservoirs, electrical system, and municipal buildings were not traditionally factored into financial planning. We now have a long-term financial plan that considers the cost of infrastructure over its entire life, from construction to replacement, with set timeframes for their upgrade or expected replacement. Council must continue to look at infrastructure as a whole in order to prioritize upgrades and avoid situations where we repave a road one year only to dig it up the next to replace a broken water main. And no longer should we simply replace like for like; we need to adapt our infrastructure to the new realities of climate change. As the Bald Range wildfire demonstrated, we need to build infrastructure to not only withstand disasters but to enable us to bounce back afterwards and emerge as a stronger and more cohesive community.

Summerland’s property taxes have increased on average 5.35% per year for the last five years. Nobody is happy about higher taxes, but global economic forces are at play and every local government is in the same boat. (Pentitcon’s have increased on average 7% per year.)

Every year, Council goes through the budget with a fine-tooth comb and looks for cuts that do not cause too much disruption. Eliminating one of the one-day recycle depots and reducing the amount of road line painting are recent examples of cost-saving measures. And as wages are a municipality’s largest cost, the number of Full Time Equivalents (FTE’s) at the District of Summerland remains the same as it did four years ago.

As a result, an average Summerland home assessed at $850,000 pays less in property tax than a property of the same assessed value in Penticton, Peachland, Kelowna or Vernon.

While comparisons do not make tax increases more palatable, a big part of the problem is local government’s limited taxation and financing powers. The federal and provincial governments draw their revenues from sales tax, income tax, corporate tax, land transfer tax, and so on. These taxes increase with a growing economy and when prices, wages and profits rise. Property tax, which local government relies on, are static – they don’t increase when property values go up because they are based on mill rates. Therefore, to keep pace with inflation, Councils have to adjust property taxes every year.

This creates unpredictability and undue hardship for residents, and it has led to a fiscal imbalance between the three levels of government.

Local government is responsible for two-thirds of the country’s public infrastructure yet for every tax dollar collected, we get only 10 cents. That’s not sustainable and for many years local government has lobbied senior government to address this shortfall. Many proposals have been presented, including providing local government with a share of sales tax, but nothing changes.

So while the provincial government drops tens of millions of dollars for an unnecessary election, we try to save a few hundred dollars by reducing how often we repaint the lines on local roads.

If we want to keep property taxes under control but still invest in core infrastructure, then we need to make local government financing not only a municipal election issue but also a provincial election issue. And we should do that now while both elections are happening at the same time.

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 the community vision as laid out in the Official Community Plan (OCP). Last year, Council updated the OCP to better reflect changing community values and recognize the connection between growth and quality of life. We also began implementing the 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.

Even with two major affordable housing currently under construction , many residents will continue to 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 continue to zone more multi-unit housing that’s attractive to both seniors and young families. We need to continue to encourage more rentals, infill, densification and redevelopment by removing administrative burdens and streamlining the planning approvals process to save developers time and money.

Local government is the level of government where policies and actions most directly affect the well-being of residents and, more than ever, people are looking to their local councils to address quality of life issues such as access to housing, healthcare, childcare, public safety, green space, recreation and cultural opportunities, and other social connections. Many functions that are not traditional areas of municipal responsibility are being downloaded or taken on by local government because they are too important to ignore. 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 and pleasant community with a range of amenities and attractions. 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.

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 is competent to do the job. They need to have confidence the mayor can grasp complex concepts, handle difficult situations and manage unforeseen or emerging issues. They need to know the mayor will remain calm in a crisis. 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, federal, and First Nations leaders. They need to know the mayor will make the right decision on behalf of the community.