Some modest suggestions for the new and veteran members of Osoyoos Town Council.
Osoyoos is a good little town. It could be a great little town with some imagination and leadership from a re-invigorated town council.
Voters signaled their desire for fresh ideas and bold action because – and this is no secret – Osoyoos is a special place.
Sadly, previous councils have appeared indifferent to some important local issues and opportunities that would enhance our semi-perfect town for current residents and future generations.
Why haven’t previous councils cared? And about what? Can Osoyoos claim to be a genuine “green” town? What should be the next facility created to activate our town’s youth? Every councillor got this wrong.
What is our town’s greatest asset? How can we best preserve and protect our beautiful lake for future generations? Is the proposed new town hall a good investment? Could we implement some innovative ideas to delay water metering?
Einstein said that imagination was more valuable than knowledge. Osoyoos could use more representatives with imagination and initiative. Will you be the one on council to make a lasting difference in Osoyoos?
There are ideas to be considered, none of them costing millions. Is Osoyoos a model town or an embarrassment? Most towns and cities face the same challenge – to balance the needs of developers and residents.
In Osoyoos, developers have a friend in the town planner, who has resisted any notion that older, larger trees have any value. Osoyoos astoundingly has no tree protection bylaw, unlike responsible municipalities who value their trees and limit their destruction. Should this not be of prime importance in a desert which will be hardest hit by climate change? It has already begun.
Even the surrounding regional district does not allow the wholesale clearcutting routinely found in Osoyoos after a lot is sold. To see for yourself, check out a lot just sold at the end of Spartan Drive. House razed that nobody grieves, but every tree chainsawed, none that would impair a view. This is business as usual in town – anything goes and there’s no one to complain to. It’s growth at any cost. The environment is not even a guilty afterthought.
The Osoyoos town planner has said it’s not up to her to introduce a tree protection bylaw. “That’s a councillor’s job,”she said. No one on previous councils seemed the least bit concerned about the disappearing older trees. Still living in the 50’s, whistling past the graveyard. Make no mistake, developers rule in Osoyoos. Which of the town councillors will introduce a tree protection bylaw to stop this wanton destruction of our precious shade-giving, oxygen-emitting trees that benefit the community. Each mature tree consumes great amounts of carbon dioxide and an acre of trees provides enough oxygen for 18 people for a year.
Cities and countries have committed to ambitious tree-planting campaigns to counter climate change on a local level, but not Osoyoos. Meanwhile, acres of local trees are disappearing each fall as farmers transition to vineyards and dispatch fruit orchards in pyres of sweet-smelling debris. Has anyone noticed?
I challenge one of the councillors, new or veteran, to drag Osoyoos, kicking and screaming, into the new green age and begin to protect our remaining treasure of older, larger trees for current and future residents. If not now, when? If not you, who?
David Yanor, Osoyoos
