By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Oliver is in the midst of discussions around the town’s budget and financial constraints are leaving some projects out. The South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce’s new proposal for regional collaboration has officially not received the support it needs from Oliver this year.
The Chamber was seeking $25,000 from Oliver to contribute towards their Business Retention, Expansion and Relocation Project (BRER).
During budget discussions, council decided to remove this money from the budget, and they will reconsider when Denise Blashko, Manager of the Chamber, returns for another presentation.
Mayor Martin Johansen commented, “I don’t think we need to give $25,000 to the Chamber of Commerce for this program. I am not overly satisfied that I saw enough tangibles to benefit the business community.
I am much more interested in reducing the tax impact on the business community than I am giving 25,000 where I don’t see a clear benefit.”The South Okanagan Chamber’s request for $25,000, was part of the larger ask for the region to contribute $100,000 to formalize the proposed program and apply for a Regional Economic Diversification Grant.
Since the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) Area’s C and A were not contributing, and Osoyoos only provided conditional approval, the chamber did not receive enough support to apply for the grant.
Councillor Aimee Grice noted that she would rather see the money go to the Grow Oliver Campaign “rather than a regional project that no one is supporting”.
While all the councillors agreed that supporting local business is important, Councillor Petra Veintimilla was the only one who said “I personally do support this project, I think it is completely separate from the Grow Oliver Campaign that we already fund separately.”
Another project that was hoped to be included in the budget was the Oliver and District Heritage Society (ODHS) and their plan to update the town’s 2005 Heritage Strategic Plan to preserve heritage buildings in the community.
In December 2023, Darren Halstead executive director of the ODHS made a presentation to council to include budgeting for the society to commission a cultural heritage consultant to update the plan.
The ODHS wanted the town to provide some “legal weight” to the process of maintaining heritage buildings in Oliver.
Johansen noted in the budget discussions that he thought “it was a weak argument”. The $15,000 they were asking for was not included in the budget, but the town was committed to working with the ODHS for them to apply for provincial Heritage Legacy Fund on their own.
