By Lyonel Doherty

While nobody promised anything, the UBCM convention in Vancouver last week was cause for optimism for Oliver Mayor Martin Johansen.

“I wasn’t expecting anything groundbreaking to happen, or anybody to say, yes, we’re giving you two additional (police) officers. But I was

happy to get face-to-face meetings with ministers in order to build relationships.”

Johansen and members of council recently returned from the Union of BC Municipalities convention where they had eight meetings with government ministers and staff.

The first meeting was about nuisance properties. The mayor said the Town is looking for more information on the

Community Safety Amendment Act that will allow people to complain about a particular property, which in turn will give the RCMP more authority to enter the property.

“We’re excited about that because in addition to our nuisance bylaws, we’ll have the ability to update our bylaw and have this as an overarching act that will give us more authority,” Johansen said.

The mayor stated that Oliver has properties that the RCMP are attending numerous times instead of focusing on their core duties.

Updating the Town’s bylaw will allow staff to enter properties for safety reasons.

“It’s probably one of the biggest issues that I see in Oliver, to have these places that are kind of flophouses, we need to deal with them.”

Johansen said some people rent their properties as a source of income but aren’t attached to what happens inside the buildings.

He said the Town has to focus more on the landlords.

“Those are the ones we need to put the pressure on. They’re the ones renting the place out and getting some money and not really dealing with the issue on site; no checks and balances.”

Another issue that council members discussed with ministers was contract negotiations for policing once Oliver surpasses 5,000 population and starts paying 70 per cent of policing costs.

Johansen said there was some talk about the province paying for an additional policing resource for a year or two in order to “soften the blow” for communities like Oliver.

The mayor said going from $250,000 to a million dollars a year is a huge jump for a small community.

“It’s better if our costs go up over a period of time so the ‘blow’ isn’t so much.”

Johansen said the discussion on the Gallagher Lake siphon repair project was very good. He noted the province is still committing $5 million and will support Oliver in lobbying the federal government to kick in some money.

“I really think they understand the impact of what that means in terms of economic impact to the whole area. It’s not just an Oliver problem but a South Okanagan problem.”

Johansen said he’s hoping to see some different people in government (after the election) because “the Liberals have basically disengaged from the whole project.”

Victim services support was another meeting council had with a minister.

The mayor made it clear there is a limited amount of victim services in this area, which results in the RCMP trying to “pick up the slack.”

He noted the existing victim services worker has limited hours and is overloaded. A sign of the times, he said.

Johansen also met with the minister about securing two additional police officers for the community, but no promises were made.

He did say the hope is to get an additional resource from a drug enforcement unit from Penticton to do some proactive work in Oliver.

Johansen recalled the business case for two additional officers was forwarded to the treasury board, and that’s the last council heard of it.

“The Town has never been approved for two additional RCMP officers.”

Next on the discussion block was the emergency department at South Okanagan General Hospital. The mayor said he was told this was a high priority for the government.

“We’re going to continue to lobby to ensure our emergency department stays open.”

The hospital’s emergency room is currently under construction to upgrade services.

The prolific offender was the subject of another high-profile meeting with government.

The mayor pointed out that targeted offenders are being pushed out of larger centres like Penticton and into smaller communities like Oliver, where police don’t have the resources to chase them around and deal with them.

Combined with nuisance properties and victim services, you can see how small detachments are dragged into different directions instead of focusing on regular tasks, Johansen said.

The final meeting was with the attorney general to discuss a secondary wine tasting project in Oliver. This would feature a building set up where people could taste wines from different wineries. This idea was met with a lot of interest, the mayor pointed out.

When asked what he was most optimistic about, Johansen said he really felt the siphon repair project was an eye-opener for the ministry.

The other positive was the potential to defer some of the policing costs for one or two years after the town surpasses the 5,000 threshold.

Chief Administrative Officer Cathy Cowan said there was a resolution to request the province to reconsider its decision to reallocate funding from the Rural Dividend Fund to assist forest workers impacted by mill closures.

She pointed out the decision to suspend the fund means there will be no money for the pool feasibility study for Oliver and Osoyoos.