By Roy Wood, Special to the Times Chronicle 

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It’s been anything but business as usual at Osoyoos town hall over the past several months as staff has struggled with the long and angry budget process and many of council’s priorities have been delayed or shelved.

In a report to council regarding its strategic priorities, chief administrative officer Rod Risling said: “Administration has progressed on some of the priorities, but for the most part, significant delays to most projects have occurred due to the extended budget process.”

The town erupted in controversy in late November when a vocal share of town residents woke up to the reality of a nearly-40-per-cent hike in municipal taxes and service fees. A months-long series of demonstrations, public meetings and council reconsiderations led last month to a reduction of the increase to about 24 per cent.

Staff at the town hall were swamped with work around arranging meetings, creating budget options, answering questions from the public and sundry other details.   

As a result, little attention was paid to the so-called “Strategic Priorities Chart,” which was developed following the 2022 civic election. It is intended to reflect the priorities of the mayor and council and to be part of the marching orders for Risling and the rest of the administration.

Of the five key “council priorities,” two were removed at an April council committee meeting.

The “Medical Professionals Recruitment” priority reflected council’s desire to attract doctors, nurse practitioners and others to the town to address medical care shortages. No progress has been made on the file and, Risling noted, “the province controls the outcomes.”

Council decided to move the item from the action list to a section called “advocacy and partnerships” section of the priorities chart.

The other casualty is the communications officer position, which was number four on the priority list and was included in the original budget. The $100,00 annual cost was cut during one of the budget “trim-fests”.

Some have argued that having a communications officer in place last year during the early stages of the budget discussions may have seen the public better informed and the outcry muted.

Council opted to remove the position from the priority list.

Among the priorities for individual departments that have been delayed are:

  • Negotiations with the unions representing town employees were delayed from November and December to the second quarter of this year;
  • Short-term rental and mixed housing strategies, which were to have been completed by January, are pushed back to July and December respectively;
  • The Park Master plan is delayed from this September to January next year; and
  • The town’s “draft asset management plan and policy” set for next month is moved to December.

The delays caused by the budget process were exacerbated by seasonal issues. According to Risling: “It is also expected that over the next few months progress on the initiatives will be limited due to staff vacancies as well as moving into the busy operational tourist seasonal mode and vacation time for staff.”