AMALGAMATION ISSUE COULD MAKE THINGS STICKY FOR OKANAGAN VALLEY

OSOYOOS TIMES-January 16, 2008

Considering whether amalgamating the three regional districts of the Okanagan Valley into one governing body would be beneficial or not is a tricky thing.

The idea of merging the districts came up last year and is currently being debated by area directors throughout the valley. The concept is expected to be reviewed by the province sometime in the next few months.

Rural directors have said combining the north, central and south regional districts and having a centralized body most likely based in Kelowna would mean the neglect of rural areas.

Proponents of the concept say having a unified regional district would make the governance of transportation and environmental issues much easier.

And Community Services Minister Ida Chong has already responded to the proposal by saying she looks forward to working with Okanagan mayors and regional district board members to design a process for realizing these opportunities.

It's hard to blame the province for being enthusiastic about the possibility of trimming the fat from the valley's governing system. Big governments love making smaller governments smaller.

Consolidating the districts would mean reducing the size of the regional bureaucracy and would most likely cut some high-paying jobs that inflate regional district budgets.

Arguing against saving some cash and shrinking the bureaucratic pool isn't exactly easy.

But on the other hand, the rural directors may have a point. Will Kelowna listen when Osoyoos and Oliver, way down here at the bottom of the valley, bring up water or air quality problems that drift our way from cities to the north?

Larger urban areas have been known to ignore the smaller communities around them.

Questions also come up about how peripheral communities such as those in the South Okanagan would be represented in an amalgamated regional district should the board that governs us move from Penticton to Kelowna or even Vernon. Would there be a satellite body set up here to deal with issues that pop up in Okanagan Falls or Princeton?

The question is this: Would it not be better to retain the existing governance structure to keep smaller, rural areas represented while whittling down the bureaucratic machine – positions such as engineers, planners and consultants- to a level that could service the valley as a whole?

Maybe that's easier said than done.

But it seems the triumvirate of regional districts is heading for a change and all we can hope is that no one gets left out in the cold.