Hotel tax should wait until community plan is complete

The problem with Destination Osoyoos' proposed hotel tax is that it assumes the community as a whole in Osoyoos has a vision for its own future.
Unfortunately, that assumption is wrong.
As Osoyoos continues to boom, the one glaring thing missing from this community is a future vision, and we feel that vision should come in the form of a new Official Community Plan.
As town council heads into what can only be considered the final part of its three-year mandate, the job that continues to be left incomplete is a new OCP. We haven't forgotten, and nor should taxpayers, that that was a key promise in the last municipal election, and it is a promise that remains unfullfilled today. We think all Osoyoos taxpayers should be asking why, especially considering the immence pressure being put on Osoyoos by development.
An OCP gives local residents a chance to give their input into what kind of development they would like to see in their community. It also allows people to decide exactly where that development should occur.
Right now, it is exactly the opposite, as developers seem to be dictating how this community will look in the future.
A well-done OCP gives politicians a blue print of the community, based on the wishes of that community's residents.
By not having that plan in place Osoyoos will continue to grow, but with no real concept of what it will look like in 10 or even 20 years.
As for the hotel tax and DO's assertion that Osoyoos needs to grow its shoulder tourist season (everything outside of the summer), we can't help but ask who told the town's economic development and tourism representative that the residents Osoyoos wanted to expand its tourist season?rnNo such mandate exists because there hasn't been any forum for any kind of community consensus to be found, and that definitely needs to happen before any hotel tax is put through. For all DO or town council know, the majority of people in this community might very well be happy to keep Osoyoos as the small but beautiful community it has always been, rather than turning it into a mini-Kelowna.
Thus, before introducing anything as drastic as a hotel tax, town council should at least wait until a new OCP is complete.