Mayor Sue McKortoff, pictured in her office, was re-elected for a second term in 2018. She, along with the rest of council, is going into 2019 with a full plate. (File photo)
2018 was a busy year for Osoyoos town council, including Mayor McKortoff who was re-elected for her second term in October. McKortoff sat down with Osoyoos Times editor Vanessa Broadbent to discuss the previous year, as well as what issues council faces in 2019.
OT: What were council’s biggest accomplishments in 2018?
SM: I think we’ve done a lot. One thing was the resort municipality funding and we’re one of 14 resort municipalities in the province that get money from the government to help us with tourism. You have to have a certain number of hotels rooms and show you’re a resort municipality.
We get about $400,000 a year in Osoyoos and that was in jeopardy of being cancelled. About two months ago the minister of tourism, arts and culture, Lisa Beare, was at the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association conference at Spirit Ridge so CAO Barry Romanko and I took her on a tour and showed her some of the things that we had done with the resort municipality money and how important it was.
The other thing is that we did a health care study and that was something that was kind of demanded by the town. They came in here, sat in this office, and said, “We want you to open up a walk in clinic.” Well, unfortunately, we’re not in the business of opening up businesses. In the meantime, we’ve had two extra doctors and apparently there’s another one coming this fall.
They said if we were to have all the healthcare in one area, the suggestion was the Sagebrush Lodge, and that would be a good place, but it’ll cost ten million dollars. If somebody could win the lottery and give us the money, we’d be able to pay for all these things because that’s just not manageable.
One of the things I think we do really well in this town is keeping up to date with infrastructure, roads, sewers, water, sidewalks, streetlights – we’re way better off than many communities. With help from the ministry, we did bump outs on the highway. They’re safer for people to cross, because it’s a wide road, and we had to do it to collect storm water.
• Read more: Peanut Pond Development Gets Support From Council
We’re doing a sewer lift station too, which is a huge amount of money and we’ll have to borrow for that, and we’re doing water twinning as well to bring potable water to everyone and to provide fire suppression.
I have also just been elected chair of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, which is a huge positive move in this province. It’s the only group of its size in the province and maybe one of the few in the country.
We still continue to be really aware of the education in the area. A couple years ago we almost lost the high school and this town fought to keep that high school open. We did have a rural enhancement education fund, which helped. Every year we go down to UBCM and talk to the minister of education, Rob Fleming.
We have somebody, councillor Myers Bennett, who goes to education meetings at the school board office and board meetings. We’re just making sure that we’re very careful about how we keep an eye on that.
We’ve got our four houses (Meadowlark Subdivision), a near-market affordable housing strategy. Because it was new to us, we had to make sure that we didn’t have somebody who after two years would sell it, make a profit and move on – that’s not what it’s for. I think we’ve done it well. We’re keeping an eye on it and they’re selling.
As for cannabis, I think that we’ve been pretty proactive in trying to see what works. I know that there’s only a few places in Vancouver that are legally open, so we’re well on our way but our next job is to come back with a bylaw about business licenses.
We also have this housing over at Peanut Pond and that’s another one that looks like it’s going to get off the ground and that fits in with our affordable housing ideas.
We’ve had quite a few businesses. There’s going to be a new KFC and oil change place (at Gateway Plaza). Both of those are coming in.
I think we’ve done quite a few things in 2018 and we will certainly continue them for 2019.
• Read more: Council Moves Forward With Two Cannabis Stores
OT: What issues will council be facing in 2019?
SM: Below parts of Town Hall there’s a six-inch drop. We need to look at this – another huge cost and certainly we’re not going to take on something like this without looking at what we can afford, how we can do it and apply for grants.
We’re looking at the design study in 2019 and we’re still not sure if we should tear it down or look at fixing it up and doing something.
Last year we got some property at the Palms by the Lake (on Maple Drive), so we thought it was wonderful, but it’s complicated. Not only did we have to get it all surveyed, but we had to figure out what would work and what we could put in there. We’re still working through it.
We’re looking at upgrades to housing issues and it seems to be a huge thing in the province. We’re going to look at more housing issues.
One of the things we’re also going to do this year is do an Official Community Plan (OCP) review. Regional district Area A, which surrounds Osoyoos, is going to do an OCP review too so we can combine forces.
Playgrounds and washrooms, we’re always upgrading those. We’ve helped with the new playground down here by the childcare centre. Washrooms, we have one planned for Legion Beach and one by the dog park, and one at the end of Cottonwood Drive.
We don’t have a lot of debt in this town. We have very well managed finances here. When we had our budget meeting, we agreed at this point – it doesn’t have to be finished until the end of March – that we will do a 2.93 per cent increase in the budget. That’s common; it’s not like 10 per cent that some places have to do.
OT: Anything that was really challenging or frustrating in 2018?
SM: The cannabis thing was a bit frustrating. The parameters changed so often so all of the sudden, here we are on October 17 and it’s legal and what do we do? You’ve got people that are already buying it but you need to be able to do it legally and sensibly. That’s still an ongoing issue.
Whenever you put in something new like that you have to be aware that there’s going to be a lot of pushback and people want to have a lot of information before they have a comfort level.
OT: Anything you think will be exceptionally challenging in 2019?
SM: Everything is challenging – the cannabis, looking after the asks that people have. Somebody always says we haven’t been down their road to fix it but we have to do the main roads first. They take priority, but it always costs more than you think and we have to use our money wisely.
OT: How do you feel about the new council?
SM: It’s great. Jim King and C.J. Rhodes I’ve worked with. I’ve known Myers Bennett forever and have a great comfort level with him. Brian Harvey I had never met before but he’s got energy and he’s been involved in the community.
OT: Any wishes you have for 2019?
SM: That someone would win the lottery and donate the funds because there are a lot of issues. The swimming pool is another one. We looked at getting a grant for that, we looked at all kinds of things, if we did something like that, we would really have to work with the Town, Area A, Area C, Town of Oliver and the Osoyoos Indian Band. We don’t have an industry here that would pay for that. It’s going to be difficult to get that going. I’m not sure where that’s going yet, but it’s not moving forward as fast as people want.
The Downtown Revitalization Plan, there are a couple of things we call quick fixes where it doesn’t take a lot of money but it gets things kick started. Our planners have some really good ideas and they’re looking at how we can make some things work down there and pick it up.
OT: Are you worried about flooding this year?
SM: I know that it’s been very warm; I’ve lived here for 50 years and I’ve never seen this type of climate this time of year. Oftentimes my kids grew up skating on the lake in front of our house and if the lake was going to freeze it usually did between Christmas and New Year’s but we’re nowhere near that.
Because the ground water is still so high, there’s big concerns that if we get a lot of snow, and we do seem to have that on the hills, depending on how that melts, at what rate and the temperature, how the Similkameen melts, all of that together could bring flooding again. That’s a possibility that we could have more flooding this year, but let’s hope not. But we have to be prepared for it.
We are in a very awkward position here because we’ve got the Similkameen coming in just below in Oroville, plus we’ve got everything coming down here. It isn’t that easy; if it was easy it would have been solved.
OT: How do you think people can prepare for flooding better this year?
SM: I think that people need to not build in their basements if they’re at ground level. People need to take some responsibility for their own management. Some people put bathrooms in their basements and you can’t do that – it’s not legal and you can’t get insurance either. People need to not put things in crawlspaces in cardboard boxes. If you were flooded last year, you should be looking at what you can do and get some help. Emergency Operations gives lots of help for people that need to get ready for things. There’s lots of information out there.
OT: Are you concerned about wildfires this year?
SM: Fortunately, in Osoyoos we don’t have the same concerns as others. We have irrigation and we have the lake so we’re kind of protected. That doesn’t mean up in the hills and around town, but the Town of Osoyoos doesn’t have the same concern as other areas up in the Caribou where towns can be wiped out. We have a deal with our fire department and Anarchist Mountain and Oliver and we have a joint use agreement so if somebody has a problem, we’re all in the know and help one another.
OT: What about the effects the wildfire smoke has on tourism?
SM: It happened everywhere and it wasn’t bad here. Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association, they’re really looking at how to expand the season. When I first came here the tourists came from July 1 to the middle of August and that was it. Now it’s spread and it’s about nine months of the year, and then we get snowbirds in the wintertime and we get skiing and all other kinds of activities. The businesses are going to say their numbers are down, and of course they are because you can’t regulate that. But I think we’re doing okay. We seem to have enough people here in the summer. Our hotels are full and people say they didn’t have an increase in amounts, but we can’t have that every year. You have to work with what you’ve got and make sensible decisions.
Tourism is a big deal here and it will continue to be a big deal and we need to protect our lake and make sure we’re as prepared as we can be.
OT: How do you feel about the forward movement with the national park reserve over the last year?
SM: Osoyoos council has always supported having a national park. I think it’s important for us to have a national park here. Can we compromise is a huge issue, and looking at defining the area where that may be. We need to make sure that if we know what’s going to happen, to tell people.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
