By Roy Wood, Special to the Times Chronicle
Osoyoos town council would like to see the giant Canadian flag once again flying by the Co-op gas station, as it used to when it was a Husky Truck Stop, near the intersection of Highways 3 and 97 and has instructed staff to try to make that happen.
Following extensive discussion at a council committee meeting last week, the council passed a motion directing the administration “to reach out to the Co-Op to see if they would operate and maintain the flagpole on their property if funding was available to purchase the flag.”
Councillor Johnny Cheong raised the issue during the discussion of the town’s strategic priorities. He said he had conversations with representatives of the Co-op and learned that there hasn’t been a flag on the giant flagpole around the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
“I can’t think of a better time than now to re-introduce the flag,” he said.
“I would like to put (this) fairly high up on the strategic priorities, with the hope … of potentially doing a flag-raising ceremony on Canada Day.”
Mayor Sue McKortoff agreed: “If we can’t do it this year, then maybe later, because that flag has always been sort of the entrance to town and people liked it.”
CAO Rod Risling pointed out that for the town to be involved, they would likely need to test the viability of the flagpole. He said engineers say that such testing would cost around $30,000 since the pole would need to be lowered for the tests.
He suggested the town could check with the Co-op to see if they have done any integrity testing of the pole and whether there might be some other way to establish its safety.
As for the giant flag itself, Councillor Jim King said they are purchased somewhere in Vancouver for between $4,000 and $5,000 each.
Risling said there is no money in the budget for such a purchase but suggested there could be alternative ways to fund it, including “community donations could provide money to Co-op.”
In the longer term, Risling pointed out that the town might use Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) funding to purchase a new giant flagpole, with a price tag of between $150,000 and $200,000. He said the town would need to check with the province, which funds RMI, to see if such a project would meet program criteria.
Discussion of the Co-op giant flag led to a conversation about flying Canadian flags at other locations around the town, including at the Gyro Park band shell and others.
This resulted in a motion directing the administration “to add additional Canadian flags to our current town assets.”
