By Lyonel Doherty

If it wasn’t for all the flooding and fires this year, the recent UBCM convention may have been a lot less busy for Terry Schafer.

The Area C director noticed that the crises this spring and summer dominated the annual meeting of municipalities, where local government leaders present their wish lists to provincial ministers.

“Holy cow! The whole province experienced so much disaster. That’s why it (the convention) was so busy. It was a bit of a quagmire.”

Schafer said he shared the flooding situation in Area C with ministry officials and asked for assistance in the form of mitigation and remedial work.

Another important meeting he had involved social development Minister Shane Simpson regarding FortisBC rates.

“We made an impassioned plea to do something about the punishing two-tier electrical rate system,” Schafer said, noting the unfairness of those who have no access to natural gas having to subsidize those who can afford to take expensive measures such as solar panels.

“It’s low income renters that suffer the most and it sentences a larger and larger segment of our population to perpetual poverty.”

From a poverty reduction standpoint, Simpson got the message, Schafer said.

“What he needs are stories and testimonials from real people who have suffered. I’m willing to collect and forward those.”

The Area C director said the most entertaining speaker at the convention was Terry Milewski, who spoke about the fake news phenomenon and how people need to support their local news outlets while taking anything they see as news on Facebook with a grain of salt.

Schafer said being at that UBCM conference wasn’t just a chance to rub shoulders with the new government, there were many learning opportunities and seminars, such as the legalization of marijuana and the opioid crisis.

Schafer said the legalization of cannabis will prompt municipalities to prepare for zoning and licencing issues.

“There were, naturally, many other comments like, ‘they’re going to have a joint task force to study this.’”

Another issue that Schafer and regional district officials tag-teamed on was making the new government aware of their prior commitment of $5 million to repair the irrigation canal at Gallagher Lake.

“I made it clear to Minister (Lana) Popham (agriculture) what the ditch means to our local wine/vineyard, tree fruit and ground crop industries and just what was at risk financially.”

In a one-on-one meeting with Municipal Affairs Minister Selina Robinson, Schafer discussed the need to repair the ice surface at the Oliver Arena.

“I was told that a grant from Municipal Affairs towards repairing our arena ice surface was possible.”

The director said the original estimate was $500,000, which then grew to $1.2 million, which is “too much” for Area C and the Town of Oliver to handle.

Schafer said a grant application will be pursued immediately.

The director also met with Anna Warwick Sears from the Okanagan Basin Water Board to discuss a $150,000 grant for flood mapping in the area.