City of West Kelowna Council continues to strongly advocate with B.C. Premier David Eby and Cabinet Ministers to receive vital and long-overdue investments at the 2023 Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) conference from Sept. 18 – 22, 2023.
Council met with Premier Eby to advocate for increased investments in West Kelowna, along with discussing the top five strategic priorities that remain critically important to the City and the community. This includes:
- Investments in all housing types
- Reducing the timeline to provide power redundancy
- Increasing healthcare services and facilities
- Addressing the deficit of provincially funded RCMP members
- Addressing Highway 97 corridor improvements
Additionally, nine Cabinet Minister meetings were held where every member of Council expressed continued concerns with the ongoing lack of provincial investments in West Kelowna and across the Greater Westside. Further, six senior-level staff meetings were also held with BC Hydro, BC Housing, BC RCMP, UBCM, the Agricultural Land Commission and BC Assessment Authority to seek commitments and tangible investment actions that our communities expect.
West Kelowna Council invited Chief Robert Louie (attended by Coun. Jordan Coble) of Westbank First Nation to join its advocacy in five Cabinet Minister meetings including the Minister of Forests, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship and the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General. Together, West Kelowna and Westbank First Nation sought answers from each Minister to address common challenges across the Westside from a lack of housing investments, no mental health and addiction facilities, a continued deficit of at least eight provincially funded RCMP members and the need to significantly increase annual wildfire prevention, management and recovery funding. Further, the need for the B.C. Government to invest in invasive mussel prevention for Lake Okanagan was discussed that included the Okanagan Basin Water Board. The Minister clearly heard the united concerns about the need for the B.C. Government to proactively protect one of the Okanagan’s most precious natural resources.
West Kelowna Council also invited the Mayor of Peachland and the Board Chair from the Central Okanagan Regional District to join the City and Westbank First Nation delegation with the Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation to express continued concerns with the slow progress in providing a redundant power transmission system that remains vitally important with increasing wildfires.
“As part of our 2022 – 2026 Strategic Priorities, our Council escalated our advocacy with the B.C. Government to address the lack of appropriate provincial investments that are desperately needed across the Greater Westside,” says Mayor Gord Milsom. “West Kelowna is the youngest City and the third largest by population in the Okanagan, yet provincial investments remain either absent or progress remains extremely slow. This simply must change.”
“As good neighbours, the City and Westbank First Nation have common issues that have no bounds, such as addressing homelessness, mental health and addictions, emergency management, providing reliable power, lake protection and others,” says Milsom. “We were honoured to have Westbank First Nation join us, and we look forward to our continued partnership with their Council, and with our other neighbouring governments, to achieve results for our rapidly growing communities.”
“The B.C. Government clearly heard from our Council, and from our good neighbours, that our governments are united and will remain vigilant to receive the long-overdue provincial investments that come with rapid growth. West Kelowna has come to the table to support our growing community, but we must have, and we expect, the B.C. Government do the same.”
“We are very grateful for the encouraging meetings with Premier Eby and the Cabinet Ministers and we look forward to seeing more rapid results.”
The City advocated for 14 B.C. Government meetings, 10 of which were accepted and held in-person at this year’s UBCM:
- Premier David Eby – encouraging discussions were held highlighting the City’s top five strategic priority areas and reducing the negative impacts of absent or slow provincial investments in West Kelowna. Council again expressed sincere gratitude for the Premier’s delegation meeting during the McDougall Creek Wildfire. Premier Eby, along with Provincial Ministers Bowinn Ma and Bruce Ralston and Federal Minister Harjit Sajjan, saw first-hand the high-risk challenges that West Kelowna is facing, and the need for increased predictable and allocation-based funding. As a young City and in a high-risk area with increasingly significant wildfires, Council remains committed to working in partnership with the B.C. Government in providing supports that remain vital to everyone who lives, works, and visits West Kelowna.
- Minister of Municipal Affairs – discussions focused on reducing competition-based funding for young cities, such as West Kelowna, and increasing more predictable, longer-term and allocation-based funding. West Kelowna continuously competes with local governments across B.C. for provincial grant funding to increase housing, facilities, emergency management and more. Council advocated across Ministries to move from competition-based funding to predictable, allocation-based funding models that strengthen municipal planning with increased provincial investment certainty. Council once again thanked Minister Anne Kang for previously extending the Rose Valley Water Treatment Plant grant timeline, and for the upcoming 2024 FireSmart Community Funding and Support Program that provides allocation-based funding for high-risk municipalities such as West Kelowna.
- Minister of Forests – similarly to the discussions held with the Minister of Municipal Affairs, discussions focused on significantly increasing the annual FireSmart grant funding for West Kelowna along with more predictable wildfire prevention, mitigation and management support across the Greater Westside.
- Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation – discussions focused on two key areas: delivering a redundant power system more rapidly with BC Hydro to serve the over 70,000 people across the Greater Westside who remain at high-risk of losing power with increased wildfires; and greater protection of the existing aging single power transmission line with enhanced emergency management preparation and implementation.
- Minister of Housing – discussions focused on the top four of eight areas of concern on the Westside: no permanent homeless shelters; no social or transition housing; no new seniors housing investments; lack of Speculation and Vacancy Tax investments back into West Kelowna; lack of progress to provide social housing and wrap-around supports on City and Westbank First Nation lands; addressing the negative impacts to West Kelowna with short-term rental regulations; addressing homelessness encampments on Crown Lands; and opportunities for Ministries to work together to provide social housing on Crown Lands.
- Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General – discussions remain focused on the continued provincial funding deficit of at least eight RCMP members. City-funded RCMP members continue to cover the provincial resourcing shortfall that is simply not fair nor sustainable. The provincial funding and RCMP organizational models must change from rural to urban, including rightsizing the service-level deficiencies with the City and Westbank First Nation. Since signing the Policing Agreement in 2009, the Ministry has only funded one new RCMP member while the City has funded 15.
- Minister of Finance – discussions focused on three key areas: removing West Kelowna from the Speculation and Vacancy Tax (SVT); justification of why SVT revenues have not been reinvested to provide permanent housing needs in West Kelowna; and replacing competition-based funding with predictable, longer-term and allocation-based funding that remain vital for a young city experiencing rapid growth.
- Minister of Education and Childcare – discussions focused on partnering to provide $10 a Day Childcare Centres in West Kelowna, advocating for increased Early Childhood Educators' wages to help increase affordable childcare resourcing, and advocacy at the Minister level for School District 23 to provide French immersion programs for secondary school students in West Kelowna. Westside families travelling across the bridge to and from Kelowna for secondary school French immersion programs is not sustainable.
- Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship – discussions remained focused on the Ministry’s resources and actions to prevent the infestation of invasive mussels in Lake Okanagan, and what the provincial action plan is, should an infestation occur that has devastated other natural resources in Canada.
- Minister of Mental Health and Addictions – discussions focused on the absent purpose-built Access Mental Health and Substance Use Services facilities across the Greater Westside. There are currently 36 facilities in B.C. with none in West Kelowna, Peachland or on Westbank First Nation land. There are also no purpose-built crisis intervention or mental health resources provided by the Ministry of Health or Interior Health across the Greater Westside. The two closest facilities are the oversubscribed Kelowna General Hospital and the Kelowna Mental Health and Substance Abuse facility across the bridge. The Westside must become a centre for increased healthcare, among many other supports, that directly links to the provincial mandate to reduce car traffic and greenhouse gas emissions and invest in local and rapidly growing communities.
Four Minister meetings were declined; however, West Kelowna Council remains advocating for the following:
- Minister of Health – focus areas include increasing operating hours and services at the West Kelowna Urgent and Primary Care Centre; providing Care Service Centres in West Kelowna, including providing hemodialysis spaces and services, providing Acute Care in West Kelowna; and investing in long-term care and medical supports for seniors.
- Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure – focus areas include advocating for more rapid Highway 97 corridor and interchange improvements, and improved traffic signaling along and across Highway 97 from the north and south gateway areas.
- Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation – focus areas include governance and cross-Ministry oversight to provide increased support to benefit Westbank First Nation. The City and Westbank First Nation share challenges that know no geographic boundaries between neighbourhoods and the City will continue to advocate for increased support to all Indigenous Peoples.
- Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy – focus areas include seeking assurances from the Ministry that the governance, criteria and funding remains in place for Recycle BC to continue operating the Westside Transfer Station Depot, the Planet Earth Recycling Depot and the Boucherie Bottle Depot, along with services in the north Westside. According to Recycle BC’s Packaging and Paper Product Extended Producer Responsibility Plan, non-eligible private depots in West Kelowna and in the Central Okanagan Regional District would close and result in a significant loss of access to service. Again, the Greater Westside area is not rural and must have convenient recycling solutions.
Before, during and after forums such as UBCM, the City of West Kelowna remains accountable to bring awareness to and advance priorities of our community through continued advocacy, planning and action.
Find more information online at ubcm.ca.