Governance -- North Okanagan

Hot topic.
So much so that North Okanagan Regional District officials issued 5,709 questionnaires in 2008.
What percentage was returned?  19.

Were the 4,606 unreturned questionnaires indicative of a "status quo" feeling among residents?  The North Okanagan Regional District reads it that way today, 15 months later.

But I don't.
Judge for yourself:

Question 1:  "Do you want to change the way your Electoral Area is governed, either by joining and(sic) existing Municipality or becoming a separate Municipality?  Answered by 97.5% of respondents:  Yes 20%, No 80%"  But 4,606 questionnaires were not returned!

The Results on Page 4 here  stated 80% of respondents were not in favour of change.
Creative accounting indeed! (and I'm not referring to the Arthur Anderson accounting firm's name change!)

My contention is that the 4,606 people who didn't respond remain, 15 months later, disgusted with--and apathetic to--the entire region's governance woes and continuing squabbles.  And if I am correct in that assumption--from talking to people--the results of Q1 would then be:  4,826 Yes, and 883 No, a resounding 84.54% YES.

Proof that NORD's "open" questionnaire design was flawed?  Easy.  "It is impossible to predict the full range of opinion..." according to GATech rules for designing questionnaires.

Then add that the questionnaire was not "successfully delivered" -- to use NORD's phrase -- to residents in Coldstream, Armstrong, Lumby or the City of Vernon, and you can see where objectivity flaws begin to ramp up.

One might be tempted to ask:  "Surely the Regional District wouldn't issue a flawed questionnaire."
Sure, if it meets their goal to maintain the status quo.

First we have to look at the North Okanagan Regional District's "governance map", whose colour-defined boundaries could not have been more arbitrarily set if an open box of pushpins had been thrown into the air by a drunk.

The electoral area map reminds me of the ALR map along my property's road...after years of searching for the reason that ~5 per cent of my rocky property is locked within the Agricultural Land Commission, a chance conversation with Russell Short, area Land Surveyor in the 1990's provided the answer.  "Yes, we drew those (broad, felt-pen) lines around 1972," he said, adding "and we always intended to go back and fine-tune those ALR boundaries along your road, but we never did because there was so much work to do in such little time."  The Agricultural Land Commission still uses those felt-pen boundaries today.
Sigh.

Based on the preceding paragraph, it's probably a logical extension to conclude the NORD electoral area map was also haphazardly drawn with a wide felt-pen tip.

One may now ask...so why do I--living and paying taxes in the Municipality of Coldstream (adjacent to--but not within--the purview of NORD's electoral area) care about how the North Okanagan Regional District conducts its business?  Because they affect me and my business as well.

In addition to paying taxes to Coldstream, I also pay taxes to NORD.
Really?  Yes.
And you didn't receive a NORD governance questionnaire? Right.

So what taxes do I pay NORD--in whose jurisdiction I don't reside?

I have no idea what most of the following are, but the property tax breakdown for NORD on my Municipality of Coldstream property tax bill is:  Residential:  $52.43, $1.66;  Business: $78.53, $3.52;  Recreation $88.72,  Septage $51.48, and  Unmetered Fire Hydrant $306.00.

The total taxes I pay to NORD equals $582.34, approximately 10 per cent of my annual property tax bill.

So, back to governance, and two decidedly hot-under-my-collar issues relating to my property:

• My property is entirely on a septic system, and no sewer hook-up is available on the street.  Why does NORD impose an annual "septage" tax of $51.48?  

• My unmetered fire hydrant was installed by my contractor as a requirement of the Commercial Zoning bylaw, entirely at my cost, inspected by the building inspector prior to the line being backfilled, and is on my property.  I am providing a service of fire protection to not only the District of Coldstream, but also my immediate neighbours.  Why does NORD impose an annual fire hydrant tax of $306.00?  

These two issues alone warrant my not only receiving a questionnaire from NORD, I'm considering sending an Invoice to them for my service in extending fire protection where none existed previously.  I may still do that...retroactive to 2001 when the NORD taxes for the fire hydrant started arriving.  And the Septage bylaw?  Haven't a clue, as NORD Bylaw 4004 "Septage" link goes nowhere.

Lemmee see...my historical fire hydrant taxes totalled $2,506.00 since 2002.
But before I issue NORD my retroactive invoice, I'll contact the provincial authorities in Victoria, who are well aware of "the problems" we Okanagan North residents face with over-governance (via duplication) and outright tax and fees gouging and ultra vires bylaws.

In the past, successive provincial municipal affairs ministers have been aware of the territorial infighting and castle-building synonymous with our region.  But we still had to raise our own swords and shields, most recently in 2005 when I was tipped off to attend the public session of a NORD meeting--scheduled for the next day--to hear then-Mayor of Vernon Sean Harvey's diatribe (replete with pounding fist on the table) that "farms pay 6 cents (for water); all others pay 42."  At a time when other jurisdictions south of us were redefining their water categories to more accurately reflect their users, Sean Harvey--as Chairman of NORD, whose mandate included the water authority--our North Okanagan Regional District was surreptitiously planning to entirely eliminate one category...the Commercial Non-Potable Irrigation group, to which my recreation facility belonged.

I--and the other five in that category--hastily hired a Solicitor to represent us at the Board level, after which Sean Harvey and other board members quickly learned the error of their ways.  Transparency in local government?  Nope.  Had I not been tipped off to attend that meeting, we six commercial irrigation users would likely have gone the way of the dodo bird within a few short years.  Today, we remain grandfathered, as noted in the Greater Vernon Water Utility "Rates Imposition Bylaw No. 2387, 2009" where the following proviso is now added: "...not available to new customers".

Yet regional growth appears to remain a top priority here, as headlined in the January 13, 2010 Vernon Morning Star Newspaper, with NORD chairman Herman Halvorson admitting a regional growth strategy "is required by the provincial government."

So, it can be deduced only certain growth is welcome, judging by the "...not available to new customers" referenced in water categories.

The North Okanagan purportedly wants commercial growth.  And why wouldn't they?  At 2.9 to 4.0 times the residential tax mill rate, businesses are easy to service...and gouge.  Business owners can't even vote in a jurisdiction where they own the storefront if they don't reside there, yet tenants (of all people!) can vote, despite their not contributing to property tax coffers.

Reminds me of an anonymous adage:  "Overserving some people and underserving others is a good plan for getting elected."  

As if to underscore that statement, NORD Chairman Halvorson admits "the regional district can't be everything to everybody simply because of limited financial resources."

"Ever heard of procedural fairness?" questions Kia, adding "that might go a long way to getting at least 50 per cent of questionnaires returned."

For your next questionnaire, NORD, first consider designing it correctly, then add a Comments section for each question you pose.  You'll be surprised at what you can learn.