The Empire Strikes Back

All this kerfuffle over whether to HOLD a referendum so voters can decide whether Coldstream, Vernon and the electoral areas should unite.

It's not whether to amalgamate.

It's just whether to have a referendum on it.

Vernon mayor Sawatzky says of the Society's petition results that a study into amalgamation would determine whether the benefits of merging four jurisdictions would outweigh any possible negatives, as reported in the Morning Star.

Waxing negative because he doesn't want the empire risked during his watch, Coldstream mayor Jim Garlick was yesterday quoted in the Morning Star:   "They fell short of their 4,000 names and this is just six per cent of the total voters."  (Some time ago, Garlick said that the Society needed 10 per cent of the voters in each area--"if any one area has less than 10 per cent of registered voters, it fails."  But Eric Foster, MLA told me "no, that's not true.")

Of the 2,930 people who signed the petition, 2032 are in the City (31,693 registered voters, 31% voted in the last election), 611 in the District (7,424 registered voters, with 33% voter turnout in the last election in 2011), with 287 in the two electoral areas (5,550 registered voters, no electoral area election in 2011).

Thinking of the recent referendum on the sports facility, where only 18% of registered voters marked a ballot, 47.65 per cent said No, with 52.35 per cent saying Yes to borrowing $7.5 million.  Neither mayor saw the significance of the thin-win margin.  And neither mayor made reference to the number of registered voters.

The Society has gauged interest based on voter turnout, not the numbers registered to vote.

Considerable interest was shown:  25.3% Coldstream, 22.9% Vernon, 23.7 in the electoral areas.

But since a high turnout is generally seen as legitimacy of the current system, we'll go with Garlick's number.  Six per cent it is then.

High or low voter turnout each can mean something significant depending on whether you're a mayor or a taxpayer.  Especially when mayors have a heavy hand in writing referendum questions (where they reverse-engineer their vision so that it produces the desired result.)

 

So if a study is the focus of any new referendum, many folks are leery of  "local government" (in conjunction with the province) doing the study.   A reliable source said there is no money for KPMG--who conducted the core services review--to do the study. 

But it has to be an "arms-length" group doing the study!
Without objectivity, there's no point.


"Otherwise it's akin to asking the wolf if the fence around the chicken house should be taller," says Kia.

The poor chickens!