Council Highlights - May 21, 2019

Committee of the Whole Meeting

May 21, 2019

 Supporting Legislation Against Looting Evacuated Homes

Council agreed to send a letter of support for a Private Member’s Bill C-447 proposed by MP Dan Albas which would hold those who take advantage of emergency evacuations to engage in looting or vandalizing evacuated properties accountable to a much greater degree than is currently allowed in the Criminal Code. West Kelowna has experienced these crimes on multiple occasions as the community experienced evacuations due to emergencies like flooding or wildfire.

Reserve Funds Overview and Policy

Council was provided information on the City’s reserve funds as per its Reserve Fund Policy which requires an annual review of the reserve fund balances. The City has several reserves totaling almost $24 million. This balance is much lower than other similar municipalities which have existed for many more years. Council was advised that three main Capital reserves are well below minimums set in the policy and the City’s 10-Year Capital Plan includes many projects which means reserves will dip further. Council was also advised that reserve funds should be set aside to absorb costs from emergency recovery which, although mostly paid for through Emergency Management BC, has put additional tax burdens on West Kelowna taxpayers in the past few years. A good asset management plan can provide clear direction for capital planning by prioritizing needed and replacement projections and the City is currently undertaking the development of an asset management plan. Council is committed to keeping reserves healthy and to look at them each year early in the budgeting cycle.

Community Visioning Project

Council was provided information about the upcoming Community Visioning Project, an exercise that is part of the Official Community Plan (OCP) review which is intended to establish a long-range community vision intended to guide future strategic priority considerations, master planning and policy development. It is anticipated to involve in-depth and comprehensive community engagement to discover what the citizens of West Kelowna would like their community to be now and into the future. The Visioning project is expected to be complete by December 2019 and constitutes Phase 1 of the OCP review. It will be followed in 2020 with Phases 2 to 4 which involves policy development and will include additional community involvement.