Wildfire funding, housing and power solutions at the forefront of West Kelowna’s 2024 UBCM advocacy

Friday, Sept. 20, 2024

West Kelowna Council advocates with BC Government Cabinet Ministers as they continue to advance strategic priority focus areas at the 2024 Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) conference from Sept. 16 to 20, 2024.

Cabinet Minister and senior-level staff meetings were held to discuss the continued provincial shortfalls in social housing investments, the power redundancy timeline, improvements to the wildfire mitigation and FireSmart program, replacing the couplet and timeline for Highway 97 interchange improvements, and advancing the Police Services Review more rapidly. Further, Council members participated in Cabinet Meetings with the Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA) to discuss regional challenges and opportunities with UBCM and the Provincial Government.

West Kelowna Council met with the Minister of Housing and BC Housing, which resulted in their commitments to review the unreasonably slow pace in providing permanent housing solutions in West Kelowna. Council also met with the Minister of Forests and, based on valuable post-wildfire input from West Kelowna Fire Rescue, the Minister together with BC Wildfire committed to reviewing the funding model and grant timelines for wildfire management, and consider further improvements to the FireSmart program. In the meeting with the BC RCMP, continued assurances were provided from the Deputy Commissioner that the regional review remains a priority, which will enable the provincial member deficit to be considered more accurately and will guide the City’s growth strategy and funding alignment. Municipally funded RCMP members also continue to make up the provincial shortfall of members who serve Westbank First Nation, which remains unsustainable.

West Kelowna Council joined the District of Peachland and met with the Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation and BC Hydro to advocate for more urgency on the West Kelowna Transmission Project. Councillors continued to express concern with the slow progress in providing a redundant power transmission system to serve the over 70,000 people who would be affected from the single transmission line outage. Although identifying that the redundant system will now tie into the FortisBC system in Kelowna, confirming the leading alternative and advancing the financial, regulatory and construction timeline remains unreasonably long. The Minister and BC Hydro committed to considering where the timeline could be compressed, particularly with consideration of the increased risk, frequency and severity of wildfires on the Westside.

Westbank First Nation Councillor Jordan Coble and Lisa Pastro, Director of Operations, joined West Kelowna Council in meeting with the Minister of Forests and BC Wildfire to address shared issues regarding wildfire management, improving the FireSmart funding model and working together for more proactive protection and mitigation on the Westside.

“We had positive discussions with Ministers and senior staff about the vital need for the BC Government to focus on investing in West Kelowna,” says Mayor Gord Milsom. “We are doing our part with municipal investments, but we expressed continued concern about the slow progress from the Province. Investments around us in the region are different from investments specifically in West Kelowna.”

“The lack of provincial investments in West Kelowna forces residents to access services and social housing elsewhere when our partnership could produce more rapid results to address the needs on the Westside,” says Milsom.

“As provincial funding remains limited in West Kelowna, Council reiterated the implications of the lack of provincial funding to a 17-year-young municipality, and how neighbouring municipalities continue to carry the burden for the lack of provincial investments in West Kelowna. Council again expressed the importance for the Province to move West Kelowna up the priority list to address critical needs, such as subsidized housing for seniors, permanent social housing and making viable crown land sites available to meet the increasing provincial housing demands on municipalities,” says Milsom.

“During our meetings, Council also expressed gratitude to Ben Stewart, our outgoing Member of the Legislative Assembly, for his advocacy efforts for the benefit of the Greater Westside. We also thanked the Ministers and staff for continuing to advance West Kelowna’s strategic priorities over the past year, including expanding the hours at the Urgent and Primary Care Centre, the purchase of the Bartley Road parcel for housing, advancing a police service model review, several non-farm-use site approvals, modifications for wildfire management and the FireSmart program, design progress for Highway 97 corridor improvements and others,” says Milsom.

Throughout the meetings, study sessions, clinics and forums, West Kelowna Council and senior staff continued to strengthen relationships and work together to achieve tangible outcomes to benefit the West Kelowna community. Key priority areas remain at the forefront of ongoing advocacy as we continue to make West Kelowna the place to be.

West Kelowna City Council along with our local MLA, Westbank First Nation and regional municipal neighbours participated in another successful UBCM conference this year. Shown left to right are City of West Kelowna Councillors Stephen Johnston, Rick de Jong, Tasha Da Silva and Garrett Millsap, Mayor Gord Milsom, and Councillor Carol Zanon, Westside-Kelowna MLA Ben Stewart, Westbank First Nation Director of Operations Lisa Pastro and WFN Councillor Jordan Coble and West Kelowna Councillor Jason Friesen.