It’s increasingly difficult to know if the original reasons for Greater Vernon’s parks and recreation debate still stand, or if the conflict itself has become the end goal.
After months of insisting that Coldstream is dedicated to a regional function – albeit restructured – director Jim Garlick stated last week that the “committee is nothing.”
Granted, the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee may be subservient to its parent body – the North Okanagan Regional District – but to suggest it’s meaningless is misguided. It is GVAC, after all, that drafts policies and develops vision that will hopefully lead the service into the future. All the NORD board does is traditionally provide a rubber-stamp.
When the dispute first flared, it was over tangible issues that made sense in operating a function – would certain facilities and parks remain in the mandate or would they revert to individual jurisdictions, how would long-term planning unfold, how would funding take place? But now, the only bone of contention is control and who is going to call the shots?
Mike Macnabb, BX-Silver Star director, and his Coldstream counterparts appear almost paranoid that Vernon is going to gain another vote at the table after the next census, and the so-called balance of power will collapse.
“We could be outvoted for everything and nobody wants to be part of that marriage,” said Macnabb.
First, there is no guarantee that Vernon’s population will grow enough to warrant another vote at the table, and secondly, even if that occurs, the implication that the city would use an extra vote for evil purposes may make for great rhetoric, but little else.
One of the underpinnings of our democratic system is representation by population. One should ask Macnabb or Garlick how they would feel if census figures required an upward change in their voting strength but opposition came from Vernon?
In reality, the concept of a balance of power borders on the mythological.
At the GVAC table, Vernon has three votes, while Coldstream has two, the electoral areas have one each and the school board and agricultural sector have votes on specific items. Vernon can be “outvoted for everything,” to use Macnabb’s terminology. Now at the NORD board, Vernon has three representatives during stakeholder votes, while Coldstream and the electoral areas have one each. History shows that Vernon often doesn’t vote as a block and neither does the so-called other side. When it comes to what are called corporate votes, all 13 directors at the table (Armstrong, Enderby, Lumby, etc.) are involved. You stand a good chance of getting your way, or not.
Now it would be too easy to paint Coldstream and the BX as the bad guys. But Vernon is just as much a problem as they are.
The city claims NORD interferes when non-Greater Vernon jurisdictions vote on parks and recreation, but provincial legislation is abundantly clear that the senior governing body has a role to play, particularly when it comes to any bylaws that established the function.
It should also be kept in mind that if Greater Vernon actually could sit together and discuss things rationally, NORD would likely back off. However, sometimes parents have to take charge when the children are at each other’s throats, and Vernon threatening to take its big financial ball and go home doesn’t help.
And while the city would have us all believe there is some great anti-Vernon plot, there isn’t. Recently, Macnabb attempted to have the entire NORD board wind down the parks and recreation district, but his plans were scuttled when most directors sided with Vernon.
In the end, Greater Vernon’s politicians have lost sight of what is truly important. Instead of representing the best interests of all residents, including their own, they are trying to see who can lay claim to the top of the dirt pile.
