Although local councils still have to vote to make it official, it certainly looks like the Greater Vernon Parks, Recreation and Culture’s regional service review members went a long ways toward a long-term solution to the ongoing battles over jurisdiction.
The end result is basically keeping the larger parks under the management and maintenance of the Regional District of North Okanagan, while smaller parks would now come under the jurisdiction of local municipal councils.
“We have resolved the fundamental decisions on how we will move forward,” said Trafford Hall, RDNO administrator and the facilitator of the group meetings, two of which took place this week, amongst area politicians.
The success of these meetings and the solutions seem straightforward enough but anyone who has followed the parks debate under past councils knows that it took compromises and goodwill on everyone’s part to get to this point. Not to mention a good amount of time and taxpayers money that seemed to be getting nowhere for much too long with no benefit for all concerned.
However some congratulations are in order for those involved, although it should be noted that respective councils now have to get involved so it’s too early to call this a done deal. There’s been too much turf protecting and name calling in the past to think this will necessarily be considered a good thing by all involved. However it appears to be the beginning of the end of a long and winding road towards a solution and for that everyone should be grateful.
—The Morning Star
