As I had promised on a previous editorial, this week we are debating whether or not the Village of Burns Lake should become a town.
Although changing our title from a village to a town is largely symbolic – as there are no meaningful differences in municipal powers or oversight between villages and towns -, some people would argue that it does make a difference.
Burns Lake Mayor Luke Strimbold and councillor John Illes agree that becoming a town would be good for economic development, as it could help attract more businesses.
Strimbold said that sometimes there is a perception by investors that the term ‘village’ means too small to do business.
I can’t say if that is true or not, but I can speak from my own experience.
When I told my friends in Toronto that I would be moving to the ‘Village of Burns Lake,’ guess what their first question was – “Is it really a village? How many people live there?”
When you use the word ‘village’ to someone that lives in Toronto, it automatically implies that you live somewhere abnormally tiny (and that you may you need a horse ride to get to the nearest grocery store).
That obviously isn’t the case for Burns Lake. In fact, I think Burns Lake is in a unique situation because its official number of residents doesn’t include all the First Nations people that live within the municipal boundaries (maybe I should do a story about this next week to find out why that is; it obviously makes no sense).
So our official number of residents, according to the 2011 census is 2029. However, the village says on its website that we have a population of over 3600 (see? Not confusing at all).
And of course, when council is making decisions, they have to consider everyone that live within the municipal boundaries, and not just the 2029 people included in the most recent census.
Although this topic has been discussed by village council, there has been no formal requests from council or the public to complete a review of the process. But it might just be a matter of time before that happens.
R. Radloff & Associates Inc. recently carried out a water conservation plan for our village. According to their projections, Burns Lake could have a population of 4393 – including First Nations and non-First Nations – by 2034.
Radloff said the estimate of the village’s population was calculated on a growth rate of one per cent a year, based on recent Northern B.C. trends.
A village with 4393 residents?
That just doesn’t sound right. So like I said, it might just be a matter of time before this topic is brought forward to council.
When it comes to disadvantages, councillor Illes pointed out that there would be a cost to replace any signage, as well as the cost of staff time involved in the municipality’s name change on legal documents.
What’s also interesting is that Strimbold said that since the Village of Burns Lake has been incorporated for 93 years, locals may see the ‘village’ title as part of our history. So I will definitely be interested to see the result of our online poll this week on this subject.
Although it’s still not a pressing matter whether or not our village should become a town, I think it’s interesting to have this discussion.
What do you think? Write us a letter to the editor.
