This is a public appeal to support changing bylaw 2594 to allow dogs on Kal Beach between October and May.
The Regional District of North Okanagan has jurisdiction over Kal Beach. It has a bylaw which prohibits dogs from being on the beach at any time.
Typically, from mid-September until mid-May, the beach is deserted.
I have made several requests to have this bylaw changed so my mother could walk her dog in a safe, familiar place within her neighbourhood in the winter months.
I was encouraged to work with the powers-that-be to come up with a reasonable solution. They preferred the issue not to go public as it would open the flood gates to heated debate. Apparently issues concerning dog lovers vs anti-dog people aren’t to be encouraged.
Although we came up with a solution, it didn’t work and actually went against my principles.
So now, I am making this issue public. I don’t believe it is unreasonable to allow dogs on the beach between October and May when the only presence on the beach are hundreds of geese and ducks.
The urgency to bring this to light and request the change of bylaw as soon as possible comes from my own personal concern, my mother. My mother is 90 years old and she has been a taxpaying resident of Coldstream since the late 1950s.
She is an active walker, but winter provides expected challenges. Snow and ice, resulting in narrowing roadways, challenges even the most agile person, so in order to minimize the hazards, she chooses to walk on the beach with her dog.
Unfortunately, this has resulted in a number of warnings by bylaw officers who apparently are responding to complaints. Recently, the warnings became reality and she was awarded two tickets amounting to $150.
Many of you who have lived in the Coldstream since the 1960s will remember the elderly woman and her donkey who would ride the Kalamalka Lake gravel road between Coldstream and town.
You might also remember Mrs. Postill, also a longtime Coldstream resident, who in her later years became a legend for her walking prowess.
A couple of years ago, while walking ahead of my mother (yes guilty, I was on the beach with my dog) I heard a little girl call out excitedly to her mom, “look mom, there’s the old lady with her dog.”
What kind of society are we living in, where the simple pleasures of walking your dog has become a crime?
Please, let’s use some reasonableness in our law-making. Place some dispenser bag stations in convenient locations on the beach, change the bylaw to allow dogs on the beach between the months of October and May and actually see the beach being utilized year round.
Please contact the RDNO director responsible for your area to voice your support and watch for petitions in your neighbourhoods.
Chris Francis
Coldstream
