Council at UBCM - Positive Meetings

It has been a busy and productive UBCM Conference for the District of Lake Country, so far.

After listening to Council and the Lake Country community’s concerns about the change in service, BC Transit officials met with Council and MLA Norm Letnick to again present their case and request that changes be made to bring the transit services back to an acceptable level for Lake Country users. The meeting was very positive and BC Transit officials acknowledged the problems and decided to work on solving the issues. A review of the new routes and schedules will be done in the next few days and options will be considered.

Council also met with Minister Ida Chong, Minister of Healthy Living, to express concerns over the request from the Health Officer to apply water filtration to all water systems in Lake Country. Lake Country would have to spend in the neighbourhood of $60 million in order to comply with the Health Officer’s request. A second concern stems from the fact that other Health Officers in the Province are not as strict when it comes to water filtration requirements. “A glass of water in Lake Country is the same as a glass of water in any other part of the Province” said Councillor Noreen Guenther to the Minister. The Honourable Ida Chong, acknowledged that inconsistency is not acceptable and that safe water is a primary objective and assured the Lake Country delegation that the Ministry will work with Interior Health and other Health Authorities to bring consistency and reasonableness across the board.

The Minister of Forests and Range, the Honourable Pat Bell, met with Council and announced that the issue of lease lots sale versus the public interest of water protection was heard and that a decision was made not to pursue the sale of reservoir lots to cottage owners in fee simple. The Minister told the delegation that both MLA Norm Letnick and MLA John Slater were strong advocates of local governments and water purveyors and very instrumental to a solution in favour of the public interest. “This is great news” said Mayor Baker, “we are very thankful to the Minister, and our hard working MLA’s for their understanding and support. This is a step forward to ensure water conservation and provision is well looked after for the benefits of our citizens and our agriculture activities.” Lake Country also discussed the issue of Pine Beetle impact in areas like Spion Kopje and Allison Lake and the Minister assured that he will work with his staff to address Lake Country’s concerns.

MLA Norm Letnick participated to all the meetings and Council felt very positive about their work at this year’s convention. Council is meeting with Minister George Abbott and Minister Berry Penner tomorrow to discuss other pressing issues for the community.

Council at UBCM - Bc Transit and IHA

District of Lake Country representatives are in Whistler participating to the Union of BC Municipalities annual convention and lobbying provincial ministers and crown corporations for better services for its citizens.

The Lake Country contingent, led by Mayor James Baker, will address issues such as water filtration requirements imposed by Interior Health, watershed protection and the issue of reservoir lots on crown lands, a proposal to create a provincial campground in Lake Country, the ill-advised changes to BC Transit routes affecting District residents, especially students, and cost of infrastructure maintenance at the municipal level.

In addition to local concerns, all delegates will have an opportunity to discuss and vote on resolutions to lobby the Provincial Government on a wide variety of issues. A Midsize Community Forum will be the sounding board to hear concerns and possible solutions for issues affecting municipalities the size of Lake Country, and other meetings will introduce new provincial initiatives impacting local governments.

District representatives have already met with BC Transit and made very loud and clear to Transit officials that the changes to services affecting Lake Country are simply unacceptable. It was clear from the meeting that Transit officials will work with District Council and Staff to correct the issue and a second meeting will be held this evening (September 28) just to discuss Lake Country issues.

The meeting with Interior Health did not sort the same effect as the one with BC Transit as the issue of filtration has become an issue for the District to the inconsistencies of standards application in the province and the high cost of filtration, which is not necessarily the only solution to water quality problems. “It is very confusing”, Mayor Baker said “The Province is saying that the application of standards is an IHA direction, while IHA is saying that the Province makes the decisions. We are caught in the middle and this is not good for the community and the taxpayers.”

Further discussions will ensue in the next two days and the District will report on the mission at the October 19^th, Council meeting.

A Primer on Water

The District of Lake Country is guided by our vision to ensure the ongoing supply of SAFE, sustainable water. Water SAFE means:

• Safe
  
• Affordable
  
• For our community and our
  
• Environment
  

We have a number of issues and I wish to address them by using the Primer on Water prepared by our very capable Water staff.

Quantity - Sufficient Supplies:

Because of the form and character of our community we need and use a lot of water. The good news is that we have a number of robust surface sources available for supply. The District has adopted a stewardship approach to properly manage and protect our source waters. Our aim is to ensure sufficient water is available especially through drought periods and that source water quality is improved and maintained over time.

Infrastructure Reliability:

Our water system infrastructure is growing and reinvestment is required to refurbish or replace pipes and facilities. The total replacement cost for District-owned water utility assets is estimated at one hundred million dollars. As a community we all have an ownership stake in District-owned assets. District staff are completing a strategy to replace infrastructure over time on a priority basis.

Appropriate Quality:

The District relies entirely on surface water sources for supply drawing from Okanagan, Kalamalka, Beaver and Oyama Lakes. Water is disinfected with chlorine but no other treatment is currently provided. The Interior Health Authority has developed a directive based on the guideless for Canadian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines requiring primary treatment in addition to chlorine disinfection. Implementing treatment is expensive and a challenge, as funding the needed capital improvements falls to the community.

What have we done?

Water Master & Capital Works Plans:

Following through on the Water Master and Capital Works Plans for Okanagan, Beaver, Kalamalka and Oyama Lake sources for 1998 to 2008.

Eldorado Reservoir Capital Work Project:

Eliminating dangerous hydraulic instability and improving water quality.

Okanagan Pumphouse Capital Work Project:

Retrofitting the Okanagan Lake Pumphouse and improving supply, capacity and reliability.

Operator Certifications:

Our Operators are investing significant time in training to increase skills and achieve higher certifications.

Water Quality Monitoring:

Carry out comprehensive sampling within the distribution system and watershed: chemistry, bacteriological and nutrients.

Utilizing automated computer systems, monitoring chlorine stations and reservoirs.

Watershed Protection:

Completed Watershed Assessment and Protection plans for Oyama and Beaver Lakes as well as Source to Tap Protection Plans for Kalamalka and Okanagan Lake Intakes and continue working with other stakeholders, reducing risks and improving conditions in DLC community watersheds.

What are We Doing?

Long-term Planning - Water Master Plan:

We are undertaking a comprehensive 20-year plan addressing: water availability, growth, water quality (treatment), fire protection, agriculture and aging infrastructure.

Improvements:

We are striving to improve customer communications by improving our website, preparing customer mail outs and increasing utilization of the local media; we are upgrading automated systems; and we are completing an implementation plan for watershed and intake protection.

Operational Improvements for the Kalamalka-Oyama Interconnect:

We are undertaking a $5 million project to improve water quality and quantity on the Oyama and Kalamalka Lake sources; we are constructing interconnect and improved pipe line to supply water from the Kalamalka Lake to Oyama Lake distribution; we are upgrading the Kalamalka Lake pump station with ultraviolet light treatment system; and installing a new chlorination station and reservoir to increase quantity and quality.

If you have any questions please call Greg Buchholz, Manager of Operations at our Municipal Office at 250-766-5650.

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Bus Shelter Program Under Way in Lake Country

Site preparation and construction will begin this week on the Regional Transit Bus Shelter Improvement Project. Removal by the Lions Club of their shelters is already underway. Shelters to be replaced include 3 on Okanagan Centre Road East (at Camp, Davidson and Oceola Roads) and 2 on Woodsdale Road (at Beasley Park and at Lodge Road adjacent to the tennis courts).

Additional new shelters will be placed on Bottom Wood Lake Road at GESS and on Highway 97 between Okanagan Centre Road East and Glenmore Road. Traffic disruption will be minimal. Installation of the shelters is planned to be complete by the end of October.

For more information contact Sid Smith, Engineering Technologist at 250-766-6677 or via email at ssmith@lakecountry.bc.ca
Sid Smith, Engineering Technologist

Learn at Work Week

As part of our continued commitment to education and excellence, the week of September 27th to September 30th, will be a "Learn at Work Week."

During the week, we host a number of workshops and one keynote speaker on a variety of topics. The Municipal Office will be closed from 8:30am to 10:30am on Wednesday, September 29th so everyone can attend an interesting, dynamic, and humorous presentation by Terry Small, teacher and learning skills specialist on "Brain Boosting Secrets."

Terry believes, "Anyone can learn how to learn easier, better, faster, and that learning to learn is the most important skill a person can acquire." He guarantees better grades in less time, increased confidence and more fun in learning!

Terry's wealth of teaching experience and extensive involvement in the development of study strategies and techniques make him an outstanding resource of the educational community. He resides in Vancouver, Canada, where he is a frequent lecturer at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia.

Terry Small's Philosophy is simple: "Success is a skill anyone can learn."

I tend to agree with Terry and I hope staff will enjoy the presentation. But we also have a number of other workshops and seminars that will assist District staff to continue developing their professional skills.

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Participate in the Age-Friendly Project

I am sharing the following article written by Shane Cote', who is the leading staff member on the District's Age-Friendly project.

"September is a busy month for Canadians. Our all-too-brief summer is coming to a close, the kids (and sometimes ourselves) are going back to school, evening activities are starting back up and time is getting tight again after the relaxation of the summer months. Why, given all the other pressures on your time, is it worth coming out to participate in the Age-friendly Living Guidelines Project?

I can think of a number of good reasons why residents and service providers in Lake Country might want to participate in this project:

One: It is your community. If you don’t make your voice heard with respect to what kind of future you want your community to have, other people will make those decisions without your participation.

Two: Age-friendly planning influences everyone. A truly age-friendly community offers amenities, ease of use and a friendly, open aspect to all comers. While Lake Country has many great features already, every community has room for improvement. But without you, and your intimate knowledge of your community, any picture we create will be partial.

Three: Everyone gets older. As we age, our priorities and our abilities shift, grow, and change. Having the opportunity to think pro-actively about how the needs of different groups of people and individuals will shift over the coming decades puts Lake Country way ahead of the curve when it comes to age-friendly planning. This is a great opportunity to be part of ensuring that the Lake Country of the future is a place where you are still committed to and happy about living.

Four: It is an opportunity to meet other interested and interesting people in your community, to build on existing connections and create new ones. The upcoming events in September and October provide opportunities to make your opinion known and to hear the ideas and inspirations of other Lake Country residents.

I hope to see you at the Town Hall Meeting and/or at upcoming focus groups. Happy Fall!"

New Official Community Plan Approved

On August 17^th, the Council of the District of Lake Country adopted a new Official Community Plan for the municipality. This OCP will be the document that the District uses to guide land use decisions in the growing community over the next 20 years. 

The new OCP continues several of the policies from previous planning exercises, but proceeds to make many improvements in terms of clarity and user-friendliness. The document also makes important commitments to improving sustainability and protecting local ecosystems, taking a science-based approach to identifying important ecological areas. 

The OCP is the product of several years of hard work by Council and staff and included extensive consultation with the public. The process was built on input from stakeholder groups, surveys, several open houses in all wards, and also the required public hearing process. 

“Council is very proud of the document and the consultation that went into preparing it,” said Mayor James Baker, “We heard from many residents, and worked hard towards putting together a document that reflects their vision.” 

With the new plan, the District will be one of the first communities in British Columbia to take advantage of new development permit powers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to protect new development from interface wildfires. 

“The new greenhouse gas and wildfire permits will allow the District to take a proactive approach towards these pressing issues,” said Mayor Baker, “while the new permit exemption systems will also make sure development doesn’t get hung up in red tape.” 

The new plan increases the number of exemptions for development permits to allow for a more streamlined and common sense approvals process for some forms of development. This has the advantage of saving time for both the District and potential developers. 

The new OCP replaces Bylaw 391, 2001 and provides a long term vision for the future development of Lake Country. With extensive input from both the community and staff throughout the planning process, the District is eager to begin assisting residents with the implementation of the new plan.

If you need more information, please contact Mark Koch, development Services Manager, at 250-766-6674 or mkoch@lakecountry.bc.ca

BC Hydro Beautification Project

This is for your information:

"Construction will begin Wednesday September 15th on the Hydro Beautification Project.

As a follow-up to the Main Street/Town Centre Road project, last year the District was successful in obtaining a BC Hydro Beautification Grant to offset the cost of removing the hydro poles adjacent to the traffic circle and fronting the Memorial and Municipal Halls. In addition to improving the aesthetics of the traffic circle area, the project will remove utility wires that are temporarily tethered to the pole on the east side of the traffic circle

Construction will include extending underground ducting installed during the Main Street project from where it is currently stubbed off just north of the Memorial Hall to the north side of the Kingdom Hall driveway on Bottom Wood Lake Road, and installation of Hydro service vaults. The existing sidewalk installed in 2001 fronting the Municipal Hall will be removed and replaced. The sidewalk is intended to be upgraded to match and extend the paving stones used throughout Main Street if budgets allow. The Hydro service to Municipal Hall will also be replaced. There will be scheduled power outages at the municipal hall and the high school. BC Hydro and their contractor will schedule these and provide notice to those affected

The project requires coordination of several utility providers including BC Hydro, Shaw Cable, Telus and Terasen Gas and is expected to take 2 to 3 weeks to complete. Periodically during construction access to Municipal Hall will be via the Memorial Hall driveway. The prime contractor, CGL Contracting, will be providing traffic control and signage for the project."

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call Sid Smith or Brian McEwan at 250-766-5650

Efficient Garbage Collection

At the last Council Meeting on September 7, Council discussed a proposal for a more efficient garbage collection. After a lengthy and healthy discussion, which included all Council members present, District staff and the Regional District manager who is in charge of this project, Council decided to approve the improvements in principle and to defer the matter of funding to the budget process. Not everybody was in agreement and some valid concerns about the system were raised. There was a big article in the Kelowna Daily Courier about this topic, which can be found at http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/top_story.php?id=292967&type=Local.

I'll try to summarize the issue and provide the information we gave Council.

The Regional District of Central Okanagan, in concurrence and with the approval of the four member municipalities (Kelowna, Lake Country, Peachland and West Kelowna), implemented an automated and diversified garbage collection system for the whole Central Okanagan. Each household was provided with a cart including a radio transmitter-receiver called RFID that can be read wirelessly with a handheld reader. So each cart belongs to a particular household/owner. After a few months of garbage collection, it was noted that people still throw the wrong garbage in the wrong bins and the manual sorting of the 'contamination' (a fancy word for the wrong mixing issue) is costly (in fact very costly) and inefficient. The 'offenders' are advised and life goes on.

The words 'costly' and 'inefficient' are not a good mix, especially when it comes down to taxpayers' dollars. So the Regional District staff found out that by expanding the RFID system or, in other words, expanding the capacity of the chip to include more data, and specifically the type of garbage dumped in the bin, the contamination management can become cost effective and efficient for two reasons: 1) the annual cost of the technological expansion is about $1.60 per cart (yes, you read it right: one dollar and sixty cents); and 2) contamination is spotted on site and 'offenders' are advised immediately (I believe the contaminated bin would not be unloaded of its 'cargo').

Additional immediate benefits from expansion of the RFID system include the ability to do targeted education with individual residents. Past Waste Reduction Office education campaigns have been done through the media with the hope that the targeted minority will be reached. This approach has been ineffective in addressing recent issues including yard waste contamination and carts in bike lanes both of which required door-to-door education with individual residents in order to show improvement. In both examples the data necessary to do targeted door-to-door education was unavailable and the message was addressed to entire streets with bike lanes and the entire region in the case of yard waste contamination.

Finally, the expanded RFID system puts the technology in place for implementing a user pay system where households are charged based on how frequently their cart is tipped. This type of system is more equitable than the current flat-rate system. Where it has been implemented, the user pay model has proven to result in significant waste reduction efforts and behaviour changes. The realization of a user pay model would require additional investments in District financial and customer billing systems to accommodate the change.

The concern is about privacy. How far would we go with the 'big brother' technology and are we sure it would be used properly? Staff feel comfortable with the this solutions and ensure that it will be properly and effectively utilized. However, at the end of the day, the decision remains with the policy makers.

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Water and More Water

It seems that water is getting a lot of attention these days, and rightly so. First, there was a BC Water Symposium which focused on creating a Water Science strategy. The symposium was held concurrently in Prince George (UNBC), Kelowna (UBC-O), and Victoria (UVic). The purpose of this event was information and knowledge translation and exchange as it pertains to the sustainable management of water and resources. At the symposium, I heard clearly that:

• We need to act now and scientists and policy-makers need to work together before it is too late; and
  
• First Nations knowledge and science of water needs to be taken into account when it comes to water conservation and use.
  

I was impressed by what Chief Keith Matthews of the Simpcw First Nation had to say. He said that First Nations have a sacred connection with water and have had since time immemorial; that First Nations have protected this critical resource through traditional conservation practices; that, in order to conserve water properly, people need to understand the natural and spiritual laws of water; that water is a way of life and we can't live without it. I was also impressed by Dr. Hans Schreier who clearly said that we have an archaic legal system dealing with water resources and conservation; that we need new policies allowing conservation rather than waste; and that water metering is absolutely essential to conservation (Canada is the country that uses the most water in the world and pays the least).

Then the Okanagan Basin Water Board had its Annual General Meeting and I was shocked to learn some simple usage comparisons. Did you know that in Israel the average consumption of water per individual is 135 liters per day? And in France is 150 liters per day? It seems a lot. But get this: in Canada the individual consumption average is 329 liters and in the Okanagan is a whopping 675 liters per day. Something is wrong with this picture. Well, France and Israel have universal water metering and have had it for decades, like most European countries. What are we waiting for?

In Lake Country we are dealing with many water issues. The Oyama Boil Water Advisory is on and will stay on until the new water system is constructed, which may take a few years. Our Water Master Plan is near completion and our staff and Water Advisory Committee have worked hard to come up with recommendations and options. Still, more work needs to be done and we hope to have recommendations for Council in November. Finally we have prepared a Water Primer, which we are going to give to the public and which we hope is going to help with water conservation efforts.

As I mentioned before, it is a tough topic but we all need to work together on this. Water is a precious resource and our future depends on it.

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Upcoming Council Meeting - September 7

Council will hold a regular meeting on September 7 at 7pm. The agenda is not as heavy as the last two meetings but has some interesting items for discussion by Council.

The Director of Development Services submitted a report on the School District direction to apply school site acquisition charges within its boundaries, which include Lake Country. The province requires school districts to consider the need for a School Site Acquisition Charge as part of their ongoing capital planning.  Money collected goes to the purchase of new school sites within the district.  New school sites are needed to accommodate the demand created by community growth. The rate is based on forecast growth rates within the school district and the anticipated cost of new school sites.  Lake Country has a deficit of classroom space of approximately 6%; this is projected to reach 21% over the next ten years. The School District is proposing a rate of $605 for each new development unit constructed within the school district area. Staff is not supportive of the proposed formula as it does not pass on land cost savings to individual muncipalities. Rather it provides a standard charge throughout the school district irrespective of land costs in local areas. Also, the charge does not recognize the surplus of school sites within Lake Country.

Council is also receiving and possibly approving the report on its strategic priorities. The strategy for the rest of the term was named "Thinking Forward" and is based on 12 objectives approved by Council in 2009. The report can be found at the following link: http://lakecountry.civicweb.net/FileStorage/63025E0CF54B4F8E95E6957685DA7FD7-Council%20Strategic%20Priorities%20Report.pdf It is an interesting report and outlines the major priorities Council and staff are working on. Some of the recommendations and priorities are already being implemented, such as the inclusion of a Strategic Priorities Chart in all council packages. The Chart will be reviewed and updated quarterly by Council and staff and update reports will be provided to the public. The first update will be done on September 21.

Also, the 6-month financial results report will be in front of Council. The budget is in good shape thanks to the good work of our Finance department. You can view the report at the following link: http://lakecountry.civicweb.net/FileStorage/1AB8B26CCC5B46269C3017BCA8BDC2CC-Residential%20Curbside%20Waste%20Reduction%20RFID%20System.pdf

Finally, the Engineering Department has submitted a report on the expansion of the residential curbside waste collection radio-frequency identification (RFID) system. The Regional District and member municipalities have made an initial investment of almost $300,000 in the RFID system through purchasing and equipping all collection carts with RFID tags, purchasing readers and creating a database of addresses and inventory of corresponding carts. Expansion of the RFID system would yield a number of immediate benefits in the ability to identify the time and date each cart is tipped, which cart [garbage, yard or recycle] was tipped, and the address to which the cart is assigned. Drivers will have the ability to immediately flag offenses such as contamination or overloaded carts and education can be targeted to individual residents. Ultimately, the expanded RFID system could enable implementation of a user pay system where households would be charged based on how frequently their carts are tipped. Staff are recommending that Council approve the expansion of the system at a cost of between $1.50 to $1.70 per household per year.

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