About Wayne – 2022 Election

Candidates Declared by Chief Election Officer

It has been my privilege to serve the residents and taxpayers of Central Okanagan West for the last two terms as your Electoral Area Director. To take the issues brought to me by my residents and fight to resolve those issues and restore our missing voice in local services while providing a fair and reasonable response to the concerns of the residents in an efficient and affordable manner has been my goal.

My family has had property in Killiney Beach for over sixty years which I purchased in the early eighties when I became a full time resident. I joined the NWFR in the 1992 and served as chief for most of my time on the department. In that time, I oversaw the purchase and development of the engines, water tenders, marine water supply/fireboat as well as the expansions to Station. 101 and the construction of Station. 102. All of the equipment and facilities were paid for with cash no financing; we paid for what we got and could afford.

The various issues that have been addressed through the previous terms are documented on my web site wayne.carson.ca.  My Blog is a chronological list of these concerns as they occurred and the Issues pages go into more detail on specific concerns that have been brought to my attention or addressed by the RDCO Board.  Linked to the Electoral Area Governance Page is a page where I have taken and itemized Board Meeting Audio/Video off the RDCO web site and broken it down into Items of concern to Central Okanagan West.  These postings are organized in chronological order for both Regular Board Meetings.  This will make it easier to identify Items important to your particular inquiry or area within Central Okanagan West that you live as most are identified to the area of concern.  I am happy to answer any questions that you have over these past matters or any future items and I can be reached at wayne.carson@rdco.bc.ca or 250-801-4859.

Please get out and vote it is important that your Regional Director be a representative that truly has a stake in the decisions and policies that will determine what your service and functions look like and most importantly what they will cost you.  WFN Lands (IR9/10) are included in Central Okanagan West although all decisions on local services and regulations fall to Westbank First Nations Chief and Council. As such service delivery (even those services delivered by RDCO) are determined by WFN Council and some services such as fire by West Kelowna Council.

Polling Dates and locations are: Mail Ballots Available Oct 03

Advance Voting – October 05th and October 12th

  • Killiney Beach Community Hall, 516 Udell Road, Killiney Beach
  • Westbank First Nation, 1st Floor Boardroom, 301 515 Highway 97 South

 General Voting Day – Saturday, October 15th, 2022

  • Killiney Beach Community Hall, 516 Udell Road, Killiney Beach
  • Constable Neil Bruce Middle School, 2010 Daimler Drive

IT’S ABOUT COMMUNITY – YOURS AND MINE

VOTE – WAYNE CARSON

DIRECTOR CENTRAL OKANAGAN WEST

ISSUES

PARKS

  • Westshore – Planned multi use court for 22/23. Bandstand and picnic shelter completed and events such as the Easter Egg Hunt, Canada Day, Music in the Park as well as soccer, softball and other sporting and outdoor events have resumed post COVID.
  • Killiney Beach – Never looked better. Paved road (no more dust), Bowser Beach for the dogs, new swim grid and an additional swim float. If we could develop more parking it would be perfect.

Planning

  • The discharge of the Land Use Contracts over the last couple of years have shown the need for more reflective zoning. How can you have a property with structures dating from over forty years ago that doesn’t fit any of the zoning class that we have on the books? This makes purchase, sale or development of these properties difficult at best. We need and can do better than this.
  • Fringe Area Agreements are heavily in favour of the municipalities. A legal opinion for the electoral areas is needed to ensure fairness in these agreement drawn up by and for the municipalities.
  • Difficult and unenforceable bylaws and housing regulations need to be reviewed in light of the new housing approach and growth in the surrounding municipalities as well as within our own Electoral Area that saw a 45.5% increase in population in the last four years.

Water Systems

  • Need for financial accountability for operational and capital spending on all RDCO operated water systems. The cost of water is one of the top complaints that I receive from residents on RDCO delivered services. This has been consistent through out my time as Director.
  • Need for an independent legal opinion on behalf of the ratepayers of these six water systems regarding the loss of the Elected Representatives Stakeholders Voting Privilege. eg. Both EA Directors voted against rate increases and the RDCO Annual Budget three out of four times with water being a key factor each time.
  • I am still awaiting an engineering comparison report on filtration options to the proposed centralized filtration on the Killiney Beach & Westshore surface water system. The options I have requested to be explored are 1/ Point of Entry that would see utility owned filtration systems on your home serviced by the utility. The second option is a pipeline off the Valley of the Sun ground water system that has far fewer filtration regulations hence far less cost. Hopefully this report will be finished and delivered to the RDCO Board for discussion. Should the pipeline option be financially viable then we could avoid the filtration and intake pipe upgrades to both the surface water systems in Killiney and Westshores. This would eliminate two lake pumping stations and three lift stations and provide a single community wide water system able to supply water from Westshore to Upper Fintry.

Killiney Beach

  • 2.9M upgrade to approximately 1/3rd of the system. 1.9M from the Federal Government and the other 1m from the asset renewal fund which is money only from the ratepayers for that system. It is completed and in back in service. With far better service and fire flows to the upper users of the system usually the first to run out of water on a power failure.
  • An estimated further 7M+ will be required to finish the remaining 2/3’s of the system. A further 4.6M is tentatively planned for a centralized water filtration plant. That’s 11.5M more from 280 users.

Westshore Estates

  • 1.3M upgrade to both reservoirs is completed. It was paid for with 870K from gas tax and 450K from asset renewal which is only the ratepayers of that systems money .
  • A further 4.6M is planned for a centralized water filtration plant
  • More work is planned to the intake and that will also be in the 100’s of thousands or more.

Star Place

  • High maintenance and operating costs make this 8 connection water system a nightmare for the user group with no more connections available.
  • Meetings with MLA Ashton, Peachland and West Kelowna representatives offer no immediate solutions.
  • Perhaps election changes in the surrounding municipalities will offer new opportunities.

Transfer Sites

North Westside

  • A new site plan for the Transfer Site in the North Westside is in it’s finale stage of planning. Improvements and expansion of the site should start soon. A 2nd chip it bin to keep material out of the bush is part of the plan. An expanded recycling area with bins for current and future items has been requested. Safer traffic separation for the bulky and haz mat bi annual collections is also a consideration. These improvement will be paid for with Gas Tax/Community Works Funds.

Traders Cove

  • Expansion to accommodate the newly added and future recyclable items as  accepted into the provincial system. This has been proposed to Engineering and is under consideration. To be completed with Gas Tax/Community Works Funds

Drainage / Mudslides

  • Mudslides/drainage issues in Brent Road due to wildfire across highway, Wilsons Landing / Traders Cove throughout along Westside Road, North Westside along Westside Road, Valley of the Sun and especially hard hit Killiney Beach/Estamont area with three mud slides and severe flooding throughout 2017 & 2018 and the devastation of the 2021 wildfire that destroyed 75 homes. This left much of the hillside without it’s tree cover that accounted for so much of the drainage of the uphill slopes above Westside Road.
  • Have met with MLA’s, MOTI senior management with ADA in attendance, RDCO Engineering & Planning Managers last term with a request that the RDCO prepare a Report on Drainage in the Electoral areas using the new LIDAR Mapping that has become available to the RDCO through a grant by the OBWB.
  • I will continue to pursue this report and the mitigation work required to make our roads safe. I have been assured that a comprehensive and detailed Report on the drainage and mudslide events detailing both the problem but also potential solutions will help move us higher up the request line as many communities throughout the Province have the same or similar problems.
  • Neglected maintenance on the part of MOTI is the biggest contributing factor to the problem but the RDCO has responsibility for the planning and development within the area and therefore is not blameless. We caused the problem separately lets fix it together time for inter-governmental cooperation to save our homes and infrastructure.

Community Issues

North Westside

  • Governance – The North Westside Governance Committee has done it’s job and a recommendation to the RDCO Board reads as such:
  • Water Utility Rates – Always top of the list for customer dis-satisfaction and only about half the community are on the Public Systems. Cost being the chief complaint.
  • Fire Department administration and relationship with the RDCO. Dissatisfaction with residents is with RDCO Administration NOT with the operational responses by the fire department.
  • Drainage & culverts / mud slides / septic fields
  • At Large and Aggressive dogs – response
  • Schools & Bussing
  • RCMP Response Times – still no report to Board
  • Snow removal within 72hrs on residential roads – Not RDCO responsibility but needs lots of advocacy to service provider and MOTI.

Brent Road

  • Bylaw Enforcement has been unsuccessful in dealing with a problem property in the area and seems to have frustrated all levels of government regardless of how blatant the offenses seem to be to the rest of the community. The RDCO Board needs to call Interior Health into a Board Meeting and question them directly as to their lack of response to this very legitimate complaint.
  • Unfair pool/ice rink tax – This unfair tax continues as West Kelowna Council again refuses to make it end. New term new Council, I will take this to them again.
  • Drainage & culverts / mud slides / Flooding damage (waterfront properties)
  • Left Turn lane – still not addressed by MOTI
  • Paving on access/egress aprons to Hwy #97 – still not addressed by MOTI

Trepanier

  • Land use changes & zoning – advanced notification – APC appointment – DONE
  • Need for fire service response / FMR
  • Gravel pits / cannabis production / campsite zoning/ building construction bans
  • Condition of residential roads / truck traffic

Wilsons Landing / Traders Cove

  • Drainage & Mudslide issues along Westside Road and close to residential areas
  • Sinkholes on Westside Road
  • Planning & Zoning Issues in Shelter Cove
  • Planning and Zoning post Land Use Contract discharges

WFN

  • Westbank First Nations (WFN) population is 12,000+ and pay taxes for services and utilities to Westbank First Nations lands. IR9 & IR10
  • EA West population is 2800 and pay taxes for services and utilities to RDCO
  • Alberta residents and beyond pay taxes, receive services, no vote
  • NO WFN or RDCO services or functions delivered within IR#9 & IR#10 are discussed, debated or voted on at the RDCO Board Table, as they fall exclusively to WFN Chief and Council which is the Local Government for all WFN Lands.