Dear Castanet,
 | Over the past few months, the letters to the editor have all had one recurring theme: that the citizens of Kelowna are facing real problems (aka collateral damage) arising from the decisions made by our City Council – the same City Council that has been woefully unresponsive in accepting accountability for identifying its mistakes, let alone working to reverse those problems before it dives headfirst into further socio-political maelstrom.
I suggest that our current City Council has not just been inept in its handling of socio-political issues within Kelowna, but its actions have caused the complete destruction of the social contract upon which we, as citizens, rely. |
If you drive around Kelowna, you will see hundreds of examples of individuals blatantly violating our rules of society: they camp along the highway and creeks, they smoke crack in front of “family friendly” restaurants, they shatter plate glass store windows to unleash their misplaced anger, and they endanger those residents of society who expect others around them to meet society’s bare minimum level of decorum. Stepping back, who hasn’t driven around Kelowna and been disgusted by the illegal dumping of fill and garbage on residential and agricultural lands, the blatant misuse of taxpayer funds for our Councillors’ “legacy” projects, and the evergrowing sprawl of concrete modular buildings and wood frame condos that are popping up like molehills throughout our once pristine landscape (and that none of us asked for or approved)?
 | Kelowna's Rail Trail. |
The City of Kelowna is completely responsible for this situation. Anyone who has attended a public hearing in the past few years (if they are lucky enough to obtain one, that is) knows that the good people of Kelowna can scream until they are blue in the face, point to irrefutable facts and statistics, and prove that the majority backs their position, and still the City Councillors will hem, haw, ask City staff a few irrelevant questions, and vote with utter disregard for public opinion (and oftentimes in violation of the very rules that are in place to provide them with guidance on making such a decision). Witness the City’s unilateral decisions regarding Kelowna Springs Golf Club (“KSGC”), Performing Arts Centre, Parkinson Recreation Center, etc. etc. – all of which have created a society in which good people feel helpless to affect public policy or the economy, let alone their autonomy in this society. In the instance of KSGC, the citizens squawked so loudly that the City was forced, for once, to vote to repeal a prior decision – but don’t worry, in true City Councillor fashion, the City is now offering the developer alternate lands at an undisclosed commercial value, and another kick at the can via a second public hearing (TBD) to make hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of critical green space and the wishes of Kelowna’s residents.
I have been watching the City of Kelowna and its decisionmaking processes carefully for the better part of the decade, as it has made not one, but multiple decisions that have directly affected the quality of life of my family, and the value of my property. In my many FOI requests to the City, I’ve discovered that the City has not even implemented a bylaw enforcement policy, which policy would provide the citizens of Kelowna with transparency as to the City’s decisions regarding enforcement, and as recommended by the BC Ombudsperson’s office. There is no standard to which our Councillors are held, and they appear to have taken this to mean carte blanche oligarchic powers. As an aside, since City Councillors aren’t city “employees”, but elected representatives, they have no firm work hour requirements, nor a boss to review their work hours against their performance. Does anyone see a problem with a political system where ordinary citizens are held to a different standard than the politicians we expect to dig us out of this mess?
2026 is a civic election year. Might I suggest that this be the year that we collectively agree not to vote for career politicians? Can we agree that being a “nice guy” is a useless (and potentially harmful) trait for a politician? Can we agree that the metrics for determining who leads our battle cry to fix Kelowna should be a team of business people who don’t care about popularity contests or image (and don’t need to pay KPMG ungodly amounts of money to understand what a CPI is)? People who don’t own fancy houses in the Mission, or spend their evenings at the yacht club hobnobbing with Kelowna’s who’s who, but rather spend their nights at the local school board meetings fighting educational overreach, who rally their neighbours to sign petitions to change the things they cannot accept, and who wake up at 4 am panicking about how they are going to keep their businesses afloat, and pay their employees, and keep their kids physically and mentally healthy in a world where the Highway 97 fentanyl zombies have become de rigueur?
Regards,
Alexandra Wright, B.A., J.D.
