Tension clouds North Westside process – Vernon Morning Star

Tension clouds North Westside process is the headline for the latest story in the Vernon Morning Star on the North Westside Communities’ efforts to move forward and gather the information necessary to make an educated decision on self governance or status quo.  The Regional District and Board position so far is to delay, deter and deflect this course of action.  To put forward the argument that the scope of this Study was solely the decision of the Ministry Of Community is nonsense, the Ministries purpose is to provide this information to communities that would like to re-evaluate their Governance Model.

Again my argument is that rather than the Board supporting the North Westside, a member community of the Regional District the CAO and Board Chair with the support of the majority of the Board are throwing up roadblocks and lame excuses as to why nothing of consequence can or will happen for the residents of the North Westside.

I still believe that had the Board taken the moral and ethical path and supported the wishes of the North Westside as opposed to their own vested interest then the Board would have given the support to the communities efforts to answer this pertinent question.  Does the North Westside have the financial capacity and community support for a move toward self governance?

Listen to any RDCO Board Meeting (all audio is recorded and posted to the RDCO Website under the Agenda Section) and  it is apparent that the two Electoral Area Directors are subject to bullying and unethical pressures that are used to override the wishes of the Elected Representatives from these areas on all of our local services and functions.  Why do our residents not deserve the same attention to democracy that the member municipalities expect for themselves?  Why do RDCO Board Members with no liability or  responsibility either financially or functionally in an electoral area service decide the level and cost of those same services as if they were paying stakeholders?

The argument from the CAO and Board Chair are “we are following the legislation (Local Government Act) and therefore acting legally.”  The legal standard is a MINIMUM requirement for Government, without the ethical and moral elements to the process  we are left with a tyranny of the majority.  In fact it is not the legislation that is being followed in the RDCO but rather a legal opinion bought and paid for by the RDCO and as such will favour the position they wish to take.

My understanding is that in  Canada legislation is subject to interpretation by lawyers and the court system.  As we in Canada operate under an adversarial system of law if a second legal opinion is blocked or denied one party then the system is not operating morally or ethically for both sides.  Should the Electoral Areas be given the same rights as the rest of the member municipalities to a legal opinion things would be drastically different.  This second opinion, should it be contrary to the RDCO Board opinion for instance would be subject to negotiations by the different parties and if no settlement or compromise was arrived at then it would fall to the responsibility of the Courts to decide as in all other legal matters.  This is the step that has been eliminated for the Representatives and therefore the residents of the Electoral Areas in RDCO.

It is not the wish or desire of the Electoral Area Directors to achieve more rights or privileges than the municipally appointed members of our Board, we just want the same rights and privileges they claim for themselves and currently deny the Electoral Areas.

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