The Heart of the Governance Study Problem
The Vernon Morning Star placed this letter in their Your Letters Editorial Column on March 12 2017. Here is the letter.
At this point it does not matter whether the scope of the Study is restricted by the Provincial Ministry as the RDCO Board Chair claims, or the Chair and the RDCO Board, as is my understanding. It is about achieving a workable document with accurate information for the residents that requested and are paying for the Study. The scope of the Study as the Chair has described it is neither what the community has requested nor what I have asked for on their behalf again on the public record. (all RDCO Board Meetings are recorded and posted to their website)
The problem is simple, the community through myself as the elected representative is allowed no input to the local services & functions or their level & cost that are provided by the Regional District. In my opinion this situation has been created by 1. the change in the stakeholder voting privileges (by the RDCO Board) of the electoral area directors and 2. the overwhelming dominance of the municipal vote; none with a vested stakeholder interest in these local matters.
How are these weighted votes considered democratic when these same parties (municipally appointed Board Members) do not participate nor contribute to the local services in the Electoral Areas? Weighted votes are intended to recognize and accommodate different levels of contribution to a service all parties share in, not to facilitate a tyranny of the majority and as a consequence severely restrict the democratic voice of small rural areas.
If the Board Chair wants to “come to a better place at the end of the process” then a Study with a scope that offers options based upon financial accountability and the true cost of all the options, including status quo for the community is what is needed. This would allow for an informed community recommendation for the Minister to consider. This was the content, direction and intent of the proposed Study as I understood it in my meetings with Minister Fassbender.
The municipally appointed Board Members have made it clear that although they will not pay a cent towards this Study they demand complete control over the Terms of Reference and any final recommendations to the Minister that might come from the Study. That’s just not democracy.
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