Welcome to Your Kamloops!

How should City Council wages be determined?

It's easy to see why the question of how much city council get paid becomes such an interesting story. I think elected officials are among the very few people in the world who set their own pay. And, historically, many  elected officials (thankfully not in Kamloops) have been quite generous with themselves. So the media pays rather rapt attention to this issue.

Having voted against this year's tax increase, I also feel now is not the right time for city council to get a pay rise. Other council colleagues, people I respect enormously, likely think differently.

I think the bigger issue is that we should really take the decision out of our own hands. One suggestion is to put together a diverse group of local citizens - from many different walks of lifes - and ask them to hear the different points of view and to learn about the work of a councillor - and let them recommend an appropriate pay for the Mayor and Councillors. Council would have to approve the recommendation. We could agree to approve whatever they recommend. 

SILGA Speaker: Economic Outlook for BC...

In a talk entitled "Economic Outlook for BC", the Bank of Canada's Dr Farid Novin shared his personal views with SILGA AGM delegates today. Dr Novin's points included:

• the world economy is having trouble and has a more uncertain future.
• the US is "the tallest of the midgets" although China continues to gain stature as an economic powerhouse.
• uncertainty is really impacting Canadian economy.
• US economy is six times more productive than the Canadian economy. Some good reasons for lower productivity (harsher climate, more spread out population base) but still too low.
• BC in good shape: has commodities that rest of world needs, highly educated populace, entrepreneurial don't look for handouts and very agile, standard of living growing.

* With his BC prognosis, I wonder how much uncertainty impact the assessment? A good question not yet asked.

Mr Farid came across to me as having a free market lean in philosophy. He spoke glowingly about private money spent in entrepreneurial ventures and didn't really engage with an audience question about growing inequality in society.

I asked him a question about tips in researching economic conditions to help determine a community's ability to handle tax increases / decreases. He said he didn't like the framing of my question and suggested rather a focus on a community's wants and needs for public spending.  I would still say these two resarch efforts go hand in hand. I might say that one has to delicately balance community desires with an ability to pay.

Program for the 2013 Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA) AGM...

I'm in Salmon Arm over the next two days for the Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA) AGM. SILGA allows local government elected officials in our region to network, learn, and lobby. Here is the program for this year's AGM.

Awesome Events for Kamloops Youth....

Yesterday, Council had the incredible opportunity to hear youth leaders in our region talk about their various activities and to happily unanimously proclaim May 1-7 Youth week in Kamloops. With the understandable concern about youth apathy in community affairs, it's really important for the community to celebrate youth who are truly involved (in so many things).

There are many events organized for this year's youth week. See a complete schedule here. (PDF file)

Incredible Food Policy in Kamloops...

I was really honoured to be asked to help facilitate a breakout group at last night's Lets Talk About Food dialogue. In the past 25 yeard, the Kamloops Food Policy council has had an incredible record of success with projects designed to help improve access to good quality food in our community. 

The ideas and commitments generated at the dialogue are going to feed into the food policy council's work on updating the council's strategic plan. 

Huge kudos to Daphane Nelson, last night's host and meeting coordinator. Really wonderful job!

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A quick postcript to say it's really amazing how busy our community is getting. Last night, there was also a Chamber of Commerce social and an art opening for Tricia Sellmer. I understand all were very well attended. Very cool.

Why I Support Changes to Downtown Parking...

Today, at city council, we will be deciding whether to approve proposed changes to downtown on street parking rates, technology, and fines.  

In a nutshell, the proposed changes are:

- to replace 850 parking meters with 90 parking pay stations. This is being recommended mainly, in my mind, to offer more payment options (credit card, for example) and to allow merchants the ability to validate their customer's parking.

- to raise the parking rates from 50 cents an hour to one dollar an hour: This is being recommended to reduce the amount of people parking for long periods and to pay for other improvements in downtown parking / transportation. All the net money from the increase in rates, after paying for the new kiosks, and after paying the operating cost for our parking management operations, will go into a fund that will be used to pay for these future improvements. I am hopeful that the money will not simply going into parking stalls but will also be used for efforts to alleviate parking pressure downtown (such as a free downtown shuttle).

I find it very rare that I agree 100% with any proposal that comes through council. I don't like taking on debt interest payments, for example, and this proposal comes with at least $60 000 of interest. That interest is forecasted to be paid by the increase in parking rates. But, what if the new technology and the higher rate drives people away from downtown.

I am still very supportive of the recommendations, though. And probably the number one reason why is that because it's downtown businesspeople who  driven and recommended the proposed changes. Council endorsed a Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association parking solutions working group. This group has been working for over 15 months discussing the parking issue and proposing the above solutions, with input from city staff. I feel it's downtown businesspeople who have the most to lose if people are driven away from parking downtown. And they have vetted and agreed to recommend these proposed changes. This personally gives me a lot of confidence. 

Another Important Question about Civility in Kamloops...

 

This week, Kamloops hosted a wonderful visitor. Her name is Sara Hacala and she is the author of a book called "Saving Civility". I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a round table discussion about civility with about 20 fellow citizens and Sara last night. This was one of several events Sara keynoted / presented /participated in while in Kamloops.

The roundtable was quite amazing actually. People shared heartfelt and honest stories and insights. This was a community gathering taken to a whole new level, in my view. I really appreciated people's willingness to talk authentically. We spent about two hours chatting and listening to Sara's insights.

Sara shared with us how passionate she is about the topic of civility. And, at the end of our time together, she asked a really important question. What's next for Kamloops? Now that we have had an almost weeklong series of events talking about promoting and supporting civility, how do we keep working on these skills in our valley?

Do You Think We Need a New Performing Arts Centre in Kamloops?

Tomorrow, Saturday Feb 23d, from 10am to 1pm at the Tournament Capital Centre, City hall is asking for your input on a potential new performing arts centre for Kamloops. Members of the arts community have long advocated for this centre and city council has supported the concept in the community strategic plan. I've also heard from people who have strong concerns about this project would be funded and who don't want taxes increased. What do you think?