Welcome to Your Kamloops!

At the UBCM convention this week...

The annual Union of BC Municipalities convention is being held in Penticton this year. As always, the next 5 days offers an opportunity to learn, to lobby Provincial Ministers and staff on Kamloops issues (often with funding requests attached), and to exchange ideas with elected folks from across BC. 

We are staying at the Penticton Lakeside Resort. Tomorrow, I will be attending study sessions on climate change action (half day) and on affordable housing and homelessness (half day). I will also be attending the provincial cabinet panel on economic development.

I'll be writing updates here from the conference all week. I will be leaving for home  on  Friday morning to get back for the start of the local homeless count at noon.

What I have learnt so far at the SILGA conference in Vernon..

Its a council day for me. I'm here in Vernon attending the Southern Interior Local Government Association (SILGA) conference. This conference brings together elected people from the BC southern interior to network, learn, and lobby.

So far today, the highlights have been:

• a motivational keynote on communications and "personal leadership" from Michelle Ray. She passed on some great tidbits on listening skills - :).
• a short presentation from Telus' Steve Jenkins on "green solutions for local governments". For the past 10 years, Telus has been working on reducing their environmental footprint in a measurable, structured fashion. I wonder if Telus reps pass on this information to small and medium size businesses as well. I think that might be useful for businesses who may not have the Telus' ability to experiment and trial.
• a great session on the action model used by the Vernon "Partners for a Safe and Healthy Community" group - that ensures that the initiative is not just a talk shop, but actually motivates action and accomplishes tasks.

We also had a short resolutions session. We debate resolutions and then vote to see if they become part of SILGA policy. The town of Lumby had a particularly contentious resolution asking that we adopt policy asking the province to give non resident property owning corporations a vote. This would mean, I imagine, that corporations like Walmart or Domtar would have one vote in every BC community where it operates.

This resolution was narrowly defeated. I voted against it, not so much because I believe non resident business property owners should not have a vote, but because I don't think that we in Kamloops have ever treated a non resident business operating in our community differently than a locally owned business. I think we treat them both as consituents who we need to work with and respond to.

At the Canadian Community of Dialogue and Deliberation Conference - www.c2d2.ca

Quite an amazing day at the Canadian Community of Dialogue and Deliberation conference in Vancouver. What I am here for is to learn about ways to better engage citizens in the work at city hall and to look for techniques your city council could employ to better discuss complex (often "hot") issues and make better decisions. I am not being disappointed. Three interesting takeaways from today:

1. Replace hard positions with perspectives: Last week when council was discussing putting a fence on summit drive to try to prevent people from jaywalking in that high traffic area, what we should probably have been talking about was how to increase pedestrian and driver safety. We all, pretty quickly, took positions on a fence, when we might have looked at other persepectives - other methods of increasing safety perhaps.If we had come up with an alternative on which we could all have agreed, we wouldn't have had to refer it to the police committee and leave the problem dangling out there yet again.
2. The need to provide feedback on feedback: When the city held one of their last public meetings on the downtown plan, a lot of people asked questions and provided feedback. City staff wisely posted responses to the questions and the thoughts on the city web site soon after. The responses indicated whether the city planned to incorporate or not incorporate feedback given and,  if memory serves, explained why. I think this was brilliant - it gives people the certainty that, if their feedback did not make into the plan, that at least their ideas were considered. It motivates people to stay involved with future city consultations.
3. An elected person's feelings don't matter: Stolo Nation Grand Chief Doug Kelly shared some insights from his uncle who told him, upon his election, that his job was actually quite simple. That he was to listen, learn, and act  - and, in that process, his feelings don't matter . It's pretty easy for a city council member to take negative or positive feedback to heart. But, one must try not to let personal like or dislike interfere with working on community issues and proposals. One can't be objective, but one has to look at things from the perspective of what is felt is best for the community as a whole.

Cities Fit For Children conference...

Last week, Thursday and Friday, I attended the Cities Fit For Children summit for municipalities. I want to thank Val Janz from the local Make Children First organization for encouraging me to go. I learnt a lot about how parent-child interaction is so critical to healthy development for the 0 to 6 years. I also found out what different communities are doing in partnering with school districts to use unused classrooms for preschool and daycare programs. I found an observation from keynoter Suzanne Crowhurst Lennard interesting - she said that high rises are very unfriendly to children and to families and any building should be a maximum of six stories.

I have a page of scrawl that I have yet to process from the sessions - so there may be more to post on takeaways.

My friend, Jordan Bateman, Langely Township Councillor, was also in attendance and his report is here.

UBCM Report - Major Takeaways...

UBCM REPORT 2007

Arjun Singh

Member, Kamloops City Council

On Monday Morning Sept 24^th, I attended a workshop called Working with First Nations. UBCM offers seed funding for meetings between neighboring municipal and Indian band councils. Bob Joseph outlined the critical importance of land and title to aboriginal peoples and explained the supreme courts affirmation of specific aboriginal rights that are to be interpreted in a generous and liberal manner.

Monday afternoon, I attended a workshop on the BC Alberta Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility agreement (TILMA) with Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen and UBCM contracted lawyer Donald Lidstone. While the Minister repeated his assertions that the TILMA would only affect local government if there was discrimination against an Alberta company vis a vis a BC company, he dodged attempts to get him to put that commitment into writing. Lidstone asserted that the agreement may have much more effect on local government regulation because it is written with such broad language. The result may be denying local communities the power to decide their own zoning, etc.

On Tuesday morning Sept 25^th, I attended a morning workshop entitled the Heritage Sustainability  Nexus. Here I learned that perhaps the greenest building is the one that is already built and that rehabilitating a heritage building can create twice the number of jobs as new construction. Affordability seems to be a vexing issue, which might be mitigated by zoning allowing secondary suites in heritage areas.

Also on Tuesday, I heard representatives from Nanaimo, Surrey, and New Westminister speak at the seminar Using Bylaws to Address Crime Issues. Nanaimo’s strategy to “clean up” their downtown involves working with street people, rather than further marginalizing them. They advocate strong involvement of the parks and public works department in the effort. Surrey has been battling grow ops by focusing on possible building and fire code infractions in residential properties with very large electricity bills. The striking down of New West’s pawnshop bylaw may have implications for local government bylaws that impact privacy such as example security cameras.

At the session City Making in Paradise, Mike Harcourt advised us that much  local government planning consists of decisions that will have a huge and lasting impact (100 year, forever) so we need to take care to make good thoughtful decisions. He argued for more local government taxation power. The challenge, he says, is to move from livability to sustainability.

In an entertaining presentation on the Census, David Baxter informed that we are just at the beginning of a long and prolonged era of labour shortages. The census tells us that more people are waiting longer to move out of their parent’s house – resulting in a rise in conspicuous consumption.

The provincial government is looking for suggestions for the new Green Building Code, which should be released in 2008. These regulations should allow certainty and assurance for people wanting to incorporate environmentally friendly features as well as spur greater economic activity in the green building sector.  For more information, see

http://www.housing.gov.bc.ca/building/bulletins/B07_03_BC_Green_Building_Code.pdf

On Wednesday morning.  Nitya Harris, the provincial 100 000 Solar Roofs project coordinator spoke about the viability of solar hot water heating systems, as well as the value of getting ready for more solar power in the future. She said the cost of  building solar ready connections into a new building is only $300 and $500. Municipalities could provide incentives for such connections, as well as lead by example. Kelowna’s solar powered pedestrian crossing lights are $10 000 cheaper on a 2 lane road and $25 000 cheaper on a 4 lane road.

On Thursday morning, the Victoria / Saanich home builders showcased their Flex Plex Housing Project.  This was billed as a market approach to affordable home ownership with consideration from local government. The local Habitat for Humanity also got involved. A CMHC grant allowed the creation of a legal secondary suite in each townhouse which contributed to affordability for the homeowner. The building is certified Built Green. Saanich council relaxed parking regulations and created a new zoning category for townhouses with secondary suites.

That afternoon, Tam Lundy and Jacqui Tegart from the BC Healthy Communities spoke about Creating Climates for Capacity Building.  This essentially boiled down to methods to have deep and broad conversations about community issues resulting in positive community policies and initiatives. We should look each issue from a full 360 degree – economic, social, environmental, cultural, psychological, spiritual, etc.

Meeting with Provincial Government Ministers and Staffers

·      Meeting with Minister Ida Chong (Community Services) about Spirit Square Project and Infrastructure funding process – she is very interested in getting a spirit square project in Kamloops built in 2008. Needs plans and matching funds from city.

·      Meeting with Minister Rich Coleman (Forest, Range, and Housing) about Pine Beetle Impacts and Social Housing – not assisting private homeowners with pine beetle removal because they are already insured, held up Kamloops as a model for social housing policies in BC.

·      Meeting with Minister Kevin Falcon (Transportation) about Valleyview Interchange and Cycle Path – would like to help as much as possible get valleyview cycle path built, looking at relaxing some funding criteria.

·      Meeting with Don Sutherland, Director Advisory Service, Ministry of Community Services

·      Meeting with Brian Krieger, Director 2010 Commerce Centre – welcomes Kamloops companies to register for the new 2010 business network - http://www.2010commercecentre.com/BusinessNetwork/Default.aspx

Making the UBCM work for you...

I'm going to try to distill into 2 pages the major takeaways from the UBCM convention last week. You can see from the summary below, this will be no easy feat. I really would like to be able to bring some of the learning and contacts to life into local community projects and initiatives. If anyone would like me to further expand on any of the topics or meetings below, please let me know:

Seminars Attended

• Working with First Nations
• TILMA (BC / Alberta Trade Investment Labour Mobility Agreement)
• The Heritage Sustainability Nexus
• Use of Bylaws to Address Crime Issues
• Challenge of Regional Governance for Local Government and the Province
• What's The Census Telling Us?
• The Green Building Code  / Building Code Modernization Strategy
• Towards Solar Communities
• Flex-Plex Housing Project
• Creating the Climates for Capacity Building

Meetings with Provincial Government Attended

• Meeting with Minister Ida Chong (Community Services) about Spirit Square Project and Infrastructure funding process.
• Meeting with Minister Rich Coleman (Forest, Range, and Housing) about Pine Beetle Impacts and Social Housing
• Meeting with Minister Kevin Falcon (Transportation) about Valleyview Interchange and Cycle Path.
• Meeting with Don Sutherland, Director Advisory Service, Ministry of Community Services
• Meeting with Brian Krieger, Director 2010 Commerce Centre
• Meeting with Jeff Garrad, Chief Financial Office, BC Govt Olympic and Paralympic Secretariat
• Introductions and Chats with various Liberal and NDP MLAs

Spoke to Following Resolutions

• TILMA (spoke in favour, passed)
• Changing Election Date from November to October (spoke in favour, defeated)

Networking Receptions Attended

• YVR Reception
• BC Government Reception
• Cruise BC Reception
• BC Hydro Reception
• CUPE BC Reception

Computers at UBCM convention restricting access to typepad?

I am not sure if this is a UBCM thing, but the internet / computer cafe set up by Shaw seems to restrict access to my blogging service, Typepad. I am at an Internet cafe on Davie St and, as you can see, it works fine.

Hmmmm.....

Did I bike to UBCM?

A couple of cheeky TNRD directors asked me if I biked to the UBCM convention.

Short answer: no

little longer answer: I was originally planning to take the greyhound to Vancouver. Then I had arranged to hitch a ride down with Jim Harker. Then, I spoke to my sister (who lives in Burnaby) who needed her car exchanged back for the family VW van. So, ultimately I was the only Kamloops councillor who did not carpool down here I think. In this specific case, family takes priority. My situation also illustrates the reality that sometimes you really need to drive  (especially if you want to eat your sister's mother's food again.)

UBCM - BC / Alberta Trade Agreement Raises Much Concern

Yesterday at the UBCM convention, we had a pretty intense workshop on a BC / Alberta trade agreement called TILMA. The stuff of trade agreements is admittedly pretty dry stuff, but this one is particularly important. The provincial government has basically extended this trade agreement to apply to the City of Kamloops and all other local governments in the province.  Many fear, including the UBCM executive, that the language in the agreement is vague and does not protect local government powers enough. For example, there is a provision in TILMA the requires reconciliation of measures between BC and Alberta communities. Does this mean that if we have a higher standard in what we expect from a private developer (for example, a higher contribution to funding parkland), that we would have to drop our standard to the lowest standard present in Alberta.

 

At the session yesterday,  Minister of Economic Development Colin Hansen assured us that TILMA would not effect civic measures or civic authority to plan land use. But, when pressed to make these commitments in writing in the actual text of the agreement, he sidestepped the issue. This made me wonder. Whats more, UBCM contracted lawyer Don Lidstone blew a lot of holes in the Minister's contentions. And a lot of questions followed from council members across the province.

 

I am all for increased trade and labour mobility, especially within the same country. Makes a lot of sense. But, I think TILMA could be much more than that. And the fact the province actually made municipalities subject to TILMA during a 2 year "transition period", without any meaningful education or consultation is simply bad form, in my humble opinion. We have been in fact subject to TILMA for the past 6 months, without really knowing what it all means.

At the UBCM Environment Conference in Richmond BC...

Just starting day 2 of the UBCM environment conference in Richmond BC. Highlights from yesterday include a talk from Jim Hoggan on talking to people about issues around the environment. He says Canadians are generally increasingly concerned about the environment but are mistrustful of elected officals to take meaningful action. His research demonstrated that people respond favourably to messages that revolve around the following themes:

• making things whole, making them right
• quest for greater meaning and fulfillment
• we are all in this together

Also of note yesterday was a presentation from Hadi Dowlatabadi on ground source heat pumps. If what Hadi spoke about actually proves out, the City of Kamloops could potentially make revenue and drastically reduce green house gases from local buildings by becoming its own utility. Sounds very appealing, so I know there has got to be a lot of challenges in implementation. Definitely worth looking into.

Today I will be going to sessions on water pollution prevention and bc climate change initiative. For the last session, I am still deciding between green infrastructure and product stewardship in BC.