Photo: City of West Kelowna
(right) Councilors Doug Findlater and Rick de Jong, Mayor Gord Milsom and Councilors Jayson Zilkie and Carol Zanon.
A large contingent of elected officials from West Kelowna filed their petition for long-awaited funding for increased police costs and affordable housing at the federal gate.
The message was delivered by Mayor Gord Milsom and Councilors Doug Findlater, Carol Zanon, Rick de Jong and Jayson Zilkie at the Federation of Municipalities of Canada (FCM) conference that ended Sunday in Regina.
Mayor Milsom said in a press release on Monday that the city must be “united” with other municipalities across the country and with the FCM to demand funding from the federal government to address the needs. growing community.
“We may be a small town, but we need to be stronger and we need to listen to the federal government in collaboration with the FCM,” he said.
“In West Kelowna, we can’t sit back and make our voices heard by the federal government about affordable housing when the housing market clearly demonstrates that the term ‘affordable housing’ is neither accurate nor realistic.
“And discharging the federal government’s late payment to our 14-year-old municipality because the RCMP is syndicating is simply unreasonable.”
With the in-person conference for the first time since 2019, Milsom says the city can now stand up for the needs of the community face-to-face, not virtually.
Milsom said the four-day conference also offered elected officials the opportunity to attend various workshops and exercises on indigenous peoples and learned valuable examples of truth and reconciliation from other cities in the country.
“Delegates had the opportunity to speak with leaders who have extremely positive examples of advancing Truth and Reconciliation in West Kelowna-like communities where, for us, one side of the street is municipal and the other is the First Nation. of Westbank, “Milsom said.
“We are thrilled to take home these successful partnership examples and create our own West Kelowna and Westbank First Nation strategies together.”
Councilors also attended BC regional caucus meetings, workshops on local solutions to climate change, how municipalities are pushing for housing solutions in the market, infrastructure recovery and economy sessions, including mosaic stadium, municipal funding fair, plenary sessions and study visits.