What an awesome place we live in. We have so many things here to be thankful for, and we sometimes forget that we have it pretty good in the grand scheme of things. BUT, we still have concerns.

As Global Warming continues, and our population expands, we have environmental and social issues that need our attention. Provincially, we need to recognize the problems and address them in a coordinated, systematic, and efficient manner.

Our towns are dealing with declining infrastructure. Roads, water and sewer systems, arenas and more were often built 40 or 50 years ago and are nearing their end-of-life. How will this be dealt with? The province is imposing new planning rules requiring significantly higher density on communities larger than 5000 people. This includes Salmon Arm, Armstrong and Spallumcheen. Will current infrastructure handle the increased density? Who will pay for upgrades? A percentage of these new houses will are expected to be rentals, but the current Landlord Tenants Act is skewed significantly towards the tenants. Will the province get the housing it’s looking for with these constraints?

Many Rural areas in the Shuswap are pretty happy the way they are, but some are running into growth challenges also related to infrastructure. The more dense neighbourhoods in Electoral Areas often need community water and sewer systems for both health and environmental reasons. In denser areas there are more septic systems, and more wells. These two do not sit well together beyond a certain level. The province should be stepping up with more grant options to make water and liquid waste infrastructure easier to implement. Another desire is often some community land for services like seniors housing, day care, and community buildings such as meeting halls or skating rinks. Regional Districts are not able to set aside funds to accomplish these ‘social’ goals. The province needs to modify the Regional District model to allow for greater flexibility in funding community aspirations.

One concern everywhere is the influx of people that we’ve seen since in the last couple of years. Covid, the widespread availability of high-speed internet, and lower real-estate prices have fueled this growth in our areas. Now the province is mandating more growth in our towns. Without consulting us. This growth is a good and bad thing. By that I mean that growth by itself may allow business growth or new business development, which will provide more services. But without attention to the underlying water/sewer/waste treatments, it will inevitably harm some areas. We haven’t seen anywhere that the province understands these underlying, basic, issues.