The annual Union of BC Municipalities convention will take place at the Victoria Conference Centre September 26 through 30, 2016.
The convention, attended by mayors, some councillors and staff from every BC municipality, as well as government ministers and staff, is a great opportunity to network and get some face time with ministers.
Kimberley Mayor Don McCormick will be heading to Victoria and he is looking forward to one meeting in particular. McCormick will meet with the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, Steve Thomson and Minister of Health, Dr. Terry Lake.
Under discussion will be watershed issues.
“The debate about recreation and logging in watersheds goes on,” McCormick said. “We at Council find ourselves having the same discussion over and over again. The issue is our ability to impact a jurisdiction we have no actual ability to control.”
McCormick also wants to discuss Interior Health reporting issues.
“You have the city, forestry, IH, all the various stakeholders. It’s chaos with respect to managing the watershed. We need some semblance of organization. I don’t anticipate a ‘eureka’ moment where someone says ‘that’s it! That’s the answer!’. But we need to start a process.
“It will be interesting to have that conversation with Minister Thomson.”