More affordable housing key outcome of Kelowna visioning conference

Affordable housing was the topic most on the minds of the 25 participants in a recent municipal election visioning conference in Kelowna.

The idea of the conference was to draw people keen on local issues and potential candidates so they could identify some of the key issues candidates may want to focus on during and after the election.

While it was put on by the North Okanagan Labour Council, it did not promote the council’s agenda, states the conference report.

“Each participant was reminded to advance any topic they wish, and we enacted a “no veto” rule to allow all ideas to be tabled and voted on,” the report said. “Certain attendees mentioned that, despite the final results not perfectly matching their preferences, they felt heard and that they had contributed to the process.

“Other attendees showed an interest in replicating such an event in larger organizations (Kelowna Chamber of Commerce) and in regional high schools to promote the importance of civics to youth.”

Similar conferences have been held in the Lower Mainland, labour council vice-president Kelly Hutchinson said in an earlier interview. This is the first of its kind in the Okanagan.

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The groups were tasked with putting forward “green” items they wanted city council to pursue and “red” items they wanted to see less of, then everyone voted on their preferences.

Topping the to-do list was land acquisition for affordable housing with 14% of the votes but, tied for third at 9%, was another item labeled “money for affordable housing.”

More community engagement was listed as the number two priority at 12%, following plans was tied for third with the affordable housing item at 9% while residential zoning reform rounded out the top five issues at 8%.

On the not-to-do list, 19% wanted development stopped in the Agricultural Land Reserve, 17% wanted council to stop approving development variance permits and 14% saw stopping sprawl development as a priority.

Rounding out the top five, at 13%, was a call to stop installing more traffic lights and use roundabouts instead and stopping “back room” deals with developers came in at 10%.

The municipal election is Oct. 15.

The full report will be posted on the North Okanagan Labour Council website, here.

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