Kelowna city council plans to spend thousands on tour of Lower Mainland community centres

Kelowna city council, and an unspecified number of staff members, are planning to hold two, closed to the public, council meetings in the Lower Mainland later this month.

The plan is to spend two days touring six community centres as part of council’s “decision making process” for a new Parkinson Recreation Centre in Kelowna and the development of the Tolko lands in the North End of downtown, according to a report going to council on Monday, Feb. 14, with a draft resolution to approve the meetings.

The “council meetings” will be closed to the public, the report said.

READ MORE: Kelowna's new Parkinson Rec Centre to almost triple in size

“The tours themselves are considered council meetings since a quorum of council members will be participating, and the information received is part of their decision-making process for each of these two initiatives,” states the report.

“The intent is to broadcast the tours so the public can see what Council sees. Unfortunately, for the Thursday tours, the City’s ability to film at each facility is either prohibited or curtailed due to privacy concerns and COVID-19 restrictions to the point that makes the effort moot. Staff will present instead a report at a future Monday afternoon Council meeting that captures what Council saw and heard.”

The tour is planned to start at 8:30 a.m., Feb. 24, at the West Vancouver Community Centre, moving to the  Edmonds Community Centre in Burnaby, the Minoru Centre for Active Living in Richmond and finishing off at the Hillcrest Aquatic Centre in Vancouver.

Friday morning starts with a s at 8:30 a.m. at the North Vancouver Shipyards then at the Olympic Village in the False Creek area of Vancouver at 10:30 a.m.

“Every effort will be made to broadcast the two Friday tours on the city website and in council chamber as council meetings,” the report says. “This has not been attempted previously, and it is assumed the technology and weather will cooperate to the extent that video footage can be broadcast.

The report does not say how many staff or council members will make the trip but concludes with the statement: “Costs for the tour will be provided once final costs are known.”

If all nine council members, and a minimum of three staff attend, that cost could be thousands of dollars.

Hotel rooms will be needed for two nights at a cost of at an estimated cost of at least $200 for each person per night. A quick check of WestJet flight rates shows a round trip on those days could cost $831 before taxes and fees. Per diems may run $140 each for the two days. That totals around $16,000 and does not include transportation to and from the airport or to the sites, or any other costs.

READ MORE: Kelowna moving quickly to plan redevelopment of Tolko mill site on Okanagan Lake

This past Monday, council sat through a presentation on the proposed replacement of the Parkinson Recreation Centre – now being called the Kelowna Community Campus – that focused on whether it will be rebuilt next to the existing facility or near the Apple Bowl where a new high school is expected to be built.

Spending on that $134 million rebuild won’t go to the public for approval until next year so a final decision won’t be made on the project until after the Oct. 15, 2022, municipal elections so, in theory, none of the councillors making the trip will still be in office to make the final decision.

The Tolko Mill Site plan is not slated to be adopted until some time in 2023.

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