Daily Courier March 7, 2026
Dear Editor:
A couple of things… a few councillors jumped on the good governance bandwagon. One thing is that the two Heritage Conservation Areas have guidelines that no other part of the city has, as they are special areas.
However, by having staff make decisions on applications and not following these guidelines, you have set them up for feedback as the public has no recourse when staff do not follow the guidelines or zoning.
Coun. Maxine DeHart, we are not talking about Bill 44. We are talking about the Planning Staff not following the guidelines and zoning which they weren’t following before Bill 44 and we got the likes of what happened on Lake Avenue. I am sure you remember that as it made it to Global TV.
Good governance is making sure the rules and guidelines and zoning are being followed but how can you know if they are or aren’t, if you are not participating in the decision making?
Decisions are made by the planning staff and the public are lucky if they find out about what happens at all.
I don’t think one of you can ensure good governance is occurring if you are not even aware what is going on. You are supposed to be the decision makers.
The only one who made sense, as usual, is Coun. Ron Cannan
We, the community were so pleased that you had agreed to take back decision making. Now we will have more bad decisions with no recourse.
If you are really concerned about what happens to staff, tell them they have to follow the guidelines and zoning which they haven’t been doing. How are you going to ensure they actually do in the future and if you find out how are you going to rectify it? Is that good governance on your part? No. Let’s not pretend.
The staff have proven that they should not have this decision making role. Would it be that hard for you to review three, maybe four applications a year?
I am totally disappointed in all of you except Coun. Cannan. If you don’t like Coun. Cannan constantly getting accolades for listening and speaking up for the public, try it and you, too, will get accolades.
Susan Ames, PhD, MSc, BSc
Kelowna
