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Democracy is worth fighting for
MLA Report
By Norm Macdonald
Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA
A recent motion by the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) to ask the province not to allow the Jumbo Glacier Mountain Resort Municipality (JGMRM) to have a full voting seat at the regional board table reminds us that the issue of Jumbo is still not over.
Some of you will be re-reading that first sentence, trying to take in how it is actually possible that a voting seat at the regional district table for an appointed mayor from a non-existent town with no people, no infrastructure, and no future could even be contemplated.
Yes. In the letters patent that created the JGMRM, and appointed a paid mayor for a fake town, they also provided a seat at the regional district, making decisions about what happens to you and your community.
This was an outrageous situation from the start. But now, when it is more clear than ever that there is no investor for Jumbo Resort, and there never will be, it is completely ridiculous. People in this area are not going to accept that the appointed mayor of the fake town of Jumbo would have the same voting rights as someone who is actually elected.
People want the Jumbo Municipality to go away. It has been a waste of taxpayers’ money, and it never should have existed in the first place.
It is through foolhardy measures like the creation of a fake town that the BC Liberals have ensured that B.C. taxpayers have been one of the largest investors in Jumbo Glacier Resort. It is time for this farce to come to an end.
Show your support for the RDEK’s request to change the letters patent for JGMRM to prevent the appointed mayor from having a seat, voting or non-voting, on the RDEK board, as long as there is no democratically elected council in Jumbo that represents a minimum permanent population and assessed value.
If a change isn’t made by January 1, 2017, a provincially appointed person will be making decisions on your behalf. Speak out in support of the RDEK motion by emailing the Premier at [email protected] with a cc to my office at [email protected].
This is a key tenet of representative democracy, and it is worth fighting for.
– Norm Macdonald, MLA, Columbia River Revelstoke | 1-866-870-4188 | [email protected]?
