Let the lobbying begin.

West Kelowna council is asking government to reconsider its decision to leave the municipality out of last week’s final round of provincial economic stimulus funding.

Mayor Doug Findlater said West Kelowna cannot simply let the matter die quietly. Council and staff used a meeting with Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Shirley Bond, during the Union of B.C. Municipalities Convention in Vancouver this week, to ask the B.C. government to reconsider two requests.

One was a $6 million application for a second round of sewer expansion. West Kelowna was already given $6 million, during the B.C. government’s first round of hand outs, for sewer work now underway.

The new municipality also wanted $1.5 million for various road improvements, said Findlater.

“We want them to take another look and ask if they can see their way to helping us out,” stated Findlater. “So yes, an appeal is out there, although I don’t know what the odds of (success) are.”

Findlater did express thanks, however, for the government’s commitment to fund a $7.8 million expansion of the Westside waste water treatment plant.

“That’s great value to our taxpayer. It shakes down to $5.5 million from the federal and provincial governments,” commented Findlater.

“That is also a critical piece of infrastructure.” Depending on growth rates, the capacity of the current plant will be exceeded in 18 months to 48 months, said Findlater.

The plant serves West Kelowna, Westbank First Nation and Peachland.

Aside from infrastructure funding, the municipality also met with Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister George Abbott, asking that the B.C. government create a policy that would force non-aboriginal residents who live on First Nation lands to pay for capital improvement projects to hospitals on non-native land.

Currently, more than 8,000 non-native residents living on the Westbank First Nation’s two Westside reserves are contributing nothing to expansion at Kelowna General Hospital.

Yet, they will use the facilities once completed. The same situation would apply to any health centre built in West Kelowna in the future.

By contrast, residents living elsewhere in the Central Okanagan are paying 40 per cent of those capital costs, while the province is picking up the other 60 per cent.

The policy would not apply to approximately 500 First Nation members who live on WFN lands, explained Findlater.

“I want to make it very clear that we are not attacking aboriginal right to free medical care through the federal government,” said Findlater.

“We’re concerned about the non-aboriginal residents not paying their share.”

When the payment formula for capital hospital improvements was first formed, it clearly did not contemplate that 8,000 residents would be living on Westbank First Nation land, noted the mayor.

“This is a provincial policy issue because as other reserves develop and follow the Westbank First Nation model, as some of them are, there’s going to be an inequity here in terms of whose paying for (health) services, in terms of their capital costs.”

During the UBCM convention, West Kelowna has also asked the forests ministry for funding to clear fire fuels from public lands throughout the municipality. It also asked the province to support West Kelowna’s request for obtaining some Crown land within its boundaries.

And, council pressed Health Minister Kevin Falcon, asking that he commit funding for a Westside urgent health care facility.

jluciw@kelownacapnews.com