RDNO Sees Benefit In Economic Development Service

Aug 16, 2018 | 2:08 PM

The Regional District of North Okanagan is going ahead with a plan to create a Rural Economic Development Service.

The RDNO board is directing staff to draw up a Service establishment bylaw that would lead to an Alternative Approval Process (AAP) for residents of the five electoral areas.

Board Chair Bob Fleming says the service would focus on economic development in rural matters.

“Things like local processing of locally produced food. That includes meat and other products. There’s hopefully going to be an effort to look at dairy and dairy processing.”

Other initiatives could could include promotion of agriculture in general.

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Electoral area residents would be asked in an AAP to raise funds through taxation to help pay for the service.

“With a fairly limited amount of taxation. That being two cents per thousand dollars of assessed land and improvement values. So the goal to be, based on that, would be trying to raise about 78 thousand dollars a year.”

The district would then work with third parties to manage the office.

“so one of the advantages was that Communit6y Futures comes to the table with some funding as well, both in kind and cash, so it kind of gets a multiplier effect that way.”

The food intitiative organization North Okanagan Food System would be involved.

Fleming says no time frame has been set but staff will be working on a bylaw and it could be early next year beore the office would be in operation.

by Tom Mark