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B.C. COVID-19 Action Plan (Photo credit: Province of B.C.)
By Kevin Rothwell
RDNO get another $319 K

Lobby effort leverages additional COVID-19 restart funds

Apr 13, 2021 | 1:45 PM

The North Okanagan Regional District (RDNO) is in line for an additional $319,000 in provincial funding under the COVID-19 Safe Restart grant program for electoral areas, in addition to the $462,000 already in the coffers.

Local municipalities (Armstrong, Coldstream, Enderby, Lumby and Vernon) received separate grants based on population numbers.

“I think some of the lobbying by electoral areas and regional districts had the province rethink how much money they had given to regional districts,” RDNO General Manager of Finance Steven Banmen told the Electoral Area Advisory Committee (EAAC).

The EAAC will recommend to RDNO that the funds be dispersed based on a 50/50 split between population and assessed property value, inlcuding the additional funds, recently announced.

Electoral Area allocation of initial $462,000 (photo credit: RDNO)
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Electoral Area C Director Amanda Shatzko indicated she would like to see some of the funds used to upgrade the regional district’s Temptest program to allow for electronic billing and online payment of water utility bills.

Silver Star Mountain residents currently only receive one water bill a year, by mail.

The projected additional cost would be $32,500.

There are few strings attached to the grant money, but the EAAC is proposing guidelines for the expenditure of the funds.

by Kevin Rothwell
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