Mayor Victor Cumming. (file photo/Vernon Matters Staff)

By Liam Verster

Meetings with Ministers, Resolutions Passed

Productive week for Vernon’s Mayor at UBCM

Sep 27, 2023 | 10:54 AM

Victor Cumming had a busy week attending the Union of British Columbia Municipalities Convention.

Vernon’s Mayor was in Vancouver for the annual UBCM Convention from Sept. 18 to 22 where he had face to face meetings with numerous provincial ministers to discuss key issues.

“The first one was the minister of mental health and addictions and the issue there is [drug] use in public and I think that has been fairly well articulated from the City of Vernon that that doesn’t work. That was not a surprise to her and not a surprise to a number of people at UBCM so that’s something that’s consistent with other municipalities,” Cumming told Vernon Matters.

“We had good discussions with the minister of forests regarding fuel loads, this is fire prevention, up on the Aberdeen Plateau which is a huge source of our drinking water and our irrigation water and the fire risk is very high. So we were trying to get the minister of forests lined up with a number of other ministries to see how we can move along a significant project to decrease the fuel load and do some substantial FireSmarting around both our facilities and our reservoirs.”

Cumming added he also met with the minister of water, land and resource stewardship to discuss concerns with invasive mussels; with the attorney general to get updates on the planned upgrades to the Vernon courthouse; with the minister of tourism, arts, culture and sport to discuss trail projects; with the minister of agriculture and the chair of the Agricultural Land Commission to raise concerns about specific projects in the area; with the Minister of Housing to advocate for better supports for seniors who are renting; and with Premier David Eby to discuss forest management.

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In addition to the meetings, Cumming and the other municipal leaders brought forward resolutions to be discussed at the UBCM Convention.

Cumming, on behalf of the City of Vernon, brought forward two resolutions. The first advocated for the Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters program be reviewed and updated to ensure low-income seniors can afford shelter. The second resolution was a proposal to change how temporary warming shelters are funded and managed to take the pressure off municipal governments.

Cumming said both of Vernon’s resolutions passed on the floor at the UBCM Convention.

The UBCM Board will take Vernon’s resolutions, as well as the resolutions from other municipalities that passed at the convention, and bring them forward to the respective ministries and advocate that action be taken to address the issues.

“I feel really good about the two [resolutions] that we were behind, I think both of those are reasonable and understandable and we’re hoping there can be some action on. If there’s not, then we’ll be back to [the province] quite promptly because both of them are fairly straight forward,” Cumming told Vernon Matters.