Victor Cumming, mayor of the City of Vernon (Vernon Matters file photo)

By Liam Verster

Year In Review

Vernon’s mayor reflects on accomplishments, challenges faced in 2023

Dec 27, 2023 | 6:00 AM

The Mayor of Vernon says the past year was great with near record building permits, a lot of infrastructure projects, and improvements to public safety. Though those successes didn’t come without some challenges.

Speaking with Vernon Matters, Mayor Victor Cumming indicated that progress was made on a number of fronts in 2023, including housing.

“Building permits at $192-million, which is strong given rises in inflation in construction material and obviously interest rates up over 2022 for residential dwellings, so that’s a strong showing for Vernon,” Cumming said.

Three hundred and 40 residential units, that’s [down] from 2022, but still a good number for us. A continued dominance of multi-family and homes with suites. So very positive there on the building permit side.”

The mayor said the past year saw a number of major infrastructure projects undertaken, including completing the Silver Star multi-use pathway, repaving roads, replacing and improving sewers and spray irrigation, and upgrades to the Wastewater plant that will give it another 15 years of use that also allows for the processing of high-effluent waste water.

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Another 2023 highlight for Cumming was investments made in public safety.

“We’ve added four additional career firefighters, some additional equipment, and 10 new auxiliary firefighters as well, adding significantly to our fire and rescue capacity,” the mayor told Vernon Matters.

The Integrated Crisis Response Team also rolled out this past November, pairing psychiatric nurses with RCMP officers to respond to mental health and addiction specific calls.

The city also made progress upgrading or improving parks, including the revitalizing of Lakeview Wading Pool that is expected to be open by summer 2024.

Cumming was also very happy with how the composting program had operated in 2023, as well as the use of the e-scooters and e-bikes that saw over 113-thousand rides taken in Vernon this past year.

Though Cumming was pleased with the building permit values, he acknowledged that data from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation indicated only 334 housing projects were started between January 1 and November 30, 2023, compared with 425 starts during that same period the previous year.

“There’s no question we need to be building something closer to 500 residential units a year just to handle the influx and the need that already exists within the community,” Cumming said.

“Our approvals are ahead of construction at this time, a number of developers have brought significant projects through the approval process but have not moved on to construction and that’s something that city council can have something to do with, but you see very very little as it’s a private sector activity and they make their own choices with their own investment risks.”

Another challenge the city faced in 2023 was the closure of the last walk-in clinic, and while Cumming said health care was a provincial matter, the city had engaged in talks with the Ministry of Health and the clinic operator to try to maintain the local service, and will continue to advocate for improved health care services in Vernon.

In terms of the economy, Cumming said despite the post-COVID challenges, Vernon faired well in 2023.

“Our tourism sector has done better than most communities, recovered more quickly, so we’ve been in pretty good shape on that side. On city revenues we’ve moved out quicker than other communities have,” the Mayor said.

“There’s some catching up in some areas, people who are in the entertainment business or restaurants, et cetera, they probably found this year slower than maybe in 2019 before the pandemic. So moving in the right direction, but in some cases still not at the 2019 pace.”

Cumming added people changed their habits during the pandemic, that has slowed some aspects of the economy, but again reiterated that tourism has bounced back with 2023 seeing a record high number of visitors.

Homelessness also rose locally in 2023, but Cumming said while the city was trying to find options to get people off the street housing, including supportive and affordable housing, is a provincial responsibility, and hoped to see the province make more of those types of investments in Vernon.

“If we can get more housing, we can deal more effectively with those in the bottom of the income group,” Cumming said.

Illicit toxic drug deaths also continued to climb locally and provincially, and the mayor said it was something the city could not be very involved in as it again is a provincial matter.

It has been over a year since the last municipal election that saw Scott Anderson lose his bid for mayor and Brian Guy fill the vacancy in council, and Cumming said the group has been working well since the ballots were counted.

“It’s good to have some diversion of views, or a variety of views. Having experienced councillors make a difference, sometimes meetings move a little bit quicker because people have reviewed the package, it is things that they’ve understood and know. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t just enough friction to keep things lively for those who watch council meetings, but it’s good to have a wide variety of views on council,” Cumming told Vernon Matters.

“Councillor Guy, the newest one on council, the only one that was new, has come up to speed quite quickly and has joined in the discussions in a very active way.”