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OUR VIEW: Time for council to stand and deliver

The poll stations have closed, ballots have been tallied and the field has been whittled down to successful candidates.

The poll stations have closed, ballots have been tallied and the field has been whittled down to successful candidates.

Although the deadline to declare official election results is 4 p.m. this afternoon, the preliminary figures, according to the city, have Brian Taylor serving another term as mayor, while Cher Wyers and Michael Wirischagin will both be serving another term as councillors – Neil Krog and Patrick O’Doherty both have prior council experience and Bob Kendel and Gary Smith are newcomers.

Promises were made – as they always are – during election time and now that council has been selected it’s time to make good on those promises.

There are a number of problems facing the city, deer and infrastructure to name a few.

Based on the referendum results for the city, the majority of voters were in favour of infrastructure-related improvements – 791 were in favour of the emergency water supply for fire protection loan authorization bylaw for a maximum of $1.3 million while 377 were against and 855 were for a bylaw authorizing borrowing upwards of $4.2 million for repairs to road, water and sewer infrastructure using a 25-year debt term while 320 were against.

Council will have the unenviable task of deciding how to go about acquiring funding for the various projects, as it will be costly.

The topic of deer has always been polarizing in the city with seemingly many in favour of a culling the herd and just as many seemingly against.

Does council cull or not? Does it decide to control the growth of the herd through other means?

Health care is another concern that the next council will have to deal with as the city brought concerns to Interior Health (IH) at this past fall’s Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention with issues ranging from IH’s placing of temporary residential care beds at Boundary Hospital and the loss of onsite meals and laundry.

Christine Thompson, former city councillor, was pushing for a meeting with IH CEO Dr. Robert Halpenny and Board Chair Norman Embree and was aiming for a November date but that will pass and it looks like February will be when the meeting takes place – it remains to be seen who on the new council will pick up the torch.

Candidates made their pitch, council was selected and now it’s time to begin delivering on promises for the city’s problems.