Transient camper issues sparked one of the largest citizen’s turnouts to council chambers in years at the July 7 regular meeting of council.
At the centre of the meeting was the presentation of a 200 -plus signature petition presented by Keremeos resident Ted Douglas, in a delegation that also included fellow resident Marty Menzies.
The gallery was packed, with several resisents choosing to sit on the floor, while others stood in the hallways. Many fanned themselves with copies of the evening’s agenda, as the building’s climate control system wasn’t working properly on Monday night.
Douglas’ petition accused public officials of inaction in dealing with the transient issue, saying the transients had developed a “sense of entitlement” as a result of a failure to enforce bylaws. He said the petition was an indication of Keremeos residents’ desire to “rid the community of the problem once and for all.”
The petition noted such problems as downstream contamination from lack of hygienic facilities, camping on the floodplain, and difficulty differentiating between farmworkers and non-farmworkers as issues that needed to be resolved, through increased RCMP prescence and further involvement by Interior Health and the Ministry of Environment. It also cited regulations that restricted the number of days camping on Crown land was allowed, insisting that anyone exceeding the time period be forcibly removed.
Douglas also said staff and council were not doing enough, insisting action be taken immediately.
Mary Menzies took a more moderate tone, declaring the problem as an annual one that wasn’t being looked after.
He noted there “wasn’t an easy fix” to the issue, but made several recommendations aimed at rectifying the problem, including such things as hiring additional bylaw enforcement officers, joint land use agreements with the regional district, protecting the aquifer and stepped up RCMP patrols. In summing up, Menzies added, “The general feeling is a uniform frustration that council needs to do more for the taxpayers of this village and they need to do it expediently to alleviate the problem in the future.” He also recommended a working group be set up, along with a timeline for results.
Mayor Bauer offered limited response, saying the arguments had “all been heard before.”
“It’s a difficult subject. I’ve made presentations to three different ministries - nobody wants to touch it,” Bauer explained, adding MLA Linda Larson was also looking into it.
“There are no enforcement mechanisms in place. We’ve attempted to address these concerns with respect to Interior Health bylaws, with no success,” he said.
The issue was also on the agenda later in the evening, with a staff report to council advising them of conclusions following a meeting which took place July 2, involving the RCMP, village, and Regional District Okanagan Similkameen staff. Among the conclusions reached was an agreement that a long term solution to provide transient workers with facilities needed to be found. In the meantime, however, it was agreed the RDOS would work with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure as well as the B.C. Transportation Financing Authority to get approval to allow the RCMP to enforce laws on their property. It was also agreed to remove the boulders restricting access to the Burlington Northern rail trail and arrangements made for the RDOS to provide keys for the bollard to allow access to the trail beyond the dike, allowing transients temporary access to that portion of the trail.
In voting in favour of staff’s recommendation to request the RDOS work with the village towards a short term solution to the trasient issue by removing the bollard and placing a dumpster near the trail, Councillor Arlow told the gallery the problem was not strictly a local one, noting the Loose Bay Campground in Oliver had a litany of issues. Mayor Bauer pointed out the RCMP had not had many complaints with respect to transients, commenting resolving the issue was being carried out down an “obstacle rich road”
“Everyone is passing the buck,” he said.