Residents Reject Incorporation

Electoral Area C will be split into two separate electoral areas - Areas C1 and C2. (picture credit CSRD website)

By Jo Anne Malpass

The people have spoken loud and clear. Residents of Blind Bay and Sorrento chose on April 30, by unofficial vote results of 2027 to 272, to reject incorporation of Sorrento-Blind Bay.

Electoral Area C will be split into two separate electoral areas — Areas C1 and C2. Sorrento and Blind Bay will be part of the new electoral area — C1.  

Information in the final Incorporation Study Report says Area C1 will include Sorrento, Blind Bay, Notch Hill, Balmoral and Carlin.  The remainder of Area C, including Tappen, Sunnybrae, Eagle Bay and White Lake will become Electoral Area C2.  

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District will continue to be responsible for providing most local government services, including planning and building inspection, utilities, fire response, bylaw enforcement, parks and recreation, and others. 

The provincial government will continue to manage policing and, through the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, the local road network and set road maintenance standards. 

Area C will now have two representatives on the CSRD Board, one for Area C1 and one for Area C2. Current Director Paul Demenok has announced he will not be seeking re-election. On October 15, in the BC general local elections, Areas C1 and C2 will each elect a director for a four-year term to sit on the CSRD Board, with directors from the other five electoral areas, two from Salmon Arm and one each from Golden, Revelstoke and the District of Sicamous.   

The boundary for Electoral Area C1 was selected by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs prior to the beginning of the Incorporation Study, which started in November 2019 and was scheduled to last 15 months but the timeline was disrupted by the arrival of the pandemic in March 2020.

The Incorporation Study Reports says, based on the results of the Ministry’s Boundary Analysis, the boundary was designed to:

• create a geographically-smaller Electoral Area that could be easily travelled by an Electoral Area Director

• provide for a good level of balance of populations between the two Electoral Areas

• keep whole existing settlement areas and all existing local water service areas, as well as the entire Blind Bay-Sorrento Community Sewer area, and all fire department response areas

• include lands in a variety of property assessment classes

• capture an assessment base for each new Electoral Area that is as sizeable and diverse as practicable

• keep together communities with similar perspectives and wishes related to service levels and urban development

In accordance with the Local Government Act, the official results of the vote were to be announced by the Chief Election Officer on May 4, after the Scoop went to the printer. 

Aerial view of Blind Bay and Sorrento (picture shared from CSRD)