ROTHENBURGER – What City council doesn’t get about living on the North Thompson River
(Image: Mel Rothenburger.)
AS A RIVER DWELLER I’ve been struck by the death of insight of most Kamloops City councillors into the challenges of depending on the North Thompson as a source of water.
Just one example of the disconnect is a remark by Coun. Katie Neustaeter as she attempted to reassure Noble Creek Irrigation System users that council understands their plight.
“I would also share with you I’m in a similar situation, I can’t irrigate right now and I realize there are drought impacts on everyone but feel that uniquely and the risks that it poses on property not being able to irrigate and to food security and all of those pieces,” she told them.
Does she think temporary water restrictions on City residents due to the drought in any way compare to large-acreage agriculture that requires thousands of gallons a day to stay viable?
If Dieter Dudy was still on council he could have straightened her out on that but, then, he would have recused himself on a conflict of interest due to being a Noble Creek system user himself.
I’m not on that system but we do have a water licence on the river, talk to others in the same situation, and have some understanding of what it takes to deal with the North Thompson.
Living on the river is a privilege but it requires diligence. The North Thompson is renowned for its turbidity, which can clog intakes and sprinkler heads and burn out pumps.
Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Speaking of forums, a citizen organized Town Hall is set up for this Saturday September 16th at the Sandman Centre from 6pm top 8pm. Please come on down and tell your officials what’s on your mind.
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Town hall meeting? Wow. Very interested to learn more. Please provide additional information. Who is spearheading this / format / rsvp / etc
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Another thumbs-up editorial.
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The situation you describe Mr. Rothenburger cries out for Kamloops adopting the Ward System. It was an old chestnut Mr. Walsh recently mentioned in his latest piece. I come from a province that has it place and support it 100 percent. For those not familiar with the Ward system, for Council representation, the City would be divided into “wards “or districts. Each ward would elect their own Councillor. The purpose is to provide more direct representation.
To put the problem with the current system into perspective, a number of years ago what would likely be my Ward had 3 – 4 Councillors. The North Shore if they had any it would have been Councillor Joe Leong. (Mr. Rothenburger you may have been mayor at the time.) Unfortunately, at that time the Ward system wasn’t received with much encouragement.
To Mr. Noakes and Mr. Gibbs’ reply to this article, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people”.
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There is no need for a “ward system”. There is the need for competent people to run the city, elected and non-elected. Hobbits and their friends could always have a say at town hall meetings.
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Hobbyists that was…
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Mr. Rothenburger drew attention to how one area of Kamloops’ dilemma wasn’t understood by anyone on Council. By way of making his point, Mr. Rothenburger mentioned Councillor Neustaeter’s comments. The same problem holds true for any section of the City. It’s a crap shoot if any one Councillor (including the Mayor) will have a full grasp of every section of the City.
Your solution, fire the whole bunch. It appears you look forward to taking cheap shots at Council or the Administration every chance you get.
C’mon Pierre, you can do better than that., I know you can.
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How much time did you take in studying the 23 candidates last election? Wouldn’t it have been easier to choose 1 from a list of about 5? Wouldn’t it be more informative for the public to have constituency meetings where candidates could debate issues for more than a couple of minutes?
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Prince Albert has less than 40,000 ppl, Brandon has 60,000, Thunder Bay has a little over 100,000 and they all have ward systems. We had a dismal 29% of citizens vote in the last municipal election. We have next to zero community engagement with our current system, a ward system would force politicians to engage or be single term councillors. The current system asks the citizenry to choose 8 candidates from 25 give or take candidates, most of whom we know very little about. In a ward this would be 1 of 5 or so, making it much easier to learn about which candidate you’d like.
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In regards to the urban forest for example, very many councilors and administrators were invited multiple times to tour the city to see the ample waste of money and continuous failures to improve it. Over the years only one councilor took the time to come on a tour albeit a brief one. The arrogance, the stubborn refusal to objectively address the obvious shortcoming and the general dismissive attitude has reached the point of being offensive. The present council, made-up of new and old has made zero attempts at learning about the urban forestry. I no longer have a conciliatory tone towards any of them and totally despise the arrogance of senior administrators and their subordinates. And once again we certainly don’t need a ward system. It is easy to stay abreast of the issues facing the city and it is easy (at least for me) to wade through a the list of candidates. The problem is, they all make promises but making promises is a whole lot different than actively and continuously working on them promises and there is no recourse once they get elected.
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We are so sorry we voted for Katie Neustaeter! Does it seem she started this crap before she was even sworn in? Her & Dale Bass leaving would be a Great Start.
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Her and Bass and all others leaving would definitely be a good step.
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Indeed, Katie has a way with words.
She replied to me regarding my email to the Mayor about my confusion regarding the document he couldn’t see but a local media outlet had a copy. (This was after the Mayor had already replied to me.) I received a lesson about confidentiality. It was sweet to have been made to feel so young again.
Interaction with a variety of public safety agencies during my career in telecommunications ensured I had an understanding of confidentiality. “Leaks” meant dismissal. That equation was simple, basic and to the point.
Nevertheless, being made to feel that I was in a Sunday school class took me back to the days of innocence and family life in a small farming community near London, Ontario. Sometimes it’s the thought that counts.
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You got off easy, John. When I asked Council if there was a meeting to draft their March 17th statement, Katie replied “No” a couple of times, and then tried to dismiss me in a very arrogant way reminiscent of a 19th-century schoolmarm. It didn’t work of course–I’m an old activist :-)
Stephen Karpuk has a similar attitude to Katie’s: when a citizen asked Council “what is so hard about putting on a forum?” Karpuk schooled him on how learned the councillors are and told him, “It’s not like in the movies.” Haha. How would Karpuk know? I doubt he’s organized a forum in his life.
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