Kelowna Talks

If your New Year’s resolution is to get healthy, how will you get there? Will you stop smoking, or lose weight? From a strategy and performance perspective, if getting healthy is the goal and losing weight is the objective, strategies are needed to get there. How do you measure your success? Strategic planning for a City is not as quite as straightforward but the concept is the same. How do we know progress is being made on priorities and how are they measured? How do we share the results with the public? In this episode, host Bob Evans talks to Mike McGreer, our Corporate Strategy & Performance Manager, about good planning and upholding the public’s trust.

With municipal elections now behind us, there are several new faces around the Council table. Three new Councillors and a new Mayor. The weeks following an election can be a steep learning curve for new folks, there’s a lot of information to understand. One of the biggest items is the annual budget, which Council gets its first look at on December 1, ahead of deliberations on December 8. But the budget process starts long before that—much work goes on behind the scenes into this document that’s usually around 450 pages.

What goes into the City budget and how are property tax increases determined? In this week's episode, host Bob Evans talks to City Manager Doug Gilchrist about the new Council, the budget, and the important task of managing residents’ money. 

Neighbourhoods don’t happen by chance. How private and public land is used within a city is determined by a Zoning Bylaw, dividing the city into distinct areas and with permitted uses. Compare the layout of a city to that of a home — a toilet in the middle of a living room is the wrong fit.  Zoning ensures an industrial park is not built on farmland and that amenities like schools and grocery stores are built close to residential neighbourhoods. 

The City recently updated its Zoning Bylaw after more than 25 years. Kelowna has changed a lot over that time and zoning should reflect the growing community. What does it mean for the average property owner? Do you know what you can and cannot build on your own property or what may be coming to a street near you? In this week's episode, host Bob Evans talks to City Planners Adam Cseke and Barbara Crawford on the changes. 

Voting day for municipal elections across BC is October 15. What attracts someone to put their name forward for local government and what should they expect? What is it that Council can and cannot do? Today we are chatting with Stephen Fleming, our City Clerk, to talk about everything that is Election 2022. 

Water is a slippery subject in the Okanagan—we are blessed with this large, beautiful lake and yet in the summer, we often have drought conditions. Water is something that most of us take for granted in our day-to-day lives…we open a tap, and it’s available, clean and safe. But for many cities, water is fast becoming a precious and dwindling resource, and Okanagan residents typically use more than twice the Canadian average. In this week's episode, host Bob Evans talks to Kevin Van Vliet, our Utility Services Supervisor, about why we need to conserve more water, and why pumping more from Okanagan Lake isn’t the answer.

Events like festivals, sports, and concerts bring culture and entertainment to a city. They attract tourism and can be an economic driver. So what does being an ‘eventful’ city look like?  Kelowna’s new event strategy aims to bring about a philosophical shift in how the City hosts events. In this week's episode, host Bob Evans talks to Chris Babcock, our Event Development Supervisor, about what the new strategy means for Kelowna, our new signature event, and whether the popular Centre of Gravity festival will ever return. 

As Mayor Basran oversees one of the fastest growing cities in the country, we wanted to hear from you: If you could ask Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran anything you've ever wanted to know, what would you ask?  The response was remarkable, with nearly 150 questions posed to the Mayor. So, you asked and he answered your questions around some of the bigger issues that our city faces. In this week's episode, Mayor Basran talks to host Bob Evans about housing, housing affordability, public safety and some of the social issues that every municipality struggles with. Plus, you’ll hear how Mayor Basran envisions our city in 20 years.

We asked you “If you could ask Mayor Basran anything you've ever wanted to know, what would you ask?” The response was incredible, with more than 140 people querying the Mayor on multiple issues...from housing affordability and homelessness to public safety and highrises. Join Mayor Basran as he talks to host Bob Evans about everything that is Kelowna and his hopes for the city, as well as his thoughts on golf courses, traffic, Uber, and even the Mayor of Kamloops. 

Knox Mountain Park is our largest park at nearly 370 hectares, and it’s popular, with an average 1,300 people enjoying the park every day. But it’s also a fragile ecosystem that needs protecting for future generations, as challenges such as rogue trails and unleashed dogs are a challenge. The City is embarking on a long-term plan for the park and it’s not without controversy — a survey the City did in the spring asking the public’s thoughts on road access in the park came back with some 8,000 responses. What does the future of Knox Mountain Park look like? Join us as Bob talks to Parks Planner Melanie Steppuhn, to talk about Knox, some of the challenges and why a plan is needed.