(see Joe Rich's Changing Demographics)

Past Administration in Joe Rich

Most parts of Canada are served by three levels of government: federal, provincial and municipal. Although the first two levels have always applied to Joe Rich, the third has been missing. Joe Rich was administered from Victoria at an impersonal distance which meant that in some ways it wasn’t administered at all. It was served by federal police provincially funded. Its roads were maintained by local people at provincial expense under the direction of a locally appointed supervisor, a role Cyril Weddell played for many years. Wild life management was looked after by game wardens, but they seldom came to Joe Rich unless requested to come and deal with a predatory cougar or bear that was killing cattle. The school was funded from Victoria through the District 23 School Board which paid school expenses and the teacher’s salary, but Joe Rich residents built the school, found and hired the teachers, gave them room and board, and in some cases even recruited the students to make sure that there were enough of them to keep the school open. It was not surprising that the community felt a very strong sense of ownership in the school. All of these government services were intermittent and distant. There were few guidelines to development and even fewer ways of enforcing them. There were no building permits or inspections, no water provision, no sewerage or garbage disposal, no fire department and no environmental regulations. Land titles were obtained from the Provincial Land Registry Office of the Osoyoos District which was in Kamloops and property taxes were levied by and paid to Victoria. When they weren’t paid, the land title reverted to the crown, but the owner (or another person) could buy the property back by paying up owed taxes.

The real decisions for the community were made locally by the close knit group of residents. More recently, when the community was enlarged and less close knit, a downtown official came up to Joe Rich and went from person to person at a community meeting asking what it was that residents wanted for the community. Gert Weddell rather eloquently replied, “Well, I know what we haven’t got. We haven’t got street lights, sidewalks and prostitutes”. The inference was, ‘and we don’t want them either, so why doesn’t government just leave us alone and let us do our thing’.

The formation and structure of the Regional District

In the 1960s, the provincial government began to realize that a more hands-on administration was needed in the rural corners of the province particularly related to the funding of hospitals and other capital construction. The larger towns could not be expected to build and operate hospitals which more rural areas would use without contributing to. As a result, in 1967 the provincial government set up “Regional Districts’. Joe Rich became part of the Central Okanagan Regional District in the part of the Regional District which included Rutland, the Belgo, Ellison and us. This was soon found to be too large so Rutland and the Belgo were made into one Electoral Area and Ellison and Joe Rich together became Electoral Area I which has subsequently become Ellison Joe Rich Electoral Area. Each Electoral Area is administered by an elected Regional Director. Each director is recorded as administering one vote block for each 4,000 residents in their district. When a director has more than five vote blocks a second director is added to the electoral district. Although Joe Rich might like to be represented by its own director, the provincial government tries to avoid too many small electoral districts and is unlikely to agree to Joe Rich being represented separately.

The Regional Directors are elected by the residents of the Electoral Area. The Chairperson is then elected by the board. The board appoints its Secretary Treasurer, planner, inspectors, and other professional staff. The Secretary Treasurer answers to a elected Regional Board of lay persons who initially were also the Hospital Board, but is now a separate board. The Regional District is responsible for creating a budget and requisitioning money for the budget from municipal governments and the provincial government.

The first Secretary Treasurer was Cecil Sladen who was soon replaced by Al Harrison who held the position between 1969 and 1997. The Secretary Treasurer, now called the Chief Administrative Officer is Wayne d’Easum. The Regional Directors for Ellison and Joe Rich have been: Len Piddocke, George Whitaker, Mike Jennings, Colin Day, Duf Booth, Dave Burtch, Don Lever, Connie Bielert, Mary-Ann Graham and Patty Hansen who is now our director. The Regional Board has contained a variety of lay people who have mostly been prominent Kelowna citizens. The present chairman is Robert Hobson.

At present, the Regional District of the Central Okanagan serves 2,956 square kilometres, 158,562 people, 65,000 households and 12,609 businesses. Joe Rich/Ellison is by far the largest Electoral Area, but with only 4,206 persons has the smallest population. The Regional District has 149 full and part-time employees.

Expansion of the responsibilities of the Regional District

Initially, the Regional District’s mandate was limited almost entirely to hospital funding, but it was soon evident that it was in a position to handle other regional services better than the provincial government could handle them. The provincial government continued to maintain the control, but delegated increasing administrative responsibilities to the Regional District. Now the Regional District manages the Okanagan Water Board, Regional Parks, Mosquito and other insect control, Waste Disposal, Administrative Costs, the Hospital and Long Term Care Facilities, Building Inspection, 911 Emergency Services, Dog Control, Regional and Community Planning and Zoning, Fire Protection and Ecological Planning. Joe Rich is involved in all of these, but the proportion of its involvement and financial commitment varies.

The Central Okanagan is one of the higher income regions of the province and the Central Okanagan Regional District’s sophistication and range of services reflect this.

The Regional District can own property on behalf of the residents in its area of jurisdiction and it can initiate referenda to provide new services or alter existing ones. It continues to create budgets and is now funded from a variety of sources. It still cannot levy taxes so in that sense is not a government, but in other senses it becomes government in most functions, particularly for areas like Joe Rich. It maintains an extremely sophisticated website at www.regionaldistrict.com/whatsnew.aspx , which provides an interactive map of the entire region including Joe Rich.

Three Forks Park is owned by the Regional District on behalf of the Community of Joe Rich and is operated as a community park. The Regional District at the instigation of Joe Rich residents arranged to move the old school house off its property, acquire that property from the school district, borrow money from a provincial development fund and with that money build the Joe Rich Community Hall and Fire Hall. The cost of this work was added to the property tax mill rate applied to all the residents. A referendum was held and Joe Rich residents voted in favour of constructing the hall.

Todd Cashin, the environmental technologist employed by the Regional District has recently completed a detailed ecological study of Joe Rich Creek and with the co-operation and assistance of Cam Weddell has reclaimed the creek edges through the Weddell’s home property. The banks have been stabilized, cattle access limited with fencing and native trees planted to reduce erosion.

Over the past 30 years, a polarization of opinion has tended to develop between the old time Joe Rich residents who own and live on large parcels of land and depend on the valley for their livelihood and the many newer residents who own smaller properties and use Joe Rich as a dormitory community and an attractive framework to their homes while concentrating their interest and gaining their livelihood outside Joe Rich. The newer group of residents favour regulations which will keep Joe Rich as they think it should be. The group of old time residents misses the old days of united opinion in a close-knit community and would prefer to be left alone to manage Joe Rich as they see fit without regulations imposed from outside the valley. They tend to see people as more polluting than animals or logging equipment which have always been a background to Joe Rich life.

Joe Rich planning

Joe Rich is unique within the Central Okanagan Regional District because it is the most rural part of the district and one of the areas with the most difficulty in reaching consensus amongst its residents in regard to future planning. In the early 1980s, a Settlement Plan was worked out for Joe Rich by the Regional District and presented at community meetings. Agreement could not be reached and so the plan was shelved. As a result, for many years, Joe Rich planning was more ‘broad brush’ and not as precise as it could have been. Finally, a Land Use Committee with strong local representation was convened and as a result a Rural Land Use Bylaw has now been put in place. Land use regulation has been complicated by the presence of the Agricultural Land Reserve legislation. This has designated some areas of Joe Rich as agricultural land when in fact they could never be profitable as such. Our climate limits our growing season and makes most agriculture in our valley very marginal. The land use plan will need constant upgrading as our conditions change.

In the past 20 years, the Goudie Road area has grown rapidly. It is now referred to as West Joe Rich and the Joe Rich Creek area together with the Philpott and Three Forks Road areas are known as East Joe Rich. West Joe Rich is already the larger of the two. The total population from the top of the Black Mountain Hill to the end of Joe Rich Valley, kindly dug out for us by the Regional District from Stats Canada figures for 2001, is 1,030 people.

It is estimated that by 2020 the population of the Central Okanagan Regional District will have grown by 60%. As this growth occurs, there will undoubtedly be major pressures on water supply, air quality and transportation systems. As a result, life in Kelowna will become less attractive to many people some of whom will opt to move to Joe Rich. It is probable that there will be pressure to reduce lot sizes here while still retaining the rural nature of our area. A small commercial area with one or two small shops and services and perhaps a service station may some day be appropriate. It is unlikely that there will be major highway changes, but some upgrading will probably be needed. Big White will grow. There is a very tentative long-term plan for a major highway from South Kelowna up to and over Gallagher’s Canyon to pass over Highway 33 at Black Mountain and pass along Kelowna’s east side at a high level to the east side of Vernon and north. If this ever happens, it should not have a major effect on Joe Rich. It is probable that Joe Rich will remain a relatively unspoilt and very rural place to live.

Regional District Map