If the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce gets its way, housing will be more affordable, there will be more funding to support those with mental health and addiction issues, fruit growers will be more productive and wine can be shipped to Ontario.
The local chamber introduced nine resolutions at the recent BC Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting, all of which passed.
What that means is the BC chamber will lobby the provincial government to achieve the changes and measures outlined in the resolutions.
The Kelowna chamber put the BC Urban Mayors Caucus' blueprint for the future forward as a resolution because it covers a wide range of issues including making housing more affordable and funding for mental health and addiction treatment.
The caucus' work is also important to the Kelowna chamber because Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran is the co-chair of the group.
"We were pleased to lead the effort to support the many critical issues they (the urban mayors) raised, not the least of which is the need for additional funding for mental health and addiction treatment," said Kelowna chamber executive director Dan Rogers.
With the average price of a house in Kelowna at a record $900,000, a townhouse at $622,000 and a condominium at $455,000, owning in the city has become out of reach for many.
That's why the chamber introduced three other resolutions aimed at making housing more attainable.
They include: modifying the Energy STEP Code for building that pushes prices of new homes up even more, pressing the pause button on BC's real estate speculation tax and reforming the property transfer tax so it doesn't add more cost to already pricey real estate.
The other resolutions the local chamber brought forward and were passed include government funding for training programs so fruit growers can become more productive; assigning a dollar value to forests, green spaces and wetlands; reforming Agriculture Land Commission regulations; supporting digital media; and knocking down interprovincial trade barriers on beer, wine and spirits.
