Whatever provincial officials thought about the possibility of Summerland becoming the home of a new correctional facility, they kept their cards tight to their chests against the backdrop of rising public opposition to the proposal.
The four-person delegation spent about 30 minutes last Tuesday touring the site which Summerland has identified as the potential site of a new 360-correctional facility the province plans to build in the Southern Interior. If this fact-finding mission helped clarify in the minds of Victoria where Summerland ranks among the communities bidding for the facility, Summerland officials continue to remain in the dark where it stands.
This condition is not surprising. It would have shocked everybody had the officials dropped any obvious hints about Victoria's direction. They represent the bureaucracy and the final decision is ultimately a political one.
Still, the delegates appeared to have taken great care to drop any hints to the three Summerland officials, who accompanied.
Summerland director of finance Ken Ostraat, who represented the District along with chief administrative office Don DeDegagne and public works superintendent Dave Hill, offered this straightforward and simple answer when asked whether the officials offered any interpretable clues.
"None," he said. Overall, it is hard to say where Summerland stands, he said. "It depends on what they are looking for."
The tour, as Ostraat described it, was very matter-of-fact and technical. Lasting about half an hour, it was longer than anticipated, as the group faced confronted a locked gate guarding the access road to the site just off Bentley Road at the north end of the community.
"The majority of the the time we spent up there was spent getting (through) the gate," he said.
Ostrat though could reiterate what has been said elsewhere. The province plans to make a final decision no later than late June. And as this deadline approaches, opposition to the prison is gathering.
A citizen group has collected 3,458 signatures against a facility "in the City of Penticton or within the Regional District of the South Okanagan (RDOS)" including Summerland.
The group — which plans to deliver the petition to Penticton city council May 23, as well as the RDOS and Solicitor General Shirley Bond — requests that “this facility not be built in our city or our region. We are concerned that it will not bring overall net benefits and that it will present economic and social risks to our communities.”
Supporters of the prison proposal naturally disagree in offering a case for the prison that touts its value ($200 million) and its potential to generate long-term economic growth in a region that faces significant demographic and economic challenges. Supporters of the proposal, particularly in Penticton, have also noted that the city has scheduled a binding referendum to give the process legitimacy.