A Summerland councillor who represents the community at the regional level says support for a proposed correctional facility is high throughout the South Okanagan.
Coun. Gordon Clarke says directors representing the various communities at the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen support plans for a proposed correctional facility which the province wants to build somewhere in the Okanagan.
“I’m cheered about it,” said Clarke. “There was not a nay-sayer among them (directors),” he said.
Provincial plans call for a new 360-cell correctional centre for use starting in 2015. The facility would house individuals who are serving time for crimes with penalties that run less than two years in length.
Interested communities have until April 1 to submit an application.
While Summerland and Penticton currently find themselves in the middle of consulting their respective citizens about the proposal, the political elite of the region has apparently already made its mind in supporting the project.
Clarke now hopes that the public will get behind the project as well.
“I just hope that we as a community get our hands around (this project) and view is as positive,” he said. “The spin-offs are significant.”
Clarke said the facility would generate a steady source of tax dollars for local coffers and improve employment opportunities without causing major damage to the environment.
“This is not a smokestack industry,” he said.
He also rejected suggestions that the facility would lead to a host of social problems caused through the presence of a correctional facility.
“The social science data does not support the concern that we are going to have a pathological society here in the South Okanagan or elsewhere (through the facility),” he said.
Clarke becomes the latest local politician who has publicly endorsed the proposal, joining former mayoral candidate Peter Waterman. Mayor Janice Perrino — who defeated Waterman during the last election — had initially opposed the proposal, only to backtrack by agreeing to the public consultation process.
Clarke hopes that the facility will be “thoroughly discussed” during that process. “Nobody should pre-empting this process,” he said.