Who Makes Decisions about Services in Electoral Areas and Municipalities?

It’s not always obvious who makes decisions regarding your local services. Understanding the differences between how decision-making works in electoral areas vs municipalities is key to the discussion about incorporation.

Okanagan Falls is currently within Electoral Area “D” in the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS). Electoral areas encompass communities and rural lands outside municipal boundaries, and are often referred to as unincorporated areas.

In electoral areas, many local services, such as planning, solid waste and fire protection are provided by regional districts.

Okanagan Falls is just one of several communities and neighbourhoods within Electoral Area “D", which is represented by one elected official, the Area “D” Director, on the board of the RDOS. There are 9 electoral area directors on the Board, each representing their own electoral area, plus 11 municipal directors from the 6 municipalities within the region.

In regional districts, some service decisions are made only by the directors of the areas that participate in the service (i.e. land use decisions). However, where a service is only provided to one electoral area, or a portion of an electoral area (such as Okanagan Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant or Sun Valley Water System in Area “D"), decisions cannot be made by one electoral area director alone, and so are instead made by the RDOS Board (all 20 municipal and electoral area directors).

In fact, decisions about all regional district services, regardless of whether it is a service to just Area “D", or to several electoral areas or combination or jurisdictions, involve directors from other jurisdictions in the region. This is a distinct difference from municipalities, where the authority for making decisions for local municipal services rests with the municipal Council. The municipal model allows for decisions to be made by locally-elected representatives (5 to 7, depending on Council size), and provides opportunities for a broader range of local perspectives to be shared in the decision-making process.

You can learn more details on how regional and municipal governance differ in this short, printable document --> How Regional Districts Work (and how they're different from municipalities)