This week, Cranbrook and Kimberley will be jointly hosting the BC Mayors' Caucus.
The Caucus is meant to facilitate discussion on various diverse and pressing issues that relate to municipal government. The mayors will all be meeting to have these discussions on April 24-25.
"Cranbrook is very excited about having municipal leaders from around B.C. here to discuss issues that are common to all of our citizens," Cranbrook Mayor Wayne Stetski said. "I look forward to sharing the outcomes and recommendations with our community."
This will be the fifth meeting of the Caucus.
“It’s also a great opportunity to showcase our incredible region and encourage return visits to enjoy our sunshine and our world class scenery, recreation and wildlife,” Stetski said.
The mayors will head to Kimberley on Thursday for an all day session at the Kimberley Conference and Athlete Training Centre, before heading to the Prestige Cranbrook for a half day session on Friday.
Kimberley Mayor Ron McRae says it’s a great opportunity to showcase Kimberley’s conference centre and other amenities the area has to offer.
“This Mayors Caucus is a test case to get the mayors meeting out of a major centre and I think it’s going to be a great success. At last count, there were 66 mayors attending.”
Rebecca Peters, from the Laura Balance Media Group, said the sessions will be aimed at examining the challenges of BC’s communities and the sharing of best practices.
“We have surveyed a number of mayors over the past months to get a sense of some of their most pressing issues and will be giving them the opportunity to discuss these topics in roundtable format over the course of the meeting so they can gain as much insight as possible from each other,” said Peters.
Some of the topics that will be up for discussion are healthcare, downloading of services and human resources.
“For this session, we’re working with local facilitator Bob Johnstone — who will guide the day and half of working sessions,” Peters said. “Bob resides in Kimberley and has extensive experience working with municipal governments and organizations.”
With files from Carolyn Grant