Official results: The January 30, 2010 referendum
on municipal status for Sun Peaks passes.

Here are the official results of the January 30th referendum. They have been certified by Lyle Huntley, the Chief Election Officer.

    Yes ......... 209  (73%)
    No ...........  79  (27%)
    Rejected ..   3
    Total  .....  291
   

Voter turnout:  We don't have an accurate count of the number of potential electors (it is not easy to ascertain with so many non-resident property owners) but it may be somewhere near 1000. If this "guesstimate" is used, the voter turnout was just under 30% -- but this may be inaccurate.

Under the Local Government Act, the majority vote means that the Province may now create the new Mountain Resort Municipality, though the final decision to do this rests with the Province. The establishment of a new municipality would take perhaps 5 months to complete, which would allow time for the election of the municipal council as well as provide time to design and implement transitional procedures involving the Improvement District and the Regional District. During this period the Province would also define any special provisions and regulations affecting the new municipality. The Province would arrange for an Interim Municipal Administrator to assist in the transition to municipal status. We will update this page with more news as it becomes known.

Update: The provincial offer of assistance

A question was asked at the January 22 public meeting about the province's offer of assistance should the referendum pass. The questioner noted that the written offer from Minister Bennett indicated that the offer was good until  December 31, 2009, which led to the question, Is the offer still valid now that it is 2010? The answer is Yes. Staff at the Ministry of Community and Rural Development recently advised us that the offer became fixed in place once the Minister issued the order for a referendum and that the December 31 expiry no longer applies. Click here to see the offer of assistance.

Want to go right to the summary of the report?

Click here to go right to the Summary of the full 2009 Update report. Click here to see the full 2009 report.