Catered food is a fairly common practice during board meetings at the municipal level, but it’s food that’s covered by the taxpayer.
One regional board recently voted to eliminate the catered meals.
“Every other job that I’ve ever been part of unless it’s a special occasion such as a going away party, Christmas perhaps, maybe if there’s an incredible VIP who comes into the building, we simply brown bag or go to lunch,” said James Miller, a Penticton city councillor who sits on the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS).
“I think that the RDOS director shouldn’t be an exception.”
Miller recently put forward the motion to do away with catered lunches at the biweekly regional board meetings, which he calculated to total around $30,000 a year.
“It doesn’t sit well with me because $30,000 is coincidentally about the amount that it costs to sponsor one bed at Discovery House men’s recovery center, and so I would rather brown bag it,” Miller said.
“I’m not suggesting this is what’s going to be done with a $30,000 savings, but I just think that feeding the masses is not a priority right now.”
Electoral Area I director Subrina Monteith agreed and supported the motion, which passed in a 19-1 vote.
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“We have so many competing projects going on, so many things that we could spend that money on,” Monteith said. “It comes out of general governance. So every municipality, every area, every taxpayer is paying that.”
In the South Okanagan, many residents were unaware of the catering costs and said it should have stopped long ago.
“Absolutely they should. I mean that is just a no-brainer,” said Naramata resident Don White.
Penticton resident Judy McPherson added that “$30,000 is a lot of money. It could go to a better cause.”
Catered food at meetings involving elected officials varies up and down the valley.
The Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) told Global News it does not cater food at its meetings, while the Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO) spent around $4,000 for catering and refreshments for regional board meetings.
The Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) budgets $3,750 for yearly catering costs.
The City of Penticton budgets around $9,000 per year.
In West Kelowna, catering costs amounted to around $14,000 for 2023.
The City of Vernon budgets around $1,200 for council/committee food and beverage costs and the City of Kelowna spent almost $13,000 of taxpayer dollars on meal expenses for 2023.
Miller said he is so against the catered lunches, he plans to bring a motion forward to Penticton council to try and stop them there as well.
“I’m going to make a motion that we do away with that and again, just maintain a water and coffee service and it’ll be a notice of motion and I’m not sure how it’s going to go but it’ll be voted on two weeks from now,” Miller said.
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