By Kevin Rothwell

New funding formula approved for OKSIR program

Nov 19, 2020 | 5:05 PM

VERNON, B.C. – A new funding agreement has been reached for the Okanagan Kootenay Sterile Insect Release program (OKSIR) by the four participating regional districts.

The review was initiated by the Regional District of North Okanagan, whose directors felt the region was shouldering too much of the cost compared to the benefit. In 2020, the SIR Board agreed to a one-time $20,000 reduction in the RDNO’s tax requisition while a potential change to the apportionment formula was explored.

Sterile Insect Technology (SIT) was developed in the 1930s and first applied to control screw worm pests in 1953. Described as “birth control for insects,” the technology works by pairing sterile male insects with wild female insects so that the females are unable to produce viable offspring.

Thirty years of work by scientists at the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre in Summerland confirmed the technology was well suited to address the codling moth issue in the fruit growing areas of the Southern Interior.

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The internationally award winning program was started in the 1970s and has reduced the amount of pesticides used against codling moth by 96 per cent. Many orchardists in the valley have not had to spray their trees for codling moth for the last 15 years.

Since 2006, the apportionment between the four participating regional districts has been fixed based on the proportionate value of converted land assessment from 2006. The $1.7-million public portion of the program has been paid as follows: Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) 3.4 per cent, Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO) 17.2 per cent, and Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) 20.8 per cent.

Following a thorough consultation a new hybrid formula based on the regional district’s proportion of the previous year’s converted assessment base (land and improvements) for the program’s service area as a whole, weighted at 75 per cent. The regional district’s proportion of the previous year’s total taxable acreage for the program’s service area as a whole, weighed at 25 per cent.

Based on the proposed recommendations and the current assessed values (2020), the RDNO’s percentage share of the SIR property value tax requisition would decrease from 17.2 per cent to 15.8 per cent by the end of the four-year phase-in.

The actual percentage splits in the future will depend on the relative tax base growth among the four regional districts, the relative change in assessed values (land and improvements) among the four regional districts, and the relative change in pome fruit acreage among the four regional districts.

(photo/OKSIR)

RDNO’s apportionment will be reduced from $294,000 to $275,500 and RDCO will drop from $1,002,500 to $954,500.

“I just want to go on record that the Southern district (RDOS) needs to take on more of the cost of this program,” Vernon Director Akbal Mund said.

The change still requires a provincial order in council.