First I wrote about Edmonton and Calgary, the international C40 mayor’s organization that is heavily pushing the idea of 15 minute cities, also called Smart Cities. Well, things are happening around the Central Okanagan of British Columbia as well, just not pushed as openly as they’ve done in the province next door. But if you read the news they publicly publish carefully, you find some disturbing revelations.
We’ll start with the idea of easy accessibility for grocery shopping.
In December 2023, it was published on our local mainstream media source: Castanet.net, that Kelowna Council was discussing what to do about an area we call The North End, which sits above downtown Kelowna.
“Ideas being brought forward centre around four separate themes, housing, parks and public space, shops services and employment and transportation.
Housing – Focus more growth to western and southern edges of neighbourhood. Support new housing around a new school site and expanded Walrod Park.
Parks and Public Space – Maximize connectivity to four prominent parks. Identify a school site near expanded Walrod Park, increase housing density around Jack Brow Park, explore funding for waterfront park land acquisition and explore connection between Manhattan Point waterfront park and Jack Brow Park.
Shops, Services and Employment – Emphasize more office and craft industry employment. Explore including a commercial node in the northeast residential area.
Transportation – Full urbanization of streets in the northeast residential area and Manhattan Point.
If council endorses the direction being recommended by staff work would begin on the preferred option and a draft plan.”
Hardly a year later, we had this news in May 2024:
“Kelowna’s North End neighbourhood has its first full-fledged grocery store.
Ellis St. Market opened its doors to the public on Wednesday at 11 a.m., and general manager Chris Hansen said the store will serve more than just North End residents.”
This comes two years after another suburb of Kelowna approved a retail hub at the south end of Gordon Drive an area called The Ponds. In June 2024, this resulted in Save-on-Foods opening their 7th location in the Kelowna area.
Two grocery stores in suburban areas opening within a month of each other raises an eyebrow or two in light of what we know is going on elsewhere around the world, let alone in the neighbouring province of Alberta.
Now we have another suburb where they are considering this development. I’m going to make extensive quotes for this one, because they show the thought patterns going on at City Hall. Highlighted quotes will show the concerns for C40 initiatives around the 15 min City concept.
“The application before council is to amend the Official Community Plan for an expanded hillside development for approximately 2,000 new homes as well as a mixed-use urban village in the McKinley Beach neighbourhood.”
“The developers of the proposed project, North American Development Group and G Group counter that the OCP did not anticipate “additional housing needs beyond its population estimates,” and that there is a land-use “misalignment” in the area including McKinley and employment centres in the Gateway area.
They believe the city is well positioned to accommodate faster than anticipated growth , especially with the implementation of provincial legislation to encourage housing development.
They also say new growth areas may be required beyond the 2040 Official Community Plan.”
“It’s too early, too soon, moving ahead would be premature.
Those were some of the reasons Kelowna city councillors gave for saying no to early consideration of a study that could lead to the construction of hundreds of homes within a 671 acre parcel of land at McKinley Beach.
Staff had sought council’s opinion on a proposal to amend the Official Community Plan before the developer spent millions of dollars and time on environmental and transportation studies and design work and the city spent its resources working with the developer.
Planning director Ryan Smith told council what was before them was a request for staff to work with the developer, and not an admission of support for the project if a proposal did eventually come forward.
Council denied a development proposal to push the city’s permanent growth boundary—the area outside of which where development is not supported—three years ago.
Smith said the new proposal, described by representatives of the developer as “an opportunity,” was a chance for the city to work with the applicant because “there could be something there.”
He called it an opportunity to negotiate for parkland, affordable housing, connections to the highway and a second egress from the McKinley area.
It would also have been an opportunity to get studies done in advance of the city’s North Glenmore neighbourhood study expected to take place in the next four to six years.
Smith also pointed to the fact there will be large developments happening north of the city’s boundaries in Lake Country that will have an impact on the area.”
“The door has not been closed on future development of the several hundred acres of property within McKinley Beach despite Monday’s decision by council shooting down city participation in numerous studies ahead of a potential rezoning application.
During a one-on-one interview earlier this week, Mayor Tom Dyas says Monday’s decision only delayed what is likely inevitable — future discussions to develop the lands.
“It’s one of the areas of our community that, if we do venture beyond the permanent growth boundary, there would be a consideration for it because it does align with the infrastructure requirements that are easy to access in the area,” Dyas told Castanet News, referring in part to its proximity with the large employment hubs at the airport and UBCO.”
“There was potential value in having someone else look at completing a study for us and pay for the cost and potentially show us the plans that could have been prepared for the future, but the time just wasn’t right,” he said while noting the city will be doing its own North Glenmore plan within the next five to seven years.
“I believe there will be future discussions because when we are looking at a housing deficit in our community, there needs to be a variety of housing available.
“And I believe the best way for it to be developed into the future is for it to be planned and discussed.”
Dyas pointed to the new Save on Foods that recently opened at The Ponds in the Upper Mission, saying people are now using those services and don’t need to make the trek to the Lower Mission.
Planned properly, he says people working at UBCO or the airport would have an alternative to living downtown or other areas of the city or other communities like Lake Country and Vernon.
“To have that ability to develop in there goes towards one of those issues of controlling environments, but it does go the other way of building outside a boundary.
“I think there are future discussions that will happen. There are very few areas in this community that are available.
“There’s Black Mountain, there’s Thomson Flats that probably will continue to be discussed in the future.
“Whether it’s now or sometime in the future, to have those discussions, have those plans and plan them out in the future is extremely, extremely important.””
The mayor did not mention Ellison behind the Airport, probably because that area is technically not part of Kelowna, but instead, part of the Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO). However, if the 15 min city concept was expanded to a 20 min concept instead, that area is technically serviced by Nesters market on Airport Way, despite that store being fairly expensive to shop at.
With plans in place to make suburbs more like little villages, it’s a little easier to see how Kelowna plans to enact the 15 min concept in spite of how the terrain and geography make areas such as South East Kelowna very difficult to service. However, infrastructure to create tiny villages also comes alongside other plans that go back to 2014, when it comes to things like smart city improvements. These “improvements” have been installed in other communities around the area as well.
One such “improvement”, the use of downtown cameras, ostensibly to make downtowns safer for the communities that are installing added security cameras, whether in intersections or businesses or even parks and public spaces. Remember, it is important for Big Brother to be watching, preferably if it can be done George Orwell style! Check out these news links:
Let’s start with soft-selling the idea of thermal imaging, by loaning you cameras you can use to heat-proof your home:
I hope as few businesses as possible registered their CCTV cameras. Similar calls to register security cameras went out down in the Vancouver area as well.
Up in Vernon in 2022, their downtown association provided more funds to add more security cameras:
“Still, crime remains a problem voiced by many in the business community, and Murtagh says the DVA recommends the use of window roll shutters along with security cams.’
“Across the downtown, Brian Quiring at MQN architects on 32nd Avenue, said he took advantage of the camera grant last year and has seen a noticeable improvement since.
“The situation was pretty bad before,” said Quiring.
“We had people cutting the chain link fence to get in to the parkade,” and there were thefts from vehicles.
“It made a big difference; I’m surprised how well it worked,” Quiring said Monday.
Signage also went up on the building alerting would-be law-breakers they are on camera.
“We haven’t had any vandalism since then,” he said.”
The Vernon effort began in October 2019. Hmmmm. It seems October that year was a busy month “behind the scenes” as many other pundits, journalists, and researchers will tell you.
Here in Kelowna, attitudes toward public security cameras have been wide and disparate, but clearly groomed to accept them, particularly with publicized stories of vandalism, crime, and more to justify their presence. One letter to the editor said this.back in 2005 – More Cameras For Protection
In 2012, another article showed up detailing various areas where cameras were going in, and their justifications for doing so:
“”Obviously the reason we are doing it is for public safety but we are also very sensitive and understanding to the importance of privacy,” says Kayfish.
“There will be very restrictive access as to who can view the video and there will be even more restrictive access as to who can view recorded video. There will only be extraordinary circumstances, such as violent crimes, where we would be providing the video to a third party such as the RCMP.”
An article titled: The City Has Eyes on You, written in 2014, appears to have been deleted. . . The available blurb from the Castanet search page says:
“Commit a crime around a downtown Kelowna park and chances are ‘Big Brother’ is watching you. Several city owned cameras have been installed in…”
Perhaps it was that mention of Big Brother, that had the article yanked. WaybackMachine still has the article viewable here.
In 2017, West Kelowna installed cameras of their own.
Potentially unrelated, but it was 2016 when the concept of 15 minute cities was brainstormed. Just a timeline note to tuck in the back of your mind.
In 2021, a safety article showed up, suggesting the following:
“The Kelowna RCMP says the following tips will make it harder for thieves to make you a victim.
— Ensure that you lock up. Keep doors and windows secured and locked whenever possible.
— Close and secure your garage, storage containers and compounds. When you leave them open, it gives thieves and opportunity to see what you store there.
— Record serial numbers of tools, bikes and valuables. This information allows police to return stolen property when it’s located.
— Install a home alarm system, cameras, and well-placed motion detector lighting if possible.
— Report any suspicious behaviour or activity to your local police as soon as possible
— Don’t allow people to access shared garages, lobbies, or parkades if they don’t live there.”
Remember it was 2020 when RCMP were encouraging people to register their business security cameras with the detachment!
At the same time as Kelowna and area’s been doing all this, the BC Government has been installing cameras of their own during the same length of time. Check out the following article links:
In 2016:
“The Ministry of Transportation has installed 12 new highway cams along three variable speed routes in the province.”
“”Now we have more than 550 highway webcam images available to help drivers ‘know before they go’ and make travel plans according to traffic congestion, weather conditions, and other events or advisories posted for our provincial roadways.””
“Eleven new cameras and 40 new webcam views have been added to DriveBC’s highway camera network.”
In March 2018, a small community south of Kelowna appeared in the news:
“The District of Summerland is trying to get a green light for safety improvements on Highway 97.
On Monday, council members voted to write letters to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure with two separate requests.
One of those is to install red light cameras and photo radar at two main intersections along the highway — at Rosedale Avenue and at Solly Road.
Summerland Mayor Peter Waterman said the proposed improvements would benefit the Solly Road intersection especially, where a high percentage of crashes occur compared to other sections of highway.
“We’ve had a number of small accidents there, and in fact some substantial accidents. It’s not a well constructed intersection in many ways,” Waterman said.
Photo radar hasn’t been used in B.C. since 2001, but earlier this month the province announced red-light cameras would be upgraded with “new technology” to clock in speeding drivers.”
Did you notice that last quoted paragraph? Recent car manufacturer dictates coming out of the EU are demanding speed limiters on all cars sold after 2024 I think it is! Hmmm.
Also in 2018, more highway cameras were added:
“British Columbia residents now have more views of B.C. highways with multiple new web cameras being installed in 2018 including some near Prince George.
One camera was installed north of Prince George on the east side of McLeod Lake, just south of the Whiskers Point Provincial Park entrance. The government says this camera is part of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s road weather information system and looks north/south.
It fills a gap along Highway 97, north of Prince George. “
Check out the list of new cameras in the article.
In 2019, CCTV cameras were added to all BC Transit buses. While they claim this is added for safety, stories since then say otherwise as transit-related crime continues.
Not everyone is taking kindly to all this monitoring going on, as evidenced by this story from 2019. The BC Ministry of Transportation was NOT happy!
In September of 2019, the Ministry decided it was time to run some interference:
“While police routinely seek B.C. highway camera surveillance footage, the provincial government says the cameras aren’t capable of providing information that could violate anyone’s privacy.
Documents obtained by Glacier Media earlier this year under access to information laws show police routinely request footage taken by DriveBC’s B.C. highway web cameras as part of police investigations.
But, under documents Glacier recently obtained under the same laws, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure “controls the camera location, selection, resolution and orientation such that licence plate information, private property and individuals cannot be identified.””
Stationery cameras at intersections, parks, etc, aren’t enough for what our governments want survielled. In March 2024, we had:
“
Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer says he is optimistic the provincial government will implement mandatory dashboard cameras on commercial vehicles following talks with B.C.’s transportation minister.”
“Mayor not convinced speed limiters will suffice
Next month the province is set to roll out new legislation requiring speed limiters to be installed in heavy commercial vehicles effective April 5.Stamer said the speed limiters will keep commercial trucks from being able to go above 105 km/h even on the Coquihalla Highway where the speed limit is 120 km/h.
The Barriere mayor said the province is looking forward to the speed limiters as a way of slowing down the trucks, but he is not entirely convinced.”
A few days later in March 2024, we read:
“B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation is doing its research on the potential implementation of mandatory dash cameras in commercial trucks, while the head of the BC Trucking Association says the devices are already used by most in the industry.”
They clarified that the earlier March article was about information a full year earlier from the Barriere Mayor, but regardless of time frame, the ramped up requests for security cameras are bothersome.
It’s important that all these actors, ministries, and localities appear to act independantly of each other so as to give the impression of organic development separate from what the string pullers are doing on the world stage.
EDIT February 13th, 2025
Further to the camera rhetoric and installation situation going on in the province of BC, we discover the following as we turned a new year:
“An East Kelowna resident is challenging the City of Kelowna’s explanation for newly installed surveillance cameras in his neighbourhood, raising concerns about privacy.
The cameras started appearing on light posts in the area, without notice to residents, this winter.
The city says the cameras are part of a seasonal program aimed at monitoring snow removal efforts.
City spokesperson Tom Wilson says the cameras are designed to help roadways staff road conditions in real time and allocate resources for snow clearing more efficiently.
Taylor is also concerned about the technology used by the cameras. The camera manufacturer touts features like license plate recognition, facial recognition and AI-powered features.
“[The cameras] can identify a lot. This isn’t your average camera,” Taylor said. “They could have done it a cheaper way.””
Now we get this article from the Lower Mainland today, February 13th:
“In October 2024, council directed staff to study the possibility of providing the VPD with real-time access to video captured by the city’s traffic camera network. Police will not potentially gain access until staff reports back to council and a vote takes place.
The council motion is what triggered Benjamin Perrin to write a letter in November to the police board in which he outlined his concerns related to privacy, civil liberties and the oversight of artificial intelligence in policing.
“This initiative represents a significant step toward mass surveillance that should alarm all Canadians, including those in our community,” he wrote in the letter, which he shared with BIV.
Every day, he said, countless Canadians walk, cycle or drive past traffic cameras, often without a second thought. Perrin said the city has assured citizens that these feeds are “not recorded or stored for after-the-fact investigative purposes,” and are used solely for real-time traffic management.
“The proposed change, however, would fundamentally alter this arrangement, effectively transforming Vancouver’s streets into venues of constant surveillance,” he said.”
““A live feed would assist in dealing with weapons calls, crimes in progress, missing persons, major events, natural disasters,” he said at the time. “The recorded footage would help with investigations such as homicides, assaults, robberies and motor vehicle collisions.”
Currently, all feeds from the cameras, which are located at intersections across Vancouver, can be viewed on the city’s website. But they are still images and delayed by approximately 15 minutes.”
“In 2020, the RCMP, Toronto Police Service and other police forces — including one instance involving the VPD — were caught using the controversial Clearview AI facial recognition software, which scraped billions of images from social media without users’ consent.
“While other departments have responded with new policies and transparency initiatives, the VPD has not yet adopted similar measures,” said Perrin, arguing that the integration of AI technologies such as automated licence plate readers and facial recognition, is “an inevitable temptation” if access to city traffic cameras is granted.
“These technologies have proven to be far from foolproof, often misidentifying racialized individuals and introducing significant risks of error and abuse,” he said.
“The implications of this surveillance extend beyond data collection; they can deter public engagement, stifling freedoms of expression and assembly that are fundamental to our democracy.””
Not very reassuringly, the lawyer’s letter received this response:
“…should the position of the VPD change with respect to the use of facial recognition technology it would be appropriate to take into account and seriously consider the concerns that you have raised,” Black said. “We will bring your concerns to the attention of the VPD at the appropriate time.””
Another aspect of the coming surviellance state popped into my email inbox while gathering the above information. This has been more widely written and spoken about in the human space, but today’s email was for pet microchipping, using all the same rhetoric for pushing human digital ID. Check out this set of paragraphs from the BC SPCA email sent out July 12, 2024:
“In addition to reuniting families, microchips can also:
— Help breeders maintain accurate health records and have their animals returned to them if needed (as should be required by responsible breeders),
— Help verify and find the owner of stolen animals, and
— Help local and provincial governments identify the guardians of nuisance or dangerous dogs, trace infectious disease outbreaks and identify irresponsible breeding practices.For these reasons, many other places, including the United Kingdom, most of the European Union, Japan, parts of Australia and the City of Montreal now require cats and dogs to be microchipped.
We’re asking B.C.’s political parties to require that all dog and cat breeders, brokers, sellers and owners identify their animals with a microchip registered in an internationally recognized database.”
Woah! Help local and provincial governments trace disease outbreaks and identify irresponsible breeding practices??? Create an international database???
They don’t just want you and I along with our own health records, financial records, social media records (social ID that MeWe is forcing on their users), etc in an international database that determines if we can travel, they want our pets in there too! And don’t get me started on some initiatives south of the border to have people register their food gardens!
It is absolutely imperative that you learn how to do life away from The System, and that you do it in community wherever possible! Not everyone owns land, and the land that is privately owned now risks government forfeiture or worse, the creation of red tape designed to hand it over to the government, as various farmers around the world are discovering. So owning land to homestead will only work until the government comes for it. Those who currently own land should use it wisely and for the good of those in their community! It should not merely be used for immediate sustainability, but also for the long-term putting aside of stores in packable containers if landowners get the boot. Sustainable community also includes textiles, wood working, mechanical, medicinal, etc.
Most self-sustainability sites I come across, assume you are going to do everything yourself with no one to rely on. This is not workable for most people, either due to lack of land, lack of enough space on land they own or rent, lack of money to buy equipment to do what is suggested, lack of physical health to do what is suggested, such as mobility issues, or regulations around where they live.
Some gardening sites teach how to install vertical gardens of various types on apartment balconies, which is useful for the person stuck in an urban setting. Learning how to hand sew will be useful, and learning how to prepare food without electric appliances will be useful as well. Learning how to create non-electric tools to do various tasks will be handy.
For those who live downtown, try to move to the outskirts or to smaller areas between towns. Wean yourself off the system as much as you are able. The less you need to buy, the less you’ll be under store cameras. The less you need to hit up a store, the less you’ll be on road or intersection cameras. If your income allows for it, pay down your debts and where possible, cut up your cards. You may have to lower your standard of living to do this, but at the bare minimum, what you’d take camping is what you need. Everything else is a want and a convenience.
Rumours are flying that MasterCard has created The Black Card, that will track purchases governments request be tracked, and track your “carbon footprint” as well. Already, the company has gotten into trouble in the US with the tracking and blocking of ammunition purchases by average civilians.
The less you deal with “The System”, the better!
Your own health, and the health of the animals in your care, depend on it!
