RDOS board members decided to stay with the status quo on the issue of Medical Marijuana Production plants that could be built in the regional district.

The plants are approved and regulated by the Federal Ministry of Health and the Agriculture Land Commission of BC says they are a permitted use on farmland.

Some rural directors want more local control and regulations but today they failed to be persuasive with the 18 member RDOS board.

Two applications are for sites in Area D Okanagan Falls and a third in Area F Faulder.

Directors gave first reading to a bylaw to allow for a service to be established for the distribution of water to Loose Bay.

Director Brad Hope of rural Princeton says he has learned that most if not all of the benefits of damming the Similkameen River will accrue to Americans investors and Fortis shareholders.

Hope says if the river is to be dammed, then the benefits should be for the people of the area and Canada and asks that regulatory bodies on this side of the border take that into consideration if granting approvals.

Hope says his information is from documents filed with the Washington State Department of Ecology – Office of Columbia River.

The Similkameen is one of the last wild, uncontrolled rivers in BC. Some people want it controlled so that flooding is not a possibility on Osoyoos Lake.