This is what community looks like.

During this summer's severe drought and Stage 3 water restrictions, some Greater Vernon farmers were facing an incredibly difficult growing season.

Water was scarce. Crops still needed water. And tensions were rising.

But something else was happening.

Farmers in Area C who didn't need all of their agricultural water allocation were telling me that they were willing to give their unused allocation to another farm that desperately needed it.

There was just one problem:

RDNO didn't have a process to allow them to do it.

So we got to work.

I worked with RDNO staff and our agricultural community to develop the water transfer form you see here—a voluntary process allowing farmers to gift unused agricultural water allocations to other agricultural properties.

The result?

96 transfers occurred.

That meant real water reaching real farms when they needed it—including Rachel's seedling farm pictured here.

This is one of my favourite examples of local government working the way it should.

A community identifies a problem.

Neighbours offer a solution.

And instead of saying, “The policy doesn't allow it,” we figure out how to make the system work better.

I'd rather show you what we've accomplished than spend a campaign talking about what we would do.

This is something we already did—together.

Thank you to the farmers who stepped forward to help their neighbours, and to the RDNO staff who helped us turn an idea into action.

That's Area C.