Johnny: We're on track, let's finish the job.

SO What interview · Johnny Cheong, incumbent Osoyoos councillor seeking re-election

Osoyoos councillor Johnny Cheong is seeking another term on council. In a wide-ranging interview with SO What, he covered how the town got brown tap water, what still has to happen before a treatment plant, how to pay if grants fall short, short-term rentals, friction at Town Hall, and why he wants another council term when much of the field wants a shake-up.

His through-line was continuity. Water and related files, he argued, run on multi-year timelines — and the job now is to finish what this council started.

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How did Osoyoos get a water problem?

Johnny was asked for the history — not only today’s sediment, but how the town got here.

Manganese in the system is not new, he said. The earliest mention he has found is in a water annual report around 2010, with records back to about 2009. “It’s not new.” Digitized files do not go back forever; reconstructing every chapter, he admitted, is hard.

The change that hit households, in his account, came in 2018, when Interior Health required chlorination. Chlorine is a strong oxidizer of manganese. What forms is manganese dioxide — the brown sediment residents know — and those particles clump together. Once chlorine was in the system, he said, the material kept accumulating.

He also described the aquifers. Source studies and aquifer work on the east and west sides, he said, show recharge tied heavily to irrigation. When irrigation turns on, aquifer levels rise. In that sense, he argued, it is not “natural groundwater” in the textbook way: water applied to agricultural land filters down, sits in the aquifer, and is pumped for use. The data the town had before, he said, was outdated and not detailed enough for the decisions ahead.

Why so many studies — and what’s next?

Johnny was asked whether the town is still waiting on more studies, or whether it is finally past that stage.

He pushed back on the slogan that towns only need shovels, not studies. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and provincial staff that distribute grants, he said, set what evidence is required so claims can be backed and decisions defended. When he entered office, information was thin. Council started with a water-system infrastructure plan, presented in April 2023, which fed a Water Master Plan in July 2023. Together those showed asset condition, remaining service life, and replacement value. “We can’t move forward unless we know what position we’re at currently.”

Numbers he put on the record: about 72 kilometres of underground conveyance; roughly 22 kilometres still asbestos-cement pipe from the 1960s, with a typical service life of 50 to 75 years. Osoyoos’s mild climate may stretch that a little, he said, but the pipe still has to be replaced. On streets with repeat breaks year after year, proactive replacement beats reactive repair. In 2023 figures, he said, replacing one metre of residential domestic water line cost about $2,800 — not just pipe, but labour, geotechnical work, and engineering. Labour is the expensive part; inflation, he added, has likely pushed that number up.

From there the town needed better well data. It worked with a research partnership linked to UBC on well-water pilot testing. That takes a full year because of seasonal fluctuation — “there’s no way to speed it up.” Analysis and a council presentation followed. Using that work plus lake-quality data through the Okanagan Basin Water Board, the town completed a source-water feasibility study.

Well water, Johnny said, is not only manganese and iron. Testing also found organic compounds, PFAS, and ammonia. Ammonia consumes chlorine, so maintaining a residual across the whole system means another treatment step — more complexity, more cost.

That drove a full-year lake and surface-water assessment with another research partner — again, a year to capture the seasons. With two stronger data sets in hand, high-level capital estimates put surface water and well water in a similar range; surface looked a little cheaper to build at first glance. But he stressed operating cost over decades: more complex plants need more staff and supplies. Temporary package plants used in oilfield settings, he said after speaking with senior Municipal Affairs officials, can have low start-up costs and high replacement costs. Averaged over ten years, he argued, they often cost more because they are not designed as permanent municipal plants.

Lake, wells, or both — and when do shovels go in?

Asked where the town stands now on source choice and timeline, Johnny described a hybrid path: keep using well water where it makes sense, add lake water, treat the blend, and build enough capacity without chasing new wells every decade.

Osoyoos Lake, he argued, is sustainable for generations in any scenario short of regional catastrophe upstream. Staying on wells alone, earlier projections suggested two more wells within about ten years — each perhaps $1.5 million to $2 million before piping, which is the expensive part. A hybrid system, he said, pulls more lake water instead.

Sizing follows demand. The plant has to meet maximum daily demand — the peak day. The town has nearly finished installing water meters. With metering and conservation messaging, average daily demand has dropped sharply, he said, which can shrink the plant footprint and leave room to expand later.

One metering finding: about 12 properties accounted for roughly 4% of total use. Staff went to those sites. Usage that high on non-farm properties, he said, usually means a break or leak. Sandy local soils can hide main breaks — water disappears without sinkholes — so owners may not know.

On timing, Johnny said the town is “still on track for a 2029 operation.” That date, he said, was the target from the beginning, built around how long the required studies would take — including a year each on well and lake work.

What if the province doesn’t fund enough?

Johnny was asked whether there is a Plan B if grant money falls short.

Grant programs have criteria, he said: shovel-ready design, completed studies and reports, a serious water conservation plan, and usually matching funds. Full funding is rare; 25% to 50% is more realistic; 75% would be a win. Matching money has to be lined up.

Municipalities also have a debt ceiling. Council can ask the province to raise it — every such request needs approval. Osoyoos is likely to apply for a higher ceiling “just in case,” he said, not because it plans to smash through the limit.

He listed four main revenue tools: property taxation; grants; developer cost charges (DCCs); and borrowing. DCCs, he said, went years without proper updates, and a broader bylaw review found charges that were never collected — money that cannot be clawed back. Borrowing runs through the Municipal Finance Authority of B.C., with strong rates, but debt is still debt.

Why run again — and what changes in another council term?

Asked what he would do differently after a first term that was a steep learning curve, Johnny resisted the idea that everything must be reinvented.

“You don’t need to do things differently,” he said. The town has a plan and has invested in data. These are not four-year timelines — they are six-, seven-, eight-year files. The foundation is built; the job is to finish. Experience and thicker skin help push him forward without blinders. He said he encourages debate and disagreement: it is another perspective.

The one change he did name was a more active public information presence — including on Facebook. 2023 was brutal, he said: a noose hung on a tree outside Town Hall, harassment of family, staff getting abuse daily. Accountability to voters is one thing; being a punching bag is another. He said he has tools now to communicate without the same risk to his family.

Pressed on why seek office again, he answered simply: someone has to finish what was started, and he can take the hits.

Short-term rentals — why opt into the provincial rules?

On Airbnbs and other short-term rentals, Johnny was asked both for his position and why Osoyoos opted into the tighter provincial framework.

First clarification: under the old local bylaw, he said, stays under two weeks were never allowed. The problem was enforcement. A rule you cannot enforce is a suggestion. Previous councils and administrations, he said, kicked the can; regulation often lags industry disruptors.

Public input was close — he recalled roughly 54% to 55% support for regulating short-term rentals. Provincial program details were still rolling out when council decided.

Enforcement math is ugly, in his account. Many problem operators live in the Lower Mainland. Serving a ticket can mean a process server at $300 to $400 a day. Owners who know the system fight in court; legal fees pile up. A $500 fine can cost the town thousands. That hits the municipal budget even as neighbours’ quality of life suffers.

Opting in, he said, gave access to provincial enforcement tools and digital infrastructure — a registry and levers the town could not build alone. He supports that opt-in for a clear reason: if you are a permanent resident and your property qualifies, he wants you able to earn tourism income that stays here — spent at local shops and restaurants. But for illegal suites they now have better tools to enforce the law.

Licensing, in his account, is not a cash grab. Fire inspection and related checks exist so a family does not die in a suite that was never made safe. “These regulations are written in blood.” Fees often barely cover staff time. A business-licensing framework modelled on other resort municipalities is already in place; operators can apply, meet the checklist, and run legally.

Is there a “culture of no” at Town Hall?

Johnny was asked whether Town Hall defaults to no — whether permits have to take as long as they do, and whether every rule is necessary.

He said he took that criticism seriously after hearing it from business owners a while back. He raised it with the interim chief administrative officer and with council. The direction he would like to see is: do not stop at no — say no, then the options that could work.

Doing that takes knowledge, experience, and tools. A newly hired town planner with a strong resume is already working remotely and due on the ground soon — and is charged in part with building a culture of excellence and learning so staff can grow decision trees bigger than a blank refusal. “If you don’t have anything else to say, it’s going to be no,” he said — and that is the culture they are trying to change.

Can he work with a council that wants to shake things up?

Finally: many candidates are running against the status quo; Johnny is one of the few incumbents on the ballot. What will it be like to work with them?

“At this point, I am fairly confident I can work with anyone.” He said he has learned to read people and context — for example, a colleague who grew up in poverty may be fiercely careful with public money, and that becomes workable once it is understood. He has offered coffee to candidates who want a realistic briefing on what council can and cannot do (privacy and confidentiality still apply). Some platform plans he has read, he noted, are provincial or federal files, or fail a cost-benefit test locally.

He says he wants disagreement. It is a learning opportunity. His posture for the next term: assume the best, stay professional — and finish the long files already underway.

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SO What interviewed Johnny Cheong. Condensed and edited for clarity; questions summarized from a recorded conversation.