Summerland Mayor Warns Residents To Brace For What Is 'Not There,' Canada's Most Advanced Form Of Municipal Communication
The mayor of Summerland, B.C., made an emotional plea this week asking residents to prepare themselves for what is "not there," a phrase that has since been adopted by three regional districts, one school board, and every provincial budget written since 1987.
The absence in question is real and specific. So is the tradition of describing it in the passive voice. Canadian municipal leadership has long specialised in the gentle pre-announcement of a shortfall, delivered warmly enough that nobody asks who was supposed to be watching the thing that is now missing.
"We wanted people to hear it from us first," a staffer explained, "before they noticed it themselves, which they would have, immediately, because it's quite large and it used to be right there."
Residents responded the way British Columbians do. Two hundred people attended an information session, one hundred and eighty asked excellent questions about drainage, and everyone agreed the mayor had handled it with real honour before driving home past the absence without slowing down.
The deeper Canadian talent here is not denial. It's grief management as a public service. Other countries hold inquiries. We hold a community meeting with a folding table, a coffee urn, and a printed agenda that includes the word "resilience" twice.
A neighbouring council has already requested the mayor's speaking notes for future use.
Asked what would happen next, the mayor said the community would come together, support one another, and eventually stop mentioning it.
Which is the actual municipal plan, and always was.