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The quick read: At its October 5 meeting, Kelowna city council adopted the 2027–2036 capital plan, forecasting about $2.9 billion in infrastructure investment over ten years, according to the Kelowna Grapevine's summary of the meeting. The project list includes the airport terminal expansion, the MNP Place expansion, the Clement Crosstown Connector, and Apple Bowl upgrades. Twelve days before a municipal election, the outgoing council has set the spending framework the incoming council will have to fund — and voters should be asking which candidates are prepared to keep a hard hand on the tax lever.

Twelve days before Kelowna votes, the outgoing council decided how the city will spend the next decade.

At its October 5 meeting, council adopted the 2027–2036 capital plan, a framework forecasting about $2.9 billion in infrastructure investment, according to the Kelowna Grapevine's summary of the meeting.

The headline projects: the airport terminal expansion, the MNP Place expansion, the Clement Crosstown Connector, and Apple Bowl upgrades.

Some of these projects matter — the airport is a genuine economic engine, and the connector would untangle real traffic pain.

But the timing is the story.

A council on its way out the door just locked its successors into a ten-year spending framework, days before voters get to say who should be in charge of the money.

The plan guides future annual budgets, which means it shapes tax decisions long after these councillors leave the table.

Fiscal discipline isn't about never spending — it's about spending with the consent of the people paying for it, and being able to show your work.

Kelowna voters have advance voting on October 14, 15, and 16, plus election day Saturday, October 17, to ask every candidate one question: what would you cut from this plan, and what would you never cut?

A $2.9 billion framework deserves more than a quiet meeting in October.