Noreen Guenther

Print This Page

Noreen Guenther, Councillor, Lake Country

Noreen Guenther is serving her second term as Councillor for Lake Country. She is also the Vice President of the Southern Interior Local Government Association, which represents communities from Revelstoke to the US border; Vice Chair of the Okanagan Regional Library; and recently completed a term as Director at Large for the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM), which represents all Mayors, Councillors and Regional District Directors in the province of British Columbia. In her leisure time, Noreen enjoys skiing, boating, and spending time with her husband and two children – Jeremy and Julia.

What are some of your responsibilities as Councillor for the District of Lake Country?
My responsibilities include making decisions related to land-use planning, financial planning for the District, and lobbying senior levels of government for projects and new policy developments that benefit our community and the region.

What are the top challenges facing your constituents?
The biggest challenges facing my constituents are the availability of water in the Okanagan for both agricultural and residential use and finding a balance for a stable Okanagan economy, source protection of the upper reservoir lakes and establishing our new town centre as our new commercial centre.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
I enjoy interacting with my constituents and making substantive positive changes for my community, including the relocation of Highway 97 between Winfield and Oyama away from Wood Lake to make travel safer through the corridor and open up the entire west side of the lake for recreational use; and the planning, tendering, construction and operation of a 1.1 megawatt hydrogeneration station off of our municipal water system which will power approximately 400 homes annually. This hydrogeneration plant is the first of its type to sell power back to BC Hydro, and recently won an award in the Corporate Operations category at the 2009 Energy & Climate Action Awards, which are organized by the Community Energy Association in partnership with the province, BC Hydro and UBCM.

What are your top two or three energy interests?
I am interested in green power generation, leading government policy changes to enable energy reduction and helping to find ways for my community and other communities across the province to meet their Climate Action Charter commitments.

What motivates you to engage with BC Hydro?
I am motivated by the commitment of my community and other communities across the province to be carbon neutral by 2012. I also want to contribute to BC Hydro's efforts to meet its demand-side management targets as this will benefit the province environmentally, financially and socially.

What strengths do you bring to the engagement table?
I bring my knowledge of local government law and my ability to network and to create buy-in from other levels of government to help BC Hydro meet its goals.

What are your top two recommendations to help BC Hydro become more stakeholder-focused and better able to meet your interests?
It would be useful to know if BC Hydro would prefer that stakeholders focus on providing information that would be applied "across the board" to all parts of the province, or if the focus should be on the ideas and areas that can produce the largest amount of energy savings for the least amount of money spent.

This information would allow stakeholders to use their expertise to recommend where BC Hydro should focus their financial and staffing resources to ensure that the greatest change in energy reduction can occur.

I have been pleased by the strength and quality of staff that support the stakeholders on the Electricity Conservation & Efficiency (EC&E) Advisory Committee and the respect that all members have of the different perspectives that each member brings to the table.