AI policy coming to Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen
Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Following a month-long trial in the summer of 2025, the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen is looking at longer-term incorporation of AI for some tasks.
The draft policy is set to be presented before the board of directors on Jan. 8 during the committee of the whole meeting, with voting on whether to adopt the policy to come during the Jan. 22 meeting.
According to the Jan. 8 agenda, the month-long trial of Microsoft’s Copilot by 20 RDOS staff members saved 15 work-days worth of time, with the largest time-savings in speeding up the time taken writing emails.
The draft policy would specify the use of Copilot as the only allowed generative AI tool used by staff members and would limit that use to drafting emails, reports, and communications that are used internally at the RDOS; summarizing non-confidential public information; and assisting with routine document editing.
The use of AI would also be required to be disclosed, and no personal, confidential or restricted data would be shared with AI tools under the proposed policy.
RDOS department managers and the RDOS information services department would be responsible for monitoring the use of AI by staff, with the department managers required to review any generated content prior to official use or publication.
The agenda item itself was cited as using Copilot during the drafting process, as well as fulfilling the disclosure part of the policy.
If the time-saving aspect were to carry forward, the RDOS estimates that with just 16 staff using Copilot the time they all saved would be the equivalent of saving taxpayers $91,000 over a whole year, including the subscription costs.
The presentation of the draft policy is scheduled to take place at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 8 at the RDOS’ Martin Street location.