Penticton seeks support in bid to keep railbed away from band

Penticton Herald

Kelowna council will be asked Monday to join the call to keep an old rail line under public ownership. The Penticton Indian band hopes the federal government will hand over title to a portion of the Kettle Valley Railway bed that runs through band land. Penticton city council earlier this month voted 4-2 to oppose the transfer of ownership, and Mayor Dan Ashton is now looking for support from his Kelowna colleagues. Preservation of the railbed in federal hands, Ashton writes, would ensure the continuation of “transportation corridors” in the Okanagan. The railbed is a popular hiking and cycling path. Penticton council is also concerned about what band ownership of the railbed might mean for water- and sewer lines that cross the corridor.
The two Penticton councillors who voted against requesting the continuation of federal ownership of the railbed said they were worried doing so might damage the city‘s relationship with the Indian band. The federal government took the land for the railbed out of the Indian reserve in the early 1900s.