Posted: Tuesday, December 30, 2014 9:49 pm Ron Seymour Kelowna Daily Courier
The end of railroading in the Central Okanagan could launch a golden age of long-distance hiking, biking, and lucrative recreational tourism. Where trains once trundled through a post-card scene of lakes, farms and mountain ridges, people could soon be walking and cycling and gaining an appreciation of the Valley from a new perspective. Or costly efforts to transform the abandoned Vernon-Kelowna railway into a new public asset could all go seriously sideways, possibly thrown off track by taxpayer objections and a First Nations land claim. For its intriguing potential, as well as for its historic opportunity and potential controversy, a plan by local governments to buy the railway corridor from CN for $22 million has been named as the top Okanagan news story of 2014 by The Daily Courier. It’s a story that, in some ways, began in the early 1920s when train service finally arrived in the Valley, decades later than most places in Canada. Passenger service ended in the 1960s, and the last freight train rolled in 2013. This story will continue into 2015 and beyond, gathering momentum in just a few weeks as Lake Country residents pass judgment on their town council’s plan to contribute $2.5 million toward the total purchase price. Of the railway’s 48-kilometre length, 16 km are in Lake Country, much of it passing along Kalamalka and Wood Lakes. To finance their town’s contribution to the railway purchase, the average Lake Country homeowner would see their property taxes rise $27 for each of the next 20 years. “I think it’s not too hard a sell for a purchase that will last us forever,” Lake Country Mayor James Baker said. “There’s tremendous public value in getting that corridor, with all the access to lakeshore that comes with it.” The purchase will go ahead unless 900 Lake Country residents sign petitions objecting to the plan in a 30-day period expected to run from mid-January to mid-February. Resident Guy Bissonette vows to be one of the first to sign. “Twenty-seven dollars doesn’t sound like much, but that being said I still can’t understand why borrowing funds for a hiking trail is such a high priority when we’ve got roads that need fixing and a water system that needs upgrading,” Bissonette said. If 900 people sign petitions, Lake Country council will have to decide whether to hold a referendum on the purchasing plan or just walk away from project altogether, presumably imperilling the whole endeavour. Many other Okanagan residents who support the railway’s conversion into a public recreation corridor will be watching what happens in Lake Country with great interest. If Lake Country says no, it’s possible CN will begin selling the corridor in bits and pieces, with the most likely private buyers being people who already own land along the corridor. “We can transform this wonderful linear property into a lasting legacy that will provide benefits for generations, or we can allow this transportation corridor and last natural lakefront to be sold off for private use,” said the Okanagan Rail Trail Initiative, a volunteer group which is ready to raise money for actual construction of the path if the purchase goes through. The City of Kelowna, which has 18 kilometres of the railway within its municipal limits, is contributing $10 million, most of it coming through a reserve fund built up by the previous sale of city lands. The plan has no direct impact on taxpayers. The North Okanagan Regional District is pledging $1.9 million, again with no impact on taxpayers. However, this still leaves a shortfall of more than $7 million, but local officials are confident the provincial government will provide the balance. The terms of the tentative agreement struck between local officials and CN require all the funding arrangements to be secured and the deal completed by early April. If it goes through, it’s expected the trail would open for public use sometime in 2016.
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