“The City of West Kelowna was the only municipality in the Okanagan Valley that did not have a FortisBC operating agreement,” said Mayor Gord Milsom. “Until now, this had put our municipality on an uneven playing field, since other local governments could use the revenue generated from the operating agreement to meet a variety of community needs, where we could not.”
The agreement will enable the City of West Kelowna to receive fees from FortisBC for their operations within our municipality. The City of West Kelowna is grateful to FortisBC for working positively with us to reach an agreement that enables them to contribute equitably to our community, as other businesses do.
Finding new sources of revenue is a strategic priority of Council and they will use the additional funds, estimated at $570,000 per year, to offset future tax increases by allocating it toward strategic initiatives, such as parks land acquisition, recreation amenities, active transportation infrastructure, seniors’ housing, wildfire mitigation, climate change adaptation and accessibility improvements.
“The operating fee revenue certainly helps, but Council and staff will also continue to seek other revenue sources, including our continued lobbying efforts with the provincial and federal governments, seeking more funding support to address housing affordability, policing costs, homelessness and other significant issues that stretch beyond our city’s control and impact other services.”
The first funds from this agreement, prorated for 2025, will be received early next year and Council will consider specific uses during annual budget deliberations.
The agreement will also create operating efficiencies for FortisBC in West Kelowna, reducing customer wait times, improving construction scheduling and ensuring consistent processes for installing, operating and maintaining gas lines and related infrastructure within public roads, properties and rights of way.
FortisBC says that the operating fee will appear as a 3.09 per cent charge on its natural gas bills for its West Kelowna customers. This is the same in the other Okanagan Valley communities where the operating agreement has been in place for several decades.
