Okanagan Rail Trail (photo credit: Friends of the Rail Trail)

By Pete McIntyre

Land transfer

UPDATE Completion of rail trail in Ottawa’s hands, band chief says

Feb 10, 2021 | 5:15 AM

UPDATE Feb. 10

The following statement was issued by Leslie Michelson, Media Relations, with Indigenous Services Canada in response to queries from Vernon Matters about the status of seven kilometres of the Okanagan Rail Trail in the Duck Lake area north of the Kelowna Airport that is off-limits to the public and subject to a land ownership transfer involving the Okanagan Indian Band, CN Rail and the federal government.

“Indigenous Services Canada is working with Okanagan Indian Band and the Canadian National Railway Company to have a former railway line returned to Duck Lake Indian Reserve No. 7 through the federal government’s Additions to Reserve (ATR) process. The proposed lands are currently held by the Canadian National Railway Company and will be transferred to Canada once all steps of the ATR process have been satisfied.

Each individual ATR proposal is unique and has its own considerations and complexities; therefore, it is difficult to definitively state how much time an ATR will take. For this specific ATR proposal, replacement agreements with utility companies need to be resolved before the submission can be sent for ministerial approval. Questions about proposed future uses for these lands should be directed to Okanagan Indian Band,” Michelson said.

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The chief of the Okanagan Indian Band says they are still waiting for resolution on a section of the Okanagan Rail Trail that been off-limits to the public since the trail opened more than two years ago.

Seven kilometres in the Duck Lake area north of the Kelowna Airport is subject to a land ownership transfer involving the band, CN Rail and the federal government.

That means trail users have to end their trip at the airport if travelling north, or at McCarthy Road in Winfield if going south. There is presently no anticipated opening date for that section of trail.

Byron Louis, chief of the Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB), has heard the plan is still moving forward, but the ball is in the Department of Indigenous Services’ court to complete the transfer from CN Rail, to the band.

“I think it’s still progressing, but for us, we’re still waiting for the department to transfer that section that goes through our community at Duck Lake back over to the band, and that seems to be taking forever,” Louis told Vernon Matters.

Louis said that federal ministry has a history of taking it’s time, noting a land claim the band negotiated in 2000 with the feds, who he says agreed to transfer 2,100 acres to the band, and it still hasn’t been turned over to them.

“And because we can’t do anything, it’s probably cost us basically tens of thousands of dollars for 20 years. Where is the benefit of that?

Louis said the delays are unnecessary.

“Of all the federal ministries, they are the most bureaucratic when it comes to land. Progress for them is measured in decades, not years, like any any other ministry.

The Department of Indigenous Services told Vernon Matters it will provide an update/comment on the issue later this week.