Shuswap River Float Festival (photo credit: Enderby and District Chamber of Commerce)

By Kevin Rothwell

Additional patrols and policing

Update: New patrol vessel approved for Shuswap River

Apr 22, 2021 | 11:30 AM

Update:

The Regional district of North Okanagan has approved the purchase of a new personal watercraft to increase safety and enforce laws on the river. The Electoral Area Advisory Committee has recommended the purchase for use by the Conservation Officer Service (COS), with the $17,000 cost coming from COVID-19 relief funding.

The main area of focus will be the Enderby river float, where people using inflatable innertubes, boats, air mattresses and all manner of watercraft, float the river from Kingfisher or Ashton Creek down river to Enderby.  The COS will be educating floaters on safety precautions like life preservers, and also enforcing liquor, drug and littering laws.

The Shuswap River Enhanced Boat Patrol Program should be ready by the start of the busy float season starting at the May long week-end and running through September, weather dependent.

Recent unseasonably warm weather has enticed some hardy souls to be the first floaters.

Council grants

Vernon to distribute over $50k in Council Discretionary Grants, $20K to the food bank

10h ago

Possible firearm involved

One person apprehended in connection with suspicious activity in Coldstream

Dec 13, 2025

Fatal Collision, Highway Closed

One person dead in crash near Revelstoke

Dec 13, 2025

“We have already had some tubers with the nice weather, I should imagine it was pretty refreshing,” Area E Director Hank Cameron told the RDNO board.

Original:

Boaters and tubers using the popular Shuswap River float in the Enderby area can expect a lot more oversight this summer.

The float has been increasingly popular in recent years, and along with it, growing concerns about unsafe practices, trespassing on private property, littering, salmon habitat destruction and drug and alcohol use.

“Certain weekends on the lower Shuswap River, it’s a very disorderly kind of situation, with a lot of floaters and boaters,” Area E Director Hank Cameron told the Electoral Area Advisory Committee. “I think there are some real safety issues and potential drowning issues.”

The Regional District of North Okanagan committee is recommending spending $17,000 to purchase a personal watercraft for the Shuswap River Conservation Officer Service Enhanced Boat Patrol Program.

The service had been provided a loaner from a local dealership in past years to conduct patrols, but the availability of machines has diminished as a result of heavy purchasing of recreational products during COVID-19.

“The tubers just used to go to Riverside in Ashton Creek, about 10-15 minutes out of Enderby, while now they are going all the way to Kingfisher and it’s pretty dangerous. There is some false advertising about where you can tube, and they have said you can tube from Kingfisher down, which is a bit of suicide trip, there is a canyon that you go through — if you make it,” Area F Director Denis Delisle said.

Delisle indicated that Remax Enderby and the old Enderby Tourism website have told people to get in at Kingfisher.

There is a Shuswap River Ambassador program that tries to provide direction to tubers, but has no enforcement powers.

Shuswap River do’s and don’ts (photo credit: Shuwap River Ambassdors)

Both Delisle and Cameron have also asked new Vernon/North Okanagan RCMP Rural Detachment Commander S/Sgt. Steve Mancini to take a more active role in policing the Shuswap River float.

“We have no control over the tubers, they plug up the highway, they plug up the river, and if we have a nice summer, they will go in areas that are dangerous. We are trying to be proactive with signs and so on, but someone is going die, and we are trying to stop it,” Delisle stated.

The Enderby and District Chamber of Commerce does have an extensive list of recommendations on its website for people interested in floating or boating.