Stalls at the Vernon Farmers' Market, one of the organizations that has expressed concern with the city's fees and charges increases (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

Fees and Charges Concerns

Vernon Chamber calls for city to reassess fees and charges and impacts to users

May 14, 2025 | 3:22 PM

The organization representing local businesses and non-profits has renewed its call for Vernon’s rental fees to be reviewed so as to reduce its impacts on user groups.

The City of Vernon has been increasing its fees and charges for the rental of city properties, such as Kal Tire Place, parking lots and park spaces, citing a need to address gaps between fees, costs, and overall subsidy rates.

The rate increases resulted in concerns being raised by area businesses and non-profits, which the Vernon Chamber said still persisted.

In a letter to Vernon City Council, the Chamber said the rate hikes have had significant fallout for local user groups, particularly non-profits, including:

• The Okanagan Military Tattoo, which folded due to an unsustainable $35,000 fee to rent Kal Tire Place for five days.
• Vernon Farmers’ Market, which lost 30 per cent of its vendors during peak season after fees were increased by 300 per cent
• Creative Chaos, Canada’s largest summer craft fair, which was looking to operate at a financial loss for the first time in 50 years due to a 30 per cent increase in rental fees in 2025

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Additionally, the Chamber said it held a survey and found that 91 per cent of respondents felt Vernon’s facility pricing was not competitive with similar pricing elsewhere, with 50 per cent also saying they felt they were overcharged for what was provided in the rental.

As local businesses and non-profits were still expressing concerns with the fees and charges, the Chamber urged the city take steps to reassess the policy:

• Audit the fee categories applied to all non-profit user groups
• Reassess both past and proposed fee increases to evaluate their impact and ensure continued financial viability of organizations
• Assess and review the framework for service levels to align them with operation demand, stakeholder expectation, and performance benchmarks
• Implement a transparent subsidy framework to enable strategic investments in organizations generating economic and social returns
• Foster a culture that recognizes and support economic and social contributions of non-profits

The letter, dated May 8, was not included as an information item in Vernon City Council’s meeting Monday, May 12.