Ground breaking for Foundry North Okanagan set for spring

Mar 9, 2026 | 5:07 PM

Construction of Vernon’s new youth mental health support hub will begin this year.

Julia Payson, Executive Director of the Vernon branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA Vernon), said construction of the new Foundry North Okanagan centre in downtown Vernon would begin soon.

“We are breaking ground this spring,” Payson announced at the Vernon City Council meeting Monday, March 9.

“All of [our] concept drawings are based on feedback from youth and feedback from other stakeholders in the community including some of our partners, youth justice, Okanagan Indian Band, and we’ve had discussions along the way [to finalize the designs].”

CMHA Vernon acquired the property on 29th Avenue in the summer of 2023, and has been working on securing funding for the facility since then.

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“It is an $8.5-million project when we consider land costs, contingencies and all fees included, and we are about halfway there, we’re over 4.5-million.,” Payson explained before asking the City of Vernon for some additional financial assistance.

CMHA Vernon’s representative asked council to provide a $100,000 gift to the Open The Door fundraising campaign in support of Foundry, to waive the roughly $60,000 in fees for building permits, and to approve a $25,000 property tax exemption for the facility annually.

People wishing to support the project themselves can donate to the Open The Door campaign can do so online here.

“For every million dollars in mortgage we take out, it costs us about a half-[full time equivalent] in counselling to service that mortgage,” Payson said in explaining the purpose of the fundraiser.

“So while we’ll have an operating budget from the province to run this centre, we don’t want to spend that money on a mortgage. We want to spend that money on our consellors, our peer support workers, and our medical staff.”

The CMHA Vernon representative also announced Monday that the Township of Spallumcheen had committed to providing $25,000 towards the campaign.

Foundry North Okanagan will be operated by CMHA Vernon but a number of other service providers will also operate out of the building to offer a range of services such as employment services, health programs, youth counselling, peer supports, and primary care services.

“The services are integrated because, as we all know, often when you’re trying to get help for one thing you actually need help for maybe three or four things,” Payson explained.

She added these services were highlighted during engagement with the public, and so they were compiled and being offered out of the Youth Integrated Services Hub site on 30th Ave. Those services will be moved into Foundry once the facility is ready to open.

Vernon City Council accepted the presentation for information.

Speaking with Vernon Matters, Mayor Victor Cumming said Foundry and having a number of service providers working together through one central hub would be beneficial to Vernon, Greater Vernon, and the entire North Okanagan.

“I think everybody in the community understands why, in this day and age, there’s a lot more pressure on youth then there was for the rest of us who might have gone through our youth at [a different time],” Cumming said.

“It’s a more complex society and youth mental health is a very significant issue, and everybody knows that prevention is much better than the sheer cost of cure. So these types of programs, getting to mental health issues early, sustained and coordinated, this is really [how] youth mental health needs to be dealt with.”

In terms of supporting the project with the monetary contribution and waiving fees, Cumming did state that health care is a provincial matter, not a municipal responsibility.

“We do appreciate that those are asked and at this time I would indicate are reasonable,” the mayor said.

“The city has got to be constantly aware and cautious when people are bringing forward requests to us that really are, in essence, a download from provincial responsibility, and health care is a provincial responsibility.”

The requests for the city to provide financial aid to support Foundry North Okanagan will be brought forward for further discussion at a future council meeting

by Liam Verster

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