The City of Kelowna rejected this $250,000 sign in 2020 but is now looking at spending twice that amount for a sign, taking money from a provincial grant designed to help cope with growth.

Image Credit: Submitted/City of Kelowna

It’s been almost a year since the BC government handed $1 billion to municipalities to help with the booming population growth.

The Thompson-Okanagan region got more than $133 million of that windfall from the Growing Communities Fund.

“The fund is being used to address infrastructure and amenities needs, such as affordable housing, road improvements, childcare facilities and other priority community needs, which can include updates to recreation facilities,” an email to iNFOnews.ca from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs says.

West Kelowna is going to spend $600,000 of its $10.2 million grant on a new score clock and gondola expansion needed to hold it at Royal LePage Arena, home of the West Kelowna Warriors junior hockey team.

Kelowna got the largest grant in the region at $26.2 million. Half of it is allocated to offset the $242 million cost to replace Parkinson Recreation Centre, which is clearly an allowed use.

READ MORE: Trust the experts to build a wonderful $242 million rec centre in Kelowna

It also wants to spend $500,000 on a welcome to Kelowna sign and $600,000 towards a Paddle Centre clubhouse at the new Pandosy Waterfront Park. In 2021, the paddle club asked to continue to rent a house in the park for five more years in order to raise the money for a new clubhouse. In 2020, city council rejected a $250,000 Kelowna sign at its north entrance. That price included $100,000 from the province.

READ MORE: Paddle Centre to become permanent part of Kelowna’s newest waterfront park

Kamloops got the second largest grant in the region at $15.7 million and most of its spending fits into the infrastructure/recreation facility categories.

It has earmarked $5.4 million for the ice plant for an outdoor skating rink in Riverside Park and $5 million as half the cost for a pedestrian overpass to Thompson Rivers University, although the plans for the overpass are now in dispute.

READ MORE: 'Playing games': Kamloops council ruffles feathers at TRU over pedestrian overpass

Penticton is looking at spending half of its $7.1 million on a variety of projects that have yet to be specified but do include “Okanagan and Skaha Lake decorative seasonal lighting displays” and basketball court lighting.

The other half is designated to cover inflationary costs of existing projects.

Vernon is looking at spending $500,000 of its $9.6 million on DND playground equipment but more of its money is going to things like the Pleasant Valley Roundabout ($1.7 million) and airport runway reconstruction ($2 million) which are clearly infrastructure related projects.

Not that the other cities aren’t using some of their money for infrastructure.

West Kelowna is putting $380,000 into pathways, $420,000 to return the Mount Boucherie Community Centre to public use (it currently serves as city all), $1.8 million towards a new fire hall and $3.9 million to a new public works yard.

In Kelowna, along with the recreation centre upgrade, $7.2 million is going into a downtown overpass on Highway 97, $2.4 million for a Rutland sewer project, $750,000 for a highway median and ditches project and $1 million for an extension to its downtown Art Walk.

It's pretty wide open what communities can use the money for and they just have to report the spending on their annual audited financial statements.

“Local governments are also accountable to the people within their communities and the intention of the grant is to support infrastructure and amenity projects that will help communities deal with increased demands due to population growth,” the email from the ministry says.

“The province requests that the funds be prioritized towards projects where planning is mostly complete and construction enables services to be provided to growth areas.”

While a small amount of the money is designated for infrastructure projects, there is no mention of any of it going to one of the key elements of the fund: affordable housing, at least not for the region’s five largest cities.

Most of the money, so far, has been invested and large amounts are designated to go into reserve funds since the province expects it to be spent within five years.

A Feb. 13 report to West Kelowna city council noted that its $10.2 million grant had already grown by more than $418,000 and, for every $1 million left in the bank, the city will earn almost $55,000 in interest each year.

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