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It was more than a decade ago when the Kelowna Integrated Water Supply Plan was adopted by the five largest water suppliers in the city.

While that focused largely on improving water quality in Kelowna, there was also a section on governance that among other options listed the possibility of a single water utility run by the City of Kelowna.

With this week’s announcement that Glenmore Improvement District will amalgamate with the city over the next three years, that amalgamation is half done.

READ MORE: Kelowna takes over another irrigation district

South East Kelowna Irrigation District was taken over by the city in 2018 but the remaining two systems in Rutland and Black Mountain have no interest in making the move.

“There were discussions that have been ongoing for a long time,” Glenmore district board chair Steven Bonn told iNFOnews.ca. “(Since 2012) we’ve been carrying on doing our work as far as building the Okanagan Lake intake and twinning part of our system and working on our water upgrades and those types of things.

“It’s not ever been in our mind a question of if, it was a question of when (amalgamation would happen). It is provincial policy that irrigation districts get rolled into the larger municipality. Our board just was in the place where we felt it was time. Our name says improvement district and we felt we had done the job we needed to do and it was time to pass the baton on.”

While he saw that 2012 agreement as recommending amalgamation, that's not the view held by the other two major suppliers.

“We’ve had no discussions at all with the city,” Garry Zarr, chair of the Rutland Waterworks District board, told iNFOnews.ca.

If the 13,000 customers Rutland serves want to join the city, he expects a referendum would have to be held.

Bonn with the Glenmore district said a referendum is not required under provincial legislation and it was the Glenmore board’s decision to approach the city about the merger, not its 24,000 customers.

Zarr isn't expecting his Rutland members to be interested in a similar move.

“We have a great operation and our ratepayers are happy with the service we provide,” he said. “We have the best water in Kelowna and we have the cheapest rates.”

Sukhpaul Bal, a trustee with the Black Mountain Irrigation District, doesn’t think his 30,000 customers have any interest in joining the city either.

“We’re in a very healthy position – actually, probably the most healthy position that we’ve ever been in,” he said. “We are up there with any municipality in terms of management and we are dialled in on water. That’s what we specialize in.”

The integrated water supply plan was adopted in 2012 with needed improvements to the various water systems prioritized.

“It went off the rails,” Gordie Ivans, who was chair of the Black Mountain board for 40 years until his death in 2019, told iNFOnews.ca in 2018. “(City Manager Ron) Mattiussi and (then mayor Colin) Basran felt this was the time to make the play for the water utilities. We had a really good working relationship, or we thought we did. It’s going to take time for that trust factor to come back.”

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The 2012 plan said the South East Kelowna and Glenmore districts were facing the biggest financial costs for upgrades. That was at a time when government grants were available to irrigation districts but those were stopped shortly after that agreement was reached.

The city tried to revive the discussion with an updated study in 2017 but only South East Kelowna joined in. It was taken over by the city in the face of $86 million in needed upgrades. Senior government grants paid half that cost.

Glenmore district went ahead and upgraded its system without help from the province.

Bal is still battling against that lack of senior government support, especially in the face of the $30 million cost for a new 1.6 kilometre tunnel Black Mountain wants to build to replace the existing tunnel that is at risk of sliding into Mission Creek.

“The (lack of government grants) does definitely put more pressure on our ratepayers when we need to do larger projects,” Bal said. “We continue to discuss with government on making changes to that and asking government why our organization, being the largest irrigation district in the province and having some of the best infrastructure and a strong history of management of water, why we can’t access provincial funds that the taxpayer puts in – the same taxpayers that are in our district?”

Black Mountain is just slightly smaller than the West Kelowna water system, which got $41 million in senior government funding in 2017 to build its Rose Valley water treatment plant.

“The overall point we’re trying to make is, it should be based on how well the organization functions and are they capable of delivering what the residents need?” Bal said. “I think Black Mountain checks all the boxes and I’m puzzled why this approach?”

He sees the Glenmore district merger with Kelowna as low hanging fruit.

“I understand if it’s an irrigation district that’s struggling to keep the lights on and needs taking over and it needs help,” Bal said. “That’s where it makes the most sense.

"From my discussions with our manager, there are many smaller utilities around that the city could be proactive with the province on, amalgamating them, but that is taking on a headache because they need fixing.

“With (Black Mountain) and (Glenmore), I imagine, the biggest thing for (the city) is just understanding their system. It’s not throwing in millions of dollars in upgrades. If you want amalgamation, why don’t you start where there are issues and need better service and better infrastructure and really make that the focus?”

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