West Kelowna Mayor Gord Milsom and councillors celebrate the opening of the Rose Valley water treatment plant with a cake cutting.
Image Credit: City of West Kelowna
April 30, 2025 - 7:00 PM
The Rose Valley water treatment plant in West Kelowna has been mired in controversy since it was built, and the most recent episode in the saga is the city’s request for a “debt repayment”.
Some residents in the water treatment plant’s service area felt blindsided by a notice from the city yesterday, April 29, that said it expects a payment of either $2,750 by the end of May or $181 a year for the next 25 years.
Mayor Gord Milsom admitted the notice wasn’t clear about the $181 payment over the next 25 years.
Residents are already paying $150 a year that would normally go into reserves. The plant's loan repayment was initially calculated when interest rates were less than one per cent, so there wouldn't have been a change in customer's annual bill as the money going into reserves would instead go towards the loan. Since interest rates are up to four per cent now, people have to pay an additional $31 a year so a total of $181 will be going to the load.
The city said back in 2020 it expected residents to pay their share of the debt back and now the bill has come due. The mayor said the information has been available on the city’s website but this notice was given out to residents at the end of May, close to the city’s deadline to restructure the loan.
Local resident Michael Griffith told iNFOnews.ca he felt blindsided by the notice.
“What I just don't get is that they spring it on you with 30 days notice in a climate that is less than ideal for sort of where everybody sits financially,” Griffith said.
The water treatment plant, which came on line at the end of 2023 and serves roughly 19,500 residents, cost $75 million. The city pulled $41 million from a grant, $10.5 million from reserves and borrowed the remaining $23.5 million.
“We bought this place three years ago and didn't know that there was going to be a payment required,” resident Theresa Bolton said. “Nobody shared that with us, so it was a bit shocking when we got a letter in the mail and they're referring to it as a debt.”
Bolton said she’s also also frustrated by the fact that there have been frequent water quality advisories.
READ MORE: West Kelowna water customers demand transparency, accountability from city council
“There's water advisories all over the place, so what are we really paying for? We installed a water filtration system in our house because of the quality of the water, so that was $3,500, and now we have to pay another $2,500 for a water treatment plant that really we think should be covered under our property tax.”
In November, residents complained about the quality of the water coming from the Rose Valley Water Treatment Plant. Since it opened customers have reported discoloured, smelly and strange tasting water. During the summer of 2024, the city reported high levels of manganese and eventually added chlorine to remedy the problem.
Both Bolton and Griffith said it's poor financial planning on the city’s part to take on such a debt and transfer it straight to the taxpayer without good communication.
“I must apologize to our water users because we could have given more information with regards to the payments of the long term debt,” mayor Milsom said. “We didn't do a good job in communicating that. We should have added that to the information on the letter.
“We’ve been busy as a municipality and unfortunately we just had to get 'er done."
When Griffith moved to West Kelowna from the Lower Mainland seven years ago he said it was an attractive place to live in part because of the taxes.
“If I had known what I know now, I highly doubt I would have bought where I bought,” he said.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Jesse Tomas or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. Find our Journalism Ethics policy here.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.
News from © iNFOnews, 2025