The Fintry Queen saga

Seven years ago, I moved to Kelowna from the United States and got involved with a syndicate of investors and businessmen with a view to investing in Kelowna and creating employment. One of the investments we looked at in great detail was the Fintry Queen, which we were going to buy and completely refurbish. It took about 18 months of red tape and multiple meetings with the City, Fire Dept. RCMP, Transport Canada and multiple other “authorities” who wanted a say if how it was to operate. In the end, the stumbling block was the B.C Liquor Control & Licensing Branch.
 
In order to make the Fintry Queen economically viable, it was essential that we would be granted the liquor licenses necessary, but were told that we could not apply for the licenses until we actually owned the vessel. We were also informed that our application may not be successful despite being upstanding successful businessmen in the community. Needless to say, we were not going to pay $750,000 for a vessel that we could not sell alcohol on, so sadly, the deal fell through.
 
Kelowna welcomes foreigners here with open arms, especially those interested in investing in start-up companies and creating employment. However, the sheer volume of red tape that is placed in the way of progress has resulted in us giving up on four additional business projects since the Fintry debacle. If progress is truly to happen, then bureaucracy needs to take a back seat and more support needs to be forthcoming from the City and authorities to ease up on regulations and by-laws.

Mark Fry