Photo: FortisBC

The City of West Kelowna and FortisBC have entered into an agreement that is expected to add more than $500,000 to city coffers annually, supported by a fee paid by natural gas customers.

The municipal operating agreement brings the city in line with other communities across the Okanagan.

“The City of West Kelowna was the only municipality in the Okanagan Valley that did not have a FortisBC operating agreement,” said Mayor Gord Milsom in a news release.

“Until now, this had put our municipality on an uneven playing field, since other local governments could use the revenue generated from the operating agreement to meet a variety of community needs where we could not.”

The agreement between the two parties means the city will receive an estimated $570,000 per year from Fortis for their operations with the municipality.

Milsom says the city will use the new found revenue to offset future tax increases by allocating those monies toward “strategic initiatives,” such as parkland acquisition, recreational amenities, active transportation infrastructure, seniors’ housing, wildfire mitigation and other initiatives.

“The operating fee certainly helps, but council and staff will also continue to seek other revenue sources, including our continued lobbying efforts with the provincial and federal governments, seeking more funding support to address housing affordability, policing costs, homelessness and other significant issues that stretch beyond our city’s control and impact other services.”

The first prorated payment from FortisBC is expected to be received in early 2026.

Along with providing revenue for the city, the agreement allows Fortis to create operating efficiencies within the city to reduce customer wait times, improve construction scheduling and ensure consistent processes for installing, operating and maintaining gas lines and related infrastructure within public roads, properties and rights of way.

The operating fee will appear as a 3.09 per cent charge on its natural gas bills for West Kelowna customers.