Farmer tired of government stalling on measures to prevent flooding along Mission Creek

The floods have become more frequent and more extreme and farmer Ron McMillan says more needs to be done to protect people who live near Mission Creek in Kelowna.

Flood waters rushed onto his farm Tuesday, submerging about 50 acres. While the water had receded quite a bit by Wednesday afternoon, it will still likely be several weeks before the land dries out.

“The horses would normally be down there grazing, so they’ve got less land to use. I don’t know what hay I’m going to be able to produce there in August when it does dry out,” said McMillan.

“You saw fences were damaged, I can’t produce corn or vegetables, and we’re certainly going through lots of issues with supply chain right now. It would be great to have a lot of farms in full production,” but he says he simply can’t plant that land like he used to.

He wants the province, the city, or whoever is in charge, to start dredging the creek again to remove the gravel that has built up in the 30 years since the practice stopped.

“It doesn’t matter who’s been in power, all parties have been having this hands-off approach when it comes to the creeks, about cleaning them up.

“They do use an excuse, as far as I’m concerned, that it’s a fisheries issue but I don’t think that’s the case. Because we used to have lots of Kokanee in Mission Creek and now we just have nothing. So, certainly, there is no correlation between them stopping cleaning out the gravel and a rebound in the Kokanee count,” argues McMillan.

He adds there was talk of more flood protection work, including the building of dikes or berms, as part of the Mission Creek Restoration Initiative, but nothing has been done since 2016. In 2017 and 2018 there was also significant flooding along the creek, including on his farm.

He says it’s becoming all too frequent and more extreme.“And some of it’s climate change but to me, a big part of it is the way the creek is managed now by the province.”

McMillan says his home is on high ground, but he’s worried about what will happen to those who live closer to the creek and in more densely populated areas of the city if these extreme rainfall events start happening more often.

He argues that the damage to homes and infrastructure could add up to a lot more than the cost of improved flood control measures.