Gallagher’s Canyon golf course sues City of Kelowna over five-fold increase in water rates

Photo: Gallagher's Canyon Golf Club / Facebook

The ownership of Gallagher’s Canyon Golf and Country Club is suing the City of Kelowna over a massive increase in water rates.

Kelowna city council gave final approval in May to a bylaw change that means golf courses in southeast Kelowna can no longer buy non-potable water at an agricultural rate.

According to a lawsuit filed this week in B.C. Supreme Court, course ownership group GolfBC claims that change will increase their water costs five-fold from $15,300 in 2021 to $74,800 in 2024.

Up until June 2018, the South East Kelowna Irrigation District operated the system Gallagher’s Canyon pulls water from, charging the course $0.045 per cubic metre of water.

The City of Kelowna has since absorbed the SEKID water system and rewrote its bylaws in a way that creates a distinction between users that have land that is irrigated for “qualifying agricultural use” and those that do not.

The change impacts only three courses in southeast Kelowna, one of them being Gallagher’s, which will see their rates gradually increase to $0.22 per cubic metre. GolfBC said it uses 340,000 cubic metres of non-potable water a year irrigating its 18-hole and 9-hole courses. Gallagher’s is also the only course of the three impacted without farm status.

The crux of GolfBC’s lawsuit are allegations that city staff provided council with flawed information prior to the vote on the issue. The court petition says staff told council GolfBC’s water costs would increase only 160% over the next two years, when in fact, costs would increase 500%.

“Members of council made comments to indicate they understood the amendment bylaw represented a reduction or marginal increase to the non-potable water rate,” the lawsuit claims.

The suit also alleged the city failed to provide adequate notice to course ownership about the process.

“Due to the lack of notice, GolfBC and other impacted users were denied a meaningful opportunity to provide informed, thoughtful and rational comments to the city,” the lawsuit continues.

The petition is seeking to have the new water bylaws declared illegal due to a “breach in procedural fairness” and declaration that the bylaw is “unreasonable.”

The City of Kelowna has 21 days to respond to the petition in court. None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been proven.