Westside Road's Okanagan Anglican Camp hitting roadblocks to rebuild

Photo: OAC

Click here to view gallery

Photo: OAC Photo: OAC Photo: OAC

Okanagan Anglican Camp has run into rebuilding roadblocks after being completely destroyed by the McDougall Creek wildfire last summer.

Camp OAC, located just off Westside Road on the shore of Okanagan Lake, has been working towards reopening in some form this coming summer, but have been buried in red tape connected to archaeological assessments.

"We've had quite a few issues with archaeological and restrictions on the property from the regional district," said Ian Dixon, OAC director.

The camp, established in 1950, has been identified as having a high probability for archaeological discoveries by Archaeology BC.

The order was triggered when OAC applied for building permits with the Regional District of Central Okanagan to rebuild their 50 acre property.

"The challenge with that is, eight months of permitting, and then the costs of what they may require us to do could be, hundreds of thousands or millions, depending on how much we might have to excavate and dig around the property," Dixon says.

According to the province, Archaeological Impact Assessments are required where potential conflicts have been identified between archaeological resources and a proposed development.

The Heritage Conservation Act protects unknown, as well as recorded archaeological sites.

Dixon says at this point there is only a very small portion of the site that they can actually build on.

"That's super frustrating," he said, adding the camp will likely be $3M to $4M short of what is required to complete the rebuild.

"So taking money to do these extra assessments could become very expensive. It's definitely exasperating."

Despite the challenges, Dixon says they intend to open Camp Owaissi this summer regardless.

"We've got some modular buildings that are nearly through the permitting process. So that'll be super exciting. And we've figured out some kind of temporary solutions to some of the services. We are pushing to try to run some overnight camps."

Dixon says they have been fundraising over the course of the winter but have been too busy dealing with red tape to continue their efforts.

"We haven't at this point—we've been so focused on trying to get kids on site this summer—that we haven't really started that process of fundraising. We are confident that the community is going to support us."

Dixon says in the weeks after the fire, there was plenty of talk about support and helping people rebuild as fast as they can. "It's definitely frustrating to be constantly hitting these roadblocks. When we lost so much in a disaster that nobody could control. You know, it's really hard to handle that."

Despite the hoops the camp is being asked to jump through, registration for summer 2024 camps is now open.