WATCH: Lake Country Mayor dispels what he labels rail trail misinformation

LAKE COUNTRY – The rail trail acquisition connecting Kelowna to Vernon is chugging ahead. However, the District of Lake Country still needs its taxpayers’ approval to pay for its share of the costs. Opponents have less than a week to stop the deal from happening, and they appear to be moving full steam ahead.

Lake Country Mayor James Baker is stunned, reading an ad that says “do you want to pay higher taxes?”. Baker says he doesn’t know who is paying for the advertisement and he says some of the information is simply not true.

For the 16 kilometer section of the rail line running through Lake Country, the district is looking at a price tag of $5.1-million. The City of Kelowna has already agreed to loan Lake Country nearly half of that, leaving the District’s taxpayers to cover the remaining $2.6-million.
The District does not have enough money in its reserve to buy its share of the rail line, so it needs the taxpayers’ approval to borrow the money in order to make the purchase.
Opponents of the railway are hoping to derail the deal, going door-to-door with these fact sheets regarding the acquisition. Baker says this “propaganda” is spreading misinformation which he wants to dispel.
Anyone against borrowing the $2.6-million dollars for the corridor must sign a petition and bring it to municipal hall by noon on Monday. If the deal does go through, an average homeowner will have to pay an extra $27 annually for the next two decades. While there is clear opposition, others are in favour.

Lake Country will not be able to borrow the money if 10 per cent of the electors sign the petition and that works out to be about 930 signatures. However it is not known how close the opponents are to reaching that goal because the District will not release the number of signatures that have been turned in so far.
Global News called the Lake Country Calendar to ask who had paid for the ad but the newspaper was not willing to disclose that information.