Community Spirit and Project Partners

The model of cooperation continues as four owner jurisdictions – the City of Kelowna, District of Lake Country, Okanagan Indian Band, and Regional District of North Okanagan – work together as the Okanagan Rail Trail Committee, and in partnership with the volunteer Friends of Okanagan Rail Trail. This committee acts as a common voice for governance to foster teamwork and collaboration on trail development and management.

Community champions, donors and volunteers have also been integral to the trail’s successful development. Over a two-year period, volunteers, businesses, groups, organizations and individuals worked to fundraise $7.8M using everything from lemonade stands and events, to matching campaigns. Over 5000 donors contributed towards developing this legacy that is now a huge part of our communities’ lifestyle and visitor experience.

Following is a list of partners who were actively involved in developing, funding and managing the Okanagan Rail Trail:

The municipalities of Kelowna and Lake Country, the Regional District of North Okanagan and the Province of BC invested $22 million to purchase the discontinued CN railway running from Coldstream to Kelowna.

The two municipalities, the regional district and the Okanagan Indian Band work together as the Okanagan Rail Trail Committee. Also participating are the District of Coldstream and the City of Vernon. This committee acts as a common voice for local governments to foster both teamwork and collaboration on trail development and management.

The Central Okanagan Foundation and the Community Foundation of the North Okanagan collaborated to receive donations and provide tax receipts. The Foundations will hold the money in trust and will reimburse the municipalities on construction costs of the trail.

The volunteer-based Okanagan Rail Trail Initiative served as community cheerleaders in supporting campaign partners, business partners and individual donors to raise $7.8M over two years. Several volunteers from the Okanagan Rail Trail initiative continued on to form the new ‘Friends of Okanagan Rail Trail’.

For questions regarding the trail in your area, please contact your local representative:

Lake Country

Matt Vader
[email protected]
250-766-5650 (x 2727)

Regional District North Okanagan

[email protected]

Okanagan Indian Band

Mike Fotheringham
[email protected]
250-542-4328

City of Kelowna

[email protected]
250-469-8773

If you want to know about donating towards trail improvement, the Trail Ambassador program, or other volunteer opportunities, please contact:

Friends of Okanagan Rail Trail

[email protected]