Commercial boat owners say Kelowna city fees unfair, bad for tourism

Boating is one of the Okanagan’s s most popular summer attractions, but those in the business of renting watercraft are urging the City of Kelowna to rethink a policy they say not only unfairly targets them but hurts local tourism.

“I just feel that as the people who bring. you know,  one of the local amenities that brings people to this town, that we’re being unfairly targeted,” said Max Standen, who owns Okanagan Luxury Boat Club.

The city is cracking down on a bylaw it first implemented in 2022.

The bylaw mandates commercial boat operators pay $2,000 per vessel every year to help pay for the operation and maintenance of two city-owned boat launches.

For Standen and his  fleet of 20 vessels, the bylaw means a $50,000 expense, despite a handful of his boats not even operational right now for various reasons.

“For me to pay for those vessels while they are not even generating revenue and we don’t really know when they could come back…that’s also a major financial hardship,” he told Global News.

Corey Severin, who owns Kelowna Seadoo Rentals, is concerned the added costs make it tough to operate a watercraft rental business.

“I’m not sure how they think we just have that money to give, especially with operating the business. It’s  expensive,” Severin said. “Machines are expensive, insurance is expensive, fuel is expensive.

The boat operators say they feel they’re being punished as licensed and legitimate commercial operations, because the fees don’t apply to the many people who rent boats privately and use the boat launches regularly, as well.

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“It’s like picking on one and not the other,” Severin said, referring to those private boat owners not having to pay up.

Both Standen and Severin added that with tourism already taking a hit due to economic factors, the fees could be hurtful to the local economy.

“It could severely impact the end user as we’ll have to reflect these fees onto our end customers,” Standen said.

“It’s already teetering in becoming too expensive for the general public to access this amenity.”

The enforcement of the bylaw is so concerning that a number of commercial boat operators have now banded together and formed the ‘Kelowna Marine Tourism Association’ to push the city to create a more equal fee structure model so that all users of boat launches contribute to their maintenance.

The newly-formed association would like to see a per-usage fee implemented, a system widely used at boat launches around the Lower Mainland.

“Everyone should pay the same and as we feel that as renters, commercial renters, we’re the only ones with the burden of this associated cost with the dock, not mechanics, dealerships, anyone else using their dock, the public,” Severin said.

The fee bylaw is now in its fourth year but for unknown reasons, compliance has dropped this year.

“We’ve had fairly reasonable compliance in previous years and  this year, we saw a market reduction in the level of compliance,” said Johannes Saufferer, director of real estate for the City of Kelowna.

According to Saufferer, operating and maintaining the two city-owned boat launches comes at a cost of roughly $400,000 per year, money that used to come from general taxation.

However, council approved a fee bylaw amendment in April 2022 after a study revealed commercial boat operators made up 25 per cent of the users of boat launch facilities.

Despite that amendment, Saufferer said the city is open to such a model.

“An all-user pay model in the future is certainly something that staff would be willing to consider,” Saufferer said. “It would be subject to council approval, but the current bylaw is in effect for commercial boat launch operators.”

It means that for now, the commercial boat operators must pay the fees to be in compliance or potentially face fines.

“Initial efforts will be focused on education and warnings. In the event a fine is issued, I understand that it will be in the amount of $500 for commercial operators not in compliance with the city’s bylaw.” he said.