Funding for the Friends of Fintry Provincial Park Society is being reduced and will soon be phased out entirely.
In 2020, the Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO) board voted to reallocate the $39,000 annual grant to the society in order to pay for a curator to manage the Fintry Manor House and dairy barn heritage site on the Westside, between West Kelowna and Vernon.
The funding was reduced gradually over two years, to $26,000 in 2021 and $13,000 in 2022.
The RDCO board received a letter from the non-profit society and directed staff to provide a report on the possibility of restoring annual funding to the society in its financial plan. Meanwhile, the RDCO encouraged the society to seek alternative funding sources.
In 1995, the RDCO entered into a partnership with the province to purchase the properties that now form Fintry Provincial Park. The park was purchased for $7,680,000 by the province with the regional district contributing $2 million of that amount through its Regional Parks Service program.
Through a Grant in Aid program request in 2004, the RDCO board supported the allocation of $30,000 in funding to support the Friends of Fintry Provincial Park Society so that they could employ a full-time executive director. The grant was increased incrementally and reached $39,000 in 2008.
A 2019-20 review process resulted in the board deciding to refocus tax requisition funds from Central Okanagan residents that had been provided to the Friends of Fintry society to better support the various non-profit ‘Friends of Regional Parks’ partner organizations that were linked directly with the RDCO regional parks service program, as well as other board priorities in the RDCO regional parks system.
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