“The residents of Okanagan Falls, when they made the vote, didn’t know that [DRIPA] process… and now, after they voted to incorporate, these new concessions have come forward.”
–Donegal Wilson
When the tiny community of Okanagan Falls voted earlier this year to incorporate into a municipality, its residents thought they were getting — well, Okanagan Falls.
But five months later, mired in delays and silence from the B.C. government, nobody seems sure whether the area south of Penticton will actually become Okanagan Falls. It may have to change its name to something else entirely.
The core of the issue is the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), which mandates B.C. align its laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in consultation with Indigenous Peoples. The BC NDP under the Eby government has interpreted this as a commitment to consult First Nations communities on virtually all aspects of provincial government decision-making and public land use.
Okanagan Falls and its 2,700 residents are the first to vote to incorporate since DRIPA was passed into law in 2019. While the province might have just rubber-stamped the request in the past, and issued what are called the “letters patent” to make the municipality legal, now that process appears much more complicated.
Appears is the key word, because the BC NDP government and the minister responsible for municipal affairs, Christine Boyle, haven’t said much publicly about the issue at all.
On Thursday, under rising pressure, the government issued a statement saying it would try to approve the letters patent by spring 2026, after a delay of more than a year.
“Through collaboration, consultation and co-operation with the Osoyoos Indian Band, and discussions with relevant community representatives, many different perspectives have been brought forward regarding different aspects of the incorporation, including the official name,” read the statement.
“The Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs has appointed a facilitator to help finalize the Letters Patent by spring 2026.”
Community caught in closed-door process
The slow and unclear path has left many in the community frustrated.
“They wanted to become a municipality in control of their own affairs, and now they’ve been caught in this process that nobody seems to clearly understand or articulate and is happening from all appearances behind closed doors,” Boundary-Similkameen MLA Donegal Wilson said in an interview.
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, province, the Osoyoos Indian Band and others are now locked in backroom negotiations over what happens next.
That includes if the community will be allowed to call itself Okanagan Falls, will be mandated to choose an Indigenous name or could come to some sort of hybrid compromise. There also appears to be discussion about Crown land and compensation for the local First Nations.
“͞The Osoyoos Indian Band is committed to working with the Province and the RDOS on an incorporation process that is compliant with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), and that addresses our priorities on the naming and boundaries of the proposed new municipality,” Osoyoos Indian Band Chief Clarence Louie said in the government’s statement.
Boyle was not made available for an interview.
DRIPA impact not revealed until after referendum
The process has proven deeply divisive in the community.
The incorporation vote itself was a five-year process, and the referendum held in March passed by a narrow margin of 53 per cent. Although it will result in a tax increase for locals, the move has been pitched as a way for an ailing community to have more control over land, business and services through an elected mayor and council.
The incorporation debate did not include any mention from the provincial government about the impact of DRIPA, whether the community could choose its own name or if it would even be allowed to form a community without negotiated consent with the First Nation.
“The residents of Okanagan Falls, when they made the vote, didn’t know that process,” said Wilson. “It wasn’t shared with them… and now, after they voted to incorporate, these new concessions have come forward.”
The result has been heated public meetings, including a town hall in mid-August where the local newspaper reported that “many in the crowd expressed anger over the lack of progress, and several said they no longer support incorporation at all.” Local officials are now wary about commenting publicly about the issue.
Neither has the B.C. government acknowledged publicly that its five-month secretive process to slow-play the legal approval of the incorporation may be pitting residents against Indigenous leaders and actively undermining the community’s continued support.
But this pattern has played out before.
Secret negotiations by BC NDP sew division, erode support
Last year, the government was forced to backtrack from proposed changes to the Land Act to give First Nations co-governance over Crown lands, after surprised British Columbians, who weren’t aware government was even considering such a move, expressed concern over the scope and scale of the changes.
It also had to step back and rework an agreement with the Shíshálh Nation on the Sunshine Coast that banned some people from creating docks on the water, after news the deal had been brokered behind closed doors “nation-to-nation” without the input of local residents.
And the administration of Premier David Eby kept secret a contentious $100-million agreement and land transfer it had signed with the Shíshálh nation on Aug. 16, 2024, until two months after the provincial election — perhaps recognizing such disclosure could harm the election chances of its NDP candidate in the region.
The lack of transparency by the province has led to criticism that it puts First Nations in an untenable situation where they face backlash from local residents over consultation processes the BC NDP asks them to participate in and then seems intent on keeping secret.
“It’s very hard for the general public to catch up to understand why those decisions happened or how they came to become the new direction,”said Wilson.
“And it generates racism, which is unnecessary. Clear communication of all the priorities, I think, would clarify.”
Wilson is calling on Boyle to immediately issue the letters patent to Okanagan Falls, allow it to elect its mayor and council, and then leave the matter of naming and reconciliation to the new locally-accountable officials to negotiate with the Osoyosos and Penticton Indian Bands.
Instead, the community that tried to take control of its own affairs by voting to incorporate itself, is at the whim of a provincial process it doesn’t control and has no input into until it is over.