Kelowna okays alcohol in 8 parks despite 1 councillor's concerns about impacts on youth

Kelowna City Council has agreed to allow residents and tourists to drink alcohol in eight city parks this summer.

This is an expansion of the pilot program that was given the green light in June 2023 and the city hinted at the return of the program in April.

This year, the program will expand from Waterfront Park, including Tugboat Beach, Kinsmen Park and Boyce-Gyro Beach Park to include Sutherland Bay Park, Strathcona Beach Park, Rotary Beach Park, Sarsons Beach Park and Cedar Creek Park.

There are limitations on alcohol consumption in areas near sports courts, fields, parking lots, bodies of water and piers, however.

Additionally, alcohol consumption will not be allowed within 15 metres of playgrounds, play equipment or areas where children will play and private residences.

Lovegrove was the lone vote opposed to the bylaw and expansion from three to eight parks.

During the meeting, coun. Gord Lovegrove asked if Interior Health had been consulted and staff said there was a general opposition to the program and four recommendations were made, which are in the staff report.

Staff said they are moving forward with two of the recommendations which include creating designated zones or areas, away from children focused infrastructure, and providing information on how to report issues should park and/or beach users experience unsafe conditions.

However, staff will not be posting signage about the dangers of alcohol consumption nor doing a robust program evaluation, including diverse public opinions and understanding of the full impact of potential long- and short-term health consequences.

However, coun. Lovegrove thought the signage wasn’t enough and voiced concern about drowning risks, the impact on youth and the overall negative impact alcohol has.

“This won't promote safe use. What it will promote is normalization to those most vulnerable in our population, that’s our youth,” Lovegrove said, pointing to reports from the World Health Organization that say no level of alcohol consumption is safe.

Lovegrove said the signs with a phone number for the city’s bylaw services to report people who aren’t following the rules didn’t go far enough and he wanted to see signs with information about the negative impacts of alcohol consumption.

“Health Canada is now requiring our alcohol containers to have warning signs on them. I think we need to have responsible consumption through educating the public and I would think as a minimum we need warning signs,” he said.

“We don’t even have lifeguards on our beaches and this is being allowed at our beaches. It shouldn’t be near the water, it should be where there are picnic areas on the grassed area near the beach so there is food involved. The stat is pretty clear here, 40% of fatal drownings include alcohol as a contributing factor.”

Lovegrove said the city needed to step up enforcement and do more than routine patrols and having a bylaw phone number.

Coun. Charlie Hodge thought responsible alcohol consumption came down to people’s maturity levels.

“I believe that a big part of what we are talking about here is allowing people to rise to their own level of logic and rationale,” he said.

“We know there are going to be some people who take advantage of the situation at the park. Probably some young people getting crazy and drinking too much (but) that’s going to happen with or without permission.”

Councillors Mohini Singh and Luke Stack wanted a report brought back in a year to see how the expanded program went and if there were any negative impacts of including eight parks.

Alcohol consumption will now be allowed in these eight parks between noon and 9 pm, from May 15 through Sept. 15 annually.