BRYAN FITZPATRICK
OKANAGAN VALLEY – Crime downtown. Businesses being pushed to, and beyond, their limits. Infrastructure shortcomings. Lack of contingency planning for fire evacuation routes. The issues were not in question. Getting governments at all levels to pay attention and to act: that is the gauntlet thrown down by OBAC.
All this and more was single-mindedly debated at the first meeting of 2026 of OBAC – the Okanagan Business Advocacy Council on January 20. The Council represents nearly 2,000 business members in the Okanagan Valley through their membership in Chambers of Commerce/Boards of Trade from Penticton, Summerland, West Kelowna, Kelowna and Vernon.
“We can work collectively on these issues,” said Bryan Fitzpatrick, President of the Greater Westside Board of Trade. “We have common issues of emergency response, transportation, tourism, energy and crime. And right now, crime is what we are hearing about, every single day.”
If there is strength in numbers, then OBAC is perfectly positioned to make some noise in front of elected officials, give a voice to their members, and to create change.
Over and over, the call was to ‘Save our Downtowns’. “There has to be a way,’ said Michael Magnusson of the Penticton & Wine Country Chamber. “Let’s make sure our voices are heard not only in our own cities, but in Victoria: clean up government regulations that work against our residents, be compassionate but get change underway. Once a downtown business loses customers due to public safety concerns, we risk seeing them close, relocate, or charge more. We to fix this now, for our residents and our tourists.”
“We’re working on policies and advocacy right now to take forward to our elected officials, and to the provincial and national chambers of commerce,” said Sonja Harkness, Executive Director of the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce. “We are going to ask for tax relief for businesses hit by crime, theft, vandalism – there has to be a way to shore up our businesses while they fight this scourge.”
“We advocated to help save our local freshwater bodies from invasive mussels,” said Derek Gratz, President of the Kelowna Chamber. “That worked. There is no reason why broader advocacy on other issues won’t work, too. We plan to canvass our MLAs, our Mayors, and get constructive conversations going, followed by action.”
The four organizations are preparing formal case studies now for the 2026 policy cycle around energy infrastructure (impacting housing and business start-ups), around emergency evacuation routes (paving Forest Road 201 to augment Hwy 97 when it is out of service, and tax relief in the presence of crime.
OBAC is also planning a full court press on crime issues with their Mayors and MLAs. “Stay tuned,” said the group, “we’re just getting started.”
For more information contact Bryan Fitzpatrick at fitzpatrick@pushormitchell.com
