EDITORIAL · COLUMBIA & WESTERN RAIL TRAIL · FIFE TO CASTLEGAR

The B.C. NDP government promised this stretch of the Trans Canada Trail would stay open year-round. Randene Neill’s ministry now says it can neither fund nor manage it.

In July 2020, under Forests Minister Doug Donaldson in John Horgan’s B.C. NDP government, the Province took the recreation-trail designation off 67 kilometres of the Columbia & Western between Fife, just above Christina Lake, and Castlegar, so that logging companies could hold road permits on the old rail grade. It promised the section would stay part of the Trans Canada Trail and be available for recreation all year. On 1 December 2025 the Deputy Minister in Randene Neill’s Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship wrote that the Province is unable to fund or manage it. About 24 kilometres now carry industrial road permits, and the other 42 are vacant Crown land managed to a “wilderness” status with no maintenance funding.“For the time being” has lasted six years.

Backcountry Coalition · 10 October 2026 Email

Backcountry Coalition is independent. This article is not authorized by any party or candidate.

On 16 July 2020 the Province told British Columbians that a 67-kilometre section of the Columbia and Western Rail Trail “will remain part of The Great Trail (formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail) and will be available for recreational purposes year-round.” On 1 December 2025 the Deputy Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship wrote that “the Province is unable to fund or manage the non-status corridor.” Both sentences are about the same 67 kilometres of rail grade between Fife and Castlegar.⁰¹¹¹

Between those two sentences sits a promise the Province made in writing and has never shown that it kept. It removed the trail designation so that the corridor could be run like a resource road, with “maintenance and management standards for the Province and forest licensees to follow.” Where a logging company took a road permit, the company would pay to maintain its piece. Everywhere else, a ministry spokesperson told the Castlegar News that summer, the grade would stay “non-status for the time being.”⁰¹⁰⁷

The logging companies got their road permits. The rest of the trail got hazard signs, and a letter saying it is open to the public at the users’ own risk.

Section 01The Province took the trail designation off 67 kilometres in July 2020 so that logging companies could hold road permits on the grade

The Columbia and Western Railway ran 162 kilometres from Midway to Castlegar. Canadian Pacific pulled the rails in 1990, and the Trans Canada Trail organisation transferred the grade to the Province in 2004 “with the expressed intention that it would be used and managed as a recreational trail.” In 2011 the Province established the whole corridor as a recreation trail under the Forest and Range Practices Act.⁰³⁰⁵

A black-and-white photograph from 1899 of the Columbia and Western Railway station at Cascade, near Christina Lake: a two-storey wooden station with dormer windows, a group of men in hats on the platform, and a steam locomotive standing at the right with pine-covered hills behind. — The Columbia and Western Railway station at Cascade, a few kilometres south of Christina Lake, in 1899, the year the line was finished. Photograph: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.²⁷

The eastern 67 kilometres are the hard part of that corridor. They climb from Christina Lake past Paulson and Farron and run along the slopes above Lower Arrow Lake to the Hugh Keenleyside Dam outside Castlegar. The Forest Practices Board counted “close to 200 structures including tunnels, bridges, culverts and retaining walls” on that stretch, among them the kilometre-long Bulldog Tunnel.⁰³

In the summer of 2019 Recreation Sites and Trails BC asked for comment on cancelling the trail designation there. Its director put the reason in writing: “The proposed change reflects local interests and supports access for industrial activity.” The same letter promised that “Public use and access are expected to remain as they have been if the change is approved.”⁰⁴¹⁰

The Trans Canada Trail organisation objected within a fortnight. It said it was “deeply concerned and disappointed” and that removing the designation “should not be considered a viable option.” Trails BC objected too. ATV BC wrote to the minister in support of the change, and made its support conditional on “the need for a sustainable maintenance regime.”⁰⁵⁰⁶⁰⁴

The Trans Canada Trail organisation's August 2019 statement. Heading: TCT's response to plans for the proposed designation change along the Columbia and Western Trail. It says the organisation is deeply concerned and disappointed by a proposed designation change by British Columbia's Ministry of Forest, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, which would mean a 67-kilometre section of the Columbia and Western Rail Trail, a trail it transferred to the Government of British Columbia in 2004, would no longer be designated as recreational trail. Under the heading A setback for our past commitments it says the section between Fife and Castlegar was donated to TCT by Canadian Pacific Railway and transferred to the Government of British Columbia in 2004 with the expressed intention that it would be used and managed as a recreational trail, and that TCT also provided funding for its development as part of the Spirit of 2010 Trail project. — The organisation whose name is on the trail, before the decision. The section between Fife and Castlegar went to the Province in 2004 **“with the expressed intention that it would be used and managed as a recreational trail,”** and TCT **“also provided funding”** for its development under the Spirit of 2010 project.⁰⁵

On 6 July 2020 an assistant deputy minister signed Ministerial Order M322 for the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, then Doug Donaldson. The order is one paragraph long. It deletes the 2011 map of the Spirit of 2010 recreation trail network and replaces it with a new map dated 3 July 2020, attached to the order as Exhibit A.⁰²

Page 1 of Ministerial Order M322 of the Province of British Columbia, order of the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, headed Recreation Trail Variance in the Selkirk Forest District. It reads: I, Doug Donaldson, Minister, pursuant to section 56(1)(b) of the Forest and Range Practices Act, order the map dated February 25, 2011 for the recreation project listed below, is deleted and replaced with the new map attached to this order. A table lists Rec Project number Rec 31979, project name Spirit of 2010, type Recreation Trail, map date July 3, 2020. It is signed and dated July 6, 2020 by Matt Austin, Assistant Deputy Minister, as authorized signatory. — The whole instrument. No reasons, no conditions and no mention of the Columbia and Western by name: **the 2011 map “is deleted and replaced with the new map attached to this order.”** Signed **6 July 2020** under **section 56(1)(b)** of the *Forest and Range Practices Act*.⁰²

The Columbia and Western Rail Trail inset from the map attached to Ministerial Order M322. A heavy black line marks the recreation trail from the west through Grand Forks and up the west side of Christina Lake. North of Christina Lake the route continues past Paulson, Farron and along Lower Arrow Lake toward Castlegar only as a thin green dashed line, no longer drawn as part of the trail. — The map the order substitutes. The heavy black line, the trail, now stops above Christina Lake. **The 67 kilometres beyond it to Castlegar are drawn only as a thin green dash.** That dashed line is the whole public record of the decision inside the order itself.⁰²

Ten days later the Ministry published its explanation as an information bulletin datelined Castlegar. It is the Province’s public explanation of the change, and it has three parts: a promise, a reason and a mechanism.⁰¹

The British Columbia government information bulletin of 16 July 2020, Designation change to help manage former rail corridor. It says a 67-kilometre section of the Columbia and Western Rail Trail will remain part of The Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail, and will be available for recreational purposes year-round; that the section has been re-designated; that the revised status is due to the route's challenging terrain, multiple uses and complex infrastructure; that with the change resource-road use permitting for limited industrial use of the corridor can be introduced, as well as the implementation of maintenance and management standards for the Province and forest licensees to follow that will help make the route safer for everyone who uses it; that the 67-kilometre portion runs from Castlegar to a former railway stop near Fife, about two kilometres north of Christina Lake; and that if a road permit is issued to a logging company, that company would be required to undertake and pay for maintenance on the section of the route covered by that permit. — The promise: the section **“will remain part of The Great Trail”** and **“will be available for recreational purposes year-round.”** The mechanism: **“resource-road use permitting for limited industrial use,”** and **“maintenance and management standards for the Province and forest licensees to follow.”** The money: a logging company with a road permit **“would be required to undertake and pay for maintenance on the section of the route covered by that permit.”**⁰¹

Read the last paragraph of that bulletin for what it leaves out. It assigns maintenance where a company holds a permit. It assigns nothing anywhere else. The ministry spokesperson filled that gap for the Castlegar News the next day: 20 of the 67 kilometres were already under road permits, about six more were likely to follow, and the remainder would stay “non-status for the time being.” Where there was no permit, the spokesperson said, liability for the grade fell to the Crown.⁰⁷

The Forest Practices Board, which was investigating a complaint about the same stretch, recorded what the agency giving it up already knew. Recreation Sites and Trails BC, it wrote, “did not have funding, staff or asset management systems in place to repair it.”⁰³

Three paragraphs from page 3 of the Forest Practices Board report. Interfor and BCTS have timber harvesting rights that can be accessed from the CWRT, and both are interested in doing so. RSTBC was aware of the significant liability posed by the aging infrastructure and recognized that it did not have funding, staff or asset management systems in place to repair it. In a July 2019 letter to stakeholders, RSTBC asked for input on a proposal to cancel the recreation trail designation on the CWRT, which garnered significant public response and media attention in the West Kootenay and Boundary area. On July 6, 2020, government cancelled the recreation trail designation on the CWRT. The CWRT is now a non-status road, except for sections that are under some type of authorization such as a road permit. — The Province’s own watchdog, a year after the order. **“Interfor and BCTS have timber harvesting rights that can be accessed from the CWRT.”** The agency running the trail **“did not have funding, staff or asset management systems in place to repair it.”** And after 6 July 2020 the grade **“is now a non-status road, except for sections that are under some type of authorization such as a road permit.”**⁰³

The bulletin promised maintenance standards for the Province and for forest licensees. Six years later, the Province has published neither set.

Section 02Six years later, about 24 kilometres of the grade carry industrial road permits and the other 42 belong to no program at all

The Province’s recreation tenure register still carries the Columbia and Western as file REC262855. Above Fife, its first 5.8 kilometres remain an established recreation trail. The next section, CHR-CAS 2, is 65.9 kilometres long, runs to the Keenleyside Dam and is recorded as retired. That line, laid over the Province’s own boundary maps, gives the figures every office in this story should already know.⁰⁸

The retired grade, the ridings it crosses, and the road permits on it

The retired section REC262855 CHR-CAS 2 is 65.9 km, all of it in the Selkirk Natural Resource District. 24.4 km lie in Boundary-Similkameen and 41.4 km in Kootenay-Monashee. 24.6 km are in the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary and 41.2 km in the Regional District of Central Kootenay. Three active road permit sections overlie about 24 km of the retired grade.⁰⁸⁰⁹

The riding line crosses the grade near Farron. The first 24.4 kilometres out of Christina Lake are in Boundary-Similkameen, where Donegal Wilson is the sitting member. The 41.4 kilometres from Farron to the dam are in Kootenay-Monashee, where Steve Morissette is. All 65.9 kilometres sit in one natural resource district, the Selkirk district headquartered in Nelson, which is the same office that is behind the Rady Creek and Sitkum Creek forest service road deactivations.⁰⁸²⁶

The road tenure register shows what became of the industrial half of the plan. Three road permit sections are active on the grade today. Interfor Corporation holds two of them, R08714 section AF, named “RAIL TRAIL”, over the first 14.1 kilometres above the retired section’s start, and R07723 section DZ, “RAIL GRADE”, over 6.6 kilometres below Farron. The third permit section is new this year.⁰⁹

Attribute table served by the British Columbia government map service for the forest tenure road section layer. Forest File ID R25142. Road Section ID 10. Road Section Name ARPL RAILGRADE. Road Section Length 3.36. Retirement Date blank. File Type Description Road Permit. Geographic District Name Selkirk Natural Resource District. Award Date 3/9/26. Expiry date 3/8/28. Client Name obscured. Location Quinn Creek. Life Cycle Status Code ACTIVE. Map Label R25142 10. — A road permit section named **“ARPL RAILGRADE”**, **3.36 km** of the old grade along Lower Arrow Lake. **File Type Description: Road Permit.** **Award Date 9 March 2026**, three months after the Deputy Minister wrote that the Province could not fund or manage the corridor. **Life Cycle Status Code ACTIVE.** The holder is a private contractor, and its name is obscured here. Two earlier permits on the same 10.1 km, held by Porcupine Wood Products and Kalesnikoff Timber Holdings, were retired in December 2023 and June 2026.⁰⁹

So the corridor is still working for the purpose the 2020 change was made for. Industry can get a permit on it, and did again this spring. About 24 kilometres sit under active permits, which is close to the 20 to 26 the spokesperson forecast in 2020. The other 42 kilometres, which carry the tunnels and trestles closest to Castlegar, are the part that was to stay “non-status for the time being.” Six years later, they still are.⁰⁹⁰⁷

One limit belongs on the record. A road permit puts maintenance on its holder, but the published register does not say what any of these three permits requires on the grade, or whether any of it has been inspected. Those records exist only in the district’s files.⁰⁹

Section 03In 2025 the Province told the community the 42 kilometres were being managed to a “wilderness” status, with no funding and no repairs

The community heard about it in a letter dated 27 June 2025 from the Director of Authorizations for the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship and the Ministry of Forests. As reported by the Castlegar News, the section would be returned to “wilderness status.” Signs would warn of “potential rock falls and unstable conditions,” work would be done only if there was “an environmental or safety issue,” and there had been “no funds allocated to this trail since” 2020.¹⁰

The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary voted on 30 July 2025 to ask the Province “to reverse its decision to designate the Columbia and Western Rail Trail as a non-status rail grade.” The answer came on 1 December 2025 from Lori Halls, Deputy Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. The regional district printed it in full in its next board agenda, which is how it can be shown here.¹⁴¹¹

The header of an email from the Water, Land and Resource Stewardship deputy minister's office, dated Monday 1 December 2025 at 2:56 PM, titled Letter from DM Halls regarding the Columbia and Western Rail Trail, reference 47432. It is copied to the Minister of Forests, the Minister of Environment and Parks, and MLAs Steve Morissette, Brittny Anderson and Donegal Wilson. The letter opens: December 1, 2025, via email, thank you for your letter regarding the Regional District of Kootenay-Boundary's recent resolution in support of the Columbia and Western Rail Trail. — Who was told. The Deputy Minister’s reply went to the regional district and was copied to **the Minister of Forests**, **the Minister of Environment and Parks**, and three MLAs by name: **Steve Morissette**, **Brittny Anderson** and **Donegal Wilson**. Every office in this story has had this letter since the first of December 2025.¹¹

Five paragraphs of the deputy minister's letter. The Province recognizes the scenic and recreational value of the CWRT and its economic, cultural and historic importance; currently there are no plans for additional changes on this non-status rail grade. In 2020, upon disestablishment as a recreational trail under the Forest and Range Practices Act, the section between Castlegar and Christina Lake lost all designations and became vacant Crown land with a linear structure managed to a wilderness status, with no maintenance funding available. Since it was never a Forest Service Road, it does not fit the Ministry of Forests' Engineering Funding Policy and is not eligible for expenditures beyond emergency works; work will be done to remediate safety or environmental hazards but will not result in repairs to the trail. The Province recently posted signage at entrance points and at locations that require notification due to safety concerns. The Province will obtain more detailed information about the structures this year, to inform decisions about future use, remediation measures and or deactivation of structures or sections of the rail grade. — The Province’s position in its own words. In 2020 the section **“lost all designations”** and **“became vacant Crown land with a linear structure managed to a ‘wilderness’ status, with no maintenance funding available.”** Because it **“was never a Forest Service Road,”** it is **“not eligible for expenditures beyond emergency works,”** and the work **“will not result in repairs to the trail.”** The structure survey will inform **“deactivation of structures or sections of the rail grade.”**¹¹

Set the two documents side by side. In 2020 the change was going to bring in “maintenance and management standards for the Province and forest licensees to follow.” In 2025 the same change is said to have left the grade with “no maintenance funding available” from the moment it was made. Both are the Province describing the same order. Only one of them was published at the time.⁰¹¹¹

The letter also puts the next decision on paper. The Province said it would gather information about the structures “this year” to inform “future use, remediation measures and/or deactivation of structures or sections of the rail grade.” The Selkirk office has published prescriptions and maps for some of the forest service roads it deactivates, and nothing at all for others. Nothing in the record says what would be published here before a trestle or a tunnel portal is taken out.¹¹

The closing of the deputy minister's letter: Currently, the Province is unable to fund or manage the non-status corridor and is gathering more information on the state of the infrastructure for safety purposes only. However, the corridor remains open to the public at the users' own risk. In recognition of the value and interest raised by local users, the province is open to receiving and adjudicating applications for authorized uses as noted above. Signed Lori Halls, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. Copied to the Honourable Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests; the Honourable Tamara Davidson, Minister of Environment and Parks; Steve Morissette, MLA, Kootenay-Monashee; the Honourable Brittny Anderson, MLA, Kootenay Central; and Donegal Wilson, MLA, Boundary-Similkameen. — The sentence the headline of this page rests on: **“Currently, the Province is unable to fund or manage the non-status corridor.”** The corridor **“remains open to the public at the users’ own risk,”** and anyone who wants to look after it may apply.¹¹

The Province makes two further points in that letter, and both belong here. Most private land along the grade, it says, “is titled as water-access only,” the grade “has never provided legal access to these private properties,” and there are “egress routes available along the Bulldog Forest Service Road and the Shields Forest Service Road.” Kootenay Boundary’s Area B director has said the trail is the only way in for 76 residences at Coykendahl, Brooklyn, Renata and Shields. Both positions are on the public record.¹¹¹⁰

Section 04Three ministries each hold a piece of the Columbia & Western, and none of them has said it is responsible for keeping it open

The 2020 order was made under the forests ministry of the day. The agency that ran the trail, Recreation Sites and Trails BC, now sits in the Ministry of Environment and Parks. The land under the grade is Crown land, which is Water, Land and Resource Stewardship’s. Each of the three has written something about this corridor since 2025, and the pieces do not join up.⁰²¹¹¹⁶

Water, Land and Resource StewardshipHon. Randene Neill · BC NDP

Owns the Crown land. In August 2025, according to a brief the Christina Lake groups filed with the regional district, it told the BC Powersports Dealers Association that stewardship and restoration “fell under the Ministry of Forests.” Four months later its Deputy Minister wrote that the Province could not fund or manage the corridor, and invited applications. Its minister toured part of the grade on 5 August 2026 with several local officials. We found no public statement from her on the corridor.¹³¹¹¹⁷²⁸

ForestsHon. Ravi Parmar · BC NDP

Its predecessor ministry made the 2020 order, and its Selkirk district issues the road permits on the grade. Under the Deputy Minister’s letter, Forests’ part is emergency works only, because the grade “was never a Forest Service Road.” We found no public statement from the minister on the corridor.⁰²⁰⁹¹¹²⁸

Environment and ParksHon. Tamara Davidson · BC NDP

Runs Recreation Sites and Trails BC, which gave the section up. Its February 2026 rail-trail release lists the trails it manages as including only “portions of the Columbia and Western Rail Trail between Christina Lake and Midway.” Donegal Wilson has written that she met the minister to discuss this section. We found no public statement from Minister Davidson herself on that matter.¹⁵¹⁹²⁸

The ministry that holds the land says it cannot fund or manage the grade. The ministry with a road budget says the grade does not qualify for it. The ministry that runs trails has taken the section off its list. According to the same brief, a WLRS letter of 20 March 2026 said Recreation Sites and Trails BC “could consider future re-establishment” and that Forests would deal with imminent hazards but not proactively maintain or repair the corridor. Each answer is accurate about its own ministry. Together they describe a provincial asset that, six years after the order, no office has been assigned to keep open.¹³¹¹

The Province does spend money on rail trails, and its own figures show how much. In February 2026 the Ministry of Environment and Parks announced that it would decommission the flood-damaged Kettle Valley section near Princeton, at an estimated $20 million, and noted it had invested “approximately $27 million” in rail trails since 2017, including $12.3 million in trestle, tunnel and culvert repairs.¹⁵

The rail trail section of the February 2026 Environment and Parks bulletin. Since 2017 the Province has invested approximately 27 million dollars into maintaining and improving rail trails in BC Parks and segments managed by Recreation Sites and Trails BC. Projects include replacing the decking of 18 trestles in Myra-Bellevue Park for 2.1 million dollars, upgrading the Slocan Valley rail trail trailheads for 1.6 million, resurfacing 15 km of non-motorized designated rail trail between Grand Forks and Christina Lake for 500,000 dollars, and major repairs totalling 12.3 million for trestles, rock-cut tunnels, major culverts and other engineered infrastructure. The cost of decommissioning the damaged Princeton section is estimated at 20 million dollars, mostly covered by federal disaster funding. Quick facts: Recreation Sites and Trails BC manages approximately 475 km of recreation rail trails, including 47 bridges, 56 major culverts, 561 minor culverts, 55 retaining walls and seven rock cut tunnels; rail trails it manages include the Slocan Valley Rail Trail, portions of the Columbia and Western Rail Trail between Christina Lake and Midway, and portions of the Kettle Valley Railway. — The Province maintains trestles, tunnels and culverts on rail trails it still counts, **$12.3 million** of it since 2017, and resurfaced **15 km** from Grand Forks to Christina Lake for **$500,000**. Its list of the rail trails it manages stops at **“the Columbia and Western Rail Trail between Christina Lake and Midway.”** The 67 kilometres of the same trail east of Christina Lake are not on that list.¹⁵

Section 05Christina Lake, its neighbours and the regional district have pressed the Province on the record since July 2025

The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary has not let this go. Its board passed resolution 251-25 on 30 July 2025. Its Area C director, Grace McGregor of Christina Lake, told the board the trail is “an alternate route out of Christina Lake and is important for fuel mitigation,” and Area B director Linda Worley called it “an important emergency route” for residents on the west side of Lower Arrow Lake.¹⁴

The board then took it to the Union of BC Municipalities. In May 2026 it asked for a ministerial meeting at the convention on Columbia and Western maintenance. By August it had been told the resolution “will not be brought forward for consideration at UBCM,” and that its request for a meeting with the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship was denied.¹⁴

On 9 September 2026 the board endorsed a joint letter to Minister Neill. Its signatories are the Area C director, two Christina Lake community and tourism organisations, the Christina Lake Trail Alliance and the BC Powersports Dealers Association.¹³

Page 1 of a joint letter dated September 3, 2026 to the Honourable Randene Neill, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, from the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary Area C Christina Lake Director Grace McGregor, two Christina Lake community and tourism organisations whose names are obscured here, the Christina Lake Trail Alliance and the BC Powersports Dealers Association, regarding the Columbia and Western Rail Trail and Selkirk District corridor-management practices. It says the section was removed from the Recreation Sites and Trails BC portfolio because the standards required to accommodate ongoing industry use exceeded that program's operational and financial capacity, that a commitment was made at the time that an appropriate management framework would be established, and that instead the corridor was left without a responsible provincial program or a clear transition process. It notes concerns raised about the Rady Creek and Incomappleux River forest service roads and says the issue may reflect a broader question about how corridor-retirement and decommissioning policies are applied within the Selkirk District. — Local government, community and tourism groups, trail volunteers and a powersports industry association, on one page. The section left the trail program **“because the standards required to accommodate ongoing industry use exceeded that program’s operational and financial capacity,”** and **“the corridor was left without a responsible provincial program or a clear transition process.”** The letter names the **Selkirk District** and the **Rady Creek** and **Incomappleux** roads.¹³

The letter asks for four things: a formal review of Selkirk District corridor practices, a ministry-convened stakeholder committee, an interim partnership agreement for the Columbia and Western “with provincial liability insurance coverage,” and the committee’s recommendations put into policy. The local groups are offering to do the work. They are asking for the authority and the insurance to do it.¹³

The public petition on change.org asking the Province to “reinstate proper management” of the section had 4,157 signatures on 10 October 2026. Its updates track the correspondence above. Every fact this page takes from them has been checked against the government letters and the regional district record.²³

The case the community makes is not only about tourism. Speaking to the Legislature’s finance committee in Castlegar on 15 June 2026, a Christina Lake community group said that in a 2024 wildfire beside Highway 3, the only road in and out of Christina Lake, the Columbia and Western was the fallback route for evacuation and for attacking the fire’s north flank. The only route to the Peter Verigin memorial at Farron, which the Doukhobor community still visits, lies along the same grade, the presenter said.²⁰¹⁰

Section 06Donegal Wilson has raised the Columbia & Western in print, with a minister and at committee. The Province’s position has not moved.

The member who represents the Christina Lake end of the trail has put a good deal on the public record about it. Donegal Wilson spent more than a decade as executive director of the BC Snowmobile Federation before she was elected in 2024. In July 2025, as MLA for Boundary-Similkameen, she published this on her constituency site, and the Grand Forks Gazette later ran it as an op-ed in August.¹⁸

**Donegal Wilson**, MLA for Boundary-Similkameen · constituency post, 21 July 2025

Donegal Wilson's constituency post dated July 21, headed Don't let the TransCanada Trail slip away, it's time for BC to step up. It says the BC sections of the Trans Canada Trail once stood as a promise when the corridor was given to the Province of British Columbia in 2004; that in her riding of Boundary-Similkameen this promise is being broken in plain sight; that in 2020 Recreation Sites and Trails BC quietly walked away from a 67-kilometre section of the Columbia Western Rail Trail between Castlegar and Christina Lake, citing difficult terrain, unmanageable numbers of visitors and high maintenance costs, and that since then there has been no plan, no budget and no responsible stewardship; and that instead of proper maintenance the Province will post hazard signs warning of unsafe trestles, rockfalls and collapsing tunnels. — The post that put the 2020 decision back in front of the public, five years after it was made: **“Today, in my riding of Boundary-Similkameen, this promise is being broken in plain sight.”** The reasons she lists are her summary; the Province’s 2020 wording was “challenging terrain, multiple uses and complex infrastructure.”¹⁸⁰¹

She followed it up across the next year. In May 2026 she wrote that she had met the Minister of Environment and Parks with Director McGregor about this section, because “responsibility for this trail spans multiple ministries and agencies,” and that she was “pushing for a more coordinated, cross ministry approach.” As deputy chair of the finance committee she raised it at its Castlegar hearing on 15 June 2026.¹⁹²⁰

Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services · Budget 2027 consultation, Castlegar Monday 15 June 2026 · draft transcript

Donegal Wilson, Deputy Chair“…this section of Columbia and Western Rail Trail really does highlight the three things you brought forward, specifically how a key section of the Trans Canada Trail, our national asset, has reverted to a wilderness status that is not even registered as a recreation feature, let alone allows anyone to work on it.”

Question to a Christina Lake community group’s presenter · that morning, at the committee’s earlier hearing in Kelowna, she had told the members: “as MLA for Boundary-Similkameen, I have both the section between Castlegar and Christina Lake as well as the section between Princeton and Brookmere.”

Two limits belong beside that record. None of it was on the floor of the House: she spoke twice there about the Kettle Valley Rail Trail in February 2026, and the Columbia and Western does not appear in any House debate, question period or estimates exchange of the 43rd Parliament. And none of it has moved the Province. The Deputy Minister’s letter that refused to fund or manage the corridor was copied to her by name. The committee’s August 2026 report recommends funding to protect high-value recreation access roads in general, and does not mention the Columbia and Western.²⁴¹¹²²

One more piece of precision. In February 2026 she wrote that the section between Christina Lake and Castlegar “has also been closed.” The Province says it “remains open to the public at the users’ own risk.” What she described is the end of maintenance, not a closure order. Her record, including her Rady Creek questions, is set out in full in its own piece.²⁴¹¹

Section 07Who is responsible: the seven candidates on this trail, the three ministers, and what each has said

Seven people are on the ballot on 24 October in the two ridings the grade crosses. Below is what each has said or done about the Columbia and Western in public, and where we looked when we found nothing. The same test is applied to every name, from every party.²⁶²⁸

Boundary-Similkameen · 24.4 km

Donegal WilsonConservative · MLA since 2024

Op-ed, July 2025; met the Environment and Parks minister, by May 2026; raised it at the finance committee, June 2026. She has not raised it in the House, and the Province’s position has not changed.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰

Roly RussellBC NDP · MLA 2020–2024

Held the seat from October 2020, three months after the order was signed, until 2024. We found no public statement from him on the corridor in that time or since.²⁸

Keith PomeroyOneBC · has not held office

We found no public statement on the corridor.²⁸

Kootenay-Monashee · 41.4 km

Steve MorissetteBC NDP · MLA since 2024

Raised its tunnels and trestles at two finance committee hearings in June 2025. After touring it with Minister Neill on 5 August 2026, he said the aim was to “explore solutions to maintaining the much loved trail.” He has not raised it in the House either, and no solution for the trail has been announced since.²⁵¹³²⁴

Warren MirkoConservative · has not held office

Wrote two op-eds in 2025 as executive director of the Public Land Use Society. The society endorses the petition.²¹

Connie LarochelleBC Green · has not held office

We found no public statement on the corridor.²⁸

Stephen HillOneBC · has not held office

We found no public statement on the corridor.²⁸

The ministers, who remain in office during the campaign

Randene NeillWater, Land and Resource Stewardship

Her Deputy Minister refused funding and management on 1 December 2025; she toured the grade on 5 August 2026. We found no public statement from her on the corridor.¹¹¹⁷²⁵²⁸

Ravi ParmarForests

Copied on the 1 December 2025 letter. His ministry’s Selkirk district issued a new road permit on the grade in March 2026. We found no public statement from him on the corridor.¹¹⁰⁹²⁸

Tamara DavidsonEnvironment and Parks · RSTBC

Copied on the 1 December 2025 letter; met Wilson and Director McGregor about it, by Wilson’s account. We found no public statement from her on the corridor.¹¹¹⁹²⁸

The offices

SNRDSelkirk Natural Resource DistrictMinistry of Forests · Nelson

Every kilometre of the grade lies in this district. It issues the road permits on it, and its engineers respond to “immediate environmental or safety issues” on the grade.⁰⁸¹⁰

RDKBRegional District of Kootenay BoundaryArea C Christina Lake · Area B

Resolutions 251-25 and 333-26, and a UBCM resolution that was not brought forward. Directors McGregor and Worley have been on the record since July 2025.¹⁴¹³¹²

RDCKRegional District of Central Kootenay41.2 km of the grade

Joined the RDKB in a joint media release in July 2025, according to the RDKB minutes. We found no resolution of the RDCK board’s own on the Columbia and Western.¹⁴²⁸

Portraits: Steve Morissette, Legislative Assembly of British Columbia; Randene Neill, Ravi Parmar and Tamara Davidson, official ministerial portraits; Stephen Hill, My Kootenay Now; every other candidate, their party’s own candidate page. Party marks from each party’s website.

Two of those records deserve to be quoted, from opposite benches. Steve Morissette, the government member for the eastern 41 kilometres, put the problem plainly to the finance committee in June 2025.²⁵

**Steve Morissette**, MLA for Kootenay-Monashee · Finance committee, Victoria · 19 June 2025

He went back to it after the minister’s August visit. His caucus release of 11 August 2026 said the tour with a local expert was a chance to “learn the challenges and explore solutions to maintaining the much loved trail.” No solution has been announced since, and the Province’s position is the one in its December letter.²⁵¹¹

Warren Mirko, the Conservative running against him, wrote in November 2025 as head of the Public Land Use Society that Water, Land and Resource Stewardship had sent the petition organisers a single reply saying the matter fell outside its responsibility. The brief filed with the regional district records a similar referral from that ministry to Forests in August 2025; his own public record is set out in a separate piece.²¹¹³

**Warren Mirko**, Executive Director, Public Land Use Society · opinion, *Trail Times* · 26 November 2025

Minister Neill’s own words on access in general are on the record too. In May 2025 she told the House: “The very last thing we’re going to do is turn the back country off from folks who love to use it.” After her tour in August 2026, her ministry told My Kootenay Now that organisations wanting to manage the corridor “are encouraged to pursue Crown land authorizations.”¹⁶¹⁷

Section 08From recreation trail to “wilderness”: the Columbia & Western, in order

1990
Canadian Pacific removes the rails between Midway and Castlegar.⁰³
2004
The Trans Canada Trail organisation transfers the grade to the Province, intending a recreational trail.⁰⁵
7 Mar 2011
The Province establishes the corridor as a recreation trail under the Forest and Range Practices Act.⁰⁸
Jul–Aug 2019
Recreation Sites and Trails BC consults on cancelling the designation; TCT and Trails BC object, and ATV BC supports it with a maintenance regime.⁰⁴⁰⁵⁰⁶
6 Jul 2020
Ministerial Order M322 removes the 67 km from the trail network.⁰²
16 Jul 2020
The Province promises year-round recreation, and maintenance standards for itself and forest licensees.⁰¹⁰⁷
17 Jul 2020
A ministry spokesperson says the part without road permits will stay “non-status for the time being.”⁰⁷
Jun 2021
The Forest Practices Board records that the trail agency had no funding, staff or asset system to repair it.⁰³
27 Jun 2025
The community is told the section is managed to “wilderness status”, with no funds since 2020.¹⁰
Jul 2025
The petition opens, Wilson’s op-ed is published and the regional district board passes resolution 251-25.²³¹⁸¹⁴
1 Dec 2025
The Deputy Minister writes that the Province is “unable to fund or manage” the non-status corridor.¹¹
9 Mar 2026
A new industrial road permit is awarded on 3.36 km of the grade.⁰⁹
15 Jun 2026
The Legislature’s finance committee hears the case at Castlegar.²⁰
5 Aug 2026
Minister Neill tours the grade with Steve Morissette and local officials.¹³¹⁷
26 Aug 2026
The RDKB is told its resolution will not go to the UBCM floor.¹⁴
9 Sep 2026
The RDKB endorses the joint letter asking for an interim partnership agreement.¹³
24 Oct 2026
British Columbia votes.²⁶

The ask: name the office that owns the 42 kilometres, and publish the structure survey before anything is torn out

The Province has already said what it will decide next: the “future use, remediation measures and/or deactivation of structures or sections of the rail grade.” No such decision has been published yet, which is exactly why there is still time to ask.¹¹

Name a lead ministry and a budget line. The 2020 bulletin promised maintenance and management standards for the Province and forest licensees. Six years later no ministry will say the 42 kilometres without a permit are its responsibility. A minister has to assign them to an office in government and give that office the budget it needs to keep them.⁰¹¹¹

Publish the structure survey, and take comments, before any trestle or tunnel is touched. The Selkirk district has published prescriptions for some of the forest service roads it deactivates. A rail grade on the Trans Canada Trail, with a kilometre-long tunnel on it, deserves at least that much.¹¹

Answer the regional district’s letter. An interim partnership agreement with liability coverage, the thing the Christina Lake groups and a powersports industry association have asked for, has been waiting on the minister’s desk since 3 September 2026.¹³

Write to them·Take five minutes

The questions are already written. They just need your name on them.

This goes to the three ministers who each hold a piece of the corridor and to the Selkirk district office, copying every candidate in Boundary-Similkameen and Kootenay-Monashee who publishes an address. Warren Mirko’s candidate page publishes none, so reach him through his party. Edit it, add a line about how you use the trail, and send it yourself.

01Press Open your email app — a draft opens, addressed and written
02Press Copy the letter for the full version shown below
03Add your name and community, then send it yourself

New Message

To:Minister of Water, Land and Resource StewardshipWLRS.Minister@gov.bc.caMinister of ForestsFOR.Minister@gov.bc.caMinister of Environment and ParksENV.Minister@gov.bc.caSelkirk Natural Resource DistrictFOR.SelkirkDistrictOffice@gov.bc.ca

Cc:Donegal Wilsondonegal.wilson@conservativebc.caRoly Russell campaigninfo@bds-bcndp.caKeith Pomeroykeith.pomeroy@1bc.caSteve Morissette campaigninfo@kom-bcndp.caConnie Larochelleteamlarochelle@bcgreens.caStephen Hillstephen.hill@1bc.caBackcountry Coalitioncontact@backcountry.cxIf you keep the copy to contact@backcountry.cx, we will see your name and email address and use them for nothing else; delete that line if you’d rather we didn’t.

Subject:Columbia & Western Rail Trail: who is responsible for the 42 km the Province says it cannot fund or manage?

To the Ministers of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, Forests, and Environment and Parks, to the Selkirk Natural Resource District, and to every candidate in Boundary-Similkameen and Kootenay-Monashee,

In July 2020 the Province removed the recreation-trail designation from 67 km of the Columbia & Western Rail Trail between Fife and Castlegar. It said the section would “remain part of The Great Trail” and be “available for recreational purposes year-round,” with “maintenance and management standards for the Province and forest licensees to follow.” On 1 December 2025 the Deputy Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship wrote that “the Province is unable to fund or manage the non-status corridor.”

Please answer five questions:

1. Which ministry, and which office, is responsible today for the roughly 42 km of the grade that carry no road permit?

2. Where are the maintenance and management standards that were promised in the 2020 bulletin, and who was assigned to write them?

3. Before any trestle, tunnel or section is deactivated, will you publish the structure assessments and take public comment?

4. What do road permits R08714, R07723 and R25142 require of their holders on the grade, and when was each last inspected?

5. Will you grant the interim partnership agreement with liability coverage that the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary endorsed on 9 September 2026?

To the candidates: if elected, will you commit to naming a lead ministry and a budget line for this section of the trail within your first year?

The record: https://backcountry.cx/editorials/trans-canada-trail-christina-lake/

[How you use the trail.]

[Your name]
[Your community]

Edit it before you send. The bracketed lines are yours.

The Province kept the part of the 2020 promise that industry needed. The trail is still waiting for the rest.

Share this story

Six images that carry the Columbia & Western story on their own, from the 2020 promise and the 2025 letter to the numbers, the candidates and the ask. Made to be posted.

Suggested caption

The B.C. NDP government promised this stretch of the Trans Canada Trail would stay open year-round. Randene Neill’s ministry now says it can neither fund nor manage it.

In July 2020 the Province took the recreation-trail designation off 67 km of the Columbia & Western Rail Trail between Fife, just above Christina Lake, and Castlegar, so logging companies could hold road permits on the old rail grade. It said the section would remain part of The Great Trail and be available for recreation year-round, with maintenance and management standards for the Province and forest licensees.

On 1 December 2025 the Deputy Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship wrote that the corridor became “vacant Crown land” managed to a “wilderness” status with no maintenance funding, and that “the Province is unable to fund or manage” it. She copied three ministers and three MLAs.

The Province’s own registers show about 24 km under industrial road permits, one of them awarded in March 2026. The other 42 km, with the tunnels and trestles closest to Castlegar, are still “non-status for the time being,” six years after a ministry spokesperson first said it.

Three ministries each hold a piece of it: Water, Land and Resource Stewardship owns the land, Forests says the grade is not a forest service road, and Recreation Sites and Trails BC took it off its list. The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, Christina Lake groups and the BC Powersports Dealers Association have asked for an interim partnership agreement with liability coverage.

Donegal Wilson has raised it in an op-ed, with the environment minister and at the finance committee. Steve Morissette raised its tunnels and trestles at committee and toured it with the lands minister. Seven candidates are on the ballot on this trail. Ask them who owns it.

Backcountry Coalition is independent. This article is not authorized by any party or candidate.

backcountry.cx/editorials/trans-canada-trail-christina-lake/

#BCpoli #TransCanadaTrail #ChristinaLake #Castlegar #Kootenays #RailTrail

Sources

↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩BC Gov News, Information Bulletin, “Designation change to help manage former rail corridor.” Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, Castlegar, Thursday 16 July 2020, 11:15 AM, release 2020FLNR0042-001298, read as served on 10 October 2026. Quoted verbatim: the 67-kilometre section “will remain part of The Great Trail (formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail) and will be available for recreational purposes year-round”; “resource-road use permitting for limited industrial use of the corridor can be introduced, as well as the implementation of maintenance and management standards for the Province and forest licensees to follow”; the reasons, “challenging terrain, multiple uses and complex infrastructure”; the extent, “from Castlegar to a former railway stop near Fife, about two kilometres north of Christina Lake”; and “if a road permit is issued to a logging company, that company would be required to undertake and pay for maintenance on the section of the route covered by that permit.” No minister is quoted. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020FLNR0042-001298
↩↩↩↩↩↩Ministerial Order M322, “Recreation Trail Variance in the Selkirk Forest District.” Order of the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development under Forest and Range Practices Act s. 56(1)(b): “order the map dated February 25, 2011 for the recreation project listed below, is deleted and replaced with the new map attached to this order.” Project Rec 31979, “Spirit of 2010”, Recreation Trail, new map dated 3 July 2020. Signed 6 July 2020 by Matt Austin, Assistant Deputy Minister, as authorized signatory for Minister Doug Donaldson. Donaldson was Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development in the B.C. NDP government of Premier John Horgan; he held the portfolio until November 2020. Page 2 is Exhibit ‘A’, the Spirit of 2010 trail network map with a Columbia & Western Rail Trail inset; on it the route north of Christina Lake is drawn as a thin green dash rather than the heavy trail line. Read from BC Laws on 10 October 2026. https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/mo/mo/m0322_2020
↩↩↩↩↩↩Forest Practices Board, Motorized and Industrial Use of the Columbia and Western Rail Trail, Complaint Investigation #19077, FPB/IRC/238, June 2021. Quoted verbatim: the complaint concerned “a 67-kilometre stretch of the railway corridor between Fife and Castlegar”, which “features close to 200 structures including tunnels, bridges, culverts and retaining walls”; “In 1990, the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CP Rail) removed the ties and rails”; “In 2004, TCT transferred ownership of the trail to Tourism BC”; “The first two kilometres of the trail, at the Castlegar end, is on private land owned by CP Rail”; RSTBC “recognized that it did not have funding, staff or asset management systems in place to repair it”; “On July 6, 2020, government cancelled the recreation trail designation on the CWRT. The CWRT is now a non-status road, except for sections that are under some type of authorization such as a road permit”; and “Motorized use of the CWRT has never been prohibited.” Table 1 lists five industrial-use authorizations issued 2017–2019 to BC Timber Sales, Interfor and Mercer Celgar. The complainant is a private resident and is not named here. The Board found the recreation officer’s authorizations reasonable and Interfor’s culvert work compliant. https://www.bcfpb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/IRC238-CWRT.pdf
↩↩↩CBC News, “Recreation groups slam provincial plan to turn 67 km of Kootenay trail into road,” 15 August 2019. Quotes the 2019 consultation letter from the director of Recreation Sites and Trails BC, John Hawkings: “The proposed change reflects local interests and supports access for industrial activity” and “The province does not expect that this administrative change would impact the Great Trail designation.” Also records the Trails Society of BC’s objection and comment closing 26 August 2019. Trails BC’s own release of 9 August 2019, mirrored by the Federation of Mountain Clubs of BC, says RSTBC “is proposing to cancel the recreation trail designation for a 67km section … and turn it into a road tenure.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/trail-castlegar-road-great-trail-rail-grade-bc-1.5246971
↩↩↩↩↩Trans Canada Trail, “Roadways to greenways, not the other way round,” 23 August 2019. The organisation’s response to the proposal: “deeply concerned and disappointed”; the section “was donated to TCT by Canadian Pacific Railway” and transferred to the Government of British Columbia in 2004 “with the expressed intention that it would be used and managed as a recreational trail”; TCT “also provided funding” for its development under the Spirit of 2010 project; and removal “should not be considered a viable option.” Read 10 October 2026. We found no 2025 or 2026 statement on the section on TCT’s own site; its 1 October 2026 release on trail maintenance funding does not mention British Columbia. https://tctrail.ca/news/roadways-to-greenways-not-the-other-way-round/
↩↩Quad Riders ATV Association of BC (ATV BC), letter to the Hon. Doug Donaldson, 21 August 2019. “ATVBC supports the Ministry proposal of an administrative transfer, to cancel the recreation trail designation” and “acknowledges and supports the need for a sustainable maintenance regime to maintain the extensive infrastructure including engineered structures such as steel trestles, hard rock tunnels, and bridges.” Its post of 21 September 2019 repeats the support. We found no 2025 or 2026 statement from ATV BC of its own on the section; a brief filed with the regional district lists it among groups that sought stewardship talks in July 2025 (source 13). https://atvbc.ca/atvbc-supports-ministry-proposal-for-columbia-western-rail-trail/
↩↩↩↩↩Castlegar News, “67 kilometres of Columbia and Western Trail reclassified as ‘resource road’,” 17 July 2020. Reports that a Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development spokesperson said in an email that 20 of the 67 kilometres were under road permits, with about six more likely to be added, and that the remainder would remain “non-status for the time being”; and that where permits are in place the permit holder owns liability, while elsewhere liability falls to the Crown. Read from the Internet Archive copy. https://web.archive.org/web/20200807084920/https://www.castlegarnews.com/news/67-kilometres-of-columbia-and-western-rail-reclassified-as-resource-road/
↩↩↩↩↩The trail itself, from the Province’s recreation tenure register, measured against the Province’s boundary maps. WHSE_FOREST_TENURE.FTEN_RECREATION_LINES_SVW, file REC262855, “Columbia and Western Rail Trail (CWR)”, established 7 March 2011, district DSE, queried 10 October 2026. Section CHR-CAS 1, Recreation Trail Established, ACTIVE, 5.794 km north from Fife. Section CHR-CAS 2, Recreation Trail Reserve, RETIRED, retirement date 20 May 2021, 65,908 m, from 49.1091, −118.2128 to 49.3353, −117.8098 near the Hugh Keenleyside Dam. The splits are computed, not assumed: each segment of that line was tested against the gazetted electoral district polygons (EBC_PROV_ELECTORAL_DIST_SVW, boundary set 11, 7 December 2023), the regional district polygons and the natural resource district polygons, giving Boundary-Similkameen 24.4 km and Kootenay-Monashee 41.4 km; Kootenay Boundary 24.6 km and Central Kootenay 41.2 km; and Selkirk Natural Resource District for all of it. The riding line crosses near Farron. Two limits carried: the register’s retirement date is ten months after the order, and it keeps 5.8 km north of Fife as established trail where the 2020 bulletin describes the section as starting “near Fife”; neither is interpreted here. Figure 01 is drawn from these records with Freshwater Atlas lakes and rivers, in a local equirectangular projection that is accurate at this scale but is not a survey. https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/recreation-line
↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩Road permits on the grade, from the Province’s road tenure register. WHSE_FOREST_TENURE.FTEN_ROAD_SECTION_LINES_SVW, queried by file and matched to the CHR-CAS 2 line on 10 October 2026. Active: R08714 AF “RAIL TRAIL”, Interfor Corporation, 14.112 km, permit award date 16 June 2003; R07723 DZ “RAIL GRADE”, Interfor Corporation, 6.573 km, permit award date 1 September 1995; R25142 10 “ARPL RAILGRADE”, a private contractor, 3.36 km, award 9 March 2026, expiry 8 March 2028. Retired on the same 10.1 km: R23949 05, Porcupine Wood Products Ltd., 20 July 2022 to 20 December 2023; R24383 05, Kalesnikoff Timber Holdings Ltd., 14 March 2024 to 2 June 2026. Limits carried: the award date is the permit’s, and a section on the grade may have been added by later amendment; the register publishes no maintenance conditions or inspection records, so none are described. https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/forest-tenure-road-section-lines
↩↩↩↩↩↩Castlegar News (Black Press), “Petition calls for restoration of trail stewardship near Christina Lake,” Karen McKinley, 17 July 2025. Reports a letter dated 27 June 2025 from the Director of Authorizations for the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship and the Ministry of Forests: the section “will be returned to ‘wilderness status’”; signs to warn of “potential rock falls and unstable conditions”; work only if “there is an environmental or safety issue”; “no funds allocated to this trail since” 2020; and “Selkirk Resources District engineering staff will be responding to any immediate environmental or safety issues.” Also quotes the 2019 consultation letter, “Public use and access are expected to remain as they have been if the change is approved,” alongside its Great Trail sentence that CBC quoted in 2019 (source 4); and a letter from RDKB Area B Director Linda Worley that the trail is the only access for “76 residences in the areas of Coykendahl, Brooklyn, Renata, and Shields,” and to the Peter Verigin memorial. The 27 June letter itself has not been obtained. Read from the Internet Archive copy of 19 July 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20250719233405/https://www.castlegarnews.com/home/petition-calls-for-restoration-of-trail-stewardship-near-christina-lake-8139174
↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩Letter of Lori Halls, Deputy Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, to the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, 1 December 2025, reference 47432. Printed in full in the RDKB Board of Directors agenda for 10 December 2025, pages 52–53 of 201, under the consent agenda item for correspondence. Sent from WLRS.DMO@gov.bc.ca and copied to FOR.Minister, ENV.Minister and MLAs Steve Morissette, Brittny Anderson and Donegal Wilson; the pc list names the Hon. Ravi Parmar, the Hon. Tamara Davidson, Steve Morissette, the Hon. Brittny Anderson and Donegal Wilson. Quoted verbatim: “Currently, there are no plans for additional changes on this non-status rail grade”; the section “lost all designations. At that time, it became vacant Crown land with a linear structure managed to a ‘wilderness’ status, with no maintenance funding available”; “Since it was never a Forest Service Road, it does not fit the Ministry of Forests’ Engineering Funding Policy; therefore, it is not eligible for expenditures beyond emergency works”; work “will not result in repairs to the trail”; structural information will inform “future use, remediation measures and/or deactivation of structures or sections of the rail grade”; most private land along the grade “is titled as water-access only”, with egress via the Bulldog and Shields forest service roads; and “Currently, the Province is unable to fund or manage the non-status corridor … However, the corridor remains open to the public at the users’ own risk.” https://rdkb.civicweb.net/document/197053/
↩My Kootenay Now, “RDKB still fighting for Columbia & Western rail trail,” Greg Nesteroff, 29 December 2025. Reports the regional district’s response to the Deputy Minister’s letter: Board chair and Christina Lake director Grace McGregor “wasn’t happy with the answer” and wanted resolutions taken to the Association of Kootenay Boundary Local Governments and UBCM; Area B director Linda Worley said the trail “is about history” and the in-kind work of residents, volunteers and companies. https://www.mykootenaynow.com/70441/news/municipal-news/rdkb-municipal-news/rdkb-not-done-fighting-for-columbia-western-rail-trail/
↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩RDKB Board of Directors agenda, 9 September 2026, item 11.g, “Request for Support: Columbia and Western Rail Trail,” and minutes of the same meeting. Pages 358–360 are the joint letter of 3 September 2026 to the Hon. Randene Neill from the RDKB Area C Director, two Christina Lake community and tourism organisations, the Christina Lake Trail Alliance and the BC Powersports Dealers Association, asking for a formal review of Selkirk District corridor practices, a ministry-convened stakeholder committee, an interim partnership agreement “with provincial liability insurance coverage”, and implementation through policy. Pages 377–380 are a Christina Lake community group’s brief to the regional district, whose chronology records that on 13 August 2025 “WLRS advised BC Powersports that stewardship and restoration of the CWRT fell under the Ministry of Forests”; that a WLRS letter of 20 March 2026 said RSTBC “could consider future re-establishment” and Forests “would address imminent hazards but not proactively maintain or repair the corridor”; and that on 5 August 2026 “The CWRT was toured with the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, MLA Steve Morissette, local government representatives and ministry staff.” Those letters are attributed to the brief; the August 2025 and March 2026 letters themselves have not been seen. The minutes record resolution 333-26, CARRIED, endorsing the letter. Signatories who are private individuals are not named here. https://rdkb.civicweb.net/document/210191/
↩↩↩↩↩↩↩RDKB Board minutes and committee records, July 2025 to August 2026. 30 July 2025, item 11.j: Director McGregor said the trail “is an alternate route out of Christina Lake and is important for fuel mitigation”; Director Worley called it “an important emergency route for residents on the west side of Lower Arrow Lake”; resolution 251-25, CARRIED, to urge the Province “to reverse its decision to designate the Columbia and Western Rail Trail as a non-status rail grade.” The minutes record a joint media release from the RDKB, the RDCK, the Columbia and Western Community Society and a Christina Lake community group, whose text was not found. 27 August 2025: McGregor “encouraged everyone to sign the petition.” 27 May 2026: resolution 226-26 requests a UBCM ministerial meeting on Columbia and Western Rail Trail maintenance. 26 August 2026: correspondence includes “Denial of UBCM Meeting Request – Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Management” and “Notice that the Columbia and Western Rail Trail resolution will not be brought forward for consideration at UBCM.” My Grand Forks Now, 31 July 2025, reports McGregor: “Once we start this it doesn’t end. Next thing you know, none of us have a trail.” https://rdkb.civicweb.net/
↩↩↩BC Gov News, “Decommissioning damaged section of Kettle Valley Rail Trail near Princeton,” Ministry of Environment and Parks, 6 February 2026. “Since 2017, the Province has invested approximately $27 million into maintaining and improving rail trails in BC Parks and segments managed by Recreation Sites and Trails BC”, including “Resurfacing 15 km of non-motorized designated rail trail between Grand Forks and Christina Lake costing $500,000” and “Major repairs totalling $12.3 million”; decommissioning the Princeton section is estimated at $20 million, mostly federally funded; and the rail trails RSTBC manages include “portions of the Columbia and Western Rail Trail between Christina Lake and Midway.” https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026ENV0005-000120
↩↩Hansard, 43rd Parliament, First Session, Issue 59, morning sitting of Thursday 8 May 2025, Oral Questions. The Hon. Randene Neill, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, answering a question on back-country closures: “Back-country use is not being turned off at an alarming rate — in fact, not at all” and “The very last thing we’re going to do is turn the back country off from folks who love to use it.” The question was not about the Columbia and Western. Estimates transcripts of 2025 and 2026 place Recreation Sites and Trails BC in the Ministry of Environment and Parks. https://lims.leg.bc.ca/hdms/file/Debates/43rd1st/20250508am-Hansard-n59.html
↩↩↩↩My Kootenay Now, “Area politician optimistic after minister tours Columbia and Western,” Greg Nesteroff, 14 August 2026. Reports that the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship toured part of the trail that month; quotes Area B Director Linda Worley that the minister was “very receptive”; and quotes the ministry by email: “Organizations interested in managing all or part of the corridor are encouraged to pursue Crown land authorizations under the Land act or the Forest and Range Practices Act.” https://www.mykootenaynow.com/75886/news/community/recreation/area-politician-optimistic-after-minister-tours-columbia-and-western-trail/
↩↩↩↩Donegal Wilson, “Don’t let the TransCanada Trail slip away — it’s time for BC to step up,” donegalwilsonmla.ca, 21 July 2025. Page metadata dates it 21 July 2025; the Internet Archive holds copies from 31 July 2025. Signed “MLA for Boundary-Similkameen and a long-time advocate for enhancing outdoor recreation opportunities in BC.” Quoted verbatim: “Today, in my riding of Boundary-Similkameen, this promise is being broken in plain sight” and “In 2020, Recreation Sites and Trails BC quietly walked away from a 67-kilometre section of the Columbia Western Rail Trail (CWRT) between Castlegar and Christina Lake. They cited excuses such as, difficult terrain, unmanageable numbers of visitors, and high maintenance costs. Since then, there has been no plan, no budget, and no responsible stewardship.” Republished as an op-ed by the Grand Forks Gazette on 27 August 2025. Her years as executive director of the BC Snowmobile Federation are from her party biography; we found no item on the Columbia and Western among the BC Snowmobile Federation’s published articles. https://www.donegalwilsonmla.ca/news/dont-let-the-transcanada-trail-slip-away-its-time-for-bc-to-step-up
↩↩↩↩Donegal Wilson, “Working Across Ministries to Protect the Columbia Western Rail Trail,” donegalwilsonmla.ca, 11 May 2026. “Recently, I met with Minister Davidson alongside Regional District of Kootenay Boundary Director Grace McGregor to discuss the section of the Columbia Western Rail Trail between Christina Lake and Castlegar”; “responsibility for this trail spans multiple ministries and agencies”; “we are pushing for a more coordinated, cross ministry approach.” The post does not give the date of the meeting. https://www.donegalwilsonmla.ca/news/working-across-ministries-to-protect-the-columbia-western-rail-trail
↩↩↩↩Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, Budget 2027 consultation, Castlegar and Kelowna, 15 June 2026, draft transcripts. Castlegar: Donegal Wilson, Deputy Chair, quoted in Section 06; a Christina Lake community group’s presentation, including the 2024 wildfire beside Highway 3, the Peter Verigin memorial at Farron reachable only along the grade, and its statement that the Christina Lake Trail Alliance was formed in 2023. The Chair welcomed Steve Morissette, MLA for Kootenay-Monashee, as a guest. Kelowna: Wilson, “as MLA for Boundary-Similkameen, I have both the section between Castlegar and Christina Lake as well as the section between Princeton and Brookmere.” The presenter is a private individual and is not named here. https://lims.leg.bc.ca/hdms/file/Committees/43rd2nd/fgs/20260615pm-Finance-Castlegar-Blues.htm
↩↩Warren Mirko, Executive Director, Public Land Use Society, “Opinion: Accountability for trail collapse must start with local MLAs,” Trail Times and Castlegar News, 26 November 2025; and “When provincial promises collapse, public infrastructure follows,” Northern Beat, 15 September 2025. Quoted verbatim from the first: “Instead, petition organizers received only a single response from Water, Land & Resource Stewardship Minister Randene Neill. She claimed the issue fell outside of her responsibility”. The same piece says local MLAs Steve Morissette and Brittny Anderson “have remained silent”; that is his opinion, attributed. Both pieces cite freedom-of-information records that have not been seen. The Public Land Use Society’s site endorses the petition (source 23). Mirko is the Conservative candidate in Kootenay-Monashee; his candidate page publishes no email address. https://trailtimes.ca/2025/11/26/opinion-accountability-for-trail-collapse-must-start-with-local-mlas/
↩Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, Report on the Budget 2027 Consultation, August 2026. Recommendation 17: “Provide dedicated funding to assess and protect high-value recreation access roads prior to deactivation where recreation, tourism, emergency access, or community value remains.” The report does not name the Columbia and Western. Wilson was Deputy Chair. https://api.lims.leg.bc.ca/pcms/file/23211/Report_Consultation_Budget-2027%202.pdf
↩↩A public petition on change.org, “Restore Stewardship of the CWRT/Trans-Canada Trail: Christina Lake-Castlegar BC.” Created 8 July 2025. 4,157 signatures of a 5,000 goal when read on 10 October 2026. It asks the Province to “reinstate proper management” of the section, to undertake “detailed engineering and geotechnical assessments of critical structures such as trestles and tunnels”, and to “Honour its 2019 commitment to protect public access.” Updates were posted on 4 February, 26 May and 22 July 2026. Claims in them were used here only where a government letter or the regional district record confirms them. https://www.change.org/p/restore-stewardship-of-the-cwrt-trans-canada-trail-christina-lake-castlegar-bc
↩↩↩The House record, and what is not there. Hansard, 43rd Parliament, Second Session: Issue 122, 23 February 2026, budget debate, “We could repair the Kettle Valley Rail Trail in Princeton”; Issue 123, 24 February 2026, members’ statement “Kettle Valley Rail Trail”, proposing “the province’s first lineal provincial park.” Her constituency post of 26 February 2026, “Standing up for the Kettle Valley Rail Trail”, says “another section between Christina Lake and Castlegar has also been closed.” The search behind the negative: all 188 House transcripts of the 43rd Parliament, issues 1–188, 18 February 2025 to 28 May 2026, read for “Columbia and Western”, “Columbia Western”, “Columbia & Western”, “Christina Lake” and “Trans Canada Trail”, and the Legislature’s own full-text search for both Parliaments: no House debate, question period or estimates exchange names the Columbia and Western. Every mention is in finance committee consultations. https://lims.leg.bc.ca/hdms/file/Debates/43rd2nd/20260224am-Hansard-n123.html
↩↩↩↩Steve Morissette at the finance committee, June 2025, and in his caucus release of 11 August 2026. Penticton, 9 June 2025, Issue 15: “We’ve got a significant rail trail in my riding, and it joins on to my neighbour in Boundary-Similkameen as well. I’m hearing lots of rumbling of there being safety issues with tunnels, with trestles, etc., which are going to cost a fortune to maintain safely.” Victoria, 19 June 2025, Issue 25, to the Trans Canada Trail’s presenter: “You mentioned the Kettle Valley trail, which connects to the Columbia and Western trail in my area. Being an old rail trail, it’s challenging because of, like you say, climate events, and so on. Several portions of it have slid away without maintenance, and there are tunnels and trestles that need maintenance that are not cheap.” His tour of 5 August 2026 is recorded in source 13. A BC NDP caucus release of 11 August 2026, “MLAs Morissette and Anderson host Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship Minister,” reprinted by the Rossland Telegraph the same day, quotes him: “It was a pleasure to be joined by Minister Neill as we connected with local activists and leaders and participate in a tour of the Columbia and Western Trail with a local expert to learn the challenges and explore solutions to maintaining the much loved trail.” The same release quotes Minister Neill on her week-long interior tour but not on the trail itself. We found no solution announced, and no change in the Province’s position, between the release and 10 October 2026. https://lims.leg.bc.ca/hdms/file/Committees/43rd1st/fgs/20250619am-Finance-Victoria-n25.html
↩↩↩Elections BC, 2026 Provincial General Election candidate list. Final list after nominations closed on 3 October 2026, read 10 October 2026. Boundary-Similkameen: Keith Pomeroy (OneBC), Roly Russell (BC NDP), Donegal Wilson (Conservative Party). Kootenay-Monashee: Stephen Hill (OneBC), Connie Larochelle (BC Green Party), Warren Mirko (Conservative Party), Steve Morissette (BC NDP). Ministers continue in office until a new cabinet is sworn in. https://elections.bc.ca/2026election/2026-provincial-general-election-candidates.csv
↩Photograph, “Columbia and Western Railway Station at Cascade,” 1899. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. The card and first slide use “Railroad trestle bridge near Cascade, British Columbia, 1906”, a J. Howard A. Chapman postcard, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Other slides use a photograph of Christina Lake by Vxceprex, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Doug Donaldson’s portrait is his Legislative Assembly of British Columbia headshot; Randene Neill’s is her official portrait. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_and_Western_Railway_Station_at_Cascade.jpg
↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩Where we looked when we found nothing. For Roly Russell, Keith Pomeroy, Connie Larochelle and Stephen Hill, and for the ministers in their own names: the 43rd and 42nd Parliament Hansard through the Legislature’s search; finance committee transcripts 2021–2026; each candidate’s party page and campaign profile; Grand Forks Gazette, Castlegar News, Boundary Sentinel, Similkameen Spotlight, My Grand Forks Now, My Kootenay Now and Castanet coverage of the trail 2019–2026; BC Gov News releases 2019–2026; and the RDKB board record. A candidate who has not been asked has not refused. Every one of them can answer the five questions in the letter at the end of this page. https://www.leg.bc.ca/