Teams from the Kelowna and Vernon Hospitals partnership in British Columbia have ‘adopted’ the local section of Mill Creek, cleaning up refuse from the waterway to revitalise the local natural environment and improving the water for drinking and recreational use.
The city of Kelowna’s ‘Adopt-a-Stream’ programme helps protect and clean the area’s waterways, which provide a home to 85% of the local wildlife species, valuable breeding areas for fish, and affect the quality of the region’s drinking water.
During 2023, BBGI collaborated as part of a team at Kelowna and Vernon Hospitals (‘KVH’) Portfolio Company and enrolled in the scheme to help clean up and revitalise the section of Mill Creek that runs close to Kelowna General Hospital and close to the point where it enters Okanagan Lake.
Since then, the team and their partners at KVH have completed three extensive clean-ups with another planned in 2024 as part of its two-year commitment. So far over 26 hours of time has been voluntarily given by different teams from the hospital partnership, including the Interior Health Authority, P3, the service provider Black & McDonald; and the entire KVH team.
Each clean-up has included the removal of huge amounts of refuse from the waterway, such as bicycles, garden furniture, clothing, and luggage, as well as smaller items from the waterway. This initiative is part of a larger network of stream-clean-ups throughout the city, with 50 stream areas each being cleaned at least once per year.
Due to the enthusiastic feedback from everyone involved, the team is looking at extending its participation for another two years.
BBGI’s Portfolio Company, KVH, is the consortium chosen by Interior Health Authority to finance, design, construct, commission and deliver four new facilities between 2009 and 2012, including the 30 year maintenance and operations of these and the existing facilities.
The adopt-a-stream initiative has been very productive. The substantial amounts of large and small scape waste and refuse that has been removed by BBGI has greatly benefited the health and habitats of the local eco-system, which improves biodiversity as well as the water for drinking and recreation. Interior Health Authority Interior is happy to see our P3 partners contribute to this type of program and hope that they keep up the great work!
Todd Yaseniuk
Manager, P3 Operations
Your team is definitely eager and on-board!
Jane Jones
Parks Community Relations Coordinator, City of Kelowna
