Homeowners paying more toward cost of bug-control effort as farms disappear

15% drop in orchard acreage since 2012 means farmers now contribute fewer dollars to SIR program

Kelowna orchardists are paying a steadily smaller share of a bugcontrol program that protects their fruit trees.

That’s because the amount of farmland in the city devoted to fruit production is in long-term decline, dropping 15 per cent in just the past six years.

But homeowners are paying an increasing percentage of the sterile insect release program’s costs because their contributions are based on the value of their lots, which is generally rising.

The SIR program, which sees the rearing and release into orchards of sterile codling moths, is funded both by urbanites and farmers. It’s fair that both groups share the costs, officials say, given the overall benefits to the environment.

“A reduction in chemical sprays benefits the entire community through less environmental impact to the air, water, and soil quality, benefiting public health as well as producing quality fruit,” reads part of a city staff report that went to council on Monday.

For every acre of orchard he or she owns, a Kelowna farmer pays a tax of $139 toward SIR, a figure that hasn’t changed since 2010.

In 2012, the tax was applied to a total of 2,630 acres (1,064 hectares) of Kelowna orchards. Farmland under fruit cultivation has declined every year since then, to 2,291 acres (927 hectares) this year, a drop of about 15 per cent.

So, revenues from the farmers’ SIR parcel tax also dropped 15 per cent, from $366,000 to $319,000, between 2012 and 2018.

During the same period, however, a general tax on all other Kelowna properties yielded an increase in revenues from $700,000 to almost $740,000, to cover the SIR program’s increasing budget.

That’s partly because of a total increase in the number of properties, but also due to rising land values, on which the tax is based. The tax is this year charged at the rate of $4.10 per $100,000 of land value. It was $4.85 last year.

A similar funding mechanism is used in each of the four Okanagan regional districts where the SIR program operates.

In total, people in urban areas pay about two-thirds of the SIR program’s total annual costs of $3 million, while farmers pay 40 per cent.

The release of sterile moths over the past 25 years is credited with reducing the codling moth population by an estimated 90 per cent.

Daily Courier file photo Apple trees in blossom at a farm along Bedford Road in Kelowna are shown in this photo from 2016. Orchard cultivation in Kelowna has dropped 15 per cent in six years.