After several months of construction, Westbank First Nation held a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new park on Boucherie Road Monday afternoon.
The new park is located along the beach at 1125 Boucherie Road, neighbouring a private WFN park. Chief Robert Louie said the land used for the park was all of the band land in the area, and they wanted to provide a public space for the community.
“These lands we know are valued in the millions of dollars,” Louie explained. “It doesn’t take much to go into that when you’re looking at beach land, but we think the long term benefits will certainly outweigh putting a single development Putting park land and community development is something we believe in, we believe that it’s environmentally sensitive and it makes sense to have a contiguous entry onto our neighbour’s properties.”
The park was funded entirely by WFN without any provincial or federal support, and had an infrastructure budget of about $325,000 plus labor and staff costs. The park serves as a significant upgrade over the rocky, poorly accessible beach that was there before as it added retaining walls, levelled land, lighting, bathrooms, benches and vegetation.
