The Village of Canal Flats Council has approved the development of a visitors map pad and will be partnering with Fairmont Hot Springs Business Association to create a joint map.

Canal Flats will own their own copyright to their map, but will be added onto the existing map of Fairmont.

“I’m very pleased that Fairmont is going to work with us on that. I’m quite excited about it especially because they’re going to be picking up the cost of it this year so we are very grateful,” said Mayor Ute Juras.

The Canal Flats visitor map will include businesses in the community and six advertisement spaces — the community will also have access to an online version of the map.

At the council meeting held on Monday, March 13th, council discussed applying for Columbia Basin Trust funding during their map pad discussion. They were informed by Corporate Officer Sylvie Hoobanoff that funding would not become available until June. The maps are set to come out sometime in May so the Village won’t be able to pursue any grants to fund their own standalone map this year.

At the council meeting, Juras suggested they could begin to work towards creating their own map.

“We can get it moving, get the proofs done, get the quotes then get the maps in the summer,” said Juras.

Looking at a summer timeline, the Village would be able to apply for Columbia Basin Trust Initiatives to fund their own community map. Until Canal Flats can fun its own map pad, they will focus on working with Fairmont to finalize their joint visitor map.