Pioneer Your Future…Where New Beginnings Are The Soul Of Us
Columbia Lake Living
Water has a way of serving our souls. The 9th longest and 2nd largest by volume river in North America, the Columbia begins impressively in Canal Flats…as a 2 km x 14 km lake that is the warmest in the East Kootenay. Lounge. Swim. Boat. Or just stare at the peace of it in that way that has us breathe easier for life’s simple pleasures. Picnic or beach it at Tilley Memorial Park. Launch the boat at the only public boat launch on Columbia Lake.
A Kootenay River Runs Through Us
Glacier fed. Blue green. Tumbling out of the Rockies on its 781 km journey to the Columbia River at Castlegar. Steep banked and strewn with rapids. Few things in life are the cliché of “world class.” The Kootenay River deserves the moniker – famous for its bull trout fishing (June to November), and rafting/kayaking/river boating. Other river species: cutthroat trout, kokanee salmon, rainbow trout.
A popular local activity is to drop into the Kootenay at the 9K bridge on the Kootenay Service Road for a 1.5 hour raft or kayak adventure into Canal Flats.
Where Else Can You Live a Stone’s Throw Between a Lake and a River?
3.5 km between the lake and the river. OK you need to pump some weights for it to be a stone’s throw. But your life-affirming choice is simple in Canal Flats. North to the lake. South to the river. Not excuses for river and lake. Big, bold, colourful, and dynamic.
We are building new horizons in Canal Flats. The 3.7 km Shore to Shore Pathway – currently under construction – will link the Kootenay River to the Columbia Lake with a non-motorized cycling and walking pathway in the spirit of William Baillie-Grohman whose canal gave the Village its name.
Be Well
For many, life just feels out of whack these days (we wonder what being “in whack” is but you get the point). A great reset can feel urgent. You need something different, more adrenalizing, more life-affirming, something that just sits in the soul like a warm chocolate cookie. It’s life well-lived….a holy grail we seek in the convergence of healthy living, affordable living, and opportunities. Connected to people and place. Purposeful. Happy. Be well in mind, body, and spirit.
Big things…life change…start small…with a move to the Village of Canal Flats.
LIVE. HERE.
LIVE. HERE. All caps for a reason. No not just the simple act of breathing. LIVE…like it’s an adrenalin rush. Deeply. Magic in the moments to be felt on the end of a paintbrush, a new guitar lick, or a ride to the top of a mountain to be empowered by how small we are amidst nature’s cathedral.
It’s Warm…Grape Growing Warm
Frustrated by that early June frost that just side-swiped your freshly planted garden? Looking to smell the roses in mountain-fresh air? Want to start spring hiking a month earlier than elsewhere in the East Kootenay? Canal Flats has the warmest climate in the Columbia Valley. 200 frost free days….80 more than Calgary. Eat what you grow. Get your gardening groove on in Canal Flats.
Meet Our Fauna
“Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way.” ~ John Muir
Canal Flats residents co-exist with an A to Z of wildlife: Grizzly and Black Bear. Cougar. Coyote. Bighorn Sheep. Elk. Mule Deer. White-Tailed Deer. Badger. Or look up and find Owls, Bald and Golden Eagles, Osprey and Red-Tailed Hawks. Or seek the water and find Mountain Whitefish, Bull Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Kokanee salmon. Rainbow trout. You can even count seven swans a swimming here.
Imagine It
Canal Flats is still a canvas on which there is much to paint as a former mill town re-invents its future. There’s lots of space for new development in Canal Flats…up to 2000 more people. It can be tough to imagine what’s not there now. To step into the gap, the Village has completed several initiatives, including (left to right in images below): Downtown Streetscape Beautification Plan, “Mountain Modern Industrial” Design Guidelines to help inspire developers, builders, and investors and to nurture redevelopment of a vibrant mixed-use village centre; Civic Park Plan for enhancement of the village centre park; and Village-endorsed (2021) Master Plans for private sector investment include Mended Star Farms, and Black Sheep Camp (RV) Campground expansion. Early birds get the worm in the excitement and investment value attached to a community on the rise.
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What’s Up?
Cornerstones of a new and bright future have been built since 2016. Vision is taking shape…in real life. A first public art piece. The return of health services. A new daycare. A new picnic shelter in our central park. Shore to Shore pathway construction connecting the Kootenay River and Columbia Lake. New community entrance signs on the highway. First home builds in the lakeside Painted Ridge development. Investment purchase of the RV Campground and re-opening in July, 2022. Build your future in Canal Flats.
See our 2019,2020, and 2021 Success Stories.
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