Trail-Warfield amalgamation study moves ahead

The review will examine governance, services and costs, with a recommendation expected after the study concludes in 2027.

The Warfield Municipal Building on Schofield Highway. Trail and Warfield are conducting a joint study examining the governance, service and cost implications of amalgamating the two municipalities.

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TRAIL — Trail and Warfield are moving ahead with a joint study examining what amalgamation could mean for the two municipalities, including its potential effects on local governance, services and costs.

The Trail-Warfield Amalgamation Study is expected to run from approximately summer 2026 through fall 2027. Consultants are conducting the technical review under the oversight of a steering committee made up of council members and community representatives from both municipalities.

The study itself will not determine whether Trail and Warfield amalgamate. Once the work is complete, the steering committee is expected to recommend whether the municipalities should ask the province for approval to hold a vote.

If a referendum is eventually approved, electors in Trail and Warfield would vote separately. More than 50 per cent of valid votes in each municipality would have to support amalgamation before the restructuring process could move forward, with final municipal restructuring still requiring provincial approval.

The current study grew out of Warfield’s 2025 Municipal Sustainability Study, which examined the village’s ability to continue operating as a standalone municipality while meeting its infrastructure, financial and service obligations.

That review identified Warfield’s limited tax base, borrowing capacity and infrastructure needs as significant long-term pressures. Using 2024 assessment data, the study found that 98 per cent of Warfield’s property assessment base was residential.

The study also estimated Warfield’s borrowing capacity at about $8.9 million based on its position at the end of 2023 and then-current borrowing assumptions. It modelled the effect of borrowing that full amount as adding about $752 annually to the municipal tax bill for an average property assessed at $429,717.

Water infrastructure was among the major pressures identified. A 2023 preliminary estimate put the cost of developing a new water intake at approximately $10.9 million, separate from water treatment plant upgrades.

The detailed sustainability analysis estimated Warfield’s accumulated infrastructure funding gap at between $17.8 million and $22.7 million. If existing Community Works and Growing Communities funds were applied, the projected gap could fall to between $15.3 million and $20.2 million.

Those findings led Warfield’s Sustainability Committee to unanimously recommend a second-phase governance study examining the implications of amalgamating Warfield and Trail.

Public feedback collected during the sustainability study also showed support for examining the option further, although the survey was not a vote on amalgamation itself. Of 209 people who answered the final survey question, 168, or 80.38 per cent, supported conducting another study examining alternatives including amalgamation. Another 41 respondents preferred concentrating on ways for Warfield to remain a standalone municipality.

The current amalgamation study may also need to examine how a merger would affect services delivered through the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary.

Trail and Warfield currently participate in regional services including Planning and Development, Regionalized Fire Protection, the East End Regionalized Sewer Utility and East End Transit. The municipalities have said the study may need to consider the implications for those services, along with regional representation, requisitions and transitional arrangements.

In a joint Sept. 3 letter, Trail and Warfield asked the RDKB to make appropriate staff available to assist the study consultants. The request appeared on the RDKB board’s Sept. 9 agenda with a recommendation that the chief administrative officer appoint appropriate staff to participate.

The municipalities have emphasized that conducting the study does not commit either community to amalgamation. The work is intended to give residents and councils more information about the potential governance, service and cost implications before any decision is made on whether to pursue a referendum.

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