The new government in Okanagan Falls has a year to get its footing as it becomes the first new municipality in BC in more than a decade, but that might not be the end of its transition.

Its first-ever town council will be inaugurated this week at the local school, starting the clock on BC’s 162nd municipality to take over more than a dozen services once under the purview of the regional district.

But the roughly 2,200-person town shouldn’t expect a quick transition.

“It’s not something that happens at the snap of a finger,” former City of Kelowna city clerk-turned consultant Stephen Fleming said.

The province gave the District of Okanagan Falls several deadlines to take over new tasks, but some may take several years or even remain with the regional district under contract, Fleming said.

Before the resort town of Sun Peaks, the last municipality added to the province was West Kelowna which incorporated in 2007. Almost 20 years passed before it opened a purpose-built city hall, its police station was built in 2010 and its logo decided in 2009.

Okanagan Falls has none of those yet.

Council will meet at the local school which doubles as a community centre, its RCMP service will continue to operate out of Penticton through provincial government funding and it has no logo yet.

Unlike West Kelowna, which wrangled over its name for another year after incorporation, Okanagan Falls residents don’t have to worry about that decision, despite not having its namesake waterfalls anymore.

They didn’t have to worry about the title of “district” either, because it’s defined in BC as a town that’s 800 hectares in size with less than five people per hectare.

A district is the only municipal title defined by area in BC and Okanagan Falls is the 49th. On population alone it could have been BC’s 43rd village, a municipality with less than 2,500 people. The other designations include towns, which are larger than a village with up to 5,000 people, and anything larger is a city. After incorporation, a local government could change its title, but there’s no requirement or material change for municipal power if they do.

West Kelowna, however, did reclassify itself as a city in 2015, becoming the 51st in BC at the time.

The extra things like logos, symbolic chains of office and a town hall will come with time. The district hasn’t yet even finished its website.

First order of business for the five-person council is to deal with budgets and bylaws as they figure out how to manage the newly-defined township. Tax increases are almost guaranteed, and Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District CAO Jim Zaffino expects the town will be looking to his staff for help over the next year at least.

“One thing we more than likely will do, because they don’t have the software, we probably will be doing taxing for them,” he said.

Okanagan Falls will also carry over bylaws from the regional district rather than drawing up new bylaws from scratch, but they’ll change them if necessary. The district will also lean on the region for crucial local services for at least a year before taking over, but Zaffino has the experience to help the town prepare. He was in charge of West Kelowna’s finances in its first years, essentially living at the office for the first year of its transition.

“We started with nothing and slowly built it up. We took over the services to a point where we controlled it in… I’d say about one year,” he said of his time in West Kelowna.

Residents voted 53.5 per cent in favour of incorporation in March 2025, with around 54 per cent of eligible voters turning up. Last month, it held its first election.

The new council is led by now-mayor Matt Taylor, who was previously the regional district’s area director for Okanagan Falls. He and four councillors will be inaugurated on Friday, Nov. 6, marking the town’s official incorporation.