Kelowna’s Newport Non-public Wealth a part of sale involving billions of property – Kelowna Information

Photo: Contributed

Like a winger looking for a rebound, Liam Drager saw an opportunity and went for it.

Now the Kelowna man has opened a brick-and-mortar store for those looking for discounted electronics and for repairs.

CellResell started four years ago when Drager, a Lower Mainland native who came to Kelowna to play hockey, started purchasing second-hand electronics off of Facebook and eBay, and sold them locally through various e-commerce websites.

Now Drager has decided to open up his own store, which is located at in Dilworth Shopping Centre, attached to the TD Bank location, at 710-2339 Highway 97 N.

CellResell sells fully tested and fully functional second hand electronics at discounted prices. CellResell also sells new electronics accessories and repairs cellphones, tablets, smart watches, computers and gaming consoles.

CellResell is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Photo: Madison Erhardt

UPDATE: 6:20 p.m.

The accident has been cleared by the Kelowna Fire Department and the road has reopened.

ORIGINAL: 5:45 p.m.

A collision involving multiple vehicles has closed a portion of Spall and Enterprise Road in Kelowna.

At this time it is unclear how many vehicles were involved in the crash.

Kelowna RCMP has blocked off the road in order for the Kelowna Fire Department to clean the debris from the collision.

It is unknown if there were any injuries.

Castanet will have more details as they become available.

Photo: Contributed

A wealth management firm with a Kelowna office was recently sold in a deal involving $4.3 billion in assets.

Newport Private Wealth, which is based in Toronto and has offices in Kelowna, Calgary, Waterloo, Ont., and Kingston, Ont., was acquired by NFP, which is a property and casualty broker, benefits consultant, wealth manager and retirement advisor.

Newport Private Wealth had approximately 70 employees, including those in Kelowna, when the deal closed on June 30. It will continue to operate as the Newport Private Wealth brand, and its leadership team remained in place.

NFP has approximately 1,000 employees in Canada and 6,900 around the world.

“The addition of Newport strategically expands NFP’s North American wealth management presence by adding one of the leading organizations and platforms in the space,” NFP chairman and CEO Doug Hammond said in a press release. “This exceptional addition for NFP, which brings our total assets under management to nearly $50 billion, aligns with our focus of growing our wealth management business and delivering more solutions to meet the diverse needs of clients.”

Newport Private Wealth’s Kelowna office is located in the Landmark District.

Cindy White

They’ve seen a lot of changes in their part of Kelowna over the past 22 years.

The owners of Brainy Bee Honey on Valley Road hosted a yard sale this weekend, as they prepare to sell their home, land and bees and move back to Saskatchewan.

“It’s been fun,” said co-owner Kaye Chisholm.

“Big learning curve, but enjoyable and you meet lots of wonderful people. And the bees are fascinating, which is I guess the most important part. [That] you enjoy what you’re working with,” she adds.

When they moved into their property, there was mostly just farmland and a few homes nearby, but now the area is a beehive of building activity, with new townhomes popping up right across the street.

“What was once a very quiet, little secondary road is developing into almost a thoroughfare, because they’re bypassing Glenmore, it’s so busy now,” said Chisholm.

They have 15 hives up for sale, and she’s hoping someone will take them over and continue offering a valuable service to the farming community.

“You’ve got the orchards and the orchard is crying for bees and there’s not enough bees for pollination,” she notes. “There’s a demand for them, no question.”

The family has had a few offers on the property and the bees. Until a sale is finalized their retirement in Saskatchewan is delayed.

She’ll miss the weather and the people in Kelowna, but Kaye is looking forward to spending more time with her grandchildren and reconnecting with friends she left behind when they moved here and started Brainy Bee from scratch 22 years ago.

She also wants to relax and do some sewing and gardening and maybe take up painting.

The commercial apiary industry is facing some serious challenges.

The spread of varroa mites and deformed wing virus (DWV) is killing bees in large numbers across Canada, and some producers are leaving the industry because they are losing too much money.

Photo: Jessie Curell

Jessie Curell, Liz Ross and Lara Slapcoff on their bikes that were stolen in Kelowna on Saturday, July 23, 2022.

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A North Vancouver woman says she won’t be stopping at any more breweries while in the Okanagan, after her bike and two others were stolen from a locked rack on the back of her car.

Jessie Curell was in the Okanagan for the Liv Bombshell Enduro women’s mountain bike race in Vernon on Saturday.

She and her friends stopped at Jacknife Brewing on their way through the valley, but when they came out of the Kelowna brewery around 6 p.m., they found their locked up bikes had been stolen.

Luckily, someone saw what happened and wrote down the license plate of the vehicle the thieves threw the bikes in.

She contacted the Kelowna RCMP. They were able to track down the silver, lifted pickup truck with Alberta plates, which also turned out to be stolen. The two men who were sleeping in the bed of the truck were arrested, but the three bikes were long gone.

The bikes are:

• Bike #1 – Owner Jessie Curell, 2021 Norco Sight A3, size Large, Grey. “Betty” sticker, with purple pedals.
• Bike # 2 – Owner Liz Ross, 2017 Santa Cruz Bronson, size Medium, Blue with yellow highlights.
• Bike #3 – Owner Lara Slapcoff, 2020 Rocky Mountain Altitude, size Medium, Blue with yellow highlights.

If you have any information about the bikes, you can contact the Kelowna RCMP or call Currell at 604-967-3664.

She notes she has left her mountain bike in the locked rack on her vehicle numerous times in North Vancouver without any issues.

The experience has Curell rethinking her next outing in this part of the province.

She says stopping at a brewery is something many cyclists like to do at the end of a hard day on the trails. Now, however, she likely won’t be doing so anymore, and she wonders if other cyclists are also bypassing local establishments because of theft concerns.

Castanet’s Week in Review with Brayden Ursel for July 17 – 23, 2022.

Photo: The Canadian Press

Andre De Grasse, of Canada, wins the final in the men’s 4×100-meter relay at the World Athletics Championships on Saturday in Eugene, Ore.

Kelowna’s Jerome Blake helped Canada take top spot in the men’s 4×100-metre relay at the World Athletics Championships Saturday.

The Canadian quartet of Andre De Grasse, Brendon Rodney, Jerome Blake, and Aaron Brown, won gold in the men’s 4×100-metre relay at the world track and field championships in Oregon, beating out the heavily favoured American home team.

The quartet clocked in a time of 37.48 seconds, a new Canadian record. The Canadians beat out the United States, at 37.55 seconds, and Great Britain, at 37.83 seconds.

Blake, 26, competed in track and field throughout the Okanagan as a youth, after his family moved to Kelowna from Jamaica in 2013. Blake won a silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in the men’s 4×100-metre relay.

What a moment for Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney, and Andre De Grasse

The Canadians celebrate their GOLDEN race pic.twitter.com/kE1d6FF83R

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) July 24, 2022

Photo: Brayden Ursel

Former NHL players Theo Fleury and Colin Patterson made their way through Vernon and Kelowna this weekend to bring people together to shine light on child sexual abuse and trauma.

Leading the Breaking Free Foundation, the two former Calgary Flames teammates and the rest of the foundation have been spending the last nine years trying to eliminate stigma around these subjects so people can start to open up about their individual trauma.

“In 2013 I walked from Toronto to Ottawa to raise awareness around the subject of child sexual abuse. What came out of that was this whole Victor movement, and for the last nine years we pick a province and we find five cities or towns and we go and do little rallies and give people opportunity to come meet us and talk about this,” explained Fleury.

People came out to Rutland Centennial Park in Kelowna on Saturday to show their support to the organization that often holds fundraisers for people who can’t afford professional help. Currently, the Breaking Free Foundation has 48 people seeking professional help who can’t afford it.

“As a foundation we have done a tremendous amount of work and we’ve provided a lot of healing opportunities for people who have had an experience. And we’ve given a safe place for people to come and be a part of the movement.”

Whether it’s one person or 1,000 people, Fleury and Patterson stand firm on the importance of spreading the message that “you are not alone.”

“Sexual abuse is not uncommon, it’s very common, and we’re a group that provides help, healing, understanding, love, caring, no judgement,” said Fleury.

“All of these things that are sometimes attached to the subject. People don’t understand we’re living through the pandemic right now, but we also have a sexual abuse pandemic on the planet that nobody wants to talk about.”

The foundation is currently holding bi-monthly meet-ups in Calgary around sexual abuse and addiction, encouraging people who need to talk to somebody to come out and attend.

People in search of help can also go to the Breaking Free Foundation online.

Photo: Contributed

The new development along the 18th hole of the Quail course at Kelowna’s Okanagan Golf Club is now selling its homes.

Quail Landing features farmhouse-style design with an open concept and spacious interiors, not to mention views of either nearby forests or the lake that is on the golf course. The homes will also meet Step 3 of the BC Energy Code, making them extremely friendly to the environment.

The Pineview homes are around 1,350 square feet, while the Lakeview homes are close to 2,000 square feet. The homes will have resource-conserving lighting and HVAC systems, as well as highly energy-efficient appliances and option electric vehicle charging stations.

“People choose to live in Kelowna for the lifestyle, and Quail Landing offers plenty of what today’s buyers are looking for,” project marketer Darcy Nyrose of Nyrose & Associates said in a press release. “The farmhouse-style design fits in perfectly with the landscape; the interiors offer high-quality finishes and great use of space; and the location is perfect for the golf enthusiast.

“We’re seeing a lot of interest in this project because it’s an unbeatable offering that you simply can’t find anywhere else.”

Quail Landing has a pop-up presentation centre in the Okanagan Golf Club clubhouse between noon and 3 p.m. on Sunday, and then next Thursday through Sunday.

More information about Quail Landing can be found here.

Photo: Contributed

Kelowna Community Theatre

Runaway inflation of over eight per cent, along with supply chain issues, are having a detrimental affect on Kelowna’s 10-year capital plan.

The updated plan, which city council will review Monday morning, has seen numerous changes due to outside pressures such as inflation.

Comparing the previous plan to this one, figures show 31 projects have been removed or cancelled while 68 have seen “significant cost increase or decrease greater than $5 million.”

Many of those are cost increases.

Many of the larger increases are included within buildings and parks. The report suggests a cost escalation of about 40 per cent within the buildings sector and 30 per cent in parks.

As a result, an escalation above 30 per cent was applied to all building projects.

“Investment is in preserving major projects which are known council priorities such as KCC and the Glenmore Firehall,” the report states.

“Other projects, typically smaller items have been deferred or dropped to P2 (unfunded) as a result of the cost escalation, such as Rutland Firehall, Rutland Community Police, parks washroom renewals, heritage and capital opportunities.”

Cost escalations of about 30 per cent have also been applied to all parks projects, meaning some have also been dropped or deferred, including seven neighbourhood parks.

Investment in park projects such as Pandosy, Glenmore, DeHart, Kerry, Casorso and City parks will move forward.

“The changes in the plan are primarily due to factors beyond the city’s control,” the report states.

Labour shortages, supply chain challenges, rising interest rates, and increased energy costs. These impacts are coupled with rapid growth and community demand for enhanced services at a time when existing infrastructure requires replacement.

“Despite these challenges, the city continues to deliver world-class infrastructure and services. Many capital projects continue to be completed; delivering on council priorities, meeting the objectives of the Official Community Plan and community expectations.”

The overall 10-year capital plan includes investments of $2.37 billion, of which $1.63 billion have municipal funding through either taxation or reserves, provincial or federal funding tied to them.

The remaining $744 million are unfunded at the present time.

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