An attempt to nudge along efforts around starting an e-scooter program in Salmon Arm failed to gain traction at city council.
The minutes of the April 7, 2025 city Active Transportation Advisory Committee (ATAC) meeting included a brief update on where the committee is at with council's request to "discuss and return with a recommendation regarding Salmon Arm joining the provincial e-Scooter Pilot Program."
"After looking at legislation, program regulations and requirements, and considering presentations from other communities that are already participating, the ATAC members are generally in favour of the Pilot Program in Salmon Arm. Discussion of this topic will continue at the next meeting," reads the minutes, which were included on the agenda for the April 14 council meeting.
"The ATAC has been working hard on this because we quickly learned that, before you even talk about an e-scooter share program, you have to join the… B.C. pilot program for e-scooters and it has some implications," commented Coun. Tim Lavery, council's representative on ATAC.
Lavery said the committee is now generally in favour, "but we have come to a final decision and there’s going to be some recommendations coming out of that…"
"If this question was asked two or three meetings ago, it likely would have been a no or a hard no," said Lavery. "But this committee has been working hard to get their heads around what are best practices for the particular context of Salmon Arm."
In January 2024, Coun. Debbie Cannon tabled a motion to have council ask ATAC) to “review and provide comments regarding the introduction of an e-scooter pilot program…" The same month, council voted in support of the motion, with Lavery noting ATAC was busy with other priorities and that the e-scooter program might be a 2025 initiative.
At the April 14 meeting, Lavery said he was comfortable ATAC, at its next meeting, will come up with specific recommendations for council…"
"There are a lot of concerns about it – the general sentiment is to proceed but it’s not a formal vote at this stage…," said Lavery, who noted the pilot program piece wouldn't be difficult. "You apply, there may be some bylaw changes, but it’s not onerous. But as it stands right now, it is illegal to ride an e-scooter on a public roadway, period…
"The pilot program permits legality of existing scooter owners but …there will be a clear recommendation coming out of the June ATAC, but if we’re successful and council decides to proceed to join the e-pilot scooter program, the limitations are you can use an e-scooter legally on a road that doesn’t have a posted speed above 50 km/hr, you have to be 16 and older and wear a helmet."
Canon noted there are "26 participating communities in B.C. on the pilot program and each community has to set the criteria of their bylaws to make it work…," and suggested a motion to get staff looking at a bylaw to accommodate e-scooters.
"I would like to get us moving on this rather than wait until June and then another four months," said Cannon.
Lavery noted it took Vancouver three years to go from a motion to investigate, to getting to an e-scooter share program; and suggested council wait eight to 10 more weeks for the ATAC report.
Coun. Sylvia Lindgren supported the motion, viewing it as a "fact-finding mission" with ATAC and staff pursuing different information towards the same end.
"As an e-scooter user, I’m pretty curious because this is the first I’ve heard about not being allowed to ride on roads," said Lindgren. "I don’t wear a helmet on mine. These are considerations I should be aware of and I use my e-scooter all over town… there’s a lot of unkowns and information we still need to collect and get out to the public."
Other councillors spoke against the motion, with Kevin Flynn saying he did not "want to put another demand on staff in the middle of an OCP and all the other things that are going on to bring forward a report that in my mind would be premature."
The motion was defeated, with Couns. Flynn, Lavery, Louise Wallace Richmond and Mayor Alan Harrison opposed.
