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Happy April Fools.
You'll be happy to know the shenanigans finished at the strike of noon.
Hopefully everyone enjoyed our little piece of the pie in fooling readers with our story on Kelowna getting a skytrain system, and master-minded by a seventh grader.
Just to be clear, this story is absolutely false.
We apologize to those of you who not only thought it was real, but now are experiencing the loss of something that could have been, what some of you said, a preferred idea.
In any case, thanks for having fun with us and adding your jovial comments as well!
ORIGINAL STORY:
The City of Kelowna will no longer be discussing a second crossing, at least for the foreseeable future.
Instead, a Kelowna skytrain network was announced early on Saturday morning.
“The process behind building a second crossing for Okanagan Lake was creating a lot of tension and debate, so we decided to go a completely different direction,” said City Councillor, Leonardo McConaughey. “The skytrain idea actually came to us from Bobby Bennett, a seventh grade student at Kelowna Secondary School.”
Bennett says he got the idea from a marathon game of Sim City during Christmas break.
“It just seemed like a really cool idea,” Bennett said on Saturday. “And I love the episode of The Simpsons where they get the monorail too.”
Stops in West Kelowna, downtown Kelowna, Rutland and the airport are expected for the initial line, with a future line coming down from Glenmore to the Mission being discussed as a possibility as well.
The $2.1 billion project was fast-tracked to approval after being introduced in January and secretly discussed by city officials.
The federal and provincial government will contribute $600 million to the project, while the City of Kelowna and its taxpayers will be on the hook for the other $900 million.
Reaction from the public is understandably mixed, but most seem to like the idea of putting Kelowna on the map with an over the top project like a skytrain.
“I really think the only thing holding us back from being considered in the same breath as New York or London is a proper transit system,” said Kelowna resident, Wayne Lemieux.
However, not everyone sees the surprise skytrain plan in the same light as Lemieux.
“It’s just not feasible,” said Mario Gretzky. “I know Bobby Bennett and he’s a smart kid, but this isn’t one of his best ideas.”
Unfortunately for Gretzky, the skytrain has been approved and construction starts on Monday, April 3rd.
City officials are also promising a grand opening of the skytrain line by April 1st, 2020, but some are predicting that to be an APRIL FOOLS’ DAY JOKE and that it won’t be up and running until sometime in 2021.
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