Ottawa’s “Surplus Land” Decision Puts a 43-Year South Okanagan Shooting Facility in the Crosshairs
A Penticton range used by lawful firearms owners, cadets and police training is now in a federal court fight after Ottawa moved to divest the land.
Dallas Brodie’s new Facebook video from Penticton Shooting Sports captures a story that deserves more attention than the usual Ottawa talking points about “public safety.” The issue is not a criminal gang. It is not illegal firearms trafficking. It is a long-running South Okanagan shooting facility now caught in a federal land divestment fight.
According to Global News, the federal government has filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court claiming the Penticton Shooting Sports Association is unlawfully occupying land owned by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The club says it is in the process of dismantling and has been hit with shifting timelines after more than 40 years on the site.
If governments are serious about safe, lawful firearms use, why are they making it harder for responsible owners, cadets and police to access secure training infrastructure?
The federal government’s own parliamentary answer says the PSSA was formally advised in May 2024 that its lease would terminate on December 31, 2025. It says the land is not required for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s program or operational purposes and is being disposed of as surplus land under Treasury Board real-property rules. The answer also says the property must be vacated so divestiture work can proceed, including environmental remediation and Indigenous consultations.
That is the official language. The human reality is different. The Canadian Shooting Sports Association says the PSSA has operated for 42 years as a training hub for police, firearms safety training and youth education in the South Okanagan. It says RCMP, Parks Canada, sheriffs, Army Cadets and Air Cadets use the facility, and that more than 400 paid members rely on it. Global News reports local support included the RCMP, which has used the range for officer training, and that the club says more than 10,000 people signed a petition urging Ottawa to reconsider.
The PSSA’s own range schedule shows this is not some abstract political prop. It lists organized activities for archery, centerfire rifle, indoor handgun, outdoor handgun and trap. In other words: structured, rules-based, supervised shooting activity — exactly the kind of environment governments should want if they claim to care about safety.
Instead, a familiar Liberal-era pattern appears again: bureaucracy first, community impact second. Ottawa can say “surplus land,” “divestiture,” “environmental remediation” and “real property strategy” all it wants. Those words do not answer the central question: what happens to the public-safety training, cadet programs, lawful sport shooting and rural firearms education that this facility supports?
There may be legitimate environmental and land-management obligations on the federal side. Those should be handled transparently. But transparency means more than court filings and deadline letters. It means explaining why a functioning community facility could not be accommodated, renewed, relocated with real support, or integrated into a solution before the legal hammer came down.
For lawful firearms owners, the lesson is hard to miss. Governments demonize them in national rhetoric, then quietly squeeze the places where responsible training actually happens. Public safety is not improved by pushing lawful users out of supervised facilities. It is improved by preserving standards, training and accountability.
If Ottawa wants Canadians to believe this is just routine land management, it should publish the full plan: the environmental timeline, the consultation process, the future-use options, the cost of losing the facility, and the alternatives offered to the people who built and used it for more than four decades. Until then, the Penticton range looks less like surplus land and more like another example of lawful Canadians being told their institutions are disposable.
Watch the lead video: Dallas Brodie / ONE BC Facebook video on Penticton Shooting Sports.
Sources: Global News: federal lawsuit filed against Penticton shooting club; House of Commons answer on PSSA lease and AAFC divestiture; Canadian Shooting Sports Association background on PSSA; Penticton Shooting Sports range schedule; Dallas Brodie Facebook video.