Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.
A resort in B.C.’s Interior is under a public health warning amid expired permits and water safety issues — and officials say they’ve had challenges with the property for years.
Interior Health (IH) has ordered the restaurant, pool and hot tubs at Spruce Hill Resort & Spa at 108 Mile Ranch, just north of 100 Mile House, to close immediately — saying people using them could be at risk.
The health authority issued the advisory Friday and said the resort has been operating without valid operating permits for food service, pool and a hot tub since March 31 — and despite multiple shutdown orders, continues to welcome guests.
“We’ve seen ongoing non-compliance at this facility for the last four years,” said Courtney Zimmerman, Interior Health’s corporate director of environmental health.
“Officers have posted orders on the doors to the restaurant, and the operators seem to be choosing to remove those orders.”
She said the resort has had more than 200 enforcement actions in that time.
“That’s everything from complaint inspections to orders, tickets and court appearances.”
Zimmerman said inspectors recently found the resort was not informing guests of an active boil-water notice.
“If somebody came to the resort and unknowingly drank the water, that could potentially be contaminated with things like E. coli, they could get very ill,” she said.
“The restaurant has been ordered closed because there’s no safe water to produce the food.”
We’re advising the public of health risks at the Spruce Hill Resort in 108 Mile Ranch due to contraventions with the BC Public Health Act and Drinking Water Protection Act. <br><br>Learn more: <a href=”https://t.co/f9G4QS0Juo”>https://t.co/f9G4QS0Juo</a> <a href=”https://t.co/5ai5KbAeky”>pic.twitter.com/5ai5KbAeky</a>
—Interior_Health
The health authority is also warning guests not to use the pool or hot tubs.
Zimmerman said the resort has made changes to equipment, including increasing pump sizes, which have not been reviewed by engineers.
“There are significant concerns about things like entrapment hazard — if they’ve increased a pump size, you could have somebody inadvertently have their hair sucked into a jet,” the official said.
Enforcement has been a challenge, the IH official admitted.
“We close them down, and as soon as we drive out the driveway, they open back up,” Zimmerman said.
“We want to warn the public so they don’t inadvertently attend this facility.”
The health authority says it’s now working with its legal team and Crown prosecutors on further enforcement.
Zimmerman said public complaints about the resort date back several years. Fourteen complaints were filed in 2025 alone, the most recent in October.
“It makes me sad,” she added. “Pre-COVID, I used to love staying there.”
The resort has also faced scrutiny over its past treatment of employees.
In 2018, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered it to pay more than $173,000 to seven former employees who had said owner Kin Wa Chan discriminated against them because they were Caucasian.
Chan became the owner in 2015.
Spa ‘temporarily closed’
The resort told CBC News in an email that it’s working with the health authority to address its concerns but offered no further details.
On Friday, a note on Spruce Hill Resort and Spa’s online booking form said its spa and restaurant services were “temporarily closed while the workers and staff are on vacation.”
The resort’s website continues to promote its wilderness setting, outdoor activities and “memorable spa vacation experience.”
Interior Health is urging anyone who recently swam, ate or drank at the resort and is feeling unwell to contact their primary care provider or the Health Protection Office.
