We close them down, and they open back up
Near 100 Mile House in British Columbia's Interior, a resort that once promised wilderness refuge has become a study in what happens when the social contract between a business and its guests is quietly, persistently broken. Over four years, Spruce Hill Resort accumulated more than 200 enforcement actions — tickets, orders, court appearances — yet continued operating without valid permits, serving guests water that may have carried E. coli while concealing an active boil-water notice. Interior Health has now ordered the restaurant, pool, and hot tubs closed, and is turning to Crown prosecutors, because the ordinary instruments of accountability have, so far, not been enough.
- A resort operating without valid permits since March has been exposing guests to potentially E. coli-contaminated water without telling them — a quiet danger dressed in the language of hospitality.
- Unauthorized changes to pool pump equipment created entrapment hazards capable of pulling a person's hair into a jet, turning a leisure amenity into a physical trap.
- More than 200 enforcement actions over four years — complaints, tickets, orders, court appearances — have failed to produce lasting compliance, with operators reportedly reopening the moment inspectors leave the driveway.
- Interior Health has now escalated to its legal team and Crown prosecutors, signaling that the standard toolkit of public health enforcement has reached its limit.
- Fourteen complaints filed in 2025 alone, and a resort website still advertising a 'memorable spa vacation experience' even as closure notices are posted on its doors, reveal a widening gap between what is promised and what is real.
Spruce Hill Resort & Spa, just north of 100 Mile House in B.C.'s Interior, was once the kind of place that earned guest loyalty. On Friday, Interior Health issued a public health warning and ordered the resort's restaurant, pool, and hot tubs closed — the latest chapter in a four-year pattern of safety failures that officials say has become impossible to ignore.
Inspectors found that the resort had been operating without valid permits for food service, pool facilities, and hot tubs since March 31. Guests were not being informed of an active boil-water notice, meaning visitors could unknowingly drink water contaminated with E. coli or other pathogens. The restaurant was shut down immediately, since there was no safe water with which to prepare food. The pool and hot tub closures followed a separate but equally serious discovery: the resort had increased pump sizes without engineering review, creating entrapment hazards capable of catching a person's hair in a jet.
What makes the situation remarkable is not the violations themselves, but their persistence. Over four years, Interior Health issued more than 200 enforcement actions — complaint inspections, orders, tickets, court appearances. Corporate director of environmental health Courtney Zimmerman described a cycle that has worn on her agency: closure orders are posted on the restaurant doors, and operators remove them. 'We close them down,' she said, 'and as soon as we drive out the driveway, they open back up.' In 2025 alone, fourteen complaints were filed. Zimmerman, who once stayed at the resort before the pandemic, allowed herself a moment of candor: 'It makes me sad.'
The health authority is now escalating the matter through its legal team and Crown prosecutors. The resort, owned by Kin Wa Chan since 2015 — who was ordered by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal in 2018 to pay over $173,000 to former employees who alleged racial discrimination — responded to CBC News by saying it was working with health officials, without specifics. Its online booking system, meanwhile, described the closures as staff taking vacation. The website continues to promise a memorable wilderness spa experience.
Interior Health is urging anyone who has recently eaten, swum, or drunk water at the resort and is feeling unwell to contact a primary care provider or the Health Protection Office.
Spruce Hill Resort & Spa sits just north of 100 Mile House in B.C.'s Interior, a place that once inspired loyalty in its guests. On Friday, Interior Health issued a public health warning that would reshape what the resort means to anyone considering a stay there. The restaurant, pool, and hot tubs are now closed by order. People who use them, health officials say, face real risk.
The closure comes after inspectors discovered what Interior Health describes as persistent safety failures spanning four years. The resort has been operating without valid permits for food service, pool facilities, and hot tubs since March 31—a fact that might have gone unnoticed except that the violations kept piling up. Over those four years, the health authority issued more than 200 enforcement actions against the property: complaint inspections, orders, tickets, court appearances. The pattern was relentless enough that Courtney Zimmerman, Interior Health's corporate director of environmental health, felt compelled to speak about it publicly. "We've seen ongoing non-compliance at this facility for the last four years," she said. Officers would post closure orders on the restaurant doors. The operators would remove them.
The specific dangers are concrete and alarming. Inspectors found that the resort was not telling guests about an active boil-water notice—meaning visitors could unknowingly drink water contaminated with E. coli or other pathogens, potentially becoming seriously ill. The restaurant closure followed directly from this discovery; there is no safe water to prepare food. The pool and hot tub hazards are different but equally serious. The resort made changes to equipment, including increasing pump sizes, without having those modifications reviewed by engineers. The result is a potential entrapment hazard: a person could have their hair caught and pulled into a jet. These are not theoretical risks. They are the kinds of injuries that happen to real people.
Enforcement has proven frustratingly difficult. Zimmerman described a cycle that repeats itself: "We close them down, and as soon as we drive out the driveway, they open back up." The health authority is now escalating the matter, working with its legal team and Crown prosecutors on further enforcement action. In 2025 alone, fourteen complaints about the resort were filed, with the most recent arriving in October. The complaints stretch back several years. Zimmerman, who once enjoyed staying at the resort before the pandemic, allowed herself a moment of candor: "It makes me sad."
The resort's history extends beyond these recent violations. In 2018, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ordered it to pay more than $173,000 to seven former employees who alleged that owner Kin Wa Chan had discriminated against them because they were Caucasian. Chan acquired the property in 2015. When CBC News asked the resort for comment, it responded by email that it was working with the health authority to address concerns but offered no specifics. On Friday, the resort's online booking system displayed a note claiming that spa and restaurant services were "temporarily closed while the workers and staff are on vacation." The resort's website continues to advertise its wilderness setting, outdoor activities, and promise of a "memorable spa vacation experience."
Interior Health is now urging anyone who has recently swum, eaten, or drunk at the resort and is experiencing illness to contact their primary care provider or the Health Protection Office. The warning is a public acknowledgment that the gap between what the resort claims to offer and what it has actually delivered has become too wide to ignore.
Citas Notables
We've seen ongoing non-compliance at this facility for the last four years. Officers have posted orders on the doors to the restaurant, and the operators seem to be choosing to remove those orders.— Courtney Zimmerman, Interior Health's corporate director of environmental health
We close them down, and as soon as we drive out the driveway, they open back up.— Courtney Zimmerman, Interior Health
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
How does a resort get to the point where it's removing health department closure orders from its own doors?
It requires a kind of defiance that's almost hard to comprehend. But when you look at the pattern—200 enforcement actions over four years, and they keep reopening—you're looking at an operator who has decided the cost of compliance is higher than the cost of violation.
And the health authority just... lets that happen?
They're frustrated by it. Zimmerman was candid about that. They close it down, they leave, and it opens back up. There's a lag between enforcement and actual consequence. That's why they're now involving Crown prosecutors and their legal team.
What about the guests who don't know any of this?
That's the real harm. Someone arrives for a spa weekend, drinks the water, swims in the pool. They don't know about the boil-water notice because the resort didn't tell them. They don't know the pump equipment was modified without engineering review. They just know they got sick.
Is this about negligence or something else?
The discrimination case from 2018 suggests something about the ownership culture. But the current violations—the water, the permits, the equipment—those are about either incompetence or indifference. Maybe both.
What happens now?
The legal system gets involved. Crown prosecutors. Court. But in the meantime, the resort is claiming it's just closed for vacation. The website still advertises the spa experience. The contradiction is stark.