Merritt, British Columbia

City of Merritt, BC:

Incorporated in 1911, Merritt has a total area of 133,723 ha. By highway the City is 270 km east of Vancouver, 89 km north of Princeton and 88 km southwest of Kamloops. Merritt is in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District. The three industries employing the most people in this area in 1996 were Accommodation, Food & Beverage Services, Manufacturing, and Health and Social Services.
from VentureKamloops (PDF), (originally from BC Stats website)

The city's own website gives its early history at Merritt.ca

In 1865, William Henry Voght, the father of Merritt, entered the valley and returned in 1872 to take up land at the forks, where the Nicola and Coldwater Rivers meet. This was the start of the development of Merritt. In 1906, the town was renamed Merritt, in honour of William Hamilton Merritt, a mining engineer and railway promoter.

The city annually hosts a huge country music festival, the Merritt Mountain Music Festival.

The flag was adopted 10th April 1984. The proportions are 3:5. There is also a pennant, triangular, but otherwise the same design as the flag, and a banner, with the shield centred on a 1:2 flag (with a yellow fimbriation around the lower part of the shield, where it is against the green background).
Dean McGee, 4 June 2006