Image Credit: CHP Architects

By James Peters

Proposed Arts Centre

After referendum officially cancelled, Kamloops Centre for the Arts Society pledges to carry on

Jul 8, 2020 | 12:11 PM

KAMLOOPS — The Kamloops Centre for the Arts Society (KCAS) will live on, even though the referendum on borrowing for an arts centre has officially been cancelled.

Elections BC announced this week that the referendum has been called off. It had previously been postponed from its initial April 4 date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chair Norm Daley says the society is on pause but will try to keep from going completely dormant.

“We’re on pause,” Daley told CFJC Today. “There’s so much going on with the world right now. I think that this is something that is not in people’s minds and it’s not the number one priority that, as a community, we should be working on.”

While it the society will remain active and is committed to revisiting the project, Daley says it’s impossible to put a timeline on when that will happen.

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“There is so much uncertainty as to where things are at. At what point can we get together and gather together in larger numbers? At what point is the financial well-being of the community at a point when we can move forward?” Daley asked.

Meantime, Elections B.C. disclosed Tuesday (July 7) the society spent nearly $22,000 on advertising leading up to the April 4 referendum date.

Daley says more funds were spent on developing a business case for the proposed facility and a communications strategy ahead of the referendum.

The society sold memberships to raise funds, and Daley says more funds came from donations from the Fawcett family in Kamloops and a provincial grant.

He says there are “a couple of dollars left over but not too much.”

In an email to members Tuesday, the KCAS included a survey that will guide its next steps.

“We sent out a survey in that update to the members asking them what their thoughts were of what we should be doing and where we should focus our energies,” noted Daley. “We did engage the community really well — we had really a great subscription for our memberships and so we are going to try to get some information from them as to where they think we should be focusing our efforts.”

“We’re waiting for the community to let us know when the time is right and we’re going to revisit the project.”